Illustrations by Donough O’Malley
Julia Ho, a senior at Washington University, is graduating early to save money and give herself more time to find a job. “I have a lot of friends who are graduating,” she says. “I think everybody is stressed out about it.”
For the past five years, the labor market has given college grads plenty of reason to stress. At its worst, in 2009, approximately 18 percent of recent grads were unemployed. But Sherita Reinhardt, a career specialist at St. Louis Community College–Meramec, suggests college students study the job prospects in their field, rather than the economy as a whole. “It’s not a problem till there is a problem,” she says. “Look at all the data. Sometimes it fits our situation, and sometimes it has nothing to do with what we’re doing.”
Given their prospects, some graduates are waiting to enter the job market, opting instead for more education. “Many of our students are going to go to grad or professional school,” says Mark Smith, associate vice chancellor and director of Washington University’s Career Center. Other recent grads are spending a year volunteering with organizations like AmeriCorps and The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. “Really, the percentage of students starting a career is relatively small,” says Smith.
After graduating from Webster University, Elizabeth Corley enrolled in graduate school. “Job possibilities were a primary factor in my decision,” she says. “I majored in English, and it’s virtually unheard of to make a living by writing literary criticism.” She’s now studying library science in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Longtime career counselor Sue Ekberg still sees many new grads who haven’t found jobs or aren’t satisfied with the ones they did take. Part of the problem is the current state of the economy, she says, but part of the dilemma is the graduates themselves. “They don’t know exactly what they want,” she says.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that those who have clear goals often fare better. Take Joseph Hooker, a senior at Fontbonne University who’s studying communications, with a minor in professional writing. He currently has a grant-writing internship. “I’m optimistic about finding a job before I graduate,” he says. “I’ve tried to put in that extra work, go the extra mile to give myself the opportunity.”
And despite being stressed, Ho is also cautiously optimistic. “I’m coming out with a great degree from a great university,” she says. “As much as it scares me personally to figure out what I’m doing, I definitely have a huge opportunity and a huge advantage.”
