{"id":50966,"date":"2026-05-22T12:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-couldnt-find-a-full-time-job-after-college-for-4-years-im-now-glad-i-didnt-jump-into-my-career-immediately\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T12:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:51:14","slug":"i-couldnt-find-a-full-time-job-after-college-for-4-years-im-now-glad-i-didnt-jump-into-my-career-immediately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-couldnt-find-a-full-time-job-after-college-for-4-years-im-now-glad-i-didnt-jump-into-my-career-immediately\/","title":{"rendered":"I couldn&#8217;t find a full-time job after college for 4 years. I&#8217;m now glad I didn&#8217;t jump into my career immediately."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6a0de274ce0a5b2f12d7de07?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Haley Bosselman smiling at camera at a conference\"\/><figcaption>The author worked in customer service jobs after college.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Haley Bosselman<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>After graduating from college, I started working in customer service and other odd jobs.<\/li>\n<li>It took me four years to finally land my first full-time job in my dream career.<\/li>\n<li>I&#039;m glad that it took me four years because it better prepared me and helped me grow professionally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After graduating from the journalism program at Arizona State University \u2014 at which I held jobs such as sandwich artist, trampoline park traffic monitor, beach snack shack cashier, writing tutor, and library aide \u2014 I moved to Los Angeles with friends.<\/p>\n<p>I started vying for writing roles and hoping for digital content positions I didn&#039;t really want. When I couldn&#039;t land a full-time job in my field, I pivoted. Bills were coming.<\/p>\n<p>Like I balanced college classes and work, I figured I could balance writing and work. I quickly landed a 9-5 receptionist job at a Beverly Hills hair salon. An unpaid role as a concert reviewer soon followed.<\/p>\n<p>My introverted nature evolved thanks to being in customer service and regularly attending concerts solo. I used to slip through my days trying to be as unnoticed as possible. But that doesn&#039;t jibe with the ambitious soul or a fully lived life. My quiet girl armor was not, in fact, armor. It was a safety blanket hampering the coming of age into adulthood.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, I had several years to work on myself before landing my first full-time job.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I went to grad school while continuing to work<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Upon acceptance into the University of Southern California&#039;s journalism master&#039;s program, I took a Starbucks job and fell into another sprint: student by day, Starbucks by evening, homework late at night.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturdays, I worked shifts as both a salon receptionist and a barista. The highlight of my days was the shower afterward. A faint smell of coffee beans emitted from my pores when I scrubbed my skin with hardworking Boraxo. There was something godly about being drenched by hot water.<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 set in about eight weeks before I graduated from USC. The salon closed, and my Starbucks shifts waned. I then landed a part-time editor job that let me earn enough to get by. When January 2021 rolled around, I was fortunate to be kept busy by (and be so excited about) my remote paid internship with an entertainment trade publication.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I finally landed my first full-time job in my dream industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I remembered a glossy magazine that would come into the salon. Its career site had an opening for a digital editor in Los Angeles. I applied, interviewed, and got the job. I finally had a salary, health insurance, and a 401(k). It felt like a miracle.<\/p>\n<p>Four years of inching toward a career job felt like a long time. I now know that it&#039;s not.<\/p>\n<p>I needed to step out of my student comfort zone and to break out of my one-dimensional public self. There was no better way than toughing it out in customer service jobs.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I&#039;m professionally stronger for working in customer service for 4 years<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>After getting through 14-hour work days, having patience for someone who doesn&#039;t understand why one round of bleach on near-black hair isn&#039;t enough to go blonde, and making a chai Frappuccino five times over because it &quot;didn&#039;t taste like last time,&quot; makes each day I spend writing about restaurants, TV shows, fashion, movies, and hotels feel like a gift.<\/p>\n<p>When I feel the weight of a busy workday now, I remember when I used to be chewed out by customers. Now, in any workplace tension or conflict, I have the muscle for patient, polite communication.<\/p>\n<p>I found purpose in my career, but when I was laid off from my digital editor role after almost four years, it did not shatter my world. I shed a few tears post-phone call, but minutes later, it was on to notifying my colleagues and my professional network, cleaning out my inbox, and getting on with the job search. Thankfully, my unemployment was short-lived. Seven weeks later, I became a senior editor at a local magazine.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#039;t think I could have reacted that maturely or calmly to the layoff if I hadn&#039;t spent those years hustling in customer service.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps what I best gained from not immediately entering the white-collar workforce is knowing that most of us are just trying to get by. I have a more authentic sense of the world (and met some pretty cool people) and know that most of us aren&#039;t on a straightforward career path at 22.<\/p>\n<p>I was also lucky enough to realize the unremarkableness of my journey and found freedom in being ordinary.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The author worked in customer service jobs after college. Courtesy of Haley Bosselman After graduating from college, I started working in customer service and other odd jobs. It took me four years to finally land my first full-time job in my dream career. I&#039;m glad that it took me four years because it better prepared [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}