Job market difficult for recent college graduates

After the four years at the institute of higher learning of their choice, students venture out into the world with their newly minted college degree in hand. This used to be enough to land them a job in the field in which they earned their coveted diploma in, but in this day and age students are having trouble finding any job let alone one in their chosen field.

About 9.1 percent of college graduates are unemployed according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia College alumni are not excluded from this frightening statistic and though some are not technically unemployed, they are not working in the field they obtained their degree.

Georgia College alumnus Eric Jones is not unemployed, but is not being paid to work in his specific field of study, which is creative writing.

To earn money, Jones worked as a salesman in a bookstore, wrote book reviews, managed a coffee shop and even worked at a kiosk selling calendars.

Jones knew as he was going through college that it would be difficult to find a job in his field of study upon graduation, but he knew that he wanted to continue his study of creative writing.

Jones drew inspiration from something an assistant professor once told him while he was at Georgia College.

“He said that ‘you are not in school to make money later, but you are there to pursue a passion,’” Jones said.

Jones was prepared not to find a job in his field of study directly after graduation, but he is writing screenplays and hopes to sell one and get enough money to finance the time to write his next one.

“Ideally I want to be able to option a screenplay to pay the difference to write the next screen play. I won’t ever have steady work,” Jones said.

Other students on campus are concerned about their ability to get a job after graduation. Some have changed their major from their true passion to something that they feel will guarantee them a job after they complete college.

“Due to unemployment rates being so high I changed my major from art to marketing, so I can actually get a job (after graduation). I’m considering going to graduate school,” sophomore marketing major Jessica Kelley Karnes said.

“He said that ‘you are not in school to make money later, but you are there to pursue a passion’”

Eric Jones, Georgia College alumnus

Students see graduate school a viable, time-biding option.

“If the economy picks up I’ll be able to get a job,” freshman psychology and political science major Hayley Lambert said. “If it doesn’t, I’ll go to grad school.”

Nine hundred and eighty-eight students were enrolled in Georgia College’s graduate school programs this Spring according to the University System of Georgia’s website. This figure is up from the 891 students who were enrolled in the Spring of 2007.

Others seem more confident that they will be employed in their field of study when they leave college with just their undergraduate degree.

Sophomore nursing major Macey Kurz is one who feels certain that she will be assured a job after graduation.

“I feel like nurses are always needed because people are always sick and on medicine,” Kurz said.

Posted by Bobbi Otis on Feb 28 2011. Filed under Close Up, Special Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.