{"id":233642,"date":"2026-05-16T11:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233642\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:27:07","slug":"after-college-i-failed-to-land-a-nyc-job-and-became-a-barista","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233642\/","title":{"rendered":"After College, I Failed to Land a NYC Job and Became a Barista"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last May, as I walked across the stage of a New York City<\/a> theater to receive my college diploma, I wondered if I would be able to put my degree to use. Smiling toward where my visiting family sat, the thought crossed my mind: Would it be better if I just moved home?<\/p>\n

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Like many NYC graduates, I’m a California transplant<\/a>. In 2022, I moved from coast to coast with the dream of becoming a journalist. I pursued internships and roles with student newspapers. By the time graduation rolled around, I’d amassed a modest portfolio.<\/p>\n

I knew the job market was tough, but I was determined to put my education to work.<\/p>\n

My post-college job<\/a> search started months before graduation. Between attending classes and running around for my local news internship, I was writing cover letters, networking, and surfing the internet for job postings. As an undergrad student in New York City, I was familiar with the hustle, but around 50 job applications in, I still had zero promising leads.<\/p>\n

By graduation, I had to face the facts. I had a journalism degree, but no full-time journalism job on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The entry-level job apocalypse<\/p>\n

A recent report by the Center for an Urban Future<\/a> found that entry-level job postings in NYC have dropped 37.4% since 2022. <\/p>\n

As my graduation approached and job leads<\/a> kept going cold, I had to make a tough decision. Rent was due, and my internship had ended, so I revisited a trade that had supported me before: barista work.<\/p>\n

Nearly one year later, the part-time role I began out of necessity has continued to largely fund my housing, groceries, travel, and life.<\/p>\n

I say I’m a freelance journalist in NYC, but in reality, most of my working week is spent at a neighborhood coffee shop. My remaining time is spent picking up freelance journalism gigs, babysitting, and investing in my local church community<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why not just move home?<\/p>\n

Amid job applications and 5 a.m. alarms, there have been many times when I’ve wondered what’s keeping me in a place like NYC if I can’t get a journalism job. Why don’t I just move home?<\/p>\n

But there’s something that keeps people like me from returning home: the waiting, working, and wondering when it might be our turn.<\/p>\n

Between pouring latte art and taking orders at the register last week, my aspiring actor coworker and I talked about what keeps people like us here. She told me the story of “The Pitt<\/a>” star Patrick Ball, who had been auditioning and working survival jobs since 2013.<\/p>\n

On CBS Mornings<\/a>, Ball shared that prior to his audition for “The Pitt,” he was beginning to think that his on-screen break might never happen.<\/p>\n

“It was a self-tape just from my apartment, just like any other self-tape,” said Ball. “I’ve probably done like 1,000 of them over the last 10 years.”<\/p>\n

Since graduation, I’ve applied to over 150 jobs \u2014 nowhere near Ball’s 1,000 auditions \u2014 so I can relate to his sense that my “break” will never happen. And yet we keep pushing, hoping the break is just around the corner.<\/p>\n

Ten months have passed since graduation, and I’m still in NYC, longing, seeking, and wondering when I’ll find the next step in that dream of mine.<\/p>\n

Then something changed<\/p>\n

I recently received an offer for a full-time position<\/a> in another East Coast city in my desired field. I’m unsure whether the position will be my next step, but the opportunity to use my degree is stirring up a dream I’d begun to forget.<\/p>\n

This past year of multiple jobs has been a blessing in disguise. It’s brought me closer to the community and taught me to be content when things don’t go as planned.<\/p>\n

It’s brought me to a place where I can consider my career from a place of desire, not obligation.<\/p>\n

After all this time, receiving an offer felt like finding a version of myself that I have yet to know. I think it would be fun to find her out.<\/p>\n

I guess it’s just not the time to move home quite yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last May, as I walked across the stage of a New York City theater to receive my college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[59653,91656,91654,1531,91655,64538,19163,9,24,91658,56,63,65,91653,64,91657,15255,22489,91652,3442],"class_list":["post-233642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ball","tag-barista","tag-degree","tag-dream","tag-job-posting","tag-journalist","tag-month","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-next-step","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-job","tag-nyc-news","tag-on-screen-break","tag-place","tag-role","tag-time-graduation","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}