College kids grow up

It has been more than a year since I graduated from Miami University with my Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology and Disability Studies. What does that mean? It means as my AmeriCorps term recently ended, I am now unemployed with no reasonable job prospects in sight. And chances are, if you're between the ages of 18 and 25, you're saying, "Yeah, join the club."

Over the past year I read about and met plenty of middle-aged parents out of work and struggling to pay the bills. Often overlooked in this economic crisis, though, are the young adults fresh out of high school and college. Maybe it's because we're crashing with parents and friends and are otherwise out of the headlines featuring foreclosure and bankruptcy. Maybe it's because many of us don't have families or children to provide for, so our stories just aren't as compelling as others'. But the truth is, this economic recession and job market slump will impact my generation long after the economy bounces back. Studies have shown that college graduates coming into the workforce at this point in history will earn less over the course of our lifetime than when unemployment rates were lower.

In the mean time, we'll be lucky to find jobs with paychecks at all. Many employers have laid off their employees to offset losses and can't even think about accepting resumes for new positions. And for that rare employer who is hiring, we young guns don't stand a chance. Most employers want to see lots of experience for even their entry-level positions, and in this market they can afford to be picky. I can maybe scrape together one or two years of social work experience from my college+AmeriCorps days, but I don't stand a chance next to the former executive director with ten years of supervisory experience on his resume.

I clearly remember calling to follow up on one particular job I'd applied for several weeks ago. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi, my name is Kaitlyn Wessels and I recently submitted my application for the xxxxxx position posted a few days ago. I just wanted to make sure you had received all of my materials and to see if you needed any additional information to further review my application."
HR Rep: "What was the name?"
Me: "Umm... Kaitlyn Wessels?"
HR Rep: "Hmmm...*rustling papers*...the name sounds familiar. Umm...let's see...I'm sorry I just have about 130 pages in front of me...it'll just be a second..."

Many of these conversations end with instructions on what to do to find out that I didn't get the job, rather than how to follow up for an interview. Rejection is just the name of the game.

I am an optimist by nature, but I think it will be a long time before I am offered a job that is in line with my goals, skills, and academic background and pays a competitive salary. About a week ago I was talking with my dad about my next steps after AmeriCorps. I told him about the dozens of applications and resumes I'd put out there over the past few months, and the zero bites I've had. He said unfortunately he wasn't suprised after hearing a follow-up story on the class of 2009 earlier this spring in which some 80% of graduates had still not found a job in their field of study one year after graduation. And now we've got the class of 2010 to compete with! Making matters worse, here comes this brand new class of graduates and we're old news. We're expected to have used the past year to gain experience in our field, not stock shelves at Target. Relatively speaking, those fresh-faced 2010 graduates are looking pretty good to new recruiters compared to us haggard has-beens.

Still, here we are, this weary group of grads, scavenging for low-paying jobs in whatever field we can find, trying to pay our bills on top of the exorbitant student loan debt we've racked up for a degree that is otherwise useless.

Okay, I know it isn't useless--compared to our high school graduate peers, we're doing alright. The unemployment rate for college grads under 25 jumped from 5.4% in 2007 to 9.0% in 2010, while high school grads of the same age faced a 22.5% unemployment rate, up from 12% in 2007. But it certainly isn't encouraging when those jobs are in ditch-digging after investing upwards of $100,000 in preparation for a career in accounting. Or education. Or basket-weaving. Whatever.

A college degree just doesn't guarantee a good job these days. The most we can hope to gain from our degrees is the ability to think critically and creatively to get through tough times ahead. Many graduates are thinking outside of the box to jump start their careers. We're taking part-time positions and freelancing rather than working the typical 9-5 job. We're doing odd jobs, we're traveling, we're volunteering. We're surviving any way we can.

And though we're discouraged, we're not giving up. So if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with the classifieds.