In less than a year, I will be deemed worthy by my university of a Bachelors degree. In less than a year, I will be saying goodbye to the place I called home for the last 4 years. In less than a year, I will know where the next chapter of my life begins.

Unfortunately, I’m not there yet. I am really only left with one question that occupies my mind space as I write my cover letters and send off my applications:

Where am I going to end up after I graduate?

It’s a quite open ended question that has led my mind to wander to all sorts of possibilities and emotions — spanning from immense confidence in securing whichever job I choose to massive insecurity, expecting to be ghosted by all recruiters only for the typical automated emails of rejection to wash up on shore months after I send in my application. One company I applied to notifies you when they retrieve your application. I happened to get that email 30 seconds before their rejection email. That was a kick to the chest.

How common experiences like these are worry me a lot. They probably worry you too. However, they should not hinder you. The application process is a time consuming and frustrating process. No matter how many shortcuts you make to minimize your time spent in sending out applications, you still will spend hours making sure your applications are spotless. Most of your efforts will inevitably be in vein, but that’s the way of life. How you progress forward after successive failures is what really determines where you end up. There is one main thing I always try to remember when things look bleak.

So Many Others are Going Through This Too.

It really is as simple as that.

Machine Learning and Data Science are highly competitive fields and I mean _highly competitive fields. _It’s a typical day. You check out LinkedIn and see the newest opportunities available at well developed start-ups. One catches your eye in particular and you realize: _it was only posted 30 minutes ago! _You click on the listing to see what the job entails only to see “200+ applicants” listed below the company’s name.

It’s a frustrating cycle. You and I are going through it together, no matter how much it seems like a competition to get a job in the first place. Entrenching yourself in a competitive mindset can be good to push you forward through difficult times, however it may lead you to neglect how similar you are to everyone you are competing with. We are all on our paths to success and we will find it in due time. Securing a good job is not a zero-sum game, simply because there are so many good fits for you.

#job-hunting #job-application #data-science #machine-learning #deep learning