<figure><img src="https://i.insider.com/6ab3e67f265e3f8e338f6049?format=jpeg" height="2268" width="3024" alt="The writer is sitting at a desk with her feet propped up."><figcaption>Taking a job at my college after graduating was a strange and confusing experience, but worth it.<p class="copyright">Celia Krefter</p></figcaption></figure><ul class="summary-list"><li>After <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/couldnt-get-job-after-graduation-going-back-to-school-2026-5" data-autoaffiliated="false">graduating from college</a>, I wasn't ready to leave, so I applied for an admin job at my school.</li><li>I loved working there, but sometimes felt stuck in the past, jealous of other students.</li><li>Overall, the position helped me prepare for my next career step and feel ready to go out on my own.</li></ul><p>When I was in college in <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/living-in-new-york-city-different-than-visitin">New York City</a>, I loved the theater department so much that it became a punchline: my friends and I joked that after graduation, I would take a job there and stay forever. Little did we know that would actually become my reality.</p><p>After earning my degree in May 2022, I faced an uncertain job market in an industry still struggling to recover from the <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-graduation-walk-ruined-by-ai-2026-5">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, which had forced my hands-on theater program to transition to remote learning.</p><p>Even though I was beginning to build a freelance career in theater, I wanted a day job to offer some stability in an unpredictable field. So, when a job as the administrator of my college theater department opened up, I applied, and a yearslong joke came true.</p><p>On paper, it was the perfect position: stable, better-paying than a comparable administrative role at a commercial theater, with ample time off and the flexibility to freelance as a director and writer. Above all, it was something I loved doing — managing the operations of a place I knew inside and out, surrounded by colleagues who had been my teachers, mentors, and friends for years.</p><p>In reality, the job was so much more than that: It allowed me to retrace the footsteps of my college self in a way I never would've imagined.</p><h2 id="7403d0d6-9f9e-4e41-91af-22374b4b23be" data-toc-id="7403d0d6-9f9e-4e41-91af-22374b4b23be">The theater department became my lifeline, but after a while, it made me feel stuck in the past</h2><figure><img src="https://i.insider.com/6ab3e5cd265e3f8e338f6044?format=jpeg" height="2268" width="3024" alt="The writer is standing on the stage in a theater at Barnard College."><figcaption>When I was still a student, I felt like I hadn't received a full college experience, so I stayed.<p class="copyright">Celia Krefter</p></figcaption></figure><p>At the start of the pandemic, I was a sophomore in college. Like universities everywhere, we had to adjust to <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kid-online-school-while-traveling-the-world-working-well-worldschooling-2026-8">online learning</a>, with campus operations not "returning to normal" until the spring of 2021.</p><p>So, two years later, by the end of my senior year, as I started preparing to say goodbye to a place that had become a lifeline, I balked.</p><p>I thought it was unfair that half my undergraduate career had been in a virtual or hybrid format, and this sense of betrayal froze me in my tracks. So, because I felt I hadn't had a full <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/skills-every-student-should-learn-before-college-2026-7">college experience</a> and that I was unprepared to make the high-stakes choices required of graduates, I decided to stay.</p><p>There's a touching scene in <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barbie-monologue-america-ferrera-greta-gerwig-cried-2023-7">Greta Gerwig</a> and Noah Baumbach's film "Frances Ha," in which the titular character returns to her alma mater as a resident assistant for a summer program. Frances, expecting to fall back into the comfort of her old routine, shows up for a dance class only to be told it's just for students. It's a bittersweet moment in which she is forced to realize that, even if she doesn't feel like it, she has grown up.</p><p>I felt some version of this embarrassing alienation almost every day at work. Not only did I miss being a student in the department more than I was willing to admit, but I yearned for the experiences I never got to have. I couldn't help but feel jealous as new generations of students enjoyed field trips to theater productions around New York City, studied abroad, and took classes I would never get to take.</p><p>I watched each class of graduates displace me further from my own school days with a mixture of pride, melancholy, and envy that they were ready to inhabit the world beyond these halls.</p><p>Why couldn't I bring myself to do the same?</p><h2 id="0fbadff4-b10e-4881-a7c6-8139b0586b83" data-toc-id="0fbadff4-b10e-4881-a7c6-8139b0586b83">It took 4 more years, but I finally felt ready to leave</h2><figure><img src="https://i.insider.com/6ab40faf265e3f8e338f6219?format=jpeg" height="1688" width="2250" alt="The entrance to Minor Latham Playhouse, with open doors, a checkered floor, a red ladder, and large wall signage."><figcaption>Leaving this theater department felt like a second graduation, but this time I was ready to go out on my own.<p class="copyright">Kate Purdum</p></figcaption></figure><p>Despite these complicated feelings, I thrived in my job. The more I did, the more confident I became, until one day I looked around and realized that both my skill set and my confidence had grown beyond my circumstances.</p><p>I produced dozens of plays, elevated the visibility of our productions within the university and beyond, built lasting professional relationships with individuals I admire, and most importantly, helped students find their artistic voices.</p><p>In the end, forces outside my control dictated my exit, and after four years in the role, <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/accounting-salary-journey-pay-cut-2022-4">my job was eliminated</a> as part of restructuring. I was heartbroken — and almost immediately relieved.</p><p>Having this choice made for me was easier than making it for myself: I could leave the party while I was still having fun.</p><p>I had stayed for an additional four years, an entire college life-cycle, and in that time, the school and I had both changed.</p><p>I realized I had finally maximized what I could learn at the place that taught me most of what I know. This, I thought, is how people are supposed to feel at the end of college. It was time to use what I had learned without losing the fondness for the place I had loved as a student.</p><p>Leaving felt like a second graduation, except this time, I actually feel prepared to leave the world of higher education behind and pursue a career as a <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/freelance-writer-income-loss-family-10-jobs-side-work-2026-3">freelance writer</a> and director.</p><p>Without the sometimes messy, painful, wonderful experience I had in that job, I might never have felt prepared to make that leap.</p><div class="read-original">Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/took-job-at-college-after-graduating-strange-but-worth-it-2026-9">Business Insider</a></div>
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