Rough job market changes grads’ plans

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With unemployment hovering around 9.1 percent, BYU grads face challenges and often a change in plan as they work toward financial security.

Chris Francia graduated in media art studies in June and although he was able to freelance for several news companies, he has yet to find a company willing to hire him full time.

“My career path in entertainment and television is exceptionally hard to enter, especially as companies are cutting back and doing whatever they can to avoid paying benefits,” Francia said. “The result is a lot of highly experienced entertainment journalists are flooding the freelance market and replacing those of us just barely entering the field.”

Francia said his main focus right now is networking out in the Northeast where he lives with his family.

“Most graduates can’t afford to move to a city and spend several months job searching and networking,” he said. “Thankfully, my parents live in the area I need to be in, but I’ve noticed with some of my friends that they have to settle for a lower job because they can’t afford to stay and look for higher paying jobs.”

Amy Gordon, graduated in 2010, also found herself in the Northeast after interviewing at five locations around the country.

“I graduated in a very tangible and specific skill — engineering,” Gordon said. “It was tough finding a job and I had to interview at many, many places and didn’t get an offer from many of the places I anticipated, but the job I did get was with a company I had interned for so that probably was what helped me to get my foot in the door.”

Gordon said she has friends who have not been as lucky as she has.

“I’ve watched many of my friends struggle to find work,” she said.

Brian Harker graduated in  2009 in Middle East studies and Arabic and didn’t anticipate going to graduate school.

“I wanted to go into teaching Arabic,” Harker said. “I felt confident as I graduated that I would succeed given my experience.”

Harker spent several semesters as a student teacher at BYU then teaching Arabic at a local high school before he moved from Provo to Washington.

“I love D.C. but I hate my program and I’m just not the kind of person that can pursue something I don’t enjoy,” he said. “I just never planned on coming to graduate school and I just sort of defaulted on it because I hoped a master’s degree would help me get a stable job.”

Harker is currently gaining more opportunities to teach Arabic at American University where he’s studying and hopes to come to a point where he can quit his graduate program.

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