CONGRATS Class of 2014!

You now have exactly 6 months from whenever your graduation date was back in May to find a job and start socking away money before you have to start paying back your college loans.

As many of you recent grads have probably discovered, finding a job in today's economy is hard. Especially one that will pay you well out of the starting gate but will also be a good learning opportunity for you. You think to yourself, I have done internships, taken extra classes within my field that interest me, and worked hard for the last 4 years....and now I can't even find a job, or at least a decent one to pay back those college loans. However, for many of you graduates you may have had one lined up by sheer luck or just an exceedingly good internship that lead to a job. Congrats to you. For the rest of you, don't give up hope.

I won't be graduating until May 2015 but I am already prowling job sites looking to see if there is anything out there for me right now that may be around when I graduate. The pressure is on. I chose to go to a private college to get my specialized degree - and a minor which I managed to work in there as well - but nonetheless I have a pile of debt stacking up on the counter right next to me. As I search the internet, utilize the schools job and internship search pages, and professional networking websites, I am finding that my ability to get a job is less and less. Many of the jobs which I have some interest in, especially after doing my internship for just over a month now, require candidates to have 3-5 years of prior experience. So...basically anyone except for college graduates. On top of that, some job postings require that applicants have a Master's degree as well. I want a job that is going to relate to my degree - which I haven't mentioned yet but I will - but that will also be a good learning experience as a beginner in the real world, and pay somewhat decently.

So like I said I would tell you about my major, get ready it's a mouthful...I am a Management Major with a Specialization in Equine Business Management, and I minored in Biology. The two go hand in hand together, thanks to the awesome Equine Science classes I took which provided me with more knowledge than I ever had going into this degree as well as knowledge and info I can take back to all my friends who have horses, who may not have gotten that extensive education. The biology classes were fun and I enjoyed taking them and some related to those Equine Science classes which I found beneficial. I attempted to double major but my Management major is so tightly jam packed with mandatory courses before graduation that it was deemed impossible without adding more semesters (like anyone wants to be there any longer than necessary or pay any more tuition bills on top of the 4 years worth you already have...right?!). So as I browse the internet looking for management jobs in the horse industry, or even just some basic management styled jobs working with marketing or customer care, I'm finding I don't know as much as I thought I did, and that even with my internship, the lack of knowledge I have about each of these industries based on the job duties and responsibilities listed is astounding. Yeah I have taken some marketing classes...I learned to market something that was actually completely unsuccessful and I had one of the worst groups imaginable. Yeah I have worked in retail for 6 years and I have learned how to provide customer service and market products so that consumers will buy them, and yes I am working on marketing projects for a foundation that I am working for plus I am working on a cause marketing project for them...but none of that seems to matter. So what do I do now....my classes are locked in for the Fall Semester of my Senior Year, my Spring Semester is undetermined besides two classes that again are mandatory as a part of my degree program. Do I take on extra classes that are available in order to get a better prospective? Do I take on that internship I was basically given at our Management Symposium? Do I look for an internship that will actually meet all the requirements that I might need and give me the experience I need to get a job?

Like the stunned and dazed recent graduates, I am so lost. I am contemplating whether I did the right thing and took the right courses. When I look back, I took every course that was necessary and fit in my schedule, I finished my minor in record time, and still worked my degree courses in there. I landed an awesome internship that is providing me with more knowledge and I am working for a company that has given me some outstanding work ethic, as well as some real world real job skills. But what I am hoping is that in the end I can find a job where learning will be first and I can become good at that job with the support of an encouraging team of staff and that will pay me somewhat well for being a beginning professional in the industry. Like every other rising Senior or recent graduate...our summer jobs or part-time jobs are not our careers, they are as stated summer and part-time jobs. But I'm not giving up hope and neither should you.

If anyone has any advice please send it my way by commenting on this post.