Virgin Job Hunters: Beware

the Lure of the First Offer You Get!

‘A paycheck isn’t everything’—and other important lessons this writer learned on the search for her dream job

By Julia Anne Lis

o, you’re looking for your first “real” job.  You’re optimistic.  You scan the classified ads and Internet listings with enthusiasm.  You send out your résumé and wait.  Days pass (slowly) and you get no response.  You are a little discouraged, but you keep on trying. Still no phone calls.  You start to wonder if there is something wrong with you.  You tweak your résumé, rewrite your cover letter and decide to broaden the scope of your search. Still no interviews.

That’s when panic begins to set in. You started out searching for your dream job, and now you’re  wondering whether you’re qualified to work the drive-through window at the local McDonalds.  In an act of desperation, you send your résumé to any job listing even remotely related to your skills. Just when you’ve decided you are going to temp for the rest of your life, the phone rings.  You get an interview. You are overjoyed—until you realize the interview is a response to one of your “desperation” submissions and the job does not correspond with any of your long- (or short-) term career goals.  But, it’s the only interview you’ve got, so you show up on time in your lucky suit and hope the job will turn out better than its description.  It doesn’t.  Still, you interview well and they are impressed.  They make you an offer.  What do you do? 

If you’re wise, you won’t do what I did when this happened to me. Having endured five long months of searching for my first real job after graduate school, I was desperate.  Instead of thinking in terms my long-term career plan, I jumped at the offer I got.  I didn’t even try to negotiate the starting salary.  It was my first offer, and I was afraid it would be the last.  I accepted, even though I knew it was a job I did not want in an industry in which I knew I had no interest in pursuing a long-term career.

What I did not know when I accepted this job (and have learned the hard way since) is that the experience you get in your first job has a huge impact in determining your next job.  The skills you acquire from your first job are what you have to sell when you are looking for your next job.  It is as important to consider the skills you will learn as it is to consider the starting salary, because it is this skill set that will shape your long-term career.

Don’t settle for a job just because you think it is the only offer you are going to get.  Would you settle for the first guy who asked you to marry him because you think it is the only proposal you are going to get?  No way.  This is the rest of your life you’re talking about.  Your first job should get the same type of consideration. Don’t accept an offer if you know it is not the right job for you.  Although few people rarely find their “dream job” right out of the gate, you can increase your chances of finding it eventually by making sure that your first job gives you some of the skills and experience you will need for that perfect position.

What About the Money, Honey?

OK, that’s good advice.  But what about a paycheck?  Granted, there is a lot to be said for getting a regular paycheck.  It’s nice to be able to stop borrowing money and start paying some back.  However, the longer you stay in a position, the harder it is to change.  Most starting positions do not pay well.  The skills and experience you get are considered part of your compensation. It is difficult to leave a well-paying job, even if you are miserable, for a low-paying job, even if you know you will love it. It is easier to spend time searching for the right job at the outset of your career than to try to change your career path several years later.

I was lucky.  I had the opportunity to start over when my husband wanted to relocate to another state for his career.   I was more than happy to quit my well-paying, but painfully boring job to move.  However, when I began my job search in our new home, I was confronted with a different set of problems.  I was very clear on what I did not want to do, but I had no idea about what I did want to do. 

Deciding ‘What You Want to Be When You Grow Up’

How do you decide what type of job you want? I was discussing this with a friend of mine who suggested that I focus on the type of situation I wanted to be in, rather than try to answer the broad and overwhelming question,  “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” She recommended using a visualization technique to help me identify what type of work would make me happy.

The technique is simple.  Sit in a comfortable chair, in a quiet, darkened room, and close your eyes.  Focus on your breathing for a few minutes, and allow your mind and body to relax.  When you feel calm, try to imagine your “perfect day” at work.  Start with when you wake up in the morning and get ready for work.  What are you wearing?  How do you get to work? Is it far? Are you going to the same place every day, or do you travel?  Do you sit at a desk, or are you moving around?  Are the hours regular, or do they vary? Do you interact with a lot of people, or do you work alone?  Try to visualize the type of situation that will make you happy and use that as a means to determine the type of job you should look for.

When I imagined my “perfect day,” I was wearing comfortable clothes, setting my own hours, working from a computer in my home.  Although I did not find this situation immediately, the job I took eventually led to a telecommuting position where I was able to make my own hours working from my office at home.  I love it. 

It is difficult to be patient when you are searching for your first “real” job. But keep in mind that the few months you spend searching for the perfect position represent a mere fraction of the time you will spend pursuing your lifelong career. Your career will always be a work in progress… but if you take a detour down the wrong career path, it may, for many practical reasons, be extremely difficult and costly to turn back. It's far easier not to get lost in the first place.

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Julia Anne Lis is pursuing a career as a free lance writer. Her first

piece—on Big Feet—was published recently

in Glamour magazine.

E-mail this article.

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