A Recent Grad Shares Her Job Search Nightmare

Although it say Accounting jobs are in demand but all of them requires a few years of experience, even the entry level ones. Where can we get the experience without given the chance to try it. A lot of sites say do internship but even those are scared and as competitive as ever now, paid or unpaid. And volunteer, they want people with experience for these specific fields to help them, not train them. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place? I'm not sure how much more fortunate accounting graduates are from the other fields.

this is so true , i graduated in 2008, was "downsized bacuse i was young and new, the 60 of us l;et go were either new hires(last 2 years ) or under 30. they just said that we had better chances of getting in to a job that the older staff who have familys and big bills. (i have student loan like crazy- big bills) i was hoping to buy a small house this year but now im looking for a job. i work now as a teachers aide with behaver desturbed children for 10% of my past pay, just to get bit , hit beat up ect... but i cant get a real job due to my age and the older generation that are layed off.... in 6 years in receration field but it doesn't matter, what matters is who you know and how little you are willing to take. its sad that the jobs that will hire anyone are the fast food (no education or english needed and the day care- no education need/or used if needed) i feel that i would be better off with out the student loans because i can get the same job as an uneducation person.

education means very little. especally teaching there are no jobs in my state for teachers and they are cutting services for specail ed students, and even cutting teachers. there nothing as far as good jobs working with kids... the money like everyone says is in computers and the internet, non-propits and social service jobs are gone. the job where you are a faceless, nameless, employee that is required to work "overtime" at home or risk being replaced the 40 hr weok weeks are gone if you are salary you have a 50 + hr week if you are hourly you are cut to the point of almost part time or even part time to "save money"

i wish i hadn't done school it means nothing , and i am unable to leave the bacment of my parents because i can't even pay my student loans with my full time paycheck.

my friends that joined the workforce right after high school are makinng 3 to 4X more due to being at the same company for 4-6 years. i know i would have been better off with working than school!

I'm In school to be an Registered Occupational Therapist. (OT)

Luckily, this is what I wanted to do and have a passion for --and there is high demand. It's different from Physical Therapy, which is also doing very well right now. I'm only in my second year and the head of our program forwards us emails everyday with very good entry level salaries for new grads, especially if you are willing to go where they want you.

(erika) We took a lot of kinesiology - can be applied to human movement and disorders, body mechanics and work hardening. perhaps you would have liked OT!

I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys helping people and has an interest in medicine. Good luck grads!

Education was a scam becuase it fooled us that did like to learn in our field of interest. Trust me I loved school and loved studying criminal justice. I went on and achieved my Masters. I knew there was a posibility that I would not get a job in my field but I enjoyed my time and was romanced with hope. Learning was good but it should be free. I totally I agree that it is not possible to work for an 8.00 an hour job with the loans we have to payback. Noone is saying we want to get rich just we just need a reasonalbe earning to live. There should be a minimum range set by college degree that factors in the expenses we paid out. And t is bullshit that we live in a society with closed systems that only hire within, hence the State. I am so sick of job descriptions for my field, criminal justice, asking for people with just mental health work experience or a Social Work Degree, when Criminal Justice should be more recognized. Relevant education experience should be more recognized along with personal experience. When dealing with criminal a Social Work Degree or working in soley one area of human services is as comprehensive as criminal justice education, which incorporates politics, sociology, mental health, law and more. Plus usually those interested in criminal justice have personal experience to benefit the field

Well, some people are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you are about to be homeless or hungry, then I can understand your anxiety about locating and securing work. Realistically, it is NOT the best thing to frantically obtain a job...any job in a recession. It is a known fact that recent graduates that take jobs during a major recession are more likely to be underpaid and underemployed and that has an adverse impact on earnings over the length of one's career. In fact, it could take at least 10-15 years to recoup the lost wages or attempt to catch up to one's peers. This is why the traditional advice to get any job to fill the gaps on your resume is NOT good career advice. It would be best for recent graduates to look at opportunities to be innovative business people. For instance, this young woman has a degree in marketing and wanted to be involved in the fashion industry. It would have benefitted her if she started up an internet marketing business tailored to a fashion industry niche...she could have developed a blog (free), paid a few dollars for a domain name, and started writing blog articles tailored to fashion topics...And attempted to find ways to monetize her blog using online ad revenue streams. This would have set her up as being an entreprenuer, a web content writer, a fashion journalist, a marketing or PR person, as well as a copywriter/editor. She could have used that in her career summary on her resume and as her first job position. It's too bad she settled for less...and this demonstrates that only those who are willing to look outside the box and follow their bliss...find their dream jobs. Good luck!

One of the ways that the current employment situation is changing is that there are fewer salaried jobs and more contract work. Even engineers may find that the employment opportunities may involve contract work for individual projects and then the end of that project and the need to find another contract. Not only is that less long-term security, but also no benefits: no health insurance, no retirement fund, no paid vacation time... The pay for the contract work will have to be high enough to cover the expenses that an employer would have covered for a salaried employee.

Self employment, freelancing, contract work will probably be a larger part of the employment picture in the future. Marketing yourself becomes more important because it is not done once, but repeatedly. The degree is not as important as the knowledge and skills acquired both through education and through experience.

My daughter is majoring in medical illustration and instead of getting a full-time, salaried job when she graduates, she will probably have to do freelance and contract work and constantly work on her portfolio to show off her talents to those who will want to pay her for a piece or for a project. Her degree will not be worthless even if it does not land her a full-time position because the degree and the education received while earning the degree will improve her chances of getting work, not a job, but work.

No, it is not as secure as getting a full-time job with some corporation, but it is probably going to be the way it is in the future.

I disagree! union job does not =security. I am a teacher in NC. We are not union.
Work ethic = security This is true with any job!

I totally understand. I am in the same boat. I just graduated and have nothing to show for it as well. I cannot find a job at all. I wrote an article about too. See my story at http://www.newsweek.com/id/194996.