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"With the school year over and summer officially underway, there&amp;#39;s a whole sea of college graduates looking for jobs. But as you may already know, half of all recent grads are either unemployed or underemployed\u2014so what does that mean for young adults looking to jumpstart their dream careers?\n\nSince her graduation last month, 22-year-old Lauren has found part-time work doing clerical tasks in an accounting office and waitressing in a restaurant while she waits for the chance to put her political science degree to use. For her, there&amp;#39;s an upside to working in an unrelated industry. &amp;quot;If I had my dream job right out of school, I would feel pressure to make it into a long-lasting career,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;But since I&amp;#39;m doing something I won&amp;#39;t do for the rest of my life, I can entertain options while I pay the rent. I could go to graduate school, I could move to Europe.&amp;quot;\n\nThough it&amp;#39;s important for recent grads to keep their options open, career coach Nicole Orisich warns against compromising in the long run. &amp;quot;The idea that your work life and your personal life are separate entities is the grandest illusion of them all,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;Thinking that spending a minimum of eight hours a day doing things you don&amp;#39;t like with people who don&amp;#39;t inspire you won&amp;#39;t influence the overall quality of your life is an invitation to create the exact life you don&amp;#39;t want.&amp;quot;\n\nDepending on your career of choice, the ideal first step may not be a job at all, but rather a post-grad internship. Twenty-one-year-old Julia just moved to New York City to be an unpaid summer intern at a magazine, with the support\u2014both financial and emotional\u2014of her parents. &amp;quot;I do feel guilty because I&amp;#39;m still asking them for things, but they understand that the job market is different now and how competitive industries are,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Doing unpaid work is part of the norm.&amp;quot;\n\nMany recent graduates see internships and service jobs as part of paying their dues, and New Jersey native Rosie muses that it&amp;#39;s all part of the bigger picture: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t think it&amp;#39;s realistic to wait for a dream job, because what is a dream job? Everything will have its drawbacks and frustrations, but I also believe that every position can teach you something new about yourself and reveal a new skill. There&amp;#39;s no one job that will guarantee happiness.&amp;quot;\n\nOrisich similarly warns clients who seek her career advice against putting all their eggs in the &amp;quot;dream job&amp;quot; basket. Instead, she recommends finding something that makes you happy. &amp;quot;Perfection is subjective and our definition of it will change just as everything in life does,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Finding your passion is less about what you love and more about why you love it. Choose jobs that enhance the why and you&amp;#39;ll be paid to be yourself.&amp;quot;\n\nWhat are your post-grad plans? Are you aiming high or starting somewhere smaller with the goal of building up? What is your ideal career, anyway? Tell us everything in the comments below!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/dream-job>