Any student’s time at a university is finite – it’s a reality that comes with the process. No phrase terrifies Northwestern Seniors more than “post-graduation plans,” from graduate school and fellowship opportunities. WNUR News reporter Nick Song takes a look into how Seniors are forging their post-graduation paths.
Any student’s time at a university is finite – it’s a reality that comes with the process. From graduate school and fellowship opportunities, no phrase terrifies Northwestern Seniors more than “post-graduation plans.”
Medill reporter Nick Song takes a look into how students find their post- graduation plans and their best strategies.
Nick Song: [00:00:00] June fast approaches, meaning it’s time once more for this year’s class of Northwestern seniors to become the latest crop of Northwestern graduates. The question on their mind, what comes next, whether
it’s law school, med school, or clocking in at a nine to five, there’s no such thing
as a universal post-graduation plan.There’s no right answer, but that ambiguity makes it all the more confusing. How then do you find your perfect post-grad plan?
Tracie Thomas: First thing I’d say is don’t panic.
Nick (TBR): This is Tracie Thomas. She’s the director for career development at Northwestern Career Advancement.
Tracie Thomas: If you think about it as gathering information about the world of work, but then gathering information about yourself, you’re actually making a
series of small decisions in order to continue to move forward in the process that students. Think about their career decision making holistically.
Nick Song: So what exactly makes a post-grad search holistic? Let’s take a look at a [00:01:00] couple examples and try to figure it out.
Jackson Hugill: My mentality has been that, you know, I pursue the majors that I have at Northwestern because I’ve been interested in that subject matter.
Nick Song: That’s Jackson hug.
Jackson Hugill: I’m a senior at Northwestern University and I am a double major in social policy and political science. My post-grad plans currently are to. Work in a business analyst role with Deloitte Consulting their government and public services practice.
Nick Song: It’s a path he never imagined for himself. Just a few years ago, Hugo figured he'd wind up working on a political campaign or for a government agency.
government consulting only popped up on his radar the fall of his junior year when he started to loosely think about his plans for the upcoming summer in his research, he came across an internship opportunity offered by Deloitte for that summer. Hugo sent in his application and wound up getting accepted [00:02:00]
Jackson Hugill: I kind of maintained like, I think a healthy skepticism going into it, but then I got there and I realized there were so many cool opportunities
to. Do work with political processes, government agencies, and make real meaningful change kind of on the government side. But through this consulting firm. Through the internship, I kind of figured out it was right up my alley, and
I knew when I was taking that internship that it was what I wanted to do full- time.
Nick Song: Luckily for Hugill, Deloitte felt the same way.
Jackson Hugill: At the end of that internship, they offered me an offer letter to resign with them full-time following the conclusion of my degree at Northwestern.
I can say that every internship opportunity that I've pursued, every professional
opportunity that I've pursued has been because I'm interested in what the role is. And because I think there's a lot of value in those roles,
Nick Song: Hugill credits his finding a fit to following his [00:03:00] interests
during his job search.
Jackson Hugill: The main reason I accepted the offer was just because of how much I really enjoyed the internship experience and how much I enjoyed the work that I was doing. If I hadn’t enjoyed it as much as I did, I, I dunno that I
would’ve accepted it. And I think it’s kept me really engaged and allowed me to perform well because I wanna learn the material and wanna do the work.
Malena Otero: I have always wanted to go to grad school for, uh, work organizational and personal psychology.
Nick Song: That’s Malena Otero. She’s a senior in Weinberg studying psychology and cognitive science. She like many other NU students wanted to
pursue a graduate degree in her respective subject.
Malena Otero: I actually just this morning accepted a offer for a Master's in
work organizational and personnel psychology.
Nick Song: Beyond the academics, Otero knew she wanted to pursue her Master's abroad in Europe for grad school. Searching for her right fit, she began looking into programs that would accommodate her needs. One popped up almost [00:04:00] immediately: the Fulbright program.
Malena Otero: I had actually applied for a Fulbright scholarship, and I was
selected as an alternate.
Nick Song: A Fullbright selection allows an American student to pursue a graduate degree at a top university in Europe. It's a gray program one that sets
you up possibly for a career in academia. The thing is, a career in academia wasn't what Otero wanted. She Wanted to work in industry.
Malena Otero: Psychology, that's like, I think a field that a lot of people go
into if they do grad school, it's like, well now I'm in it forever. And, and I
personally know that. This master's is my way out of academia, so it's not like
I'm, I'm committing myself to like the next 10 million years.
Nick Song: Otero continued her search, eventually finding a fellowship called
the Erasmus Mundus Fellowship.
Malena Otero: It’s mostly like a European thing, and there’s um, something called like the Joint Masters a rasmus
Nick Song: Otero applied and got accepted. Similar to the Fullbright, the Joint Masters program offers students the opportunity to pursue a masters degree from some [00:05:00] of the top universities in Europe. The Erasmus program
put itself over the edge in Oteros’ mind because it offered greater career mobility out of grad school. She wouldn’t be limited to just one path.
Malena Otero: It’s kind of allowing for that pivot out if I want it, and, and that’s definitely something that I’ve been interested in. So, um, I was like, perfect.
I will get this, this masters and then I will have the opportunity to either go onto further schooling or, or pivot into industry like I planned.
Nick Song: Between Hugill and Otero. There are countless post-graduation paths that may be right for you. Still stressed? Well, try to keep this in mind: A typical person works around 12 jobs and changes their career 3 to 5 times, so that first destination after college hardly ever determines what you do for your entire life. Again, here’sTracie Thomas.
Tracie Thomas: Remember that there are multiple careers that can make you happy. There is no one career that will make [00:06:00] you happy, and to be
open to taking risks, particularly this early in your career, remember that the
word commencement comes from the word beginning. You’re only beginning your career. This is not the end.
Nick Song: For Medill, I’m Nick Song.
