PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

I created a résumé, but it seemed I had most of the same qualifications as everyone I just graduated with. Most of all, I didn’t even know what kinds of jobs existed in the field I was looking in. I didn’t even know what field to look in! ‘HEY, FISH, IF YOU WANT TO GET IN THE WATER, YOU NEED TO GROW LEGS AND WALK THERE’ I felt like a fish out of water, and everyone’s advice sounded to me like, “Hey, fish, if you want to get in the water, you need to grow legs and walk there.” FINDING A JOB AND FAILING I finally secured a job in May of my graduation year. I was excited. The

world was at my feet. Soon after grad uation, I started working, and it went … horribly. It was a terrible fit. Everything about it was awful. I ended up leaving that job feeling like a failure. I thought I’d never find a job again. At that point, I knew I wanted to change career paths. I knew I wanted to do something creative and meaningful and I really wanted there to be writing involved, but I still didn’t know what kind of job that would be. Again, I got the same well-meaning advice. I was back to being a fish flopping around thinking I’d never grow legs. But then one day, a nice pelican came along, figuratively scooped me up and threw me in the deep end. That pelican was my first boss in marketing. I didn’t have any experience in marketing, but he took a chance on

me. Even after months of working, I felt like at any moment he’d find out I wasn’t qualified. But he stuck with me, taught me more than I learned in school, and when I told him I found another job in marketing that was a better oppor tunity, he heartily congratulated me. Along the way, I’ve had a bit of luck, lots of great bosses, coworkers and supporters. In the end, it took all of those job tips coming together: a little bit of networking, straight-out asking people if there were any open jobs, and a unique résumé.

Katie Faley is a Peoria native — Notre Dame High, Class of 2013 — who moved away following college but returned with a fuller appreciation of her hometown. She works at OSF HealthCare

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