Recent college graduates face dismal job market

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sheena Moleta wakes up by 9:15 every morning. With her diploma from the University of Central Florida hanging above her computer, the recent marketing graduate logs on to a UCF database to check new listings for jobs in her field.\nThen Moleta, dressed in the white shirt and black pants required for her current sales-manager job, sits on her bedroom floor with several folders. One is filled with copies of her resume. Another lists her job history, complete with addresses and contacts from as far back as high school. Her "Jobs" folder contains listings for the 400 positions she has applied for, the status of the applications and names and numbers for callbacks. The jobs range from salaried positions to hourly wage jobs, everywhere from Casselberry to Chicago.\nDuring her calls, she fidgets -- kneeling, sitting, lying on the floor.\nMoleta figured finding a job in her field would be hard, but not this hard. She thought going to college during the recession meant that, by the time she graduated, jobs would be available and she would be competing with her fellow graduates. Little did she know that once she threw her cap in the air, she and millions like her nationwide would be dueling with those who graduated years before and have patiently waited for their own entry-level positions.\nMoleta, 22, had a picture in her head. Go to college for four years, graduate in the spring, get a job in your career field by summertime. She even completed three internships to showcase "experience" on her resume. But she never planned for a summer in limbo.\n"You know it's going to be hard, but you don't expect to be back where you were four years ago," Moleta said. "I just think that, in the past four years, I grew up and I'm ready, but there's this block."\nJane Cordray-Brandon, director of career services for Rollins College, said that as the job market improves, employers have their pick from "thousands and thousands of kids" looking for work. With the creation of more jobs, more people enter the search, and employers can be very selective in who they hire and the experience they prefer in new employees.\n"There are too many graduates who have been out there for a while that are more qualified ... You've got previous graduates job hopping," Cordray-Brandon said. Their experience from even menial work in their field, she and other employment experts say, gives 2003 graduates an advantage.\nIn Moleta's 20 or so interviews, she has competed with people like Nicole Silver, a 2003 graduate of UCF with a degree in business and a minor in marketing. After graduation, she got experience by interning at a construction firm. When that ended around Christmas, she continued working full time at the Cheesecake Factory, a job she held throughout her senior year of college.\nWhen she's not serving customers she's job-hunting, she said, adding that she's zeroing in on a position she wants.\n"Since I've been out and looking around, there's much more available now than when I graduated," Silver, 23, said. "You realize when you get out of school that your degree doesn't matter and it's all about experience."\nAccording to a survey by MonsterTrak, an online job board for students, 35 percent of 2003 graduates are still looking for a job of any kind, and only 10 percent of 2004 graduates had lined up a job before graduation, said Michelle Forker, senior vice president of Monster Campus, which like MonsterTrak, is part of Monster Worldwide.\nIf the class of 2004 continues that record, Moleta will have company in limbo.\nTyrone Favis Jr., a UCF graduate with a degree in business management, might have to stick it out in the Waterford Lakes Town Center Super Target job he held during college to make rent. The 22-year-old Orlando resident works in the guest services department. When he isn't working, he searches job listings for a management training position and attends UCF employment sessions.\n"I remember thinking at graduation, 'There are all these kids in their caps and gowns, and this is my competition,'" Favis said. "I would love entry-level right now."\nMoleta has received offers for entry-level positions in her field but most have been non-salaried positions with no benefits at less than what she makes in retail. She lowered her salary requirements to $25,000, down from $30,000, a year. She no longer expects an employer to cover moving costs, though her battered 1993 Geo Storm probably couldn't make the trip anyway.\n"You're supposed to go to school and get a job, and now I turn around and I'm exactly where I was four years ago," said Moleta, who worked in a shoe store when she started college. "There's this big gap between going to school and getting a job."\nAnd time is running out, she said. In November, Moleta's bills will jump from $1,000 a month to $1,300 a month because she must start paying on her student loans.\n"She has too much pride to ask me to pay for bills," said her mother, Donna Barnes, adding that her "go-getter" personality can easily frustrate her if she doesn't get what she wants. "When teenagers graduate, they expect, bam, you'll get handed one (a job) and make the big bucks. But she has no experience yet. She has to prove herself."\nFavis thinks having internships like Moleta would have helped distinguish himself from other recent college graduates. His father, Tyrone Favis Sr. thinks so too, but Tyrone Jr., admits he thought he deserved work after spending four years earning a degree.\n"There was a time when I felt entitled (to work), but not anymore," Favis said. "You have to work for a job."\nHis father wants him to succeed and wants to help. He offered to let Tyrone move home to Lakeland, Fla., but the son refused. That's unlike 64 percent of 2004 graduates who planned to move back in with their parents in May, according to MonsterTrak. And half of last year's graduated class still lives at home, Forker said.\nTyrone will accept financial assistance. His father gives him $200 each month for rent. He just dropped off the 2003 Camry Dad loaned Tyrone in exchange for a 1999 blue four-door Saturn he said was a $2,500 late graduation gift.\n"I'm subsidizing my son," Favis Sr. said, adding both he and his son have learned from the experience. "I would think he would land somewhere with good work ... but I've learned it's just going to take time."\nBut Favis and Moleta wonder how long. Moleta is tired of student housing and roommates who change with every semester. Before work, she grabs the phone and her sticky notes (hot pink notes mean "very important") and scans the list: call Gold Coast Beverage Distributors about job. Call Laura and Christine for outside sales position at ADP. Call Patrick from Chipotle for local store marketing coordinator position and phone interview.\nDuring a nearly 40-minute phone interview with the Chipotle representative, Moleta describes herself as "driven," "aggressive" and "motivated." In sales, she tells the interviewer, it's all about customer service and making yourself available. Call people by their first name. And, yes, she handles change well. After the interview, she rests on the floor. She expected to schedule an interview, not launch into one this morning. But it's OK. She still has enough time to make it to work at BCBG by 12:30 p.m.\nShe checks her messages on her break. She's been asked to meet Chipotle's regional director. The next day, after her meeting, she heads to the Chipotle on University Boulevard to try some Mexican food. She has to eat the product before she can sell it.\nHer mother said that's classic Sheena. She can't sell something she doesn't believe in. Now she has to sell herself.