You're a college freshmen, and your first semester of college is winding down to a close. 

Some of you have picked a major, and some of you still don't know whether you want Fruit Loops or oatmeal for breakfast. 

For those still struggling on what they "want to be for the rest of my life," check out this article from Daily Tar Heel: Choosing a major is not always about the money, even during a recession. 

A friend and former colleague passed along an article from this weekend's Washington Post about a recent college grad who simply cannot find a job. Melissa Meyer graduated from George Washington University in May and thought she was starting her career off the right way. Unfortunately things didn't work out as she planned:

She graduated magna cum laude from the GW Business School in May, applied for 30 jobs at some of the nation's best-known companies, and it went nowhere. After visiting the campus career center and redesigning her résumé, she applied for 10 more jobs. Still nothing. The lease on her Foggy Bottom apartment expired in June. There was no place to go but home, with a collection of rejection letters and a haunting sense of betrayal. For 23 years, she had advanced down America's path to success -- perfect grades, a $200,000 college degree, a folder overstuffed with business cards -- only to have it dead-end back where she started.

"What was the point?" she asks.

For Melissa, that question is the legacy of the recession as she rises one Tuesday morning in early fall and begins her day with the same routine that defined her adolescence. She rummages through the refrigerator, eats leftovers from a dinner party her parents threw the night before and then retreats upstairs to prepare for a fill-in shift at the same job she held throughout high school. After changing into cowboy boots and a skirt, she borrows her parents' car and drives three minutes to work at Rockin Rudy's, a record store with a peace sign hanging at the entrance.

Is Melissa's story an outlier or part of a larger trend? I'm sure it's conceivable that she has just had a run of really really bad luck, just simply applying to the wrong positions or missing out on opportunities through some random breeze of fate. But I tend to side with The Awl's Chris Lehmann who sees a wider trend:

But what’s surpassingly odd about Post reporter Eli Saslow’s blowout portrait of Meyer’s job travails is that Meyers’ downward spiral in the labor market leaves us with much the same moral that the grubbier news bubbling up from the low-wage, low-skill sectors of the economy does: Even high-achieving candidates like Meyer are being groomed for positions that simply aren’t there. Not only was she stiffed by a sexy New Economy Seattle firm that had instituted a hiring freeze and (what seems infinitely more ominous) shuttered the employee wine bar; she’s also put through the demoralizing, bewildering ordeal of putting in for jobs she has no formal training to qualify for.

And that's the key I think. The colleges and universities don't seem to be addressing the changing landscape of the career market. Now, for what it's worth, I'm only relying on anecdotal evidence for this. I'm not sitting in these classes, so I'm not sure how they're handling it. I am in grad school, but everyone already has a job (the program is largely for working professionals) and those without jobs at least have paying internships. The professors may occasionally address the idea that jobs are shrinking or becoming obsolete, but it just isn't that relevant to our situation. But this isn't the case with undergraduates. It's supremely relevant to undergraduates. So how come Melissa can't find a job?

Melissa seems like a smart young woman, as her education and experience attest. Simple bad luck cannot account for her lack of success in the job market. The article - and my own inner logic - leaves me with a sinking feeling that this is not an outlier; that there was a failure of fundamentals. Melissa's education prepared her for a market that no longer exists, and she is having trouble adjusting. And, without getting too wonky or economics-y on you, our economy isn't growing at the rate it needs to to lift up unemployment. So these jobs aren't coming back anytime soon. And it appears that we will see more and more cases like young Melissa Meyer's.

The burden, then, falls to colleges and universities to adapt. For $200,000 these schools need to convince students and parents that they will prepare students for a multitude of careers with sufficient backup plans for a changing job market. In the meantime, one can only hope that all grads who can't find jobs have the same economic and social safety net that have allowed Melissa to keep such a positive outlook on her future.

"Hoovervilles: 1932 Do-Nothing Economics" courtesy Tony the Misfit via Flickr Creative Commons

Whew, it's been a busy week around here. I can't believe it was a four day week ... it feels like an 8 day one. But at least the NFL is here and, Sunday, I can watch the Eagles continue to frustrate me for the umpteenth straight season. So there's that.

