Packaging Digest

Emilio Frattaruolo

Career options force difficult choices
October 2, 2007

As a senior here in the packaging program at RIT, I’ve been thinking about graduation and the job hunt that will follow it. This whole situation has made me a bit uncomfortable to be totally honest.

I suppose it’s the idea that unlike with my co-ops, a fulltime job is going to require a much larger amount of effort on my part. I don’t mean that I’ll have to do more work, but instead I mean that I will have to really calculate my moves so I make the best decision about where I want to work and where that can take me further down the line. A big part of me wants to stay local, which for me would require a job in the NY/NJ metro area. On the other hand I would love to move out west to California or down south to the Carolinas because if I don’t do it now, it’s just going to get harder to rationalize as the years go by.

I also need to consider what industry segment I want to be in. With my co-op experience it’s a no brainer that I’m going to focus my efforts toward the medical products and pharmaceutical industry. That’s all fine and dandy, but the bottom line is that I have yet to try anything else and there is a nagging desire to try out cosmetics, foods, or even packaging sales. Cosmetic and food products would certainly help me stay local, but I’m worried that if I go down that path I’ll be forced to live at home for at least a year before I can afford to comfortably move due to the high living costs associated with the NY/NJ metro areas.

As it stands, I think I’ll just end up applying to a wide variety of companies and keep my options open. In the end, I guess I really shouldn’t be complaining because with the job market the way it is I’m extremely lucky to even be able to consider so many different paths. I suppose the only problem I really have to deal now with is my inability to refrain from over-analyzing these types of decisions.

Posted by Emilio Frattaruolo on October 2, 2007 | Comments (3)