More Money Podcast - 053 Special Episode - Money, University & Making It in the Real World - Sarah Moorhouse, my sister

Episode Date: June 22, 2016

For this special episode of the Mo' Money Podcast, I interview my younger sister Sarah about what it feels like to have just graduated university, how she managed her money during school and was able to avoid getting into student debt, and what her plans are now that she's a post-grad in the "real world." I also offer some helpful tips on things I learned when I was in my sister's shoes, like how best to search for a job, how much money to have saved up before moving out and how to keep focused without sweating the small stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello. Happy Wednesday. Hope you're enjoying your summer so far. It is crazy hot in Toronto, but getting used to it, I won't complain because the winters are terrible here. I know I wrapped season two of the Mo' Money podcast just a few weeks ago, but as I kind of said, as I kind of mentioned, I will kind of do a couple special episodes throughout the summer leading up to season three, which will be in September sometime. So recently, my younger sister, Sarah, visited me here in Toronto. She still lives in Vancouver, and she just graduated university. So while she was here, we thought it'd be kind of a fun idea to do my first ever Facebook live stream. I wanted to kind of see what the deal with that was. And so I chatted with her

for 30 minutes live, which is terrifying for this live stream. And we talked about her experience being a student, how she was able to manage her money and graduate debt-free, and what she has planned for her career now that she's a post-grad. And then I, of course, offer some of my tips now that I'm out of school, have been out of school for several years. And, well, I just turned 30, so I am a full-on adult for sure. So I wanted to offer her some bits of advice. And I also was able to share some piece of advice from some members of my Facebook group, the Money Life Balance Facebook group. Make sure to check that out at jessicamorehouse.com slash community. And yeah, they offered some really great tips that I think she's going to get a lot out of. So without further ado,

I want you to listen to our live stream together. It's a good time. I'm going to say we're sisters, so we're a bit kooky. I hope you enjoy it. And make sure to pop back into iTunes, check your phone regularly, because I'm going to have a few more of these summer special episodes throughout these next couple months. Hello. Hi. Hi.

First ever Facebook live stream. I'm Jessica Morehouse. This is my sister, Sarah Morehouse. Hi. And today she's visiting me from Vancouver and I live in Toronto and so I thought this would be a fun opportunity to have her chat with me because she just graduated university. We both went to Simon Fraser University. Me a little while ago. Just a few years. I'm Not that old. But Sarah just graduated.

Last week. Yeah, last week. So fresh post-grad. Yeah. Yeah. And so I wanted to kind of pick your brain about your experience in university in terms of personal finance, money, and then we'll kind of chat about some of the things that I'd like, some wisdom I'd like to hand off to you as you're going into your, you know, real life, the real life, the real world. So yeah, exactly. Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready to start? Okay. So first I'd like to know, I probably know the answer to this,

but I don't know if I've ever asked you this. Why did you decide to go to university right away instead of going to a college, which is cheaper or, you know, a technical college like BCIT or, or something like that? Why do you want to go to university right away instead of going to a college, which is cheaper, or, you know, a technical college like BCIT or something like that? Why do you want to go to university right away? I think when I was graduating high school, I knew I wanted to take a year off between whatever it was and school. So, I took a year off. I worked, got some experience, got some money. Yeah. But I kind of always knew I wanted to do university. I always knew I wanted a degree. I just didn't know what kind of studies I wanted to do. Yeah.

So that's why I took that year, figured it out, figured out that I wanted to go to SFU. Yeah. Because they have a really great arts program. Yeah. So, yeah, my degree is in film and art history. So yeah, I just knew I wanted a degree and I didn't want, I just wanted to go. You didn't want just like a certificate or diploma that would maybe make you have to go back to school to upgrade. You wanted a degree. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Um, that is interesting. Did you, cause I, I didn't take a year off. I

just went right to university and same with our older sister, Anna. She just went to university. Are you glad that you took a year off to kind of figure stuff out and also to save money? Cause that must have helped you pay for that first year of university. Yes. Um, probably like two weeks after I graduated high school, I got a job. Um, where did you work? I worked at RW and co for three months. Then I quit and then I got another job. Um, and I stayed at that job for about almost two years. What was that job? Um, beadworks. Yeah. Beadworks. Our older sister also worked there. It was so much fun. I love that job. Yeah. I mean, you learned how to make a lot of great jewelry. I did. And I learned how to fix jewelry, too. Yeah. Good skills. So, yeah, I just worked.