But that being said, it's been a relatively quiet Friday both in the office and on the career blogs. So in lieu of another rant like yesterday, I'm just going to serve you up some links that caught my attention today.

Let's get on to the career advice for all you students and college grads

July job numbers are in*. Are you ready for them? Are you sure? You better think about it for a sec. OK. You asked for it:

Nonfarm payrolls dropped 216,000. (Booooo!) That's not too bad considering the 276,000 last month (meh...) and the 700,000 earlier this year (hooray?). We've lost 7.4 million jobs since the beginning of the recession in December (Super Boooo!) ... and we now have the highest unemployment rate since June of '83 (...).

Nobody seems to think this is very good news. In August analysts seemed to be pretty happy with the job loss rate, but the massive unemployment figure (9.7%) and the drop in the stock market the past few days is worrying some people.

Coupled with the massive surge in stock market profit-taking income among the wealthy over the last eight months, this country is being more, not less, divided into rich and poor during this "oh it's almost over yeah right" bullshit recession. I hate to get all Worker's Weekly on you, but this is disastrous, and I am not sure we will ever recover without, you know, pitchforks and torches and the seizing of the property of the entrenched inbred rich.

Workers of the world ... incite? Sorry. Puns are a bad habit.

Anyway, usually I try to say be alright and have a positive attitude and go to law school to ride it out, but ... oh. my. gawd.

In a memo to incoming students, Patricia D. White, the dean of University of Miami School of Law, surmised: “Perhaps many of you are looking to law school as a safe harbor in which you can wait out the current economic storm.” She then urged them to “think hard” about their plans and offered incentives for those willing to defer for one year.

[...]

As firms begin an industrywide overhaul, which has entailed slashing jobs and reconsidering hidebound inefficiencies like the lockstep salary, students will compete for half as many $160,000-a-year jobs this year as they did last. According to the National Association for Legal Career Professionals, the 2008 recruiting season marked “what is likely to be the beginning of a weaker legal employment market that may last for a number of years.”

So Law school is out. Which is OK, I guess. I mean, the world really doesn't need anymore lawyers, does it? So what to do? Right now I don't have any answers. But, let's make a deal. You go home, enjoy your three day weekend and come back here on Monday and we'll try to figure it out. Happy Laborless Day!

Side Note: I guess this is starting to become a monthly feature. I had no idea, until starting this blog, that each months job figures meant so much. I guess normally that isn't the case, but with a recession and all, well ...

"Unemployed" courtesy of erix! via Flickr Creative Commons

Phila Lawyer, a blog featuring essays and stories from a Philadelphia Lawyer has an excellent Q & A with Alex Mann,a recent college grad and all-around smart guy, that goes into detail about the struggles and hidden opportunities of students who graduate in this dismal job market.

The gentlemen cover a lot of ground, exploring mainly the fields of business and law. The two address the problems with the education system in regards to student preparation, the Gen X/Gen Y generational differences and the general psyche of recent grads.

There's Frustration:

Our frustration stems from the lack of control and little understanding we face. There is only so much we can absorb from reading the news online, because the real grasp of the current economic environment comes from actually experiencing it professionally, which few people my age have. You'd think the universities would use this as an opportunity to teach about excess leverage, regulation and the fallacy of systematic risk. But, no. Curriculum followed as usual, with little focus on "what's going on" or "why it's happening."

There's a Backup Plan and a Silver Lining:

If there is one upside to the economic downturn, it's that suddenly we've been put in the position to creatively fend for ourselves. For instance, when all of the traditional career options that a business major typically approaches have gone thin, the desperation is followed by a wave of experimentation. The suit-and-tie guy type that majored in finance is applying to ESPN and the NFL, because he's always loved sports and couldn't get a job as a banker. The artistic-type who majored in advertising is applying for a job at an animal protection non-profit she supports, simply because the jobs on Madison Avenue have become obsolete. In my opinion, this is how it should be. College, or any form of education, shouldn't create a path or destiny. It should create options to choose our own.

There's a strong sense of entrepreneurship with people my age now, even if they aren't all acting on it. There's an itch to go do something on your own.

Finally, The Gen Y Question:

AM: The only people my age that actually refer to themselves are "Gen Y" are ones clueless enough that think the title entitles them to special treatment. It doesn't.

But I do think there is a demand for more balance in our careers, but not in the most traditional sense. Rather than just time "away" from work, there is a demand for more correlation between what we actually want to be doing, and what we have to actually have to do, day-in day-out, for our job. You hear about companies like Google who offer their employees a few hours a day to work on something independently, and that is desirable. It's not that we are lazy or don't want to do work; that has nothing to do with it. It's more of a demand for a selfish productivity that I'm sensing from people my age, where they want the work they are told to do to be related to what they want to do.

I really think Alex has a good sense of his fellow graduates, what they think and what they are going through with this job market. When he turns the tables and asks Phila Lawyer some questions you gain some further insight into how established workers view this crop of recent grads. These were only a few selections, and there is lots more. The entire interview is well worth the read and the some of the comments are helpful as well. (hat tip: Lone Gunman, who recommends Alex's follow up post @ alexjmann.com)

Lotsa Links to help you find a job. Dive right in ...

Techcrunch Profiles JobSpice: "JobSpice, a new startup that’s launching tonight, is looking to help users build web-friendly resumes that are as good looking as they are easy to customize. ... The site takes advantage of the naturally structured formatting of resumes and optimizes it for the web. JobSpice uses CSS to style the resumes it generates, which means you can totally rework the appearance of your resume with a minimal amount of effort (and experienced web designers will be able to tweak their resumes to their hearts’ content)." Cool.

Cheezhead Profiles Urban Interns: "Urban Interns mainly focuses on pairing interns with small businesses, which often need help with errands, online research and organizing files, but usually don’t have the funding to hire a full-time worker. The site matches interns and employers based on the hours available, tasks involved and whether the position is paid or not." The more resources you have to find an internship the better ... even if it just running errands.

Monster Blog Has Unconventional Job Hunt Advice: "The next slightly off-beat tactic for marketing myself stemmed from my frustration at the continued barrage of mailed credit card applications I never solicited in the first place. ...I decided to use the conveniently enclosed postage paid envelope. In this envelope, I placed a polite note thanking the sender for their mail and requesting they read my enclosed mail, which was my resume with a call to action on the reader’s part." Clever.

One Day One Job Has a Back to School Contest: "Whether you’re returning from an internship and heading back to school or you’ve graduated and just want to get back to work (or to work if you’ve never had a job before), we want to help you use technology to make that happen. That’s why we’re giving away some awesome prizes in this contest sponsored by HP, Microsoft, and Timbuk2." Click through to see the deets.

"Advice" courtesy laughlin via Flickr Creative Commons

Good News from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 247,000 people lost their job in June! How is that good news, you ask? I'm glad you asked, I answer. Well it's good for two reasons.

Number 1: the number is lower than the 275,000 - 300,000 (depending on who you ask) that experts expected. So that's good.

Numero dos: The number is lower than the 300,000+ losses in June. Plus the unemployment rate actually dropped, from 9.5% to 9.4%.

So, we're still losing jobs, we're just not losing as many. Small victories. Take 'em where you can get 'em, I always say.

Manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 for the month, the first time in ages that the number has been below 100,000. Health industry and government employment moved upward. Meanwhile, hours and earnings both rose, in a very good sign for the job market.

Stathead Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight is optimistic - if cautiously so:

These numbers do not point toward a "good" economy. Some of them, like the decline in the unemployment rate, are even a bit misleading, since some of that has occurred because a lot of dispirited job seekers have given up on looking for work.

But they do speak unambiguously toward an economy which has almost certainly bottomed out and has probably begun to improve. It is more likely to be a slow recovery than a fast one, especially in employment, but this is arguably the best news that Obama has had since taking office.

If you just graduated in May and haven't been able to find a job yet, this is a positive sign for your career aspects. Part of this whole thing (admittedly a very small part) is psychological. If employers think the economy is doing better and are confident that the bottom has been reached they may be more likely to start to expand again. Cutbacks are less likely, and as the economy begins an ascent, more positions can open up.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. As Nate said, this is not a "good" economy. We have a long way to go to climb out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. Hopefully though, these positives signs will lea to more opportunities for all you unemployed grads living at home with mom and pop.

