ALL IS NOT LOST FOR CLASS OF 2009

All Is Not Lost for the Class of 2009

By EILENE ZIMMERMAN
Published: April 11, 2009

Q. You are about to graduate from college and will be entering one of the toughest job markets in decades. Is the situation as hopeless as it looks?


A. Unemployment is at a 25-year high, and employers expect to hire 22 percent fewer graduates this year than they hired last year, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. So, yes, the situation is troubling, but it certainly isn’t hopeless.

Accept that you may need to adjust expectations — not just about the job itself, but also about its pay and location.

“If you studied finance, consider working in accounting, insurance, small business or government, rather than just Wall Street,” said Lindsey Pollak, author of “Getting From College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World” and a blogger on www.pwc.tv, a PricewaterhouseCoopers career site for new college graduates.

Keep in mind that the rest of your life is unlikely to be determined by your first job, said Rebecca Sparrow, director of career services at Cornell University. “Understand that no matter what you choose, it will be an opportunity to learn about work and about yourself, and that will help with your next step.”

Q. Everyone is scouring major online job boards for work. Are there other, less-trafficked ways to approach your search?

A. You can still use the big job boards to figure out what industries and jobs you should be focusing on. But smaller, specialized job boards for a geographic area or occupational field are more likely to yield more useful leads, said Steven Rothberg, founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a career Web site for college students and recent graduates. And don’t forget to visit corporate Web sites for lists of job openings.

You can also look at companies that aren’t in your chosen field but are hiring, Ms. Pollak said. “You don’t have to be an accountant to work in an accounting firm or an engineer to work in an engineering firm,” she said, “because there are often many disciplines — like marketing, human resources, facilities maintenance — within those companies.”

Other possibilities are jobs in the federal government, one of the few big organizations that is hiring on a large scale. “The federal government has offices in virtually every city in the country,” Mr. Rothberg said, and it is “hiring for full-time, entry-level positions.”

Don’t forget a resource in your own backyard: your college’s career services office, Ms. Sparrow said. Not only can career counselors help with résumés, but they can also determine what industries and employers you should focus on, assist with researching jobs and connect you with alumni working in your field.

Q. Should you consider doing unpaid work if you can’t find a paying job?

A. Absolutely. Many companies and nonprofit organizations advertise paid and unpaid internships, but you can also create your own. Contact companies, especially small ones, in your field and ask if they would allow you to do unpaid, entry-level work in exchange for the experience and industry connections, Mr. Rothberg said.

You can volunteer at a nonprofit organization in an area relevant to your career, like accounting, marketing or education. “This allows you stay involved in the work force in some way, developing your skills so you have something to sell to employers when the market turns around,” said Philip D. Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute of Michigan State University.

Q. Can you use Facebook and Twitter to find job leads?

A. You can use Facebook, but first clean up your page and delete any controversial content or photographs, said Christine Padian Bolzan, founder and C.E.O. of Graduate Career Coaching in Boston.

Use the status update tool on the site to ask your friends for help. “Write: ‘I’m looking for a job in D.C. in public policy. Anyone got any ideas? Leads? Advice?’ You will get feedback and help,” she said.

Search Twitter to find employees tweeting about their jobs. They may mention job openings that have not been posted or reveal information about a company that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, she said.

Create a profile on the LinkedIn Web site and urge your parents to sign up as well, so you can have access to their contacts, Ms Bolzan suggested. “You might not want to friend your parents, but you definitely want to link to them,” she said. “You need to use everyone who can help you in this market, and that means networking with your parents’ friends.”

Once you find people who might be able to help, ask if you can meet with them briefly to talk about the career. Ms. Sparrow said: “Don’t ask about job openings at their company. Your approach is that you want information.”

Q. While searching for a job, you still have to pay your bills. Will taking an hourly job unrelated to your chosen profession be viewed negatively?

A. Doing something like making lattes for a year could actually make you a more valuable candidate in the future.

“When the economy turns around you’ll be able to tell employers how you made the best of a difficult situation,” Ms. Pollak said. “I don’t think any recruiter will hold against you what you did to get through the recession.”