The “Class of 2009†balloons have long since deflated and that graduation bouquet is now a withering pile that serves as a reminder of your personal milestone. With hopes of the future riding high, many recent graduates have found their zeal dampened by a less than favorable job market. Employers cut 247,000 jobs from the economy in July, pushing the unemployment rate to 9.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nearly two-thirds of recent graduates are concerned about finding a job, and 61% see the economy as an impediment to their getting a job, according to a survey released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. But they’re not discouraged. More than half of the graduating seniors said they were confident they will be employed within three months of their graduation,†according to the NACE .
“The current job market is very tough,†says Robin Fisher Roffer, author of The Fearless Fish Out of Water: How to Succeed When You’re the Only One Like You (John Wiley & Sons Inc.; $24.95). “Companies are looking for ways to create efficiencies in terms of cutting costs and how to drive revenue.â€As companies look to cut costs and drive revenue, graduates have to figure out how they can become apart of a companies overall mission as they seek to go from interviewee to employee.
“It’s not about conforming to the norm, it’s about how what you do can make a company thrive,†Fisher adds.
Check out how these recent grads are maneuvering this economic rough patch on a mission for success: