Plan B.

So I gave myself until May to find a job otherwise I'd go back to school for a Master's and to refine my portfolio. As far as I can tell, my job search isn't going anywhere and that's because I don't have any work experience. The Disney College Program was supposed to be my solution for that but seeing as I didn't get accepted the second time... Well... Now I'm stuck. Moral of the story: take the opportunities when they are given to you. My dad's concern is that if I took a semester off to work in Orlando that I wouldn't finish school. Well, that's rather insulting because I felt like I was stubborn enough to finish what I have to. I mean, I finished school a semester early for goodness sake! Had I taken that offer the first time, I could've been in the Disney PROFESSIONAL Internship program now. Those internships are reserved for alumni of the College Program. I want to be a graphic design intern for Disney. But darn. I guess I can't. The other internships that I want require me to be in school (which makes me unqualified as well).

I know that I'm sounding pretty whiny, but if an opportunity that big passes you by of course you're going to be sad/upset/frustrated. There's a career fair at UTD the Thursday after I get back from my big spring break trip to Orlando (har har). That's probably going to be my last chance at maybe landing a job. Otherwise it's back into part-time work at maybe Studio Movie Grill (oh no)! Then it's taking the GRE and applying for the Master's program at UTA. Why UTA? Because UNT doesn't have a Master's program for design where I can refine my portfolio. UTD? Of course they don't have anything. I tried looking at the ATEC and EMAC stuff, but it's nowhere close to what I want in my portfolio. I know that UTD is working on actually adding a graphic design degree but it's too little, too late. That only leaves UTA. Knowing my parents, they'd probably make me commute. Ugh. Well, at least one of the benefits of going back to school is that I would be eligible to take up internships that I want to participate in. And my dad said that he doesn't care if I don't finish and get my Master's because "at least [I] have my four-year college." Pffft. Okay, Dad. Ah well. That's my plan B.

You know what would be awesome, though? What if my Team 7 trip lands me a job at Disney? I mean, we're recording vlogs at Disney World. If someone saw that and thought that that kind of thing would be great promotional material and contacted me about it, then my life would just fall together with a huge stroke of luck. Not likely. But it's fun to dream. Anyways, back to cleaning my room.

Is There No Hope?

It's only been a month since I graduated, but I already feel lost. I feel like there isn't a specific need for a graphic designer anywhere so job hunting has been terrible. Actually, it's more like there isn't a need for a graphic designer without any real work experience so I've been resorting to looking for internships to gain some experience. Another alternative to full-time graphic design jobs that I'm looking into is marketing jobs. I mean, being a marketing person might need some graphic design skills especially when it comes to creating promotional pieces. And I did get a marketing minor, right? I almost landed a job as a data entry person for a company that's starting up. It would have been a temporary gig, but that would have given me a buffer time to find another full-time job for when the data entry job is done. Plus, it would have been something else to put on my resume instead of that thing about Studio Movie Grill. My buddy Azim tried to help hook me up but I haven't gotten a call or anything so I'm pretty sure that's out the window. Gahhh! Everything is just really frustrating and I feel like a failure for not being able to get hired anywhere. I guess I feel pressured because my mom is getting on my back from going out with my friends to work out and stuff. She's complaining about me wasting gas and stuff which roughly translates to "you better sure as hell find a job to pay for that cuz I ain't paying for your crap anymore." Help meee!

Welcome to the Real World, Alyssa!

So I haven't really written a post in a while, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know why. Anyways, this is a just a little update about me getting thrown into the real world after living in my ivory tower so long. Recently, I've started a job at the new Studio Movie Grill that opened on Spring Valley. Honestly, I kinda hate it. I work as a server so my pay is really unstable since most of my pay depends on tips. Base pay is only $2.13 an hour, which is average for a waiter job. Everything else is tips, tips, tips. It's like the first week that this location has opened so the managers kind of overstaffed just cuz most of us are new and might need help. The bad thing is that the more people that we have in our little team, the more times we have to split our tip pool. Saturday I walked away with an okay amount of money for 10+ hours of work. Sunday was okay. Monday I only walked away with $10 for the 6 hours I was there. They put me in a 6-man team for a 2-man job. Bleh.

Another thing I hate about working at SMG is the fact that we don't have a definite end time for our shifts. They give us a start time and they'll keep us as they need us. Saturday I started at 10am and got stuck at work til 8pm. Sucked balls.

At least the people I work with are pretty cool (for the most part). I just hope that everyone I work with is reliable. Sunday I had a team member barely do anything. Every time I saw him, he was in the kitchen taking a drink break. And he walked away with an even share of the tip pool even though he didn't do scrap. Seriously? Ugh.

On to life after college. So you know how I went to a job fair back in September with Hien? Well, I got a call back from the Reynolds and Reynolds place. Went through an interview on Skype and got to the second step of the interview process. If I get this job, I'll be set the moment I graduate from college. The thing is, I know nothing about what to ask for for a yearly salary. It says on most of the websites I've been to that the average starting salary of a graphic designer is around $30,000 a year. Landing a job at Reynolds and Reynolds means that I would have to pack up and move to Houston. Can I live on $30,000 a year alone in Houston? Maybe. My parents were making a huge deal out of it saying that I should've tried to push for more and whatever. Ugh. I don't know what to do.

In the meantime, while that second step is going through, I'm still trying to find a job closer to home. I applied for an internship at the Richards Group and got rejected. Now I applied for a full-time position as a designer. If I can land this, then I can drop Reynolds and Reynolds and live at home and stay close to the people I know. I also applied for a graphic design internship for the Dallas Mavs. If I can land either of those jobs, I'll be fine.

So the moral of the story is, start applying for jobs before you graduate so that you'll have something lined up as soon as you get your diploma. That way, you won't have to bum around for a few months after graduation waiting for a job offer. The second moral is that waiter jobs are hard. Don't do it.

UTD Job Fairs are Pointless for Me

So in the light of my very recent rejection from the Disney College Program, I decided to hit up the UTD Career Fair with my good buddy Hien. Turned out to be a huge waste of time for me. Not that I'm surprised by that fact or anything.

Now, this isn't the first time that I've been to a career fair on campus. The last time I went, it was a lot less crowded. But huge crowds aren't the problem. The problem for me walking into any of these career fairs is the lack of variety in jobs or internships. What do I expect? UTD is a school focused on business and engineering and computer science. Of course there's mostly going to be job listings for program designers and business managers. Being a graphic designer, it's hard to find a niche in any of these job fairs. For artists, we have to rely on building connections elsewhere like on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. Meanwhile, business and computer science majors can just walk into these career fairs and boom! Opportunities everywhere!

My time spent at this job fair wasn't completely wasted. I did hand out a couple of copies of my resume (a couple being only 2). I handed one to the lady from Michaels (like the craft store) for a summer internship next year. Not exactly what I was aiming for, but if I have no job by the time summer rolls around again, I'll take it. The second resume went to a company called Reynolds and Reynolds. What they do is that they provide marketing and business solutions for automotive retailers. Luckily for me, they did have a graphic design internship even though it wasn't listed on the job fair's program. The only thing about this internship is that if I get accepted I'd have to relocate to Houston. That's not too bad, but I wouldn't have anywhere to stay.

So in essence, UTD needs to learn how to expand and accommodate these job fairs to not just business and computer science majors. That is all.