The road less traveled: Avoiding the i-banking shadow toughens job hunt

For the past few years, I thought a job search was only something other people did. During the first three years of my Princeton career, planning for the future consisted of deciding my major, poring over the course catalogue and setting up work or travel for the summer. Even this year, while my fellow seniors were researching brokerage houses and suiting up for consulting interviews, I spent my time completing law school applications.

A funny thing happened on the way to perpetual scholarship. Sometime around the middle of the academic year, I decided that I wanted to take a year off to work before continuing my education. Excited about taking advantage of a rare period of almost total freedom and absence of competing commitments, I readied myself to charge out into the real world. And then I realized I hadn't the foggiest idea how to do it.

The traditional Princeton path to career-hood is well-trod and thus easy to find. Consulting firms, financial institutions and other corporations descend on the career fairs armed with goodie bags and interview slots. Applying to any number of these jobs can be as easy as clicking a cover letter and resume into cyberspace.

I, however, wanted to spend my year doing something a little less traditional and, if possible, using some skills I sharpened in Robertson's Great White Toolshed. I learned that finding alternative employment is more difficult and less direct than business-as-usual jobs. But armed with a few simple strategies as well as patience and persistence, one finds that the alternative job search can be rewarding.

In public affairs or the new Internet economy, the jobs will not likely come to you. In general, government offices, think tanks and advocacy groups do not spend time on campuses recruiting. Staffs at those institutions are small, and while employee turnover is high, it is often irregular.

For this reason, job-seekers like me have to take the shotgun approach to employment — simultaneously firing cover letters, resumes, e-mails and phone calls in as many directions as possible. Moreover, you should not be satisfied after speaking with someone at one of these offices only once — bother them at least until they give you no for an answer. Of course, taking the time to customize each cover letter and to contact the right person in an office can save you a lot of time and keep you from looking foolish.

While one is shaking the employment trees in public affairs or among smaller businesses and startups, it makes sense to exploit any network connection available, no matter how unlikely success may seem. Whether it is scouring TigerNet for alumni contacts or asking friends for ideas, finding one lead can open the door to many. One friend put me in contact with an alum she ate breakfast with three months ago, and I am now talking with the alum's friend whose father is starting a charity. Similarly, I found another promising lead after remembering that another friend had done research for an exciting startup last summer. I added him to my contact list.

I have not yet finalized employment for next year, but I am excited about a few opportunities in the works. There is no single way to find an off-the-beaten-path job. You have to dig around and be persistent, creative and optimistic.

After four years on the solid grounds of Princeton, teetering without a net over the brink of an unknown future can be a little unsettling. Accompanying that vertigo, however, is the excitement of seeking your own destination, the enjoyment of finally getting there and the satisfaction of coming many steps closer to being, of all things, grownup.

Princeton students who want to work after graduation — but not for the usual suspects at the career fair — should not be discouraged by the mysterious and unpredictable nature of finding other forms of employment. As my investment banker friends will tell you, well-managed risk can bring great rewards.