Do you know the new systems?  I learn very quickly, you reply.  You’ve lost this job already. You can feel it. You’ve never felt like “yesterdays news” before. Whenever you interviewed for a job that you wanted, you got it. Now they won’t even meet with you. Chances are there will be several phone interviews by their assistants before you’ll ever meet anyone face to face. The money for the positions you’ve held in the past is lower now, and what you would not have considered doing a year ago is now at the top of your list, for here you are, applying at “Trader Joe’s” for part time work. You’ve had to dumb down your resume for practically any interview, only to be seen by a manager who’s looking for someone to stock shelves in the middle of the night or answer the phone!  Welcome to the new job market.

Everything has changed. Your buddies, like yourself, had to move out of expensive apartments and return to their bedrooms at home. Girlfriends stuck around until the money ran out, and you find yourself repeating what you did in
high school; throwing darts at your old dart board and watching a lot of porn on your MAC.
It’s maddening, but not impossible to find a job in your field. Depending on your area of expertise, you can count on getting hired for less than what you received six years ago. That’s a reality. Don’t let it throw you. Many recruiters that I
have talked to are saying that employers are putting all new hires on a year’s probation, for the simple fact that many job seekers find employment only to find a better job and quit.  Others are waiting until something better comes along, and yet, depending on the need, many will stay with the company that hires them and hope that after a few years the salaries and benefits will match their expectations.

According to a survey of college graduates, co-authored by Cliff Zukin, a Rutgers University political science and public policy professor, the Great Recession has hit them the hardest. “The median starting salary for those who graduated between 2006 and 2008 was thirty thousand. For the 2009 and 2010 grads, it dipped to twenty seven thousand. And women graduates continued to make less than men.” Zukin said that with future salaries dependent on the initial one. It could mean the recent grads will have lower earnings throughout their careers.