Five Questions

I recently had a conversation with one of my friends, Rusty Walters, who graduated from Towson last year. I asked him to answer some questions for me. What he had to say wasn't anything I hadn't heard before yet it certainly didn't make me feel better about the job market.

Me: When did you graduate from college?

R: December - 2007.

Me: What did you do after you graduated?

R: I saved up money for a few months and took a few months off to travel and work on a marine conservation project in Fiji.

Me: Was it hard for you to find a job?

R: Surprisingly no. I was very fortunate and my current job just kind of fell into place for me. If it weren't for this position open however, I think it would of been very difficult, at least to find something that I wanted to do. All of my friends in this industry were having problems. The only people who seemed to be getting jobs pretty easily were teachers and nurses.

Me: Do you think it will be hard for students graduating in the next few months to find a job?

R: I would not want to looking for a job now. Everyone seems to being laying people off, not hiring. I know we haven't hired anyone since September and probably won't any time soon. When I read stories about middle-aged people going back to interning for free, just to get into another field that may lead to a job, that scares me.

Me: What advise can you offer college students or college graduates that will help them find a job out of college?

R: Get online. Sites like Twitter, Linkedin, and even Facebook now are great for networking with people. You can do a lot for yourself by showing your intelligence through these sites. There are TONS of executives using them heavily, and interacting with everyone. Get involved in conversation online with them and you'd be surprised. They are also great opportunities to find job listings.

So as you can see, by blogging and getting involved with Twitter, we are all probably in the best position we can be, economic crisis aside. So keep blogging, keep tweeting, and the rest, hopefully, will fall into place.