Recent College Grads Suffer in Job Search

On May 10th, 2008 I walked across the stage at the Lloyd Noble Center along with about a thousand or more of my classmates.   I was graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies summa cum laude with minors in Nonprofit Organizational Studies, History and Political Science.  I had worked internships in 1) refugee resettlement in Atlanta, GA, 2) city planning for OKC, 3) a homeless alliance in Norman, and 4) the Oklahoma State Senate.  I had done everything right.  I thought I was poised for success.  But, instead of looking for a job around OK, I wanted to move somewhere so I took an Americorps position in Los Angeles.  I was interested in social service work and enjoyed my job.  But when the year was coming to a close, the job search began…

To date, I have sent in 68 job applications for jobs that I am qualified to do.  I have had 6 interviews and no offers.  Luckily, my Americorps agency offered me to stay on part-time for a month while they transition and I try to find something else.  I still have some leads but the process has been excruciating, worse than I would have ever thought, even in a bad economy. 

It turns out that I am not alone.  As I know anecdotally, others are suffering as well.  A friend with an Master’s in Public Policy from UCLA is applying for the same jobs I am despite having a graduate degree from a top university.  Other friends search desperately for jobs after completing law school.  One student, Trina Thompson is suing her university’s Office of Career Advancement for the sum of her $70,000 tuition plus $2,000 for stress.  Although the suit is being said to be “completely without merit,” the situation does speak to the heart of the matter when it comes to the job search of recent grads.  It begs the question, “In this economy, is a college degree worth anything?” 

A blog title asks another question, “Is This the Worst Year to Graduate College Ever?”   The author writes about the troubles faced by recent grads.

As a recent graduate from a university rated “Most Selective” by US News & World Report, Tyler was understandably disappointed when he landed in a cubicle-drone job that barely pays minimum wage—that is, until he was laid off and ended up substitute teaching for even less.

Witha double-major in Spanish and psychology and a strong GPA, he thought for sure he was on the fast track to a career in event planning, a field he’d secured a summer internship in, palling around withthe stars of CNBC. But withcorporations scaling back their parties and conventions (lest they be associated with seamy AIG-style taxpayer-funded beach junkets), Tyler found himself working in loss-prevention for Brookstone for $10.50 an hour. Then he was laid off. Now he’s substitute teaching for $10 an hour.

“I’m applying for jobs now that I wouldn’t have even considered when I started this thing,” he says.

But, even jobs that may be considered ’settling’ for college grads can be hard to come by.  Employers would rather give a job to a person who is not going to leave when they find a real job.  In addition, college grads may not perform well at jobs they may feel to be beneath them.

I wonder what those of us this same boat are doing to stay alive.  Moving home with family to save costs?  Running up debt while frantically searching for jobs?  Either way, the overqualification of the American work force is taking a toll on its newest members.  What can be done to reverse this trend?  Maybe college seniors should be taking mandatory career counseling classes to better prepare them for the job search in their future.  Some are putting off entering the work force by going to grad school in the hope that when they leave, the economy will have recovered and competition will be less fierce.  But, there are no certainties that will be the case.  Maybe when they leave the shelter of graduate institutions, they will just have another peice of paper and mounds of debt.

As far as my personal story, I am trying my hardest to find something.  But at this point, it seems like it’s all a game of luck.