How I Found My First Big Job

From the Wall Street Journal

There are at least a few success stories among the masses of unemployed 20-somethings. But those successes are taking a long time to achieve.

For today's college graduates, the message is clear: If you want a job, the best thing you can do is build a career in rigorous disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math, Joe Light reports on Markets Hub. Photo: AP.

Among employed recent college graduates, just 69% landed their job within six months of graduation, according to a May report by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey. For those without a college degree, the lead time can be even longer, experts say, as college graduates snap up the few opportunities that their non-college-educated counterparts might otherwise have had.

Two recent college graduates and one recent high-school grad describe their job hunts, and explain how they finally landed that first big job:

Taylor Hertsenberg, 23 years old, Austin, Texas. Regional marketing coordinator at technology company National Instruments.

Robert Pizzo

I transferred to [University of Texas] my sophomore year and declared myself a radio, TV and film major. I realized that it would be very difficult to get a job after college, so I did a lot of internships.

I started looking for jobs in March or April [of senior year]. I probably filled out 20 to 25 [applications] senior year. In total, [I submitted] at least 100. I stayed in Austin [after graduation]. I was an independent contractor at Ivy Worldwide Inc., a social-media marketing company, and was paid $10 an hour, about 15 hours a week.

I saw Facebook was doing a recruiting event on campus. I ended up getting a callback. I kept thinking I was getting closer and closer, so I put a hold on applying for other jobs. I was foolish. After I found out that I didn't get that job, I went through a period when I was losing sleep.

25-year-old Cody Preston has no college degree and had to move back in with his parents after going from job to job and landing in a low-paying and unsteady machinist job. WSJ's Conor Dougherty reports.

I wasn't making enough to support myself, so I was trying to find part-time positions with absolutely anything. I had a friend who had worked at a Starbucks on campus, and she helped me get a position [there]. That [on-campus location] just made it 10 times worse because I was seeing these familiar faces.

In October of 2010, I handed my résumé in [to National Instruments]. At the beginning of 2011, I got an email from a woman at National Instruments asking if I was looking for a full-time position. About a week or two later, we had a phone interview. [Then] I came in for an interview. I started at the end of February.

Elizabeth Kushel, 23, New York. Assistant for national publicity at entertainment public-relations company Strategy PR/Consulting.

The Faces of Generation Jobless

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Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

John Dodge is an insurance salesman with Aflac in Baton Rouge, La.

Young Men Feel Job-Market Pain

Cody Preston, 25, searches online for jobs at his parents' home in Milwaukie, Ore.

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Leah Nash for The Wall Street Journal

I graduated in 2010 from the University of Pennsylvania, double-majoring in communications and cinema studies.

Some students are growing more skeptical of the investment return of an undergraduate college education, discouraged as they see recent graduates struggle to find jobs and increasingly default on their loans. Melissa Korn has details on Lunch Break.

I waited [to look for a job] until the spring [of senior year]. I interviewed at entertainment companies, but maybe in a sales division, advertising—things like that. I was trying to be open to everything.

After graduation, I spent some time with my mom and dad at home in Great Neck, N.Y. I was looking for a job, but I also was kind of taking a break from doing work, from school.

Then, my friend forwarded me an email for an internship at [film public-relations company] Peggy Siegal Co. She thought it would be perfect for me, so I applied. It started out nonpaid, but they paid me starting in November. Then, I got another internship at the Tribeca Film Festival, working as an assistant for the VP of communications.

Ask hedge fund manager Daniel Ades about the future for recent college graduates and he likes to draw a picture, a very ugly picture. WSJ's Dennis Berman discusses the topic with Mean Street host Evan Newmark. AP Photo.

I had met someone doing an event at Peggy Siegal, and then again at the Tribeca Film Festival. We had exchanged contact info. She [said], "We have this job opening, I think you'd be a great fit."

I started in May. I worked at 42West (another P.R. firm) for a few months, and then started a job at Strategy PR/Consulting in September. I'm definitely happy this is where I ended up.

Isiah Vinters, age 21, Hartford, Conn. Works in the produce department at Shop Rite supermarket.

I worked at Burlington Coat Factory in East Hartford last year when I started with OPP (Our Piece of the Pie, a Hartford organization that helps urban youth advance their career and education goals). I was there for about four months.