Paula Haddock - HERLIFE Magazine

herlife | working womenTRANSITIONING FROMTHE COLLEGE SCENE TO THEJOB MARKETby bre roachTimes are tough and that’s all too true for recent graduateswho head out into the work field only to return to theirparents’ basement empty-handed. There’s something thatmakes employment issues much more real and terrifyingwhen it’s you trying to find a job, frustrated that your degreeisn’t being put to use and all your hard work has gone to waste.There are a few essentials, however, to preparing and eventuallylanding that job you’ve hoped for post-graduation.For every restaurant you walk into there’s an overly-qualified bartendermixing drinks while standing on their psychology degree. In everyretail store you shop at there’s a sales associate who got theirdegree in economics but had to push it aside becausethey couldn’t find any work. The New York Timesnoted that in 2010, only 56 percent of graduates hadlanded a job by spring compared to the 90 percentof graduates from 2006 and 2007. It seems daunting,hopeless and frustrating. In 2012 the average studentwas $27,000 in debt, according to CNN, which is hardto pay off when you enter a job market that pays thatexact amount per year for a starter job. And that’sif you get lucky and land a job. It’sa vicious cycle but not one to bediscouraged over. Studies haveshown that unemployment ratesare lower for people with advancedschooling.It’s disheartening for recentgraduates because for 16 longyears they’ve been sitting inclassrooms writing thousandsof pages worth of notes, takingtests and writing papers, pullingall-nighters to finish projects and throwing money at books and suppliesthat you’ll never use again. The icing on the cake is that graduatesfeel completely unprepared after graduation in areas involvingteamwork skills, dealing with different types of people and personalities,financial budgeting, balancing social life and work demandsand, most importantly, looking for jobs and networking. These areskills that college didn’t teach us.Many students go to college and assume that their degree willland them a $40,000-a-year job right out of school, but that is rarelythe case. More graduates are finding that they have friends witha less prestigious degree who are getting jobs because theyknew someone who knew someone. This “reality-check” ishard to put into focus, but as soon as a recent graduateunderstands that it may take several months beforethey land a job, they will be better off in preparing forthe job search, according to Randall Hansen, PhD andfounder of Quintessential Careers.So what’s a recent graduate supposed to do?It’s difficult for many to find the value in a degreewhen reading statistics such as these,but the truth is that it is extremelyessential to have a skill. Whetherthat’s creative writing or sociology,you’ve spent four moreyears than someone who didn’tgo to college developing andfine-tuning a specific skill.Now it’s up to you to workthe market and network withas many people as possibleto help that skill take flight.According to Forbes, there30 HERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM