The Fate of the Class of '09

What goes up must come down. And, generally speaking, the opposite is true. I trust that, eventually, the economy will improve, and new jobs will be created (or rather, old ones will return). My fear is that by the time this happens, a new crop of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, fresh-off-campus graduates will have arrived, ready to take those entry-level positions. What's to become of the post-grads who have been toiling away for a year or more? There are two not-so-optimistic scenarios I see playing out.

The first is that, in an interview, I am asked what I have done with in the past dozen months or so, and that my answer will not be enough, proving that I am not worth hiring because I've been unemployed.

The second is that I do manage to keep myself employed, with part-time, temporary projects which prove that I am capable. However, they also make me more experienced than this year's batch of graduates, making me possibly more expense to hire.

So in one case, not worth hiring. In the other, too worth hiring. Of course, this is a symptom of my paranoid tendencies, but I can't help thinking there's a little bit of truth to it. After all, there are only going to be so many jobs, and the number of people waiting to take them will always be higher. I wonder how the class of '09 will fare in the grand scheme of things. Will we emerge from this depressing graduating climate wiser for the experience, or battle-scarred with no health insurance?

Only time will tell.