In what can seem like a world of uncertainty, life after college can be daunting but some University of Kentucky students have found their footing in their next chapters of success.
Dailynn Bates
For recent Integrated Strategic Communications (ISC) graduate Dailynn Bates, the goal of finding a job right out of college was a non-negotiable – so much so that she set a short deadline for herself – a job by August or move back home.
Within two months after graduation and a month before her lease was to end, Bates received a call for a job offer in the airport on her way to her sister’s bachelorette trip. Next thing she knew, she was accepting a position as a marketing and communication associate at Amteck, an electrical build and design company, for when she got back.
Bates said she originally didn’t think she would be pursuing a career in an electrical build and design company but quickly found out how close of a connection she had to the industry.
“My dad was a telecommunications technician, so he did fiber splicing like my whole life, and my grandpa owned a telecommunications company,” Bates said. “...I have a lot of family background in the electrical build and design business… and I didn't realize how much I knew about it and how much I actually enjoyed being in a blue-collar industry.”
Nonetheless, it was far from a stress-free process for Bates. After applying and interviewing for nearly 90 jobs since January, Bates said there were many moments when discouragement settled in and she found herself in front of her laptop crying.
“I was very stressed out... my whole mindset was ‘I just keep getting rejected, I just keep being rejected’, and I'm so thankful I got rejected from those places, because I love my job,” Bates said. “I honestly think that I ended up where I was supposed to be, and I think those jobs passed on me because I needed to be at Amteck.”
After only four months, Bates said she has been able to see a direct impact in the job she’s doing, continuously growing into a better version of herself and finding new ways to make the work day exciting.
“I’m doing the elf on the shelf right now, and our CEO called me and he was like ‘Daily, I just want you to know you are just making this place so fun,’ because they’ve never had an elf on the shelf,” Bates said.
In addition to getting the office in the holiday season, Bates has also started a new birthday card tradition that is signed by roughly 80 coworkers within their office and takes her around an hour and a half to get to each person’s desk. Bates said since she started it, she can’t stop now.
Bates is also responsible for creating newsletters, reaching out for content from other offices and managers, editing videos, scheduling posts and even being on job sites – a much different lifestyle than the one she lived in college but isn’t missing.
“I think my best is coming and that's gonna happen when I'm more financially able… there’s more to look forward to,” Bates said. “You enjoy life a lot more, that is what I have realized. I’m not coming home and doing homework – I’m not coming home and worrying about what’s due the next day – when I leave work, I leave work.”
Despite being able to leave work when she clocks out for the day, Bates said the initial transition of creating a routine outside of the office was troubling as she felt like she was wasting the rest of her day. Her solution – setting mini tasks and exploring Lexington in a new light with her roommate Mya Myrdal.
“We try to find something new each week to do, cause we're trying to explore Lexington post-grad,” Bates said. “So, not like the Lexington we know from college. We want to experience the Lexington that adults that live here know.”
While Bates may still be learning how to see the city as a true Lexitonian rather than a Wildcat, she’s quickly began to enjoy life much more and has found a new community of her very own at Amteck.
Brett Larson
After four years at the University of Kentucky, Brett Larson walked across the stage at Rupp Arena in May graduating with double majors in accounting and finance and a minor in business analytics. Today, he lives at home studying for his next degree.
What he says feels as though it is “studying for finals but every week,” Larson averages nine hours at his desk a day. He often only leaves to work out or eat dinner all in preparation to become a certified public accountant (CPA) and achieve his Masters of Science in Management at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“I’ve never been one to be satisfied… I always need something to one-up myself almost,” Larson said. “I can't just sit here and be like ‘yeah I’m content with where I’m at.’ I need to continue to feel like I’m growing.”
With some influence from his older brother and an eagerness to challenge himself, Larson said he decided to add an accounting major and minor in business analytics to his finance degree during his sophomore year at UK. Shortly thereafter, he landed an internship the following summer as an accounting clerk.
