Off to work, diploma in hand

This is graduation season and a lot, a whole lot, of brand new graduates will be marching off to work, degrees posted, commencement completed and diplomas in hand.  About that brand new position with the high salary and all the cool perks that come with a degree?  Well for most graduates, not right now. In fact, if you are a graduate this term you probably are marching off to the same job or jobs you've had for a while. At least until one of the scores of resumes you have sent out pays off with an offer.  Mean while the experience of one graduate from a couple of years back might help illuminate your path.

Karl graduated a couple of years ago with a Degree in Marketing.  This is his story.

After I graduated I continued working at the same places I had been working.  I had to. I sent out resumes like every body else, even got a few interviews, but nothing solid.  I learned that an educational travel company I had worked for briefly had openings in their main office which is in my home town.  I had led  a tour group for them a couple of years before. My folks are from Eastern Europe and I'm pretty good with languages so it was a fit and I got to tour Europe for free for three weeks.

I knew it was 'customer service' but it was full time and I figured it might be a chance to use my Marketing Degree.  I moved back home and started work.  All the new hires started in what is actually a boiler room. Wall to wall desks. The company is large and they advertised their tours heavily in student newspapers and on the web.  We were supposed to take the incoming calls and sell up.  The callers were responding to the low prices advertised for the tours but these were just bait.  Our job was to sign them up for more features and longer tours.  There was a lot of pressure to perform with big signs at the front of the room about who was making the team go and who wasn't. There was a bar located on the ground floor of the office building where everybody went after work and on Friday's there was a 'sales meeting' in that bar at three pm.  This was mostly about getting wasted and hooking up for the weekend. At first it was fun, a lot like college really. But after a few months it was clear nobody from customer service was moving up. Whenever there was an opening the company brought in someone from another office who was already a manger.  The us vs. them culture of workers vs. management was particularly toxic and finally discouraging.  I tried pointing this out at the regular 'sales meetings' but no body from management wanted to hear it. Worse the pay was really bad. The company commonly charged the salary which was low anyway against any commissions I might have earned and I ended up earning less than if I had just been an hourly employee bagging groceries at some supermarket or something.  After nearly six months I could see I was going no where. I was still at my folks who were OK about it but I really couldn't stand it.  I thought I would have been out of there sooner.  Finally through another part of the company I learned about teaching positions in other countries.  I thought, "Why not? At least I'll be out of here." So I got all set up and now I'm in Shanghai.

It's kinda cool being in a completely different culture right now. I know a lot of other graduates have done this.  I've been here a while and I'm picking up some Chinese.  I'm not gonna start right now about the actual teaching position.  Same company, so, what would you expect?  Bu,t at least I'm out of my folks' house.  That's what happened after I finally graduated.