Yeah. And I made money, and then I... I don't remember your question. My question was, are you glad that you took the year off to take the time to really reflect on what you wanted to do? Because in high school, you didn't really know what your passion was, right? I didn't really know. Because I knew I didn't want to do what anna did um our older sister because she did english and she did biology and i was like i don't want to do bio no um you did a film degree and i love film but i i knew i didn't want to do production i wanted to do if there was anything that i could do where i studied film and film history. And then my degree popped up. I talked to advisors

and our mom's job really helped because she's a high school career advisor. And I chose that. And I was like, yeah, I love film. I love art history. And I was like, let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. All right. All right. Awesome. No, I think that's really helpful. I always, you know, especially me, you know, I went to university right away because I was really passionate about film and then I knew I specifically wanted to go to the SFU film program

because it was a very good program. But it's also one of those things, and not to scare you, but you may have to go back to school. I know. Or not have to, but you may want to go back to school. And only just because sometimes, you know,

once you finish university and you get into the workforce, you start working, you realize, maybe my original passion isn't my actual passion or I'm passionate about something else that will make me more money. Yeah. Which is something that I realized that, love film, but I really just didn't want to be

a starving artist or what I kind of envisioned, you know, my career would be if I followed that path. I just didn't want to be a starving artist or or what I kind of envisioned you know my career would be if I followed that path I just didn't want that lifestyle no yeah I I mean my degree I did it because I loved it and I learned a lot but I think the skills that I gained from it was um like communication communication writing um so many research research um So I know that I'll probably have to do more school, but it won't be another degree. No, and I don't think that's another thing, too. I feel like a lot of people that do go to university for a degree, they think that to go back to school means to get a master's degree. It doesn't necessarily mean that you can, you know,

for instance, for me, when me and Josh, my husband, moved to Toronto, and I realized I really want to get a job in digital marketing, really passionate about that. And I was self-taught. I went to University of Toronto's continuing studies program. So I just did a certificate program. It was three courses and it was done in less than a year. And it helped me get my current job. And I learned a lot of useful stuff. And so I didn't have to get another degree to upgrade my skills or to help me get another job to, you know, increase my salary and so forth.

And I could see myself doing that. I think, um, the next year I probably just want to focus on career finding a job. Yes. That is, you know, that's kind of important to just graduate. Finding a job is a good first step. So I'm kind of like need some time away from school. Yes, you do. I've learned for five years. Yeah. So, well, that's another that's another thing that I want to actually touch on because, you know, most people, they do their university degrees in four years. I also did a five year degree. You did a-year degree. Why did you do five years? For me, I didn't necessarily, it wasn't necessarily a choice. I just did a year in university and then I applied to be in the film program. The film program was four years. So there you was. There you go. I think also too, when I decided to take a year off, I got a lot of backlash from

friends and everything thinking that I would never go to school. And that was a little hard, but I always knew I would go to school. And so when I did go to school, I was like, I know I'm going to work. And I'd rather take three or four courses than take five courses and I can't work. And then you have to maybe take out a student loan and then you have to worry about that later. I didn't want to take out student loans. I wanted to pay as much as I could for school. And I did.

And it worked out. And she graduated debt-free, no student loan debt. You never had to get a student loan at all. Never. Yeah. To be fair, though, and props to my parents, they did help out my sister a little bit, but they did not pay for the entire degree.

And you also made smart choices. You did work a lot. You worked your entire way through your program. You didn't take more classes than you were required, which I think is a lot of, you know, kind of one of those things that some students kind of get trapped into. They're like, oh, that course sounds really interesting. I'll take it even though I don't need it to get my degree. It's like, yeah, that's nice, but that's like a thousand dollars or

