Taking the Plunge

There I was, officially unemployed in New York City, no idea where I would go next and with only enough resources to last me about a month or two. With a few interviews lined up back in Nebraska and the chance to return to a more stable and predictable life, I did something I would never regret. I cancelled them all and bid farewell to the idea of going back to what I knew.

It was the first signs of fall, the air was crisp and the leaves were beginning to turn slightly orange. I was fresh out of the Cooper Hewitt, after finishing up a week long bootcamp with Microsoft and clearing my head in a long walk around the Central Park reservoir.

I knew I didn’t want to return. Deep down inside I knew that the past few months of calling New York home were not only the most creatively and personally challenging of my life, but also the happiest. In this city I could be who I wanted to be and dream as big as I wanted. In fact,I never once purchased or thought about purchasing a return flight back.

I drafted up an email in the notes app of my phone. Thanking people for their time. I ended with the same thank you, but “I’ve found other opportunities here that line up better with my current career goals”. Needless to say both a rush of excitement and a terrified jitter ran through me at the same time.

Up to that point, it was all a lie. I was faking it til I would hopefully make it. I had only been on interviews, only been scoping out places, but nothing had materialized as an offer. With every conversation with potential employers, mentors and friends  I had learned more about who I was and what my goals were.

Being an unemployed young professional in New York meant waking up early to scout out potential job openings on LinkedIn, reaching out to recruiters, signing up to networking events And finding new coffee shops around the city to update my site with new ideas and work.

“It’s a full-time job to be unemployed in New York. ”

It’s a full-time job to be unemployed in New York. Part of not going crazy is also finding ways to keep yourself occupied on other things. If your whole concern is finding a job, you burn out too easily. Fortunately at the time, I had two other roommates that were in a similar situation and were always more than happy to go on fun adventures around the city.

It was during this time that I discovered the simple pleasure of taking a tipsy ride on the Staten Island ferry, the joys of walking around odd spots like City Island and of course the wonders of a moviepass. It was also around this time that I would spend some days just stuck inside the apartment, refusing to leave until I made more progress on my search. If I had a phone interview, I would prep all day for it, making sure I was ready to impress.

The thing about being in a city like New York, or other world capitals like London, Paris, Los Angeles etc., is that you learn to dream big. You quickly realize that sunsets may have been pretty wherever you lived before, but all the sudden you start to demand a lot more out of them. You strive to have endless canvases built for your ideas and thrive from being among millions of other ambitious dreamers.

With all of this looming in the back of my head, I kept going at it. I would rather go broke trying to reach my dreams and knowing I did all I could then walk away feeling defeated and never trying again.

It all paid off. Two weeks of searching led to a job offer from a company I could have only dreamed about working at years before. Had I been impatient, had I lost sight of my dreams and settled- I would have never gotten to this opportunity and, in retrospect I would have regretted it everyday for the rest of my life.