The author started her own business after struggling to find a full-time job.Courtesy of Dani HamlettIn my senior year at Stanford, I began my job search but couldn't secure a full-time offer.I was frustrated because I felt overqualified, yet I wasn't even getting interviews.I started my own PR business, which has since made six figures.I started applying for jobs in the first week of my senior year at Stanford University, assuming I would have something lined up by graduation, if not sooner. I was surrounded by friends entering finance and consulting, where recruiting begins early and offers are secured months, sometimes years, in advance.While I wasn't part of a traditional corporate pipeline, I had spent my college years building inroads in Silicon Valley, managing marketing for hot startups.For nine months, I tracked every application in a spreadsheet.

Over time, I simplified it, deleting the "Second Round Interview" column. I wasn't even making it to the first round. Most of the time, there was no update at all.By graduation in 2025, I still didn't have a full-time job offer.I had experience, but it didn't seem to countWhen I did hear back, it wasn't for full-time roles; it was for internships.

One came through an alumni referral. Another was in a field unrelated to my experience.What made the situation more frustrating was how well-qualified —perhaps even overqualified — I felt.I started doing marketing work at 15, helping local small businesses. In college, that work expanded into roles at tech companies, often taking up 30 to 40 hours a week alongside my classes.

By graduation, I had seven years of experience.As a sophomore, I switched from engineering to English and linguistics. Mastery of language and narrative made me a better marketer. But as a senior, I began to worry I might end up as the stereotypical unemployed English major.I was a financial aid student who didn't want to burden my parents after graduation.

I found myself considering roles that would only prolong the search I was trying to finish.The job market felt different from what I expectedAt highly competitive universities like Stanford, most students spend every summer interning, expecting it to lead to full-time offers. I followed that path.But when I started applying, the road seemed to lead to a cliff rather than the golden gates of adulthood.In 2025, I wasn't just competing with other graduates. I was up against candidates who had recently been laid off.

Many of my target industries were slowing hiring or cutting roles entirely.I started taking on whatever work I could findWith graduation approaching, I started saving whatever I could.A professor of mine asked me to help run her book campaign. I told her I had never worked in publishing or in public relations, but I said yes anyway.Around the same time, I began assisting a journalist through my school's alumni network, editing her writing, pitching stories, and managing her newsletter.Even in the midst of my own misery, I could see the difference my work made. It was exciting, even if it paid less than I was used to.I turned that work into my own businessThree weeks before graduation, after being rejected from a minimum-wage internship I had gone through three rounds of interviews for, I created my own role: publicist and founder of Punctuation PR.While finishing my thesis, I filed paperwork to start an LLC.

I built a website. I told my parents that instead of staying unemployed in an uncertain economy, I was starting a marketing and publicity agency for writers. The return on my effort would be more within my control.They were unexpectedly supportive.

My mom told me she was proud — not just because I was creating a job for myself, but because I was building something that could one day create jobs for others.The day after graduation, I drove from the Bay Area to Los Angeles and started working full-time from a barely unpacked apartment.I turned my side projects into clients and cold emailed academics and authors. I wrote contracts, set up billing, and raised my rates.Referrals came in. One project led to another.It became my full-time incomeFor the first few months, I lived paycheck to paycheck.

When I couldn't pay off my credit card, I sold my clothes and furniture. I often worked more than 12 hours a day.Within six months, I was earning more than the entry-level roles I had been applying for.In early 2026, Punctuation PR became a six-figure business. I had worked with over a dozen clients, built relationships with publishers and media outlets, and helped my books reach hundreds of thousands of new readers.What began as a stopgap became my full-time income.It changed how I think about workI used to believe that graduating — and similar milestones — followed a sort of ideal inertia: once success was in motion, it would naturally continue, uninterrupted.In reality, life is a series of unbalanced forces.

You change speed and direction. In 2026, the institutions that once felt sta