2010 Grads & the Job Market

[littleowl33]

I'm graduating in a week (yikes!) and I'm feeling really down about how my job search has been going. I really don't mean to sound snotty, but everyone (including my University's career counselor) keeps telling me that they're so surprised I haven't gotten a job offer yet, and that "it will happen." But it's just not. I've been seriously job-hunting since February and I've just gotten a few interviews (that unfortunately led to nothing) and a lot of "Sorry, other applicants were more qualified."

I have a some things going for me - great GPA, lots of involvement, 3+ years of student employment/internships in the field I want to go into, very strong references, and great contacts in the field. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the strongest recent grad in the applicant pool (could have done more internships, etc.), but I'm also not the weakest. I just thought I could at least get something. Here are some issues: employers keeping disregarding my work experience because it's not actual, "real" work experience - even though I have worked 40-hour weeks for every summer, winter and spring break for the two years, and 15-hour weeks during every semester since sophomore year. I'm moving to an area where I have very few contacts, and I've pretty much exhausted my networking options - the people I do know have called in favors but literally no one in the field is hiring where I'm going. I don't have the option of being flexible with location, so even though I'm moving to a large city it really narrows down my options.

I don't have a master's. I don't have "real" professional work experience - I guess I'm essentially entry-level. I've only done two internships. I am out-of-state. All I want is a job with benefits that pays enough to cover my living expenses - at this point I'll take anything I'm qualified for, in or out of my desired field. But based on the aforementioned factors, I'm apparently not qualified for anything. I feel for the companies, too - in this economy it makes sense to be choosy and take the most experienced, educated applicants they can get. It just sucks for recent grads.

I'm getting panicky about money, health insurance and the possibility of living in a cardboard box. Are any other recent or soon-to-be-grads feeling this, too? It seems like the only friends I have that are getting jobs are engineers and/or the super-high-powered students that have had 4+ flashy internships (no hard feelings, they honestly deserve great jobs after all that work). Everyone else is taking menial jobs to tide them over, moving in with Mom & Dad and/or going to grad school (which I can't afford right now). I hoping I'm not coming off as whiny or entitled - I'm really not looking for anything fancy, I just want something. And I'm getting really frustrated with this job market.

I guess this is a venting post more than anything else, but if anyone has any advice (or commiseration) I'd love to hear it...