I graduated from Stanford and couldn’t find a job, so I created my own. I turned it into a six-figure business.

• During my senior year at Stanford, I started looking for a job but did not receive a full-time offer.

• I was disappointed because I felt overqualified, but I wasn’t even getting an interview.

• I started my own PR business, which has since grown into six figures.

I started applying for jobs during the first week of my senior year. Stanford UniversityI assume I’ll have something set up by graduation, if not sooner. I was surrounded by friends who were getting into finance and consulting, where hiring started early and offers were secured months, sometimes years, in advance.

Although I am not part of the traditional corporate communications pipeline, I spent my college years making advances in this field. Silicon Valleymanaging marketing for new ventures.

For nine months, I tracked every application in a spreadsheet. Over time, I simplified the topic by deleting the “Second Round Interview” column. I didn’t even make it to the first round. Most of the time there were no updates.

When I graduated in 2025, I still didn’t have a diploma. full time job offer.

I had experience but it wasn’t much

When I heard back, I saw that this was not for full-time roles; It was for internship. someone came alumni orientation. Another was in a field unrelated to my experience.

What made the situation even more frustrating was how qualified I felt, perhaps even overqualified.

I started marketing at the age of 15, helping local small businesses. At university, this work evolved into roles at tech companies, often taking 30 to 40 hours a week on top of my classes. After graduation, I had seven years of experience.

When I was a sophomore, I switched from engineering to English and linguistics. Mastering language and expression has made me a better marketer. But as a senior, I began to worry that I might end up as the stereotypical unemployed person. English department.

I was a financial aid student who didn’t want to be a burden to my family after graduation. I found myself thinking about roles that would only prolong the quest I was trying to complete.

The job market was different than I expected

At highly competitive universities like Stanford, many students intern every summer in the hope that it will lead to full-time offers. I followed that path.

But when I started applying, the path seemed to lead to an abyss rather than the golden gates of adulthood.

In 2025, I wasn’t just competing with other graduates. I was up against recent candidates. dismissed. Many of my target industries were slowing down hiring or cutting roles entirely.

I started doing every job I could find

As graduation approached, I started saving everything I could.

A professor of mine asked me to help run the book campaign. I told him that I had never worked in publishing or magazine publishing. public relationsbut I still said yes.

Around the same time, I began assisting a journalist through my school’s alumni network, editing his articles, pitching stories, and managing his newsletter.

Even in the midst of my own misery, I could see the difference my work was making. Even though it made less money than I was used to, it was exciting.

I turned this into my own business

Three weeks before graduation, after being rejected for a minimum-wage internship that took me through three rounds of interviews, I created my own role: publicist and founder of Punctuation PR.

I submitted my documents while finishing my thesis. start LLC. I created a website. I told my parents that rather than remain unemployed in an uncertain economy, I would start a marketing and promotion agency for writers. The return on my efforts will be more under my control.

They were unexpectedly supportive. My mother told me that she was proud that I had created not only a job for myself, but also something that could one day create jobs for others.

The day after graduation, I drove from the Bay Area. Los Angeles and started working full time from a barely opened apartment.

I turned my side projects into clients and cold-emailed academics and writers. I wrote contracts, set up billing, and raised my rates.

Recommendations came. One project led to another.

I have a full time income

For the first few months I lived paycheck to paycheck. When I couldn’t pay my credit card, I sold my clothes and furniture. I was often working more than 12 hours a day.

Within six months, I was earning more than the entry-level positions I applied for.

In early 2026, Punctuation PR, six figure job. I’ve worked with more than a dozen clients, built relationships with publishers and media organizations, and helped my books reach hundreds of thousands of new readers.

What started as a temporary measure has become my full-time income.

Changed the way I think about work

I used to believe that graduation and similar milestones followed a kind of ideal inertia: Once success was set in motion, it would naturally continue uninterrupted.

In reality, life consists of a series of unbalanced forces. You change your speed and direction. In 2026, institutions that once felt stable now seem much less secure to many.

Starting a business is still one of the riskiest things a person can do. I hope to grow my company from six figures to seven figures in the coming years. There’s no guarantee I’ll do it, but there’s also no guarantee I won’t.

It’s up to me to decide.

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