Options

I spoke with a friend this week who compared our lives to floating down a river in a canoe. We can steer and control our direction to some extent, but ultimately the current will take us where we are supposed to go.

During a job search, we might tend to feel as though we are a bit helpless, that sometimes we paddle feverishly in the direction of a terrific opportunity, only to find that the current moves us away from it. And we might tend to feel also that we are dependent on the current to allow us to eventually close in on one of those big breaks.

During these tough times when so many find themselves in a similar position, it’s important to keep steering toward those opportunities, no matter how many times the current pulls us away. Of course it’s going to get discouraging  after a while. What if it seems like we will never be able to grasp what we are looking for? We will, but what about in the meantime?

These are the anxious times, when we feel dependent on getting that big break, and we are giving it all we can and coming up empty. Since we don’t know when it will happen, we are forced to look at all of our options. As overwhelming as this can be, it’s a necessity, because we have to keep moving forward, and it’s impossible to know when the right opportunity will come.

Graduate school is one of those options for many of us. We have to consider the benefits and the costs, and try to determine the probability that it’s going to lead to an opportunity. What about going out and working whatever job we can find, making connections with people and networking to the best of our ability? That is certainly one way to go. Perhaps some aspire to start their own business. Or just waiting it out and continuing to push for those chances when we see them, having faith that eventually we’ll grab onto one? Maybe that’s fine too.

People will confront this in their own ways and that’s the way it should be. There are going to be risks and downsides to all of these options–moving to a new place without a job, or taking out loans to pay for school, for example. That’s why it seems that we are dependent on a company to give us a chance and seemingly eliminate these risks.

Ultimately, the current is going to allow us to grab one of the opportunities we’ve been seeking.  However, it could be what we do in the meantime that allows us to move closer to what we are looking for, or takes us in a completely different direction than we could have ever imagined.