I'm a Harvard student, and I struggled to find a summer internship. I'm worried about my future in this tough job market.

• I’m a Harvard student who submitted 15 and prepared nearly 20 internship applications.
• I struggled to find a position for my coveted summer internship, often getting ghosted.
• While I now fortunately have an internship, albeit unpaid, I’m still worried about my future.

I am lucky to have an offer this summer, albeit unpaid. Given the realities of the current job market, it is no surprise that fellow Harvard students neglect the immediacy of their academic work at Harvard to pursue their chance at professional prosperity each summer. The stress of ensuring one’s job security in the current post-graduate space never fully dissipates.

I personally possess a grave fear of my long-term post-graduate unemployment. It isn’t unfounded. I recall watching two recent Harvard alumni I know cycle through literal hundreds of initial applications, interviews, ghosts, and rejections. They both eventually succeeded, but still, it entailed a situation of financial precarity.

So while the current labor moment presents us with a once-in-a-generation economic challenge, it does not mean that all of our looming postgraduate life is inherently soured by a single summer.