Finding Jobs in a Shrinking Economy

Nathan Harris

The process is tense, grueling, and occasionally painful, but necessary. It is traditionally a college graduate’s first plunge into the depths of the “real world.” But the post-college job search is difficult, and for some, especially in Michigan, close to impossible.

Alex Scott graduated from MSU’s School of Journalism in May of this year, and, after what he called a short break, began his job search. It has now been over five months, with few results.

“I haven’t even had an interview yet,” he said.

Scott said the closest he has come has been a promise of future consideration from Gamepro.com.

Despite a college degree and internship and other work experience Scott is now working for the father of a friend at a landscaping company.

“It’s decent work, it’s just not using what I went to school for five years to do,” he said. “I’m not going to complain at all, because it’s a paycheck.”

Scott said he has been applying for jobs in any field he has some experience, but the continued rejection is beginning to affect him.

“It sounds stupid and wimpy, but it really hurts your self worth. It really drags on you,” he said. “It just makes finding a job that much harder”

Matt Lieber, also a spring 2007 graduate from the School of Journalism, said he blamed his current joblessness, at least in part, on lack of the right kind of experience.

“I, like many people, just assumed that after graduation, something would just fall into place,” Lieber said.

Lieber is the founder of the Spartan Weekly, MSU’s satirical online paper. He was the paper’s editor for two years.

He did not complete an external internship, now a requirement for School of Journalism grads. He said he thought the experience he had gained with the Spartan Weekly would be enough. So far, that has not been true.

Lieber is searching for a career related to his journalism degree, but is spending much of his time proofreading term papers for those still in college.          

He said that he has used tools like Monster.com and Craigslist, but with no success to date, and that he is now pursuing an internship near Royal Oak, MI, where he now lives.

“I love that I graduated from college with two degrees and now I’m desperately hoping for an internship,” Lieber said, the sarcasm evident.

Lieber divides his friends into two categories, those that graduated college with networks of people to rely on and connections in the professional world, and those, like him, who did not. He said he considered this a factor in finding a job just outside of college.

In Scott’s mind, the difficult job market is a systemic problem, and one that is unique to Michigan at present.

“I don’t want to leave the state, but I don’t really think I have much of a choice any more,” said Scott.

Michigan’s dire economic straits, the “one-state recession” of news coverage, have left the state with the nation’s highest unemployment, over a percent above 2nd place Alaska, according to a CNN report.

Manufacturing is leaving the state, Scott said, never to return, and the economy that has been built up around it is being shaken to its core.

The economy has been severely mishandled by a state legislature more concerned with partisan bickering and a governor more concerned with displays of power than the welfare of their constituents.

“We’re on the Titanic with buckets right now,” said Scott, referring to insufficient efforts by Michigan’s government to help the economy and job market.

The combination of all these factors has been poisonous to job seekers. An annual report from the Collegiate Employment Research Institute, housed on-campus at Michigan State, seeks to let job-seeking graduates know where the “action” is. This year, the Great Lakes region was listed as a hotspot, but, next to the heading, in parentheses, were the words “except Michigan.”

It is difficult to overstate the difficulties faced by new graduates seeking jobs, but it should not be thought that post-college jobs are completely unavailable.

Kaveh Mohmand graduated at the end of the 2006 fall semester with a degree in marketing. He is currently working at Quicken Loans, an internet based financial company headquartered in Livonia, Mich.

Mohmand said he exploited all of his assets: Monster and other career sites, like Lieber, but also friends’ parents and others he had connections to.

“I took the anywhere and everywhere approach,” he said.

Mohmand was further restricted by a need to stay in Michigan for family and a fiancée.

“It was stressful at points,” he said. “It was hard to find something that would fit my skill set, what I was trying to do.”

He said Quicken loans is one of the few companies in Michigan that is actually expanding its workforce, and that he thinks the firm’s nationwide customer base, through its website, is a major reason the Michigan-based company is doing well enough to make new hires.

Mohmand’s success may be the result of a focused and proactive job search, or it may be an aberration in a complex and flawed system, but, whatever his unique combination of circumstances, it left him with a job.

For some, like Lieber and Scott, the career question is one that does not have an easy answer. There are answers that address the economy, training, networks, and individual drive, but none of these touches the feelings of frustration and impotence that come with being unable to achieve, no matter how much effort is put forth.

“If you have months and months of not finding anything at all, and not even getting any recognition for it, it wears on you,” said Scott. “And it hurts.”