AlumAvenue: Interview With Sam Land

Courtesy of Pinterest - SUNY Purchase
 Courtesy of Pinterest - SUNY Purchase
 Gabrielle Alexandra Smith  

“We are just bodies meant to participate in the workforce and continue our capitalist system. Society does not care about graduates as people, but as workers.”- Sam Land  Recently, Sam Land graduated in the class of 2017 as a Liberal Studies major from State University of New York at Purchase, also known as SUNY Purchase. Land was happy to sit down with AlumAvenue to tell us about his post-graduation life.


College graduates are always pressured, not only from themselves, but from the others around them. Everyone is anxious to learn a recent grad’s next step in life. This is especially true when so many of them aren’t landing jobs in their field of study.
New York native Land interned at a few places on his previous campus and experienced how it would be working in politics. As an aspiring male working in the field of politics, Land is still striving to find a job in the field. Let’s find out his viewpoints about life as a post-graduate.

Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Hello, how are you Sam?
Land: Good
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: How does it feel to not be sitting in a college professor’s classroom?
Sam Land: On one level, it is a relief to not have to deal with college exams and papers, but on another level, that kind of anxiety is replaced with anxiety of finding a job and studying for the GRE.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: What university did you attend? Do you feel your undergraduate education prepared you for the post-graduate anxiety?
Sam Land: SUNY Purchase and yea.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: How did SUNY Purchase prepare you if you are currently experiencing the anxiety of unemployment in your field of choice?
Sam Land: I think anyone graduating from any college would have that same anxiety. This kind of pressure isn’t easy to prepare for, it just kind of happens.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Would you say that a person that does several internships in college will experience your same level of anxiety after they graduate?
Sam Land: I can’t be certain. Everyone is different. But in terms of post-graduation anxiety, it’s not how many internships you had or how prepared you feel about post graduate life. The period after graduation is just filled with uncertainty, which produces stress and anxiety.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Okay. If SUNY Purchase would have sponsored events focused on post-graduation, how do you think it would have made your anxiety different? Can you tell me your major?
Sam Land: I can’t say. It would depend on what those events would be, how Purchase marketed those events to students, and if I as a student would be interested in attending those events. I was a liberal studies major.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Did you declare your major as a freshman? Let’s say Purchase features career networking opportunities after graduation and provided you with an after college, six-month advisor?
Sam Land: When I was a freshman, I was declared as a psych major, but I changed to liberal studies in my junior year. Events like those may have made a difference.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: So, would you blame your alma mater SUNY Purchase for not having these programs to make a difference? Do you think because you switched majors, it’s now making an impact on your direction in life after graduation?
Sam Land: To be honest the career development center might have offered those kinds of events. I don’t know for sure. That’s on me and switching majors was a necessary decision at the time.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: So, your lack of career awareness is why your anxiety has peaked? Also, as soon as you walked across the stage at graduation, how soon did the anxiety kick in?
Sam Land: The anxiety spiked at the beginning of this September, around the time returning students were returning to Purchase. The anxiety is more than just not having a job yet. For the past 4 years my life, I had a certain structure that revolved around school and now that school is over there is just this feeling of emptiness.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Hmm. What are you currently doing to feel this void?
Sam Land: I don’t really have an answer for that. I think it’s just something that’s gonna be there until eventually I forget about it.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Will this void distract you from finding a job in your field?
Sam Land: No probably not. If anything, it might inspire me to go out and get a job to fill the void.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Are you affiliated with any programs to help you?
Sam Land: Nope.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Did you have any internships?
Sam Land: Yeah, I interned at the Purchase chapter of NYPIRG.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Then, why is it hard for you to find a job?
Sam Land: And as a PSGA senator and because I haven’t started looking yet.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: So, would you admit that your laziness is yielding you from having a job in your field? What is your dream job?
Sam Land: No, I would not say that. I will look for one when I’m ready. I hope to be in the field of politics.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: What ways are you going to look for employment?
Sam Land: Indeed mostly.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Have you applied for any job since graduating from college?
Sam Land: So far just one.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Okay. Can you describe how society treats post-graduate students?
Sam Land: Well adults love to congratulate me when they hear I have graduated. And of course, the follow-up questions that always follow are “Are you looking for jobs?” and “Are you gonna go to grad school?” To society on the long-term side of things we are just bodies meant to participate in the workforce and continue our capitalist system. Society does not care about graduates as people, but as workers.

Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: How long did it take you to form this viewpoint?
Sam Land: I’m not sure. I kind of always had it.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Since you were a child?
Sam Land: For most of my adult life.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: As a child did you think life after graduating would be difficult?
Sam Land: I never thought about graduating as a child. Not that I didn’t expect to do it, my only thoughts about that at the time were this will happen one day.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Do you feel pressure to find something fast before you get labeled as “the college graduate who wasted their government’s and their parent’s money?”
Sam Land: A little bit. But I still have some time before that label appears, so that’s cool.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: How can you be sure that you won’t become a part of that percentage that is not working in their career field?
Sam Land: I’m not sure. But the future is in the future. There will be plenty of time to worry then.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Do you have any regrets about anything you should have done in college that would have helped you in life after graduating college?
Sam Land: I wish I did more with my summers. It was only in my junior year when I realized I needed to do something besides wait and wait for school to start again.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Do you feel that is why you are so far unsuccessful with not having a job yet?
Sam Land: No.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: You think time is all you need?
Sam Land: Yea.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: As a class of 2017 graduate, are you still new to the post-graduate arena?
Sam Land: Yea.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: Do you have any advice for any college student who will soon become a part of the arena or any advice to post-graduates?
Sam Land: Don’t be in a rush.
Gabrielle Alexandra Smith: I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. Thank you, Sam.
Sam Land: No problem.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

POPULAR ON GREEKRANK

Didn't find your school?Request for your school to be featured on GreekRank.