whatever. So it was like 120 credit here. Bye. Where's my diploma? Fair enough. Fair enough. I was definitely, you know, the same way. I mean, I took a lot of interesting courses. Yeah. But they all counted. They all counted. Absolutely. And so, yeah, you kind of took your time and, you know, got help. And also another thing that we both did to save money was we both lived at home. So we both chose, you know, a good university, but it was also convenient because the university was very close to our parents house yes so we didn't have to pay to live on our own meals and i mean that helped a lot because um a ton it costs a lot of money to live on your own it does i think um i still i mean i pay from my car i have a car so i think in lieu of not living you know outside of yeah our house then um I still

had more expenses still but I still managed I still somehow well yeah let's let's get into that I'm interested how did you manage your money because for me I didn't really understand how I managed my money until I was living on my own and really had to, you know, figure out where did all my money go? So did you track your spending? Did you have a fair, like, how did you kind of budget or make sure you didn't, um, you know, run out of money basically? I didn't hardcore budget like Excel sheets and everything. You did or didn't? I didn't. Oh. Um, but I definitely knew where my money was going and how much of it I was spending because with, I would have to calculate how much I would save during summer breaks because I

would work even more. Yeah. And so I'd have to calculate how much. You'd basically work full time during the summer, right? Yes. Um, and so during school, I think I worked maybe like 15 to 22 hours a week. Yeah. And different jobs pay different things so i made different

things at different jobs but um i kind of just calculated how much i would need to pay for tuition how much i would need for books and then and then your bills and then my actual bills like phone car whatever what also helped was like with car insurance i just paid it all in one go so then but then you did you have to save up throughout the year so yeah yeah so i say yeah i saved up throughout the year it was just a lot of figuring out how much everything costs figuring out how much i make how much paycheck how much i make in each paycheck and then just being like okay i can't do that i can't go to this yeah so how did you know like if you couldn't afford oh i can't go shopping or i can't go out i kind of for i don't know why but i always had

like a number in my head of what my bank account couldn't go below okay that's good that's so um that's a nice buffer yeah i i knew i just didn't want it to go below a certain amount just in case I needed to pay for whatever that came up. Exactly. Yeah. And I just kind of figured it out that way. I mean, moving forward, it would be smarter if I did an Excel sheet. I'd probably be less stressed out. Well, you know what?

It's so funny that you bring this up. I have a budget spreadsheet for you. I know. If you guys want to download it for free go to jessicamorehouse.com slash budget okay that was my little advertisement for my little plug sorry guys i had to um okay so now uh you know you were able to get your degree you learned so much you have no debt now. You crossed that stage. I saw you throw up your hat and you're Snapchatting me.

And I felt very. Snapchat the whole day. Yeah, you did. It was very special. And I loved it. What are you thinking now? I mean, I know you're on vacation visiting me now. But, you know, vacation ends tomorrow.

I know. You have to go home now. I know. And what are your kind of plans? Like, what are you going to go home now and what are your kind of plans like what are you gonna do now like you're gonna just kind of hit the ground running and yes i mean i've already uh put like i've already started working on my resume i do currently have a job which um all the people there are really awesome but um it's time to move up it's time to find you want a career job so yeah um i've definitely been starting.

I've been already looking at jobs just to see kind of what they're, what they want from you. Yes. Um, cause lots of the skills that they require, you're like, I didn't even know that was a thing. So you need to, um, yeah, I've looked into, um, online court, online things. So like lynda.com, other things like that just to teach myself code academy yeah um there's lots of free and there's lots of those are free some of those are paid them are free lots of them are awesome and they're just good more skills to have so my plan is to pretty much have another part-time job of finding a job yep teach myself loads of things that will hopefully help me. But the field is marketing.

Oh, really? How crazy. Crazy. Okay. That kind of, I think, you know, based on what we just talked about, I kind of want to give you some of my tips of advice now. Okay. And then I will let you ask me any questions if you have any questions.

Okay. Okay. So you kind of mentioned, you know, now you're going to be on the job hunt. Yes. I've been on many job hunts. My biggest job hunt was when I moved to Toronto and I didn't know anybody, was totally unemployed, had no contacts here and wanted to try to figure stuff out. Yeah.

It was a bit crazy. It's been three years since that whole situation. So I can look back and be like, oh, wow, look at me now. This is, you know, I'm glad it kind of went through that experience yes but okay so here are some of my tips okay just remember them i'll write them down for you later if you guys want to write them down i don't know anyways okay tip number one is and this is something that i think i just came up on my own because i was applying to so many jobs because oh yeah it's a good one i was okay so my first one is to make an Excel spreadsheet.

We love Excel. I love Excel spreadsheet, I love spreadsheets. You make a spreadsheet and in each column I had like the company, the contact I emailed, then the date

that I sent my resume in. Also, I'd probably put the deadline where they'd say, oh, this is the latest you can send it to. I'd also put in like what

was the position and just any other kind of important details because honestly i was applying to so many jobs sometimes when i'd get a call i'd be like i don't know what job you're talking about i'd completely so but then i'm like uh-huh uh-huh and then i just like pull up the spreadsheet be like okay i know what they're talking about yeah it was that bad but then it was also great because then say you didn't hear from them or say you got your first interview, but then you didn't get the job or got a phone interview, but they didn't, whatever. Then I'd kind of color code them. So I knew what, you know, point in that kind of job that I, what level I got to. So did I, you know, get a call at all? And then I can kind of figure out from there, you know,

was it something with me? Were there some skills that I needed to kind of get? Or was it just like maybe it's just because I come from, you know, it was more I came from more of like the arts entertainment field beforehand or publishing. So maybe, you know, this insurance company didn't want me because it just didn't make sense to them or whatever. So that was definitely a very handy thing. No, that is very handy. Keeps you organized and then also once you do finally get the job that you can kind of look at your spreadsheet and look at how much work you did i'm pretty sure i applied to like 200 jobs and went on like 50 interviews what joy i have yeah it's for you to look forward to right and then honestly it's also

good because then you could also just see um you know from the beginning to kind of near the end you'll probably see that you're getting more interviews because probably because you've revised your resume you have more experience maybe or whatever and you'll also get better at interviewing yes uh which is you know a tough thing to be good at but you get better at it the more you do it that makes sense yeah exactly like anything yeah just like i think the more yeah yeah exactly exactly exactly so that's a big tip of mine um number two is also when you are applying for jobs before i used to always look at the deadline be like okay well i've got i can apply like the day before and then i'm good actually that deadline i think most of the time it's just an arbitrary deadline.

They want to hire someone as soon as possible because if they're looking for someone, it's costing them money not having someone. And also promoting that job on LinkedIn or whatever job or whatever. So they want to hire someone quickly because it costs them money. And so as soon as you see a posting, you're like, yes, that is for me.

I'm totally qualified. Apply for it. Okay. As soon as you see a posting and you're like, yes, that is for me, I'm totally qualified. Apply for it. Okay. As soon as possible. Tomorrow. As soon as. Tomorrow. On your flight home.

So that's also something very handy. Another thing is also just, yeah, do your research online for, especially if you aren't too used to doing interviews. Yeah. How to do it, how to do it how to answer some questions because lots of the questions that they ask are online because they googled it i'm not joking oh my god also another um really handy tip because you also want to find the job that's right for you you don't want to just take the first job that's offered to you

and again i've been on a lot of interviews a lot of bad interviews where i'm just like i want to leave right now. This is not not for me. But you can't be rude and be like, I'm going to go. You have to kind of, you know, go through the whole experience. But, you know, it's as much as they're interviewing them, you need to interview them. So you have to ask them important questions about, you know, what is your company culture? What's what kind of things could I expect in terms of like, you can ask about salary,

but usually they don't bring that up and kind of till like the later rounds of the interview, you know, benefits, you know, kind of find out more about them. And I think that's also shows that you are interested in. Oh, another really important thing. Okay, I've got two really important things I'm going to say before I forget and then we'll move on one is when you are doing your cover letter cover letter and resume make sure that there is no there are no grammatical errors no typos because i know for a fact that if you know hr or whoever is looking at your resume and they see something like that you're done you're going to the trash they don't have time for that because especially if you're uh applying for a job that's marketing and there's going to be a lot of writing a lot of attention to detail if they see something like that and you

send it to them it's it's embarrassing so make sure you go through that fine tooth comb also send it to a couple people you know friends family whatever me to look over so they can give you some feedback yeah um and the other one after that oh i knew i was gonna forget one of them nope i've just remembered okay the other one is if you interview with uh you know somebody and you really like the job make sure to send them a thank you email some people say thank you note like a physical note which i think is a bit much because it might take like a week to get there are you gonna hand deliver it yeah just send a nice email to say yeah you know thank you for your time we really appreciated it i'm really interested in the company blah blah blah so because also i do know that you know some companies will you know

