Congratulations, James!

Can you believe it? Swing State stalwart James L. just finished his very last final exam of college and is about to graduate! Please wish him a hearty congratulations in the comments – and welcome to the real world, James!

15 thoughts on “Congratulations, James!”

  1. James, now that you’re a college graduate and ready to enter the “real world,” we can let you in on a few secrets: the Bush Administration has been completely successful, the environment is as healthy as ever, and the situation on the ground in Iraq is safe and stable.  Great news, huh!

  2. James, I have to say, because of your mature and insightful posts, I assumed that you were graduating from graduate school, not college.  All the more reason to be congratulated– you are wise beyond your years!!!

  4. Congradulations. 

    IIRC the thrill of graduation didn’t last long.  I was swiftly replaced by the terror of finding a job to pay off those darn student loans.

    Enjoy it while you can.

  5. I’m so proud of you!

    Now go get a job.

    I don’t want to be THAT girl with the unemployed boyfriend. It would damage my reputation.

  7. I know the feeling having just finished this fall. The experience is nothing short of amazing. And you never know what kind of cool job you’ll end up doing next. If you had told me I’d be at ActBlue a year ago I would have laughed. Now who’s laughing…. lol

  9. or something fondly condescending like that.

    Only really, best wishes at avoiding cliche overload at graduation.  That’s the immediate danger you face.

  10. Not to rain on your parade, James, but I hope you can find work. I mean that – I’ve had difficulty finding a steady job since I graduated four years ago. (Crap, has it already been four years?) If you’ve got any connections at all in the working world, take advantage of them. The hiring process in today’s society is needlessly arbitrary and takes some getting used to, especially if you’ve spent your whole life up to this point in academia. Also, don’t rely too heavily on online recruiting. Few if any recruiters actually look at online applications because they get so many, regardless of how good your resume looks. I learned this the hard way.

    I always used temp agencies as a backup until I moved to Portland, where unemployment is 9%, nobody wants to hire young people from out of state with a spotty work history, and the temp agencies all a.) suck or b.) don’t pay a living wage. Also, temp agencies in general mostly recruit for jobs nobody else wants to do. Temping got me steady work in Boston and a good (if awfully boring) summer job when I lived in Vermont, but my success with them has been spotty ever since I moved west. I remember there being some good agencies in New York, if you need something to tide you over between real jobs. (Just be careful – a lot of temp recruiters are total flakes and/or full of themselves.)

    The most important thing is to be yourself. It’s bullshit advice, I know, but it’s also true.

    Hope this helps.

  11. That’s why I went to school to learn how to DO something. Out of the 12 people in my program, 9 of us had jobs before graduation, and within a year, all but one had a job in the industry. (And I got hired the summer before senior year at my current company) But you’ll  find a good job, because you’re so terribly clever & easy to work with.

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