It is suddenly time to say goodbye to the carefree life of university and swim in the stormy waters of adult life. Don’t be afraid to make a decisive step forward. Clear your head, cast your fears aside and look around. Try to learn from other people’s experience, from their success and mistakes.

LET ME share with you the experiences of friends who’ve sailed the deep blue seas of the labor market. I hope you will find them both helpful and inspiring.

Story #1 Dire Straits

Having graduated from a prestigious institute of higher education, a friend of mine decided to take a break and relax after the hard labors of learning. He had fun with his friends all summer, then suddenly, as the fall brought its cold winds and rains, he found himself going it alone as his friends got busy and employed. It was only at that point that he decided to make a move to find a job. He switched his PC on, composed a resume and rushed around sending it to the companies he happened to find in the Yellow Pages. The list of companies was quite impressive and he, proud of himself, stretched out on the sofa imagining how his phone would ring off the wall within the next few days.

He is still there, on the sofa, down and out and complaining about how he was treated badly by life.

Story #2 Parental Pressure

The parents of a friend of mine pressured her heavily: "Either you find a job within the next month, or we’ll cut off your allowance." Of course, Galya had intended to look for a job, but the ultimatum encouraged her to hurry up. She bought a huge pile of HR papers and looked scoured the ads. She selected a few with impressive salary expectations, arranged a cozy seat by the phone and started to call. Brusque female voices answered all her questions and invited her to interviews. After a few hours she had collected about 10 invitations. She woke up early the next morning, put her best suit on and went for her first interview. To cut a long story short, only one of those offers didn’t require an initial fee, something common in Russia. Though it did not promise any guaranteed salary, my friend decided to take it. Having worked for a month as a sales manager, she understood that she was not going to get paid. On the road again, she visited a number of personnel agencies, only to find out a simple truth — all employers prefer to hire experienced people. How do you get experience if nobody will hire you without it? A vicious circle isn’t it? At this point, in need of work- experience, my friend had to abandon her cherished dream of working at a foreign company and face Russian ones, paying lower salaries and offering less prestige.

But that eventually led her to a job at a respectable foreign company, and she is quite satisfied with how life is treating her.

Story #3 Happy Ending

Like those of the previous stories, Masha had to start job hunting after graduating from an institution of higher learning. Her boyfriend was lucky enough to find a well-paying and promising job quickly. But Masha had no success, even though she’d tried very hard. Finally, when she was close to desperation, she found a position at a utility company. The salary was good and the people there were friendly. Shortly afterwards she got married. One day her husband was offered an attractive three-year contract in Germany and he could not pass it up. After several months of separation pains, Masha made a decision — she left the job she had found with such difficulty and rushed after her husband, thereby trading security for complete uncertainty. A daring move, wasn’t it?

The funny thing is that after having attended a German language course in Germany, Masha found out that the company she worked for in Russia had a German branch. And she got a job there; the very same position!

Miracles do happen!