maybe they really liked you as a candidate but you didn't send them a thank you email oh if you don't if you don't if they didn't get your thank you email they'll think that you're not interested and then they'll be like oh well i guess they don't want the job not joking so make sure to put that in your little checklist so much you're gonna be really busy when you get home yeah this really was vacation vacation is over yeah it is it is um okay so do you have any questions for me i do i do okay um i think now i mean i don't expect to move out for at least i wouldn't you live in vancouver don't expect to move out for at least. I wouldn't. You live in Vancouver.

Don't expect to move out. I know. And also don't like, don't put that pressure on yourself. I like, I'm glad I moved out when I, I mean, well, I can move out as soon as I would have liked to because I did, you know, have trouble finding a job right out of school. But make sure, say you do get a full-time job. I'd even say stay, if it's okay with mom and dad, to stay there for like a few extra months just to save as much money as you can so you can build up your emergency fund. So when you do move out, you're not like, I only have $100 in the bank. You have a couple thousand.

Yes. So that's my. Yeah, that's kind of one of my questions is how much should I be saving for when I move out? Like how, yeah. Like how and how much kind of thing so i don't have a necessary uh not an amount i mean dollar amount but what i would do is i would look at what your expenses will be when you move out so how much will rent be how much will your utilities be um and that would be like you know your energy cost your hot water whatever you know you have to pay for your cell phone um your car payments groceries clothes getting your hair cut you know just all these

little things that you don't realize until you move out you're like oh yeah i have to pay for that you know makeup yeah shampoo like so make a list of all these things which i also have a download for i have a moving out checklist um i think it's oh what is it at just go to jessicamorehouse.com and search moving out checklist it'll pop up there i made it for myself because i actually didn't know what i needed to move out because and i couldn't find anything on google so i made my own so you can find it if you want it yeah it's a legit complete list of everything you need for your house. So kind of look at that list. You don't need everything on the list to start.

And then I'd even just research how much those things cost. Okay. Add some of those things up. And then that'll kind of give you an idea. I mean, there's going to be a lot of things, especially when you're moving out and you don't have, you know, certain furniture, you're going to have to buy, you know, a queen size bed. So that's like a frame, box spring covers pillows sheets the fun train is over i know you're

gonna need a lamp you're gonna need hangers you're gonna need all these weird things that you never thought about so i think once you kind of figure out what you need find out what the costs are add and you'll have a number. Okay. Now, other question. Yes. So should I start? I'm in this weird place now where I don't have to save for school anymore. Yes. So what should I, should I just start saving now? Yes. Okay. Yeah. You should start saving now. Like, because right now you're in a great situation where you still have that part-time job so you can work there, save your money there. You're still living at mom and dad's. Your bills are very, very low. So save up as much money as you can.

So first you want to build up your emergency fund. My kind of safe number for me is I think when I first moved out it was $5,000 because that was still a big number to me. Now I always want to have $10,000 in savings in case something happens. I have cash. I don't have to go to a credit card and, you know, be screwed that way. Um, let's see what else, uh, what were we talking about? I lost my train of thought also. Um, what else, what should I be saving for? Oh, right. Um, I, so emergency fund is, is definitely, it should be your priority. After that, I would say, you know, maybe once you've kind of reached that number that you're comfortable with, then start to save for retirement. So this would be a great, I know it sounds early,

but this is actually, no, no, no, no. And seriously, all the experts say, and I'm a firm believer in it as well, the sooner that you start saving for retirement within like an rsp and you can also start saving within a tfsa uh start investing that money so it's not just cash okay um the better because you know if you start saving so much earlier yes then you'll the amount at the end of the day when you do retire will be that much bigger amazing yeah exactly so i'd say emergency fund first and start saving for retirement and then you can start saving for your different savings buckets. Just in like my budget, jessieboros.com slash budget. Like for me, annually, I put money away into my travel fund so I can afford all the trips I want.

