What if you’ve got an MBA and student loans and no job? What’s a good career path to take at that point?
Temping, one might think, or maybe trying for an internship. Not Christina Mercado. According to a piece by Tyler Kingkade in the Huffington Post:
Mercado wanted to use her degree to pivot from project management to social enterprise. She knew it’d be difficult, but things had been looking promising prior to graduation. Mercado landed what she said was her “dream internship,” working at an environmental conservation nonprofit in Mexico.
However, once she graduated, she realized how few full-time jobs were available, and how much competition there was from other applicants.
And so she started to devote some of her spare time, when not applying for jobs, into writing a children’s book:
Mercado said she started painting as a way to relieve stress. In her paintings, she depicted herself in the character of “Bunny,” who appeared in episodes related to her job search, and the paintings started to make sense to her as a children’s book.
“There was a long-running personal joke between myself and my boyfriend, which I knew would translate well into a hilarious kids-type story,” Mercado said. “I like to say that ‘You Can Do It, Bunny!’ falls somewhere in between the ‘Berenstain Bears’ — life lessons books for kids — and that funny kids-style book for grownups, [like] ‘Go The F*** To Sleep.’”
Apparently Mercado eventually published the book, which you can see here. It’s really entertainingly, though it’s likely exactly the sort of book that only appeals to adults (what kids want to read about job hunting?).
“Creating this book has been one of my proudest accomplishments,” Mercado told Kingkade. “I really believe that if your basic needs are taken care of, there are other things to be proud of besides how much money you make.”
That’s certainly true, though it’s worth pointing out that, despite the MBA and the book, “Bunny” still doesn’t seem to have secured an actual job.
