What happens when you graduate without a job lined up for you after college? You need to maintain good financial and mental health and avoid the infamous unemployment slump. In this post, I’ll work through some tips and tricks I utilized when I had no job after college graduate.

I graduated in May 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences. By the time I graduated, I did not have a job lined up. Further, I was also still considering if I wanted to become an attorney – and go back to school and more into debt – or pursue health management.

I decided that since I was 22, had no kids, and was just starting my professional life, now was the best time to “experiment” with my career and to get some practical experience in any area that I was curious about.

Hence, I applied to a myriad of jobs: hr, policy, non-profit, administrative assistant, and paralegal positions. I basically applied to anything tangential to my degree, my skills, and my interests.

No Job After College

However, I didn’t get a job until the week of Christmas, 2017. That’s right. I didn’t get anything until December. So from May to December, I had no college-level job after college. Technically, I was “underemployed.”

Underemployment is the purgatory of adulthood. You’re not employed enough to cover your bills and build a life through a career, but you’re also not completely unemployed- whether through choice or not.

Underemployment is the purgatory of adulthood.

FIRE Esquire

Underemployment has many different definitions, but for this post, I’m defining underemployment similarly to what merriam-webster.com has: the condition in which people in a labor force are employed at less than full-time or regular jobs or at jobs inadequate with respect to their training or economic needs.

Also, NPR defines it in this article: “Underemployment measures the number of workers placed in jobs that are below their qualifications from a bachelor’s degree and beyond”

So my definition is underemployment is the condition in which someone is employed at less than full-time or at job(s) below their qualifications and/or economic needs. Basically, you’re underemployed if you are currently working in a job or multiple jobs that are below your college-degree-level-qualifications involuntarily.

The truth about underemployment is that when you are unemployed, you not only have to deal with the financial realities but also the emotional and mental challenges. That time of underemployment was one of the most challenging in my life.

But I survived those cruel seven months, and I’ve reflected on five things that I did to make it through. Here are five tips that every college grad can implement if they find themselves unemployed or underemployed after college graduation.

1. Create An Expenses-First, Needs-Focused Budget

This is the very first step you need to take as soon as you graduate without a college-level job and income. Actually, your post-graduate budget should be very similar to your college budget and should list your current essential expenses.

My budgeting-method is a bit different than the conventional methods. I like to list my necessary expenses first, estimating my average for each month, rounding up to the nearest $10. (You will understand why I round all my expenses down further in this post.) These expenses are things that I must pay each month in order to make it to the next month in the same physical, mental, and financial situation OR BETTER.

I then appropriate a modest flat amount for savings, which I deem as a necessary expense. I’ll delve deeper into why I categorized savings as a necessary expense during my underemployment in a latter post.

Let’s look at a sample post-graduate budget:

Needs	Budget	Actual
Housing (Rent/Mortgage)	750	1000
Transportation* (Car payments, Gas, Public transportation)	300	350
Utilities (Internet, water, heat, phone, etc)	100	95
Groceries	300	450
Household Items (toilet paper, dish soap, etc)	50	25
Medical (prescriptions, co-pays, etc.)	50	50
Debt payments (minimum payments)	200	200
Savings	200	200
Other mandatory expenses	50	50
Total	2000	2,420

You will notice that I have not listed your income or your discretionary expenses. That’s intentional and very important for you during this time. Your income may fluctuate because you are working a few part-time jobs or are freelancing. You may have no income at all!

However, the reason why I don’t list income first is because your expenses will inform what your financial goals (and therefore your income) will be.

If your expenses are $3,000 monthly, you will probably be able to cut some variable expenses (such as groceries and utilities) and negotiate some fixed expenses down.

If your monthly expenses are $1,000, you are probably already at your bare minimum, and you can focus on increasing income.

Either way, your expenses set your benchmark for what to make each month. If you make more than your expenses, great! But you have a straightforward goal each month to make as much income as your expenses.

Your focus should be to reduce your expenses and focus on keeping a roof over your head, food in your fridge, and the lights on. This will enable you to continue working, continue applying to jobs, and make it to the next month to get that coveted job after graduation.

Remember that I round my expenses up to the nearest $10. I round instead of writing exact amounts because some expenses vary each month, and I also want to allocate extra money in my accounts as a “buffer” without consciously thinking about it. With is method, I had around $100-200 extra dollars left in my checking account after I paid all my expenses. Whenever any bill went through, I never had to worry about my account dipping below zero and charging me over-draft fees. If emergencies came up (which they did!) I also had extra cash on hand.

Also note that this budget solely covers your needs. I did not include entertainment or other discretionary spending. This is not the time to be enjoying cocktails at the bar. You need to focus on getting a college-level job.

2. Get A(nother) Part-time Job or Side Hustle

Speaking of making it to the next month, if you are not bringing in ANY income or you are not making enough to cover your needs, you need to get another source ASAP.

I worked for Instacart before and during the first few month of my first job after college. Working as an Instacart shopper was super flexible and convenient. I was paid minimum wage (plus tips) weekly and could select my availability each week. I received orders from people via an app on my smartphone and shopped their grocery list for them. In-store only shoppers like me are w-2 employees, and shoppers who deliver the groceries to customer’s homes are interdependent contractors.

