As a senior English major graduating in spring 2009, I recently began my job search hoping to get my name and resume out into the world while graduation is still in the distance. I’ve been lucky enough to have an internship with Painted Bride Quarterly literary magazine for the past year and to be a part of the Drexel Publishing Group and ASK. Definite resume boosters. But still the question in my mind still remains… what am I really qualified to do? And will it be enough to land me a job?

I’ve set my sights on obtaining a job in the publishing industry, and from my initial job research I’ve found that the most suitable job titles for me right now are assistant editor and associate publisher. Nine out of ten of these jobs are in NYC. And they are with MAJOR companies. I’m talking Random House, Penguin Group USA, Simon & Schuster. Can I really expect to even get an interview with these people?

After some initial panicking, I’ve realized that yes, I am good enough and I do meet the criteria for these positions. I think the most important part about starting a job search is having confidence in yourself. Other than the obvious steps of perfecting your resume, learning how to write a captivating cover letter, and getting good references, the rest is really up to you. 

So maybe it is only March and maybe I don’t graduate until June, but I think that for me, starting early and starting strong will end up with me landing that job. I needed to get over the initial hurdle of psyching myself out and not believing in my talents. I’ve found that conducting tons of job searches, sending my resume out to tons of people, and building up a knowledge of “what’s out there” has been a great start to what (hopefully) will be a fruitful job search.