By Smriti Rao
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession is “very likely over,” the Dow swaggers to the top of the 10,000 mark, and Obama is confident the worst is behind us. So why does it still hurt so bad? If you are one of the millions in America looking for a job in this economy, it’s hard to believe the pundits. “Employment is a lagging indicator,” they assure us, speaking like parents chiding a child for not eating his greens.
But if there ain’t no green in the pocket, it’s hard to swallow what they say. Everywhere, the stories are the same—making us wonder, is the economy really recovering?
“It’s a really bad market,” says Wonyoung Hong, a taxation major at New York’s Fordham University who moved from Korea last year. “Really impossible to get a job. A lot of my friends were fired at the end of last year; they’re still looking for jobs. They all have good backgrounds, experience, and most went to school here. When I see such qualified people struggling, I feel it will be more difficult for me.”
Hong, 27, graduates next month and going by her description of her summer internship application process, she is ready for “hell.”
“I sent out 40 to 50 resumes to different accounting firms,” she notes gloomily. “Most didn’t even reply. It’s depressing and time-consuming.” She finally landed her current internship through her college professor. The experience of wading through a brutal job market, however, has shaken her.
Since the recession began almost two years ago, the economy has shed 7 million jobs. Whole industries—auto, housing, finance—have been decimated. And while students like Hong spend their afternoons studying and fretting about graduation, there are scores getting fired, working unpaid internships or agonizing about the U.S. jobless rate—which in September, hit a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.
As the unemployment typhoon rages outside, other students like Jacky Ahn are safely boarded up in college. The 21-year-old graduates next May, but knows it will still be choppy outside.
“I went to the career fair organized by Columbia University last year; there were a lot of companies. This year, there was a significant drop in potential employers,” says Ahn, noting that Google and some other financial and consulting firms were conspicuously absent this year. Macroblog, a website by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that tracks economic trends, revealed that at the end of August, there were estimated to be fewer than 2.4 million job openings.
“There is definitely a sense of anxiety for students, recent graduates,” says Caroline Ceniza-Levine, co-founder of SixFigureStart, a career-coaching firm comprised of former Fortune 500 recruiters. “People are hearing that jobs are picking up, but they’re getting mixed messages. And, a lot of them have some very big decisions to make—having to settle down or move back home.”
For Ahn, who was born in the United States but grew up in Korea, going back to Asia is not an option. “I want to stay on. I want to work in New York.” Her only choice, therefore, is to start the job hunt early and the number one rule, according to career counselors, is to go for broke and find an internship.
“In booming times, if you had an internship, you would [eventually] get hired by the company,” says Ceniza-Levine. “But even in a down market, an internship still puts you at an advantage.” She urges students and recent grads to take up freelance work, temp jobs and unpaid internships in order to put something—anything—down on the resume that shows “that you are still in the game, not sitting on the couch.”
For students or recent graduates looking to enter the market, it also pays to know what sort of job one is looking for. “I applied for everything!” says Kimberly Ma, a recent college graduate who now works as a waitress in Manhattan. “Even if I was not qualified for the job, I sent the application in. Any job would be good at this point.”
Ceniza-Levine says that this approach is more harmful than helpful. “There is nervousness about being specific,” she says. “People apply to everything and that hinders your prospects. Be focused. It makes you sound like you know what you’re talking about.”
Korean American job seekers can also try a stint working in the motherland.
“There is no more prestige working in the United States compared to working in Asia,” says Chris Yoon, a 28-year-old Columbia Business School graduate, who now works at a private equity firm in Seoul. “In the past, Asian market deals were small, shady, not well organized. It took American bankers to finish the job. But not anymore. The Asian market is doing so much better than the U.S. market, and the deals are bigger here now.”
David Huh, 32, a Korean American who works in a global financial services firm in Seoul, adds that young graduates should look at the recession as a great opportunity to return to their roots.
“Most of my classmates who came from Korea wanted to stay in New York, or at least in the States, as they believed they could learn a lot from the work experience,” says Huh, who is also a graduate of Columbia. “Some Korean people even regarded going back to Korea right after graduation as a kind of failure.” Both Huh and Yoon dismiss that notion.
Also, “proficiency in English is regarded as a very important skill in Korea, especially in the business world. Naturally, this leads to better job opportunities overall,” Huh says, adding that Koreans appreciate American degrees and would welcome potential employees with a solid education, English fluency and the relevant background.
Yoon also believes that in Korea, recent graduates don’t have to battle the notorious bamboo ceiling. “Unless you’re in the top 1 percent, with a crazy pedigree and pretty much white, you won’t get too far,” he says, referring to the perceived glass ceiling in corporate America for Asians. “Why put up with the racial stuff in the U.S. when you can feel at home and safe and do the same things and make the same kind of money in [Korea]? I would encourage new graduates to expand their scope and look for jobs in Asia.”
International students looking to stay on in the States, however, have more than a glass ceiling to confront. The reality is that the pool of job openings is going to be significantly smaller for non-citizens. “When you walk into an interview, the first question they ask is, ‘What’s your visa status?’” says Wonyoung Hong, the Fordham student from Korea. “That’s when you know it’s over!”
Caroline Ceniza-Levine advises international students not to get discouraged by the limited job opportunities. “You have to be better,” she says. She believes the approach that works best in this market is having a bold attitude. “That is harder for some of my Asian clients,” says Ceniza-Levine. “Some are shyer than the others. You have to do some heavy-duty networking. It’s a very sales and marketing oriented approach.”
For now, soft-spoken Hong is gearing up for a gritty month until her December graduation. While she continues to scout job openings, the native Korean is using her downtime to boost her English skills.
“Going back is not such a bad option,” she says. “The job market [in Korea] is not as bad; at least I am not a foreigner there. I have a network, family and friends. If opportunities here are not really good, then it’s really hard to justify staying here, paying high rent.”
As she keeps her options open, the clock is ticking for other students as extra cash runs dry and loans start to kick in. And despite what Ben, Barack and the Dow say, it’s going to be a long, hard winter.
