I finally finished my degree after the summer program and have my diploma and was wondering where I could borrow money while I look for a job? Job interviews are not cheap, especially if a flight is involved. While I was in school I worked for the school in a work-study program but now that's no longer an option.
My current situation is I had a full scholarship to the school so I have no student loans, which is why I'm very unfamiliar with this process. As I said above, I worked at the school and that was enough to pay for rent/food/books + save a little bit while I was studying. Now that I have my diploma I don't have a job lined up straight out of school (I'm in software so I did get did a couple of bad offers that I declined but I'm confident whatever loan I get I can pay back within a few months, either in full or monthly payments after a 3-4 month delay to get situated) so I was wondering what's a good place to borrow money for a few thousand dollars that I can pay back within half a year to a year so I can just focus on looking for a job.
I know many people in my situation go back to live with their parents until they get on their feet, but that's not really an option for me as they currently are back in Korea (I have a green card, if that's relevant) and I can't speak the language. I went to a decent school (top 15 ranked in US) and got good grades if that helps me at all convince whoever I need to convince that I can get a job and pay them back.
The big companies fly me out and house me in a hotel for interviews, but those in person interviews are hard to get. Normally, a single flight to california where the good jobs are runs a couple hundred dollars for me and I've had to decline all of them even from good companies because my savings can't really take a hit like that. The area I'm at doesn't really have great jobs for my field and even driving out of state for interviews is running my money low for gas and motel payments. I'd love to just fly over to Santa Clara and look for a job while living in a small apartment there while focusing only on finding the best job possible.
All the student loans websites are for people currently in school so I'm pretty stuck. Is there a way to get student loans and use it for the job hunt? Since I didn't take any federal student loans or from companies like sallie mae is it possible to still get money from them? I definitely don't need 20 or 30 thousand dollars, only a couple thousand to survive and print resumes for a couple months till I can find a good offer. I feel like I should be lower risk for them as I've already graduated in a field that's currently hiring quite well.
Thanks for reading, I honestly have no idea what to do about getting someone to lend me money at all since I've never been in this situation before. All the tips online are for auto loans and housing loans, never something like my current predicament. I know it sounds a little silly that I need loans for plane tickets and motel rooms.