“Look, go to college, go find your major, realize you’re minor in the scheme of everything” — “Kiss of Venus,” Dominic Fike and Paul McCartney 

It’s the last semester of your senior year in college — you couldn’t be more excited to walk off the graduation stage and snatch your diploma from the professor who gave you a C- in Professional Speaking 102 — except your actual diploma gets mailed to you in the middle of July. 

Flash forward to the end of summer. You’ve successfully completed your well-deserved senior trip with your best friends who are moving across the country to work for Facebook — wait what? How does someone even apply to Facebook? Does Mark Zuckerburg interview you himself? 

You’re back at home, contemplating why you haven’t heard back from any job applications yet. You wonder if it’s because AI is taking over the world and if the resume you created for $3.99 on ResumeGenius.com is not up to par. 

Dealing with post-grad blues is real. Your friends are working grand corporate jobs, which is something you’ve only seen on TV. You think about settling for a simple 9-to-5 office job — similar to “Parks and Recreation” — yes, that sounds perfect! Much to one’s despair, they require a minimum of five+ years of experience and for you to have a master’s degree from Princeton — seriously, not Yale? 

Recent graduate student Diem Le graduated with a master’s in human resources and industrial relations in 2023. Le said that her experience with navigating life after college has been anything but smooth sailing, but reminds herself to stay positive. 

“Seeing my peers reach further milestones does put pressure on how far I should’ve gotten in life by now,” Le said. “I remind myself that I am living life for the first time — just as everyone else — and no one has all the answers. I see these expectations as guidance and a reminder that I can succeed.” 

Why Is the Job Market So Bad? 

Viewing a job posting online and seeing over a hundred applicants can be intimidating. This can lead to a series of intrusive thoughts and even imposter syndrome. The interviewing process for a single company can be long and extensive. Nowadays, securing a first-round interview for an entry-level form of employment does not guarantee an outcome with an offer letter. 

According to a Harris Poll done by TIME Magazine, 52% of job seekers with a bachelor’s degree completed an interview with a company and did not receive an offer afterwards, compared to only 35% of those with a high school diploma. 

This signifies that job seekers with a college diploma still face high rates of rejection within the job market, despite claims of their chances being better than those without. 

Recent graduates are also more likely to face unemployment for longer periods of time. 

The Pew Research Center found that, in 2020, 41% of unemployed workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education had been out of work for more than six months. According to the same study, the long-term unemployment rate between Asian American men and women comes at an average of 45.5%, with a higher rate among Asian men at 48%, and Asian women being 43%. 

Rejection emails can be disheartening to receive. How many more times do you have to read the words “Although we appreciate your interest in our seasonal barista position, we have decided not to move forward with your application.” Enough is enough! 

But How Do I Deal With the Pressures From Friends and Family?

As an Asian American, it’s hard not to compare yourself to your friends who are redesigning Meta with Mark Zuckerburg. 

Many Asian Americans also feel pressured to succeed in their family — especially in comparison to their second cousin who did every extracurricular perfectly and did, in fact, attend Princeton. 

Le explains how her family has helped her during this time by being a great support system. 

“My parents became worried that I was lost in life after three months post-grad, being unemployed,” Le reflected. “They didn’t go to school in the U.S. and don’t really understand much about the education or employment system here, so that has also been a hurdle for me to help them understand. I struggled with explaining things in Vietnamese, as my parents don’t really speak English and it is a Vietnamese-only household. But I still recognize they help in ways that they can. 

“I try my best to assure them that the post-grad process takes time and that I will get where I need to be eventually. I think with them as my foundational support, I am continuously reminded to work hard towards my goals.” 

There’s levels to success, and you’re just at the beginning. Graduation should be a celebratory time, and not finding a job two seconds after the hardest four years of your life should not be the reason your parade is being rained on. 