Into a shopping fund. So it's basically I allow myself a certain amount of money that I can use for shopping, uh, for clothes and stuff like that. And then for other things that you may want to save up for, you know, a wedding, I had eventually, I had to save up money for me and Josh's wedding. Um, maybe you want to get a new car, um, or you have to fix your car. So there's lots of things that, uh, you'll have to start saving up for. Any other questions? If not, I have something really cool. Let's do that. I have a Facebook group, if you're not aware of.

It's called the Money Life Balance Facebook group. We chat every week. Every Monday, I kind of pose a new topic and we chat about it. This Monday, I asked everybody in the group if they had any tips for Sarah for her starting a new life in the real world. And I wanted to share some of them because they were really awesome. So I've got one from Joe and he says, don't stress out too much.

Getting it right the first time. You don't need to worry about getting it right the first time because you're not going to. You're not going to. And that's okay. That's okay. Especially in regards to career and income long gone are the days of pensions one career for life that's true i thinker yeah i mean you know from me and anna's experiences you know in the real world that's just not a thing yeah um keith says don't inflate uh your lifestyle yet drive the crappy car a little longer stick with the

roommates another while and uh root available funds towards savings so yeah basically a key thing too and i totally agree with this because this is something i did live like a student for as long as you can and that's what i did the first two three years yeah i moved out i lived as frugally as possible so i could save as much as i could and also i wasn't making that much of you know that much money yeah that's true i also worked two jobs another kind of suggestion i have if you can you know maybe if you do get a full-time job and there's a way that you can keep your current job to work on the weekends or whatever any extra extra money for the first couple of years is handy. It's not super fun, but you – my kind of motto in life is work hard when you're younger

and have the energy to do so so you can hopefully reap the rewards a little bit in the future. Okay, another one I've got from Alexis. Be open to all sorts of opportunities. Right now may be a good time to experiment. There are lots of internships available that can be a good time to experiment there are lots of internships available that can be accessed only when you're under 30 it's easier to do these kinds of things now uh when you don't own a house or have a child so i have been um thinking about doing internships i'm definitely open to anything really that's good that's good i know like yeah

yeah like that's that's really smart okay i got one more um from andrew he says uh love this topic try new things learn from setbacks and failures and never stop improving and learning also try to decide on what life you want and create your living around it well that's really that was deep andrew that was Yeah, I think that's, and that's something that will come, you know, as you're in your early 20s. And it'll, you know, make more sense as you kind of just, you know, start living your life on your own. I mean, it's hard to, you've been a student for so long. This may not have kind of crossed your mind. But once you do kind of start your own life, you will be kind of faced with these, what kind of life do I want?

What are my goals in life? What is the meaning of life? know things like that yeah i mean it's kind of weird just because for five years my goal was just okay let's graduate let's get this degree and now you and now that like when i walked across that's the day i graduated it's kind of like oh my god it's done it's done which is super exciting but then it's like oh my gosh my bubble's been popped yeah like my like i don't real life yeah it's kind of scary so um yeah so it's it's it's scary but um it's scary but here's the thing everyone before you has done it i know i know so it's it's scary because it's something new and you haven't done it before. And there's definitely always that fear of not doing it. Like for me, I was always afraid of not doing it right.

Failing, doing it the dumb way or the slow way or whatever. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Like as long as you just, yeah, kind of. I guess. Oh, I have another question. Oh, okay. Please.

Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. So I guess in lieu of who's Andrew's's quest andrew's little tip that was great um uh i guess yeah did you make a like goal list as soon as you graduated or did you have like timelines or i had yeah you know i had I first, um, um, finished university, my goals were definitely different than like, say a year after that, just cause, um, I got a job pretty quickly. It was a contract job for four months, but I thought I'd be able to get a job after that

quite a bit, you know, like that. And that wasn't the case. And so my goals really for that kind of period of time was, you know, I had a graduation film. And so my goal was just to get it into as many festivals as possible, get my name out there. And then, you know, see if I can get a full time job after this contract job and then move out of the house and start saving and then maybe, you know, make another movie. I think I actually, yeah, the first year that I moved out, I actually did apply for there's this program. What? What's going on? Oh, someone else is giving us a call now. We'll read that after.

Okay, we'll read you after, Jeremy. But I did apply for, there's a program called Crazy Eights. I remember. Yes, I have. And I did apply for it, and they were going to kind of help you produce your next short or whatever. I didn't, I got into like one of the last rounds, but then I didn't get in. And then I think after that, I think I started to kind of, my goals started to shift.

Me and Josh started getting more serious and we started talking about our future together, if we were going to move in together, get married and stuff like that. And, you know, I started really liking my job, which at the time was more in advertising, sales, marketing. And I'm like, maybe that's kind of the direction I want to go into. And then I also started my blog. And I started really liking kind of the digital marketing aspect, the writing aspect. And so my goals started shifting to, okay, so maybe I want to teach myself all of these

skills for a future in the digital marketing field, save up enough money so me and Josh can move in together. We can go on trips together and, you know, get married and we started saving for a wedding and stuff. And then, and then eventually we also, you know, our, everything shifted again when we decided that we wanted to move. True. So, I mean, I think you're, it's important to make goals now, but don't be annoyed or afraid if they change in like a year yeah um yeah because i just also back to graduation day yeah um i think i just so many moments just

kind of like light bulbs where when i was graduating and i realized how many other people were graduating just only that yeah time like i had a morning there was later afternoon but i was the last day of the entire week i realized like oh my gosh everyone else who's graduating is gonna look for jobs so you're like that's a lot of competition that's a lot of competition um how do i stand out i guess and that's yeah i mean uh maybe this will help you i don't know um i think what you can really do is, you know, just kind of like you said, start researching the jobs that are out there, seeing what skills that you lack and try to get those skills and maybe even make like do special projects or things

on your own time to prove that you have those skills. For me, it was starting a blog and I can show I know how to do social media and writing and all this other stuff. Doesn't mean you have to start a blog necessarily, but there's lots of different ways that you can prove that you have those skills okay let's see what jeremy's saying best advice i can give you is focus try to find your end goal find what you i don't have my glasses i know okay okay good find what you want and where you want to end up and keep at it don't get discouraged by what others are saying or doing i would also say yes because i already know people who somehow got jobs yeah before graduation that was just like me like i remember when graduating and people that i knew they're like oh i already have a job and i was like oh oh okay and then you kind of feel like but i thought you know but i did so good in school so

why does it take me so long to get a job yeah don't that shouldn't be a reflection on your worth your skill set or whatever sometimes it's just the luck of the draw and you or it's just like you haven't found that right job yet and I remember mom used to tell me that all the time it used to be so annoying when I was unemployed and living in the basement and I'm like yeah that's I don't care I just want a job yeah so I can move out of this basement and honestly she was right because then I got, you know, eventually after working that contract job for four months, I was unemployed for eight, then I eventually got a full-time job and it was the best experience.

I was there for three years. So, I mean, things work out how they're supposed to work out. Yes. No, I definitely agree. I definitely need to focus. That's good. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. If any of you have any other comments um please please let me know you can send me an email i definitely want to write about this experience and post this video we'll absolutely do an update when sarah gets a job or what's going on maybe when you visit in december we could do another live and hopefully that would be awesome fingers crossed everything will be good then but yeah make sure if you want to send me your questions, you can email me, Jessica at JessicaMorehouse.com or Facebook me or tweet me or whatever. But yeah.

I'm on Instagram and Twitter. Oh, look at that. Okay. I thought this was the Jessica show, but okay. Yes, please find Sarah Morehouse on Instagram and Twitter. No, Sarah J Morehouse. Okay, sorry. Sarah Morehouse, underscore Sarah Morehouse on Twitter.

Okay, fabulous. Oh, someone liked what I said. Okay, we're going to end this broadcast before Sarah's head explodes. So thank you for joining us. This has been a uber blast. Uber blast. Uber blast. thank you for joining us uh this has been a uber blast and uh uber blast and hopefully i'll do uh one of these uh again soon because this is a lot of fun and hope you all enjoy your evening cheers bye and thank you for listening to this summer special episode with me and my sister sarah

make sure if you want to make sure that you don't miss an episode and you know what's going on, I've got a lot of cool, exciting things coming up. So make sure to subscribe to my mailing list, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe, and you will be the first to know about some special announcements, some contents, other special episodes, and much, much more.

So thank you again for listening, and I will catch you later. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.