College Grads Face a Nightmarish Job Market

[Wingfoot]

After college, grads face a nightmarish job market.

By LAURA BAUER
The Kansas City Star - 14 December 2008

Avoid the national news; those business headlines with big fat letters shouting how more than 533,000 people have lost their jobs last month (November 2008) and how the unemployment rate is at a 15-year high.

Not good. Must stay positive.

But it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Nope.

“I remember distinctly when I went to college, there was kind of the promise of a job when I was done,” said Muskin, 22 and days away from getting her diploma in Latin American Studies from the University of Kansas. “But it’s really tough right now. There is nothing out there. … The shock that so much has changed. …I definitely feel a little robbed.”

So goes the story for countless other college graduates ready to enter an economic world that looks scorched.

“I have solace, though, that everyone in my generation is struggling with the same thing,” says Sean Sposito, 23 and a journalism major at the University of Missouri set to graduate in May. “I know kids in other industries, they’ve graduated from college and they are just sitting at home.”

Perhaps Sposito doesn’t want to hear this from Phou Sengsavanh at the J-school’s career services office:

“I think December students are in a better position than May students. We’re getting signals that things are going to get much worse next summer.”

A report out last month at Michigan State University found from employers’ projections that hiring for graduates at all degree levels during this 2008-2009 academic year will decrease by 8 percent over last year.

“We’ve found employers in the past who are huge recruiters — they’ve laid off folks. Their recruiting budgets were cut 30 percent,” said David Gaston, director of the career center at KU. “We’re trying to see what this all means. We know it’s not good, but we just have to wait and see.”

Internships are key, experts say. And not just when you’re in college. Take an internship once you get a diploma to get a feel for the company and let them get to know you.( http://www.aftercollege.com/ )

What college students may find in a troubled economic time, experts say, is that they have the opportunity to do a little soul-searching. They can make sure they know exactly what career they want to pursue.

“Of course it’s going to get better,” said McKenna, at the Kansas City Art Institute. “But I’m more worried about when, not if. Is it going to take another 10 years?”

He finds himself in a world much different than his parents’ generation.

“They could pick and choose what they wanted to do. I want to do that too,” he said. “But America not the land of opportunity like it once was.”

[beyond help]

Both my wife and I hold various college degrees. Neither of us are obviously in our prefered field of study. Hence me locating, and my wife doing what she is. My wife has a masters and I have a bachelors. My wife also has a higher certification that goes with her masters, but she is stuck.
Granted part of this is on us. We are unable to move due to other unforseable issues that are out of our control.

[TheCableVine]

Recently, or before the economy went south, I was running into college students who stated that they were going to get a good job when they got out of college and they wouldn't settle for anything less. My friends and I would stare at these 'kids' and wonder what the heck they are smoking. You can't talk any sense into them either.

I understand their attitude to a point. I took 2 years of college about 5 years ago. The attitude the professors were giving the students by virtue of going to school were joining an elite club and things would be different for them when they graduated.

Things aren't that different it seems. I'm meeting a lot of people who aren't working in the field for which they went to school.

[sprayandpray]

I love it - degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies! What timely career choices - very productive - Ha! How about Internet Blogger and General Curmudgeon degrees so the Sic1 can make a living.