They’ve graduated college; now what?

Graduates from the region’s colleges and universities this spring face an uncertain future, with a shrinking economy and growing unemployment. Editorial writer Marjorie Miller talked to some of them about their ambitions and setbacks. These are edited transcripts of her interviews.

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JD, UCLA Law School

Jeremy Carr, 26

Last summer, I worked for a corporate law firm in Manhattan, and I was supposed to go to work for them when I graduated. But then the firm went bankrupt in December. There have been massive layoffs of junior and senior associates from law firms all over, and so many experienced people have been pushed into the pipeline looking for jobs. So I’ve decided to go to Tanzania to do an internship for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It’s not paid, so I’ll stay as long as I can afford to, about four to 12 months.

All through law school I was interested in becoming a prosecutor. I did a lot of course work to prepare for that, and a criminal international justice clinic at school. I did an internship at the L.A. district attorney’s office, which I really enjoyed. But you know corporate and litigation firms come to interview, and when you’re 25 and someone tells you they’ll pay $3,000 a week in summer and $160,000 when you graduate, it’s hard to say no to that. It wasn’t ever a burning desire of mine to write memos on federal banking law, but I hoped I would be able to pay off my loans over a couple years and try to get back to something I really cared about.

Payments on my student loans are deferred until January, when they’ll be $1,100 a month. But for now, I’ll go to Africa and use my remaining savings to do one last super-fun and interesting thing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in something special. I’m hopeful and excited.

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Rosny Daniel, 21

BS, biochemistry,

Occidental College

I was pre-med, and I hope to go to medical school in 2010. In the meantime, I’m looking for a job in the medical or science field, something that looks good on an application. It seems like research labs aren’t hiring, and there are hardly any entry-level jobs anymore. Every job asks for two to three years’ experience.

Research isn’t like customer service, where you can just go to a store and fill out an application. My strategy was to go through CareerBuilder and Monster, and I’ve applied to around 20 places in the last three weeks. But my mom just sent me an e-mail with an economics story talking about how so many people apply for those jobs that it’s hard to get noticed. Meanwhile, it turns out a lot of times the jobs are really already filled, but they’re posted for technical or legal reasons.

So now I am taking a new approach and trying to go through people I know. My father is a physician, and I’m trying to talk to people he’s worked with. I worked with a professor at USC, so I’ll see who he knows. Now I really think it’s not what you know, but who you know.

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Emily Kemper, 30

MS, building science, School of Architecture, USC

Iworked as an architect for several years before going back to school for a post-professional degree. I studied sustainability and green design and envisioned that this degree would help me launch an alternative career, either in green design consulting or working in a traditional architecture firm in a specialized position. I have gotten a lot of bites, and employers are excited when they see my previous seven years’ experience, but unfortunately the building industry has taken a big hit in this economy and I haven’t gotten a job. I knew things would be bad, and I managed to finish my thesis research early to start looking for a job in February, but I haven’t found anything yet.

I have friends who live and work all over the country, and I can’t tell you how many have lost jobs or reduced their hours, because I’ve lost count. They’re in every major market, but especially here in Los Angeles.

While I’m looking for work, I have developed a website to teach homeowners how to save energy in their homes with renovation design strategies (greendesigncollective.com). There’s a blog attached, so I’ve stayed busy blogging and talking about ways to save energy, recycle, save money. But none of that makes any money. I’ve got savings that I’m going to be able to live off of for a little while. My lease is up at the end of the month, though, and I’m not going to renew because I don’t want to lock myself in. I’m going to start couch-surfing, living like an undergrad again.

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Brian Riley, 21

California State Polytechnic University, postponed graduation until fall semester

As the economy worsened, I saw many graduates scrambling to find jobs, and I realized that now was the time to take my future into my own hands. I had always been very entrepreneurial, and I had my eye open for opportunities. In the spring of 2008, I met Andrew Ouellet, a mechanical engineering student at Cal Poly who had developed a braking system for bicycles that made biking a lot safer. My grandpa was seriously injured in a bicycle accident when he had to stop suddenly and flipped over the handlebars. So I had a personal interest in seeing Andrew’s invention succeed. I figured that bicycles were more of a recession-proof product than other things, because in most of the world they are used for transportation. We began brainstorming how we would bring this product to market while still in school. Several experienced business people helped mentor us. Then I decided to take a quarter off of school and delay my graduation to focus on this opportunity, rather than looking for a job like other students. This took a little bit of convincing my parents, but they were supportive. In the past few months, things have gained a lot of momentum. I have one more quarter of school, and I’m hoping that I won’t ever have to be at the mercy of the job market, because I think right now the world needs to be pushed forward through entrepreneurship and innovation.

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Carmela Brito, 22

BA, psychology, California State University, Los Angeles

My dream job would be doing community outreach. I want to get my master’s in social work and work with children and families in a nonprofit or the court system. I want to go to graduate school, but it’s so expensive, so I took a year off to work and save money, but there aren’t a lot of opportunities. I started looking before spring quarter, in early March, because I had a lot of friends who had graduated two quarters before me and they still didn’t have work, and now I’m in the same situation.

I’ve been doing an unpaid internship at the children’s court in Monterey Park for three months, working in a therapy program for abused children waiting for court hearings. But they’re not accepting applications for full-time jobs because of the freeze. I’m trying to be patient and trying to stay there so that when the freeze is lifted and they have a job, I can apply and maybe have an advantage.

I really thought there would be a lot more opportunities. I’ve gone to job fairs, but they’re not offering jobs, they’re offering training sessions to help us get jobs. What jobs? There aren’t any for recent college graduates.

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Maritza Arevalo, 30

MS, counseling, California Lutheran University

About 60 students graduated with a degree in my program. Three, who were teachers previously, got jobs, and maybe two others have gone to work in school counseling. The rest of the class doesn’t have work. I did internships for more than a year at a middle school in Oxnard, a community college in Glendale and a high school in West Hills, but none are hiring. Instead, the school counselors started getting pink slips just like the teachers. The schools are trying to save the positions of the counselors they have.

Now I’m switching from looking for counseling work to social services. I used to do social work before getting a master’s, so I’m kind of going backward. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go to human resources and from there basically anywhere. I need a job. I’m pretty stuck. I have student loans to pay back.

I changed my field, hoping it would be for the best, that I’d make more money and be less stressed about finances and be able to have a family in the future. Right now, I cannot even think about purchasing a house, and I’m back where I was. It’s not fun. At the same time, it is a little comforting knowing my friends are in the same boat. We are a group of five girls and we go for coffee to vent once a month. Some are married, some have children, some live at home, but we’re all going through the same thing.

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Elya Filler, 21

BA, global studies, UCLA

Originally, I thought I would get a job with a company or go into nonprofit work, but a lot of my friends were interested in doing the same thing and no one was getting hired. After I studied in China last summer, I got the idea to go abroad to teach English.

I heard that the best opportunities were in Korea. They pay airfare, accommodations, a decent salary and they don’t require a teaching certificate. So I decided to do that. I got a job at a private school in Seoul. My boyfriend and I both got jobs there. I figure I’ll go for a year, see how the job market is after that.