This month was graduation time and the news was not so pleasant. Everyone keeps telling the same story: there are less jobs out there for graduates. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, based in Bethlehem, Pa., reported early in May that this year's crop of graduates are a bit worse off than the last. And most shockingly, more than half of graduates in 2007 were finding jobs as opposed to just 26 percent in 2008. The current downturn could even have an impact on future salaries for today's graduates--even 20 years down the road. It's grim, but not hopeless.
Looking for advice?
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Study engineering and accounting. They currently have the best success rates for finding a job after graduation.
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Think of transforming your resume by taking on an expertise in a trade. Or just reinvent yourself. The New York Times reported on a journalist who had worked for the Hartford Courant for over two decades. She left the job to study nursing and is now employed with a hospital.
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Stay in school no matter what. College graduates still have a much better chance of finding a job than those with a high school diploma. Unemployment levels for those who have not graduated from high school can be staggering. According to a Time magazine article, "[p]eople who did not graduate from high school at all have over a 15% chance of being among the jobless."
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Follow your own advice and have a little faith. After all, comedian and "Mind of Mencia" star Carlos Mencia dropped out of the electrical engineering program at Cal State University to pursue a career in comedy -- after performing just once at an open mike night.
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