"3-5 years of relevant experience required"

Happy Thursday, everyone =] This week was technically the first full week of the semester, considering that last week we had MLK day and a snow day, and the week before classes didn't begin until Wednesday.  While my classes this semester require slightly less reading and assignments than the last, I have a 6th class this semester--job hunting.  I say that because of the time and effort it will take to find a job.  Luckily both Penn and GSE have a lot of available resources, and even just being here offers so many networking opportunities for careers in higher education.  Penn itself is huge, and there are a ton of colleges and universities in and around Philadelphia.  Since my family is in New Jersey, I'd really like to stay in the area.  That being said, I know that jobs are scarce, so I'm planning to start looking as soon as possible.  

I'd like to start my career in higher education by working in Admissions (this is starting to sound like my cover letter).  I would prefer graduate admissions, but I'm flexible.  I realize that I likely won't be able to choose both the region and the exact area in which I work.  To be honest, I'm really nervous about beginning my job search.  I graduated from college in 2012 and taught high school for a year before enrolling at Penn in Fall 2013.  My program is only a year, so I'll be looking for jobs with only 1 year of full-time professional experience and 10 months at my graduate assistantship.  I just got my resume critiqued at the Career Center this morning, and the woman told me that I have a good variety of experience.  She told me that I am "in a good place" to begin the job hunt (I wonder if a lot of career advisers have counseling degrees?) I'm just concerned about my amount of previous experience.  I worry that with a Master's degree at age 24, I'm overqualified and underexperienced.  Let's just say that those job descriptions that want at least 3-5 years of experience are keeping me awake at night!

Returning from Winter Break

Well, classes started again after a wonderful three and a half weeks of vacation.  I know this sounds crazy, but I am terrible at having time off.  I'm so used to being busy that when I do have time off I actually don't know what to do with myself.  I end up sleeping late and watching way too many shows on Netflix for a few days, and then I have to do something productive.  I actually went back to work a week early since the Admissions office was really busy.  I also ended up having to get my wisdom teeth removed, so that took up some time as well and allowed me to watch more Netflix, guilt-free.  Also, my family went to Disney World for Christmas which was a lot of fun, and I spent New Year's in Philly with my best friends.  Aside from the wisdom teeth, it was a pretty awesome break!  

This week has been amazing since we had off on Monday for MLK day and then had a snow day yesterday.  I know I was just "complaining" about having time off, but surprise snow days are always nice.  I got ahead in some of my classes, made dinner, cleaned my apartment, and even baked banana bread which is very uncharacteristic of me (I'm not great at cooking or baking, but I'm getting better).  I also updated my resume and started to work on a cover letter...ahhh, the job hunt is starting!  I'll write more about that in the next few weeks.  I also have some pictures to post from winter break!