Although your family may be pressuring you to use your degree and not take on a part-time job that pays the rent, they have your best interest at heart. They absolutely want the best for you, but only know how to show it through tough love. Asian families have high expectations and they’re blunt when it comes to asking why you aren’t writing for The Washington Post yet. 

New Hobbies and Compulsive Purchases

You do need a sweet treat every time you step out of the house. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. You deserve it. 

OK, so you’re taking a break from looking up jobs on Linkedin and Indeed. Who doesn’t like some retail therapy? You’re an adult now though, and milk is just simply out of your price range. Coming to terms with the fact that people whose go-to grocery store is Whole Foods are in a completely different tax bracket is a part of adulthood. Seriously though – why is milk there so expensive? 

After college, it’s difficult finding new hobbies because you no longer have campus clubs reaching out to you every week to join them for crocheting on the main quad. Nowadays, everyone is playing pickleball — and it’s not just your aunt who casually lives in Calabasas, California. 

Committing to your newfound interests can burn a hole in your wallet. High-quality pickleball rackets aren’t exactly cheap, and can you even play on a normal tennis court? Do you need a country club membership to access a court? 

After graduation, your friends might as well have moved to a different planet. Making friends as an adult is hard. You briefly contemplated joining a Facebook group page to make new friends because taking that first step can make all the difference — and who knows? What if your future bestie is waiting for you there right now? 

Don’t overthink it. Making friends will come naturally. Believe in divine timing and put yourself out there! 

Faking It ‘Til You Make It 

University of California Berkeley student Morgan Hoong faced conflict with her personal future career plans and goals while entering her early 20s. 

Born and raised in Minnesota, Hoong worked at her family-owned Chinese restaurant since she was 5 years old. Hoong studies data science, and hopes to enter the tech industry, but her one and only passion in life of inheriting her family’s business is holding her back. 

Through her online video content, Hoong shares her perspective on balancing both her interests alongside her career as a young Asian American woman. 

“I thought you chose one subject to study in college, worked for about 40 years and then died,” Hoong joked. “I had a mid-life crisis one spring break back at home and was like, how am I supposed to choose just one passion or interest?” 

Hoong explained how she felt during a time when many of her friends and peers at school were gaining professional experience with internships and climbing the corporate ladder. “I look around me and see that everyone knows what they want to do with their life. For months, it was hard to figure out what I wanted out of life and what I wanted to pursue. I think a lot of Asian Americans are interested in fast success without caring about their health or how much they have to work, and seeing this firsthand by either people my age or even my own family has made me realize that I need to explore and experience the world before it’s too late.” 

Growing up as a daughter of immigrant parents, Hoong shared her feelings of having to decipher her future with differentiating career paths that both align with her passions and dreams of one day supporting herself and her family. 

“Coming from an Asian family where no one has yet to work a corporate job or go to school, we’re left to work different jobs, and I want to be able to provide in a way that is right for not only them, but for me,” Hoong said. “We’re used to seeing our parents work themselves to the bone, and I always thought that as Asians, we’re not allowed to have fun without the constant pressure of work. But now I know to not put so much stress on yourself and to actually enjoy what you do.” 

Despite social pressures to succeed, Hoong shared that everyone is on a different path of life and that people should focus on what makes them happy as individuals. “Nobody is running the same race. I feel as if everyone thinks we’re competing against one another, but your race is whatever makes you happy. People have different standards of happiness and success.”

Although we may feel alone in our hardships and self journeys, it is important to understand that feeling stuck in the rut of life’s possibilities can lead you to something greater than expected. 

It’s not the end of the world that you haven’t landed your dream job right away — you haven’t even discovered half of your life’s dream yet. It’s OK to focus on yourself for the time being. As an Asian American, we are taught to chase after the thrill of milestone after milestone. Your worth as an individual is not based on any level of success or status of work. This part of adulthood should not be wasted on minuscule worries. The world is your Whole Foods Market and you’re an Amazon Prime member.

Cover: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels