I graduated from college almost a year ago and still can’t find a full-time job, so I’m a barista.<\/p>\n
I often wonder if I should just leave New York and move home, giving up my career dreams.<\/p>\n
But I stay in hopes that my big break will come soon.<\/p>\n
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 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