New Graduates Face Tough Market

Golda Sharpe is just one of thousands of new college graduates struggling to find a job in today's economy.

It’s the middle of May, and that means thousands of new college graduates are facing one tough question: “Do you have a job lined up?”

“It’s in the works. I’m waiting for responses from several jobs right now.”

“I’m off to law school.”

“I currently work at Star Package liquor store here in Oxford. But I haven’t lined up another one, outside of that.”

That was Arlin Pearson, Dominique Mayfield, and Matt Rutherford, just minutes after receiving their diplomas from the University of Mississippi last Saturday. With unemployment continuing to rise, trying to find that first job in the real world is harder than ever. MPB’S Cari Gervin has a look at what one recent graduate is experiencing.

It’s two weeks before graduation, and Golda Sharpe has no idea what she’s doing with her life.

“I’ve applied with Enterprise, I’ve applied for a government job, I’ve applied for a teaching position, and I’ve also applied for an associate director position out of a non-profit.”

Sharpe is about to graduate cum laude from Ole Miss with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She’s been looking for a job for three months already, with no success.

Sharpe is intelligent and articulate, confident and poised. She has a resume full of internships, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. In short, she’s the kind of candidate you’d think prospective employers would be beating down the door for.

But not this year.

“It’s tough. It’s just tough out there.”

And as an economics major, Sharpe is in a good position to understand what’s going on.

“The economy is bad. So the job process is going to be a little bit longer. I’ve just been kind of hitting a broad range of career fields. And I’m not really focused on one specific field because the, the market is so volatile right now.”

While she’s waiting to hear back from the FBI and Enterprise, Sharpe is also weighing getting her Master’s in economics – she’s been accepted at Ole Miss – or joining the Mississippi Teacher Corps – she’s been accepted there too. Sharpe just isn’t sure what’s the best course for her to take.

“So I’m continuing my job search process down to the wire, so that I can have as many options available to me.”

Sharpe is lucky to have options – at least, that’s what Toni Avant thinks. She’s been the director of the career center at Ole Miss for close to a decade, and she says recruiting is way, way down.

“Last year, an organization may have tried to recruit five to seven to 10 students to come and work. This year, they may only be looking for one candidate.”

Even worse – not all the companies that are recruiting are hiring.

“We’ve had some students who’ve made it all the way up to the last interview, and the company has said, you know, ‘We regret to inform you that we’re not able to take your search any further because of a hiring freeze.’ And that did not happen last year.”

“It is only left then for me to say that the 2009 commencement ceremony for the College of Liberal Arts is now concluded. Thank you all for being here."

As black mortarboards fly in the air, a sea of new graduates searches for their friends and families. There are discussions of dinner and parties and a lot of people trying to figure out where to return the gowns. For one night, anyway, it’s ok to not worry about the future and just celebrate finishing school.

Besides, most of graduates still have no idea what they’re doing. Take Natalie Marrar. Like everyone else, she’s still looking for a job.

“Something with my major, like sociology. But I doubt I’ll find anything just as soon. But I have, I guess, a certificate to teach English overseas, as a second language. So I’ll probably stick with that.”

In her shiny black patent heels, Golda Sharpe takes it all in stride, proudly waving her diploma case around. But the next day, curled up in jeans in her apartment, she seems almost melancholy.

“My feelings are really … it hasn’t hit me yet. It’s kind of, still fresh in my mind.”

Still, in the past few days, Sharpe has made up her mind. She’s taking a few weeks off – she’ll visit her family in Clarksdale, and catch up on some reading. She says she might get a dog.

Then, in June, Sharpe will start training to teach algebra at North Panola High School as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

“With the economy the way it is, I figured that it’s a good time to kind of take a break and maybe try something different that I had never thought about ever doing. I never thought I wanted to be a teacher, but maybe it’s the right thing for me now.”

Sharpe hopes by the time her two-year commitment ends, the economy will be better. And maybe then, she says, she’ll start her job hunt all over again. Or maybe go back to school.

Maybe then, she says, she’ll know what she’s doing with the rest of her life. For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.