I found a very interesting piece in today's New York Times (one of the things I missed most being in China was listening to the NY Times daily Front Page podcast ... that things saves me a ton of reading time!) about the holes in the declining job market. This means that there are some jobs in some very particular industries that are hiring. Not only are they hiring, but they are having trouble filling all of their available positions.

Six million jobs have disappeared across the country since Mr. McGrary began his quest. The unemployment rate has risen precipitously to 9.4 percent, the highest level in nearly 30 years, and most of the jobs that do come open are quickly filled from the legions of seekers. But unnoticed in the government’s standard employment data, employers are begging for qualified applicants for certain occupations, even in hard times. Most of the jobs involve skills that take years to attain.

Most of the industries that the Times highlights include careers that require a professional license and can be quite lucrative. Below, I've listed the positions mentioned in the article along with the medium salary. So, if these careers interest you, it may take some time to get to the level that is currently hiring, but it is a pretty safe bet that if the economy should turn again in the future (of course, taking for granted that it will recover in the first place) these seem to be some industries that will be fairly recession resistant.

• welding: $34,156
  
• clinical nursing: $80,975
  
• electrical: $51,619
  
• geotechnical engineering: $46,827
  
• special education: $47,960
  
• respiratory therapy: $55,715

If these industries aren't the sugar in your tea, check out some other options with The Links ...

The Lone Gunman Busts: A myth on entrepreneurship: A new study shows that, despite widely circulated anecdotes, most entrepreneurs don't really learn by failing. The Harvard report found that past success is what impacts future success - more so than past failure.

Monica O'Brien at Personal Branding Blog Thinks: The recession is a great time to start your own business. "True job security has been a myth for awhile now, even before this messy recession took place. So why wait for the economy to get better before taking the plunge? Why let recession fears hold you back from entrepreneurship?"

Cheezhead Profiles: The FUNtern. What's a FUNterm you ask. Well, best I can gather: Butterfinger + Social Media + Marketing Internship ( - pay + year supply of Butterfingers) = FUNtern. APPLY NOW!

JIST Features: A primer on Federal Job and Internship ops for students and recent grads. Even (especially?) in a recession the government generally does a good job of creating jobs and hiring. Combined with a decent salary, great benefits and possible student loan reimbursement, it's a great time to look at federal jobs for employment.

"Welder at North Shields" photo courtesy of nagillum via Flickr Creative Commons

Last night I came across a blog on YouTube of an unemployed man named Matt. He was laid off a couple months ago and everyday, every unemployed day, he would blog/vlog his journey. I do send my best wishes to him and his family. Matt's blog, Mattonfire, moved me to find more blogs like his and I found plenty.

Do you like the subtlety of the post title? Like a nunchuck to the groin. Just as painful may be today's report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which says that only 19% of 2009 graduates who have applied for a job have secured one. This marks a disturbing trend as the number of students with jobs at graduation has declined from 51% in 2007, to 26% in 2008 and now just 19%.  The NACE survey found some other interesting info:

Interestingly, fewer 2009 graduates sought out jobs than their predecessors. Approximately 64 percent of the Class of 2007 and two-thirds of the Class of 2008 had started looking for a job by this time.

In comparison, “just 59 percent of this year’s class has started the job search,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

This may be due, in part, to considerable attention to the increase in nationwide unemployment, the global financial crisis of recent months, and the impact of these developments on the recruitment and hiring of new graduates by specific industries.

So what is it '09ers? Have you been dismayed by the unemployment news and numbers - like that above? Or is it simply apathy and laziness (no way)? Is it something entirely different? I would feel comfortable siding with NACE on this one ... the media has been overtly negative on the job market and I can certainly see how that would affect graduates' motivation. At ThinkTalk we have generally tried to stay positive, but it does get difficult when faced with overwhelmingly negative news (like today's title for example). I think it is important to keep a positive attitude, work your butt off and hope for the market to right itself. Good Luck!

