You just fulfilled your dream of being ordained a rabbi. Now try finding a job.
Lynn Harris reports for Tablet:
Having joined the ranks of the underemployed this spring, Dalia Samansky, 30, found herself trolling Craigslist for jobs in sales or marketing, maybe private-school teaching. “I got one interview, but most didn’t even respond,” she said. “I just sent lots and lots of resumes.” Samansky was frustrated—after all, she has five years of grad school under her belt—but not surprised. “It was a complete long shot,” she says. “The only thing I’m qualified to be is a rabbi.”
Samansky is one of 15 students who graduated in May from the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform movement’s seminary. At ordination, fewer than half of her classmates had jobs. On that day, a stirring sense of calling prevailed, she and her classmates say. But then, diploma in hand, it was back to reality. “I really felt like I was going to spend the next year or two filling time, just making enough money to pay student loans, health care, day care,” said Samansky, who has a 15-month-old daughter.
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