what am i doing wrong?

[crystal_dance]

I'm a top grade student, and I work really hard. I get good grades and I perform well at school and at my job. I'm starting my second year of grad school now and the pressure is on as I look for full time positions, do well in school and work on my thesis.

All this is normal and I don't think much about the struggle other than that it is a necessary process. However, it really gets me down when I see people who don't deserve stuff get what they want. I know this girl who is really dumb, doesn't know jack about what she's talking about and pretty much plagiarises her way through school - and she just cruises through life. She's landed a really high level job at the university where she helps my university president's office carry out research on economic development and US-foreign development initiatives. This interesting job just helped her land a cushy full time job as an associate at an investment bank. wtf?! I bust my balls, pay my way through grad school (she gets tuition waived by the university) and work hard at the office and yet I still struggle to make ends meet while I continue applying/interviewing for jobs. How come I don't get breaks when I seem to be doing everything right?

Arghhhh.

[jrwilheim]

I know the feeling. I feel as though all the other people I know or knew from Columbia are just whizzing past me and I can't find a decent entry-level job to pay the bills. I don't deserve what's happened to me, and I don't know what else to do.

[yankeeyosh]

Yep...same here. Granted, I have a job, but it's really just an entry level job for a bachelor's degree person who majored in finance...maybe...MAYBE a teeny bit above it. And yet, I have a master's degree with an Ivy League education...and I have seven years' professional experience. Yet I see people who are complete buffoons with less education/experience and who are years younger than me are managers or directors (I AM NOT SAYING I EXPECT TO BE ONE OF THOSE RIGHT NOW...just making a point). The thing is the job market's a complete crapshoot. Even if you're Einstein, you're not guaranteed a job. Everything rides on how well you can interview.

[unpopular]

This colleague of yours could be sleeping with someone. Or could be an influential donor's daughter. Or maybe she has class - her position may not be meant for someone who has worked their way through school.

[and1grad]

Rather than worry too much about what you're doing wrong, maybe find out what she's doing right. Could be the same thing.

[wordsmith]

Life's not fair...working hard for something and deserving something doesn't mean you get something, and plenty of people who don't work especially hard and don't particularly deserve breaks get them.

It doesn't necessarily mean you're doing something wrong. It just means that there are things at work other than reward for things that merit reward.

[politicaljunkie]

Yep...same here. Granted, I have a job, but it's really just an entry level job for a bachelor's degree person who majored in finance...maybe...MAYBE a teeny bit above it. And yet, I have a master's degree with an Ivy League education...and I have seven years' professional experience. Yet I see people who are complete buffoons with less education/experience and who are years younger than me are managers or directors (I AM NOT SAYING I EXPECT TO BE ONE OF THOSE RIGHT NOW...just making a point). The thing is the job market's a complete crapshoot. Even if you're Einstein, you're not guaranteed a job. Everything rides on how well you can interview.

I have news. Employers don't care if you went to an Ivy League school, and they pretty much don't care if you have a masters. A person with a simple bachelors degree from an unknown state university has the same opportunities as someone with a masters from an Ivy League school.

No one is guarenteed a job. Many of the unemployed and underemployed people in this country have very good degrees from very good schools. Things such as good grades and graduate degrees and experience at highly ranked schools may matter (and do) in the academic world. But in the real world, none of this matters. What employers care about is if you can help them make money. In that respect, I would think that a working class kid who got through college with decent grades (at least a 3.0 GPA) from an unknown state university and "only" has a bachelors degree would be someone I would hire over a kid who has never worked a day in his life, and whose parents paid their way through Harvard for a bachelors and a masters.