When I graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in Communication and Media Studies, I was lucky enough to already have a job at a major TV network. Many of my friends and classmates weren’t as lucky, and when I was laid off a year later – I felt their pain. For eight months after that, I worked part time at a restaurant as a hostess and applied for more jobs than I can count.
According to a NY Times article last May, class of 2010 and 2011 graduates have slightly better chances of finding a job than the class of 2008 and 2009. But it’s still rough out there. Some graduates are unemployed while others are making less than graduates from the previous years or working in jobs that don’t require a college education.
I sat down with three recent college grads. They don’t know each other. They went to different schools and earned different degrees, but the disappointment they faced when they couldn’t find a job was similar.
Here’s what they had to say and what they are doing with their lives now.