We always try to stay positive with The Links ...

Cheezhead Digs Up: The top cities for new grads to find a job. See, this is the type of positivity I'm talking about. Indy, Philly and Baltimore (oh, that's got to be a typo) make up the top 3. Check out the list for more ... and the average rent for an apartment in that city.

The Wall Street Journal Tackles: Negotiating pay for freelance jobs. I've talked about the benefits of a freelance job in this market as companies may be more open to hiring short term freelancers than adding full-time staff. This article will teach you how to get a price that you can live off of.

Personal branding Blog Thinks: Sometimes losing out on a job application isn't so bad. Jon Loayza thinks it might even be a good things sometime. The lesson he learned from losing out on a competitive job was that feeling sorry for yourself won't help. Also, sometimes failure is a part of success. I think that's some good advice.

The Wall Street Journal Elaborates: On dealing with rejection. Hey, you are not always going to get the job you want, get into the grad school you want or get everything you want. You have to be prepared to be rejected. The important take away is that this is a part of life and does not devalue you or the work that you have done. Deal with it and move on to Plan B.

"Pumpkin with a Positive Attitude" courtesy of Keven Krejci via Flickr Creative Commons

A week ago I posted a few stories about which industries are still hiring despite the recession. Among these were Air Traffic Control, Accounting and Nursing. Well, as Freddy Mercury once said, another one bites the dust. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the Nursing field is seeing a decline in available positions.

As of last summer, the nation had a shortage of roughly 125,000 nurses, based on vacancies at hospitals and in long-term care. That is still expected to balloon to 300,000 to more than one million nursing vacancies by 2020. But thanks to the recession, the nursing shortage appears to be waning, at least temporarily

.A recent survey of 658 hospitals by the American Hospital Association found more than half had negative profit margins in the fourth quarter, raising concerns that more layoffs are on the way. SMDC Health System in Duluth, Minn., a large health-care provider in the region, for instance, has laid off 55 workers this year, including about a dozen nurses last month, from its staff of 7,000.

Now, if you are currently in Nursing school or planning to attend, don't get too worried. There is, as the above quote points out, still a future in nursing. Those vacancies will come. But, for right now, it appears hospitals (like almost everything else) aren't doing so well. If you were looking to move into the field immediately, you may need to exercise some patience.

Never one to exercise patience myself, it's time we moved on to The Links ...

PC Mag Lists: The best iPhone Apps for the unemployed (via Cheezhead). Of course, if you can afford an iPhone, you probably already have a job. But just in case ... it's a good list.

Gradspot Offers: Social Skills you need to develop as a recent grad. Networking will become more and more important in your life once you are through with college. The post has some good insight on developing communications and relationship building skills.

Alison's Job Searching Blog Advises: Look at the job search from the employer's point of view. "It's important to know where companies are posting jobs and how they are recruiting on and off the job boards. If you're aware of where companies are seeking applicants, you can position yourself to increase your chances of getting found by hiring managers. It makes good sense to be sure you're focusing your efforts on the same job sites that companies are using."

George's Employment Blawg Provides: Tips on how to draw attention to your resume. As I've said a number of times, you face increased competition in this job market. One tip that caught my eye, is the advice to focus your search and apply to a limited number of jobs that you are qualified for. I'm not sure I agree with this, as the author's defense is simply that it is a waste of time. That phrase, in my opinion, shouldn't enter the discussion during your job search. If applying to 20 jobs a week lands you a gig, it wasn't a waste of time. Something to think about.

Inside Higher Ed Reports: Student credit card debt is rising. I don't get this. You are starting your career with (in most cases) a blank slate in terms of money, or already behind the 8-ball with student loan debt. Why would you possibly want to exacerbate the situation? I didn't get a credit card (or a cell phone for that matter) until after graduation, and recommend the same for any other student.

Inside Higher Ed Reports: On a new study that says Facebook is effecting students' grades. Apparently an Ohio State researcher found that the difference is about a letter grade between those who spend more time on Facebook than others.

"Nurse Joker cosplay" photo courtesy christyxcore via Flckr Creative Commons