Planning my future is not working

So I'm a senior now, and it's time to find myself a future. Now, theoretically, this should be easy, as I know exactly what I want to do, namely earn a Ph.D. in drug delivery, preferably in an area involving polymer-related systems. In addition, as I've done exactly what Academic Advising always recommended and planned out my schedule with an eye toward fulfilling requirements, I'll be done with all of my courses and a good deal more credits than necessary come Dec. 21, 2001.

What then?

Ah, therein lies the rub. Apparently, after completing a chemistry major and writing minor with a fairly high GPA at a top-ranked university, I am of no value to any employer within the Baltimore-Washington area, including Johns Hopkins itself (despite advertising 6000+ available positions at the job fair, the Hopkins reps couldn't think of anything for me when I approached them with my resume.) Granted, I'm looking for eight months of employment - specifically, to fill the gap between my January graduation and my late-August move to graduate school. On the other hand, I'm cheap labor. I'm not asking for benefits or even a full-time work schedule, and I come with a diverse background and strong academic credentials, plus good recommendations from labs where I have worked. Oh, yeah - I have plenty of research experience, too, including an NSF fellowship.

So why am I useless to the Baltimore/DC economy? The reason seems to be that I simply can't find any employers who might be interested. Wait, you say - what about the fall job fair? And what about the career center? Surely there are plenty of places I can turn to. I'm not asking for much, just some constructive guidance and the networking Hopkins supposedly offers.

Right. Let's start with the job fair. Anyone who went will surely understand my dissatisfaction: It consisted almost exclusively of defense contractors and government/military employers seeking engineers to, essentially, build new bombs. I have problems with this on two levels. First, what about the entire Krieger School of Arts and Science? I'm in chemistry, one of the purest science fields out there, and I found something like two companies looking for chem. majors. Of those, one didn't bother to show up to the fair. Second, I'm a pacifist. I will never, ever consider working on a project that in any remote way might result in killing other people, even possible terrorists or Taliban dictators. Call it a matter of conscience, but I strenuously object.

Now, I understand that politics affect the economy and that the job fair, unfortunately, fell not long after Sept. 11 and right around when the U.S. was planning to start a war on Afghanistan. I'm not arguing with any of that. But in all honesty, the job fair was hopelessly skewed toward engineers, even without the issue of defense contracting. What ever happened to the other half of this university? Sure, the career center indicated that the spring fair would be more humanities and science-friendly, but I don't understand the reasoning behind that, particularly when I know that there are so many other seniors who really would graduate in December if only they could find something to do afterwards. Exactly what will the spring job fair do for all of us? It's too late for a spring semester internship, too late to show us the opportunities we're missing through lack of exposure.

This brings me to the career center in general. Talk about lack of exposure! I went in and explained my situation. The response was hardly reassuring - or helpful. I was given two 2x2 sheets of note paper with a few Web sites, mostly internship databases and their passwords, plus a plug for HopkinsNet, supposedly a database full of friendly Hopkins alum's who are just dying to help current students. What now? Time for me to go search on my own. I did. The Web sites worked remarkably poorly - the InternCenter.com link didn't work the first few times I tried it, and when I finally managed, after a week or so, to actually access the Web site, I found a variety of jobs that had been posted around 1999. Another site, Internweb.com, yielded almost no hits no matter what area I searched under - everything from biomedical research to food/dining and outdoors.

Then there was HopkinsNet. First, it didn't work. Again, after several fruitless days, I finally managed to hit it when it was up. Taking advice straight from the career center employee I'd consulted, I looked up a female alum who was supposedly an editor at Baltimore Magazine. The connection sounded perfect: access to an upper-level employee who might even be able to offer me a job directly! I should have known better: She doesn't even work there anymore. So much for an up-to-date, helpful database.

As for more searching, I simply don't have time. For a couple of weeks I wasted several hours, sometimes several hours a day, and I've gotten exactly one job offer, which sounds like really cool work but would only be for, maybe, 10 days out of any given month. Unless I can find a second job, that just won't be enough - not to keep me busy or pay my rent, both essentials as far as I'm concerned.

For now, of course, I'm too busy to even consider doing anything else, and so is almost every other senior I know. Maybe only my friends are busy and every other senior is kicking back and coasting along, but I just don't buy that. Because of this, I would like to offer the career center a challenge to prove to them the ineffectiveness of their method.

To anyone who works at the career center, try this. Take 16 credits (four 300-level classes, plus one 100-level), including one that's writing intensive and another (not writing intensive, naturally) that requires about ten pages of writing a week. Add eight to 10 hours per week of work in a lab, which is basically a prerequisite for getting into a science-related graduate program. Now, try to look for graduate programs without help from your department, which apparently expects all of its majors to be pre-med and not in need of graduate counseling or from Academic Advising or the pre-professional office, which just donesn't deal with grad school stuff unless you're pre-med or pre-law. Now also look for fellowships so that, having donated $120,000 to Hopkins for undergrad, you can pay for graduate school if you find somewhere to go. Also try to have a social life - not much, just an unburdened Friday and Saturday night - and maybe even think about extracurricular activities.

Still have time for that job search? Right, I didn't think so. So much for my future.