Junior Year Job Crisis

By Samantha Krevolin

“Congratulate (insert name) for starting their new position as an incoming (insert internship position/job title)!” If you’re a junior like me, Linkedin is a scary app to have right now, and this notification is popping up left and right. As excited as I am to see the countless Linkedin notifications for my friends getting job offers and experiencing new opportunities in their career paths, these posts make me very stressed about my own future. Although I think I have an idea of what I want to do with my life after college, the unknown of the future is extremely daunting. This fear has made me stop comparing myself to others on Linkedin. Instead, I am focusing my attention on my junior year job crisis, or as I like to call it, my college mid-life crisis. 

Going to a school like Cornell, I have noticed that everyone seems like they have everything together. They have known they wanted to go to Cornell, become a doctor, and move to a New York suburb with a financially stable family of four since birth. On the other hand, I am extremely indecisive and my future is certainly not thoughtfully planned out. Acknowledging that, I thought I would share some of my own thoughts about this topic, so people like me know that others at this school don’t have it all together. Nobody’s perfect, and even if you may think you have your life in order, nothing ever goes completely as planned. 

I have had two internships over the past two summers, both of which I am extremely grateful for. For students at most schools, this may seem like a pretty big accomplishment. However, at Cornell, having an internship every summer has become the expectation. I often remind myself of how lucky Cornell students are to go to an institution that is so highly regarded in the workforce. Overall, I have come to realize that whether you love what you’re doing right now or not, this will not determine your future. Rather, the experiences we gain and the opportunities we have coming from Cornell will help us find what we are most interested in. Not every internship has to be a life-altering experience. I personally realized this the hard way after my internship ended this summer. I enjoyed my experience, but once it was over, I had a crisis where I kept thinking to myself, “what now?” I tried to overcome this uncertainty by taking electives outside of my major to expand my horizons and lead myself to a variety of career paths. These courses pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to learn new skills. At the same time, they also helped me understand what I enjoy about my classes, what I am good at, and, whether I like it or not, what I need to improve on. 

Now that November is around the corner, juniors and seniors are getting internships and full-time job offers every day. As a result, I constantly feel behind and think I am doing something wrong for not knowing what I am doing this summer. So, as any other panicked college-junior does, I hopped onto Linkedin and Handshake. However, I quickly realized that most of the jobs I am considering and the fields I want to go into do not even have summer internships applications open at this time. I cannot be doing something wrong if I can’t even apply for the jobs I want at this point. 

I can confidently say that right now, I think I have made progress in setting goals on what I want to do career-wise, but I am also learning to accept that the unknown is inevitable. Seeing people around me getting amazing jobs that are so well deserved has inspired me to challenge myself and go for the “unachievable” while still reminding myself that taking more time to figure out my future is acceptable and even helpful. Junior year has been a lot with going back to in-person classes, figuring out career paths, and adjusting to off-campus living. It is important to realize that everyone has a different path, and there is no time limit on reaching your goals. Overall, I am looking forward to taking on this challenge, and I hope from reading this, I have eased some stress in others and inspired them to take on the junior year job crisis confidently with me.