Dead End. So I got rejected from the company I interviewed with last week, and there effectively went the last of my solid job leads. I guess it just hurts especially bad cuz I had kinda gotten used to & started liking the idea of working for this company. Lesson learned: don't become a company man until you have the offer letter in your hands.

And moreover, I'd gotten used to the idea of not working in aerospace, period. Quite honestly, I have very little love for my major left. And further thinking (albeit guided by the thought that I had a job offer in the bag) seriously made me think that aerospace really ISN'T what I wanna do with my life. But I guess I can't rule out that possibility just yet anymore. I have to keep ALL my options open, even it IS to something I've got a hunch I wouldn't be happy doing. I guess I'm just looking for more diverse opportunities to show up at my door... something new that I can pour myself into.

I guess I'd always known it was a possibility that I'd still be jobless at graduation, but it was a thought I really didn't wanna consider. Pssshhh... going unhired? That's for the DUMB kids! And now as the school year (and the associated recruiting season) winds down, I can't help but get that familiar feeling of not being chosen by a team captain for sports as a kid. =( Rejection, in all its forms, still hurts.

And now I'm faced with the very real possibility that I'll be sticking around in Austin through the Fall semester to job hunt. (As I've come to the conclusion that online resume submission is 99% useless.) ECAC (our engineering career center) is dead for the summer, so new opportunities won't really emerge until Fall. We get to use ECAC for a semester or so after we graduate. I dunno, I guess I'll wait a week or two more (in the slim hopes that I get another callback), before I "dig in for the long haul" and start hunting for a place to stay in the Fall.

Man, I had thought I was such a hot shot job prospect, some kinda really good candidate for a hire- wouldn't have any problem finding a job, not me. I'm a pretty smart kid, my overall GPA's pretty good, I've got awards here and there- some company should want me, right? ...no, apparently I was wrong. Lesson learned: You are NOT as high and mighty as you may at first think. So suck up your dang pride and send your resume to anyone who'll take it. Consulting jobs, sales jobs, tech support jobs, jobs completely unrelated to anything you ever studied in school... at some point, you really DO lose the right to be picky.

If nothing else, this job search thing has been a very humbling experience. I wish I could go back in time and apply to all those jobs I'd brushed off as being beneath me. =/

"Hey,
Don't write yourself off yet
It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on.
Just try your best
Try everything you can
And don't you worry what they tell themselves
When you're away."
~Jimmy Eat World - The Middle