“I was basically doing first-year work as a sophomore, going to be a junior in college, and so it kind of gave me a little bit more insight about what accounting is,” Larson said. “It wasn’t anything intense either, which was kind of nice, like an introduction to the corporate world a little bit, and I was able to work from home as well.”
The following summer, Larson secured an internship with Coca-Cola as a fixed-asset intern within their general-ledger department after four rounds of interviews and having applied to roughly 120 other internships.
“You gotta keep going…it’s hit or miss. You just keep firing until something hits,” Larson said. “And so I kept doing that, and then I landed Coca-Cola.”
Yet, Larson didn’t stop there. Amidst studying for his Masters, Larson decided to try for a third internship after he graduated and spent the summer of 2024 interning with PwC. He said it was with some luck involved that he got the internship after only submitting a single application, that being to PwC, and has recently accepted a job as an assurance associate at their Chicago office starting in the Fall of 2025.
“I think a big takeaway to anyone that's in college, or younger even, or even out of college, struggling to find a job or something, is (that) there’s going to be luck involved with any job that you really land,” Larson said. “There comes a point where it’s luck, but you have to set yourself up to get lucky, right?”
Larson added it’s not just about the end product but the relentless work that’s being put in along the way to achieve the desired end goal, including persevering through the tougher moments in which case “that's just the story of life.”
Except, even through his successes Larson has learned the importance of finding balance in his life, especially when to say no.
“You have to be comfortable with saying no when it makes sense, so that’s up to everyone’s interpretation,” Larson said. “But if you’re really busy or you have a bunch of work to do, you need to say no. That’s just the reality of it, and that’s just staying disciplined to that (and) staying disciplined to yourself.”
It’s with such discipline that Larson’s realized there won’t always be someone to pat you on the back, so at times you must stand back and see how far you’ve come – to look at the small wins, but never become complacent.
Molly Demrow
From small town Liberty to big city Lexington, UK student Molly Demrow has found herself a second home after college through broadcast journalism.
She graduated with a class of 150 students her senior year of high school and will be graduating in less than a month with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the biggest college in Kentucky and starting her job as a news producer just roughly three weeks thereafter.
It is thanks to a mass email from the College of Information that Demrow said she saw an internship posting for LEX18 to which she applied for and was later accepted as their 2023 summer news intern, which eventually evolved into her postgraduate career.
“After my internship, I did really, really, really want to work there, but they actually had told me that they would love to have me full-time, but they wouldn’t have any positions open,” Demrow said. “And by some miracle, they did, and I ended up getting that position.”
With the intent to stay close to her family and pursue a job she’s been wanting to for four years, Demrow said Lexington has been able to provide her with what she’s been looking for and has been fortunate enough to enjoy during her undergraduate studies.
As she is finishing her last semester at UK, Demrow is working at her second undergraduate internship at Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and is an active member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority while also being enrolled in classes. Nonetheless, it’s a schedule she’s mastered but one she’s fearful to change as she begins the rest of her life.
With unsaid hours for her new job, Demrow said she doesn't know what her routine will look like, one she’ll have to grasp while still living in her college apartment with 3 other roommates still on the lease.
Regardless of the challenges she may face, Demrow said there have already been moments from her high school and college journalism career that have motivated her and helped remind her of what the profession can hold.
“In high school, I mean we didn’t really take it seriously, so I definitely would say I made so many memories, and it was just kind of fun cause we just did silly stories like ‘oh what are your plans for spring break,’ and made a fun story out of that or like ‘who’s going to ask out who for Valentine’s Day’… I was like, ‘I can make this so fun, this can be something I do in the future but fun,’ and I always have those memories to go back on…”
Aside from her early start within journalism, Demrow expressed gratitude towards some of the experiences she had through her classes that included Big Blue Banter, Wildcat News and even having the opportunity to work with SEC Network and learn about sports broadcasting. It’s through such knowledge that Demrow is now able to start doing what she loves for the rest of her life – broadcast journalism.
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