A friend of mine recently graduated college and moved to Richmond to start her working life. She graduated with a 3.7 GPA and participated in multiple extra-curricular activities during her college years. This is in addition to building experience in the hospitality industry, her desired field, for most of her adult life. 

However, despite these capabilities and an impressive resume, she had to submit over 75 applications over the course of first eight months to even attempt to find a job. Of these 75, only ten responded, and of these, only one was willing to hire her for a five-month job outside of her field of study. 

During this time period, she developed a connection with a well-recognized individual in the hospitality industry through a random encounter. 

After discussing her desire to enter the hospitality field with this individual, my friend began receiving emails from this person about job availabilities. 

This correspondence culminated last week with a job reference and my friend landing her dream job.

All this is to say, getting a job after college is stressful. This stress is increased in this day and age by the necessary requirements to quickly and easily find one. The job world has become a toxic and draining experience, filled with unanswered applications and low hope for a job in the fields we are training for. Regardless of the causes for such a reality, we must adapt and recognize the need for connections when entering the work force. This is especially true if we attempt to enter a profession within our field of study; thus, we must begin building these connections as early as possible.

EMU is not lax in their efforts to present opportunities to build connections while still in college. Programs such as the WCSC house in DC are perfect for meeting professionals in our fields through internships. 

Personally, as a writing major, I receive several emails every semester about writing competitions that are available for me to showcase my work to the writing community. 

However, while these options are highly recommended, not enough emphasis is placed on just how crucial they could be for our futures.

At the same time, we, as students, could be more proactive about taking these opportunities. 

It is difficult to motivate ourselves to do extra activities along with everything else we must deal with. All of us have classes to attend, and many of us have jobs or extracurriculars on top of that; so, when something is deemed optional, many of us, myself included, ignore it altogether. 

This is something that we should not do. 

In terms of building connections in the working world—we must build connections. Our future selves will thank us for it.