If Instacart shopping is not your cuppa-tea, you can tutor local students or online, babysit, become a receptionist at a Spa or a business that gets a lot of traffic on the weekends, or become a barista at Starbucks. This list isn’t exhaustive. There are so many options out there for people who want to make a little extra money on the side.

There are also so many options for you to start a “side hustle.” This phrasing is a bit cliche, but starting a business or working a job in which you are technically an independent contractor is also a viable route for you if you have no post-grad job.

Driving for ride-sharing services such as Uber or Lyft, delivering food for Grubhub or Doordash, or delivering groceries for Instracart are all viable paths to make money every week.

Although it may seem tempting to try your hand at being a social media influencer, Amazon drop-shipping, or starting a blog like this one, these ventures are not as certain as the above examples with big companies who depend on your labor to effectuate their business model and will compensate you ASAP.

In the first half-month of putting in genuine effort into this blog, I made $0.00. That’s right. I’m coming up on my 5th week of working on this blog while running my freelance paralegal business full time and applying to law schools. For far I’ve made $0.28. Yup.

You read that correctly.

So if you currently aren’t making enough money, don’t buy into the hype of starting an online “business” because it will cost you more money than you will make and it will take you a long time to begin to make enough money to justify the time, effort and resources.

3. Get a Creative and/or Physical Hobby

Ok. This tip is for your mental and emotional health. You are already stressed out and are sending applications out for dozens of jobs every day. Trust me. I was there for seven months.

You may be tempted to sulk and stay inside, watching Netflix and YouTube videos all day. What’s even more tempting and destructive is browsing social media all day, looking at picture of all your friends and former classmates enjoy young adulthood and starting their high-profile careers.

But you need to pick up a solid hobby or two that either exercises your physical muscles or your creative muscles.

Physical exercise has been shown to have many benefits for one’s mental health and well-being. You cannot stay home, eat crappy food, and let your health deteriorate. You should either pick up a physical hobby that you already have a foundation in OR you can try something totally new that you’ve been curious about for a while!

Additionally, a creative hobby will not only keep you off social media and distract you from comparing yourself to other people who are adequately employed, but it will also allow you to create something tangible that you can be proud of.

Maybe you can post pictures of your drawings or share short stories that you write on fanfiction forums. If you don’t care to much about “keeping up with the Joneses” online, you will simply just have tangible reminders every day of your ability to get shit done.

You are not worthless because you haven’t found the job of your dreams or a job that pays $75,000 out of college. You are dynamic, intelligent, and worthy. Having a creative hobby will produce evidence of your potential everyday and will serve as positive reinforcement during this tough time.

4. Expand Your Job Search

Whatever you studied in college is too narrow of a field to contain yourself in right now. It doesn’t matter what it is and how broad and general your course of study may have been, believe me when I say it’s too narrow.

You have not found a job within that field. The interview requests may have stopped coming in, but the bills won’t.

You need to apply to anything that you can see yourself working in, even if it’s not your “dream job.” Your dream (or at least one of them, for now) is to become an attorney. Whatever job you are getting now should pay you handsomely, challenge you intellectually, and get you closer to your goals. It doesn’t have to be the goal in and of itself.

As I’ve said before, I applied to a variety of different position in many fields and finally landed on a paralegal potion with a small law firm. If I had only applied to jobs that were “health management” jobs, I would have never gained that practical first-hand experience of working in a law-firm, and I would’ve never know for certain what exactly attorneys do every day.

Because I broadened my horizons, I stumbled into a path that I never saw for myself but has ultimately been the best path for me. Everyday I’m grateful I didn’t affix myself to job only within my major.

At the end of the day, broadening my job search enabled me to get a higher-paying job quicker, to clarify my long-term goals, and to discovery that I actually enjoy being an entrepreneur over that steady twice-a-month paycheck.

5. Don’t Apply to Law School Out of Desperation

Ok. So this may not seem obvious or helpful, but hear me out!

If you are currently considering or planning to go to law school and eventually become an attorney, do not apply when you are underemployed.

You feel desperate right now. Your self esteem may have taken a hit. You are not in an optimal financial situation as is.

Why pay hundreds of dollars for the LSAT, LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS), and various school reports and application fees? You cannot afford it.

Also, Law School is a huge investment of your time, money, and effort. The average law school graduate has $134,600 in law school loans! Also, the majority of lawyers feel that their degree was not worth the cost.

You need to make this decision and commitment with a clear mind and with clear goals. This cannot happen when you are depressed or constantly stressed out from being underemployed. The long and grueling path of becoming an attorney in the US requires really solid reasons for why you are pursuing it, and discovering your “why” when you are not mentally or emotionally well is a recipe for disaster.

Applying now while you have a lot of free time and you’re not overwhelmed by a full-time position may seem ideal, but I disagree. You can definitely study for the LSAT, write your personal statement and other essays, and liaise with professors for your letters of recommendation during your underemployment. But you should not pull the trigger when you are not at your best and still choosing to “give that up” for the journey of becoming an attorney.

I hope these tips make sense and help you! Let me know how the job search is going and any other “hacks” that you are using to survive unemployment after college graduation.

See you around, OLers.