By SARI ZEIDLER
The high-tech bubble burst, followed by the psychic -- and economic --
damage wrought by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Finally, the
housing market collapsed, leading the U.S. to the "Great Recession" of
2008-2009.
The economic hard times have left many children of the '90s wondering
whether the lessons they were taught about the workaday world still apply, as
scores of 20-somethings find themselves closed out of the job market,
even when they hold high-level college degrees.
"Most of my free time I sit with a laptop computer in front of the
television when I just want to relax. I also do it on my lunch break,"
Claire Bartkus said of her ongoing job search.
Subhed: Hardship
and hope
Bartkus, a Mepham High school alumna born and raised in North
Merrick, who graduated with a master's degree in education from SUNY
Albany in December, said she went to college with a plan to become a
high school science teacher. She earned her bachelor's in biology from
Albany while serving as vice president of her school's chapter of the
National Leadership Honor Society. The semester after graduation, she
started graduate school full-time.
Bartkus is a long-term substitute-teacher at an Albany area middle
school. But her dream is to return to her native Long Island and land a
full-time teaching job here.
"I do want to go back to Long Island . It's my dream," she said. "The
way I envisioned myself was teaching in Mepham and coaching a Mepham
team."
Ideally, she said, she would return to live in Merrick, but limited
job opportunities are forcing Bartkus to re-evaluate her priorities and
possibly see a different version of her future than the one she planned
for.
"Two years ago, I was expecting to be employed; now I'm expecting to
sub for a year or two and have a master's, which upsets me," she said.
"It's hard because I know that I can't control it. It's really disheartening."
Bartkus lives in an apartment with a roommate and works two jobs
because she said neither one pays enough to cover her rent and life
expenses.
Others, like fellow Mepham graduate David Genn, are moving back with
parents, or like Merokean Kayley Oshan, are taking jobs in fields that
they'd never expected to be working in.
Oshan, a longtime friend of Bartkus, also started her undergraduate
degree at SUNY Albany, but after some soul searching, transferred to
Hofstra University in Uniondale, and after a few changes in major,
earned a bachelor's in public relations in December 2007.
Oshan started as a psychology major at Albany because she believed
it would lead to a career in which she would earn a good living, which
was her primary concern. "Then I started studying it, and I was like,
this is kind of boring. Can I really see myself doing this?" she said.
"It made me start thinking there are obviously more important things
than money."
Oshan took a creative writing class and decided that she wanted to
channel her passion for writing into a career. Then she learned about
public relations from a show on MTV called "PR Girls."
"It struck my interest and I learned more about it and discovered it
included writing," she said. "It was a broad degree, and I really liked
that."
This time, Oshan said her choice of major stuck. "Once I transferred to
Hofstra, one because it's close to me and also because it has one of
the best PR programs in the country. I started taking classes, and for
the first time it didn't feel like a burden. It's always been a big
fear of mine to not enjoy what I was doing, and I would always hear
adults around me say what you pick to do for your life is your life."
In her junior year, Oshan started interning at an event-planning agency
on Long Island and continued to work there after graduation. "I felt
good about it. I would come home every day feeling accomplished," she
said of the job. But around August, she said things started to change.
"I could definitely see things were slower, and then some major clients
were lost, and I was kind of free-lance for two or three months, and
after January, it was completely nothing," she said.
Even though Oshan had an academic scholarship and her parents helped
pay for her degree, she had more than $12,000 in student loans. Still,
she decided to take time off and travel when things came to a halt at her firm.
She didn't expect to return home unable to find a full-time job for six
months. Finally, a family friend told her about a job opening at an
insurance agency.
"At that point, I just needed a job to live, so I thought, why not
try it and see," she said of the insurance agency job, which she has
worked at for more than a month. "I always thought that when I graduated
school, it would be a lot easier than it was to find a job, and if I
didn't know this person, I still might not have a job."
Genn, of Bellmore, earned his bachelor's from the University of
Michigan in May. He studied economics, and interned at Smith Barney and C.A.Information Technology, formerly Computer Associates. Anticipating the
slow job market, Genn said he started applying for jobs last August, even
though he was still a student, and said that after applying for more
than 100 positions, he has only gone on three interviews.
"As I'm applying to some of these places, they're literally firing
tens of thousands of people. Or I'll apply to them in September, and
they don't exist the next month," he said.
Bartkus said, "Sometimes I want to cry, but I know I can't beat myself
up about it, because I know it's not me. I know I did the best that I
can, and I'm just going keep trying and trying and trying."
SubHed: Staying on track
Dr. Linda Sapadin, a psychologist and life coach with a Valley
Stream-based practice, who is a Herald Community Newspapers columnist,
said, "What we're talking about is dealing with change, and dealing
with stress related to new situations. As with any change, you want to
be open to what's good about it and not excessively worried about
what's not working out."
Sapadin also said, "Don't isolate yourself, do a lot of networking,
do a lot of informational interviewing, and keep yourself open to
opportunities you haven't thought of," adding that young job seekers
"need to connect with what's out there in the world."
Bartkus said working as a waitress helped her land her current middle
school substitute position because the principal of the school where
she student-taught frequents the eatery where she works, making it easy
to stay in touch. She's also gotten job leads that weren't announced by
making conversation with customers. Instead of becoming depressed,
she's keeping an optimistic, but realistic attitude about her employment prospects.
"I have to appreciate the fact that this teacher gave me this job,"
she said, adding, "It's leading me to a line in my resume, even though
there's no jobs available to me in this district."
Bartkus conducts a vigilant job search, checking the Online Application
System for educators in New York state every day, reading newspapers,
going through the phone book alphabetically to find schools and check
their employment pages online. She constantly networks with the help of
co-workers at the middle school where she works and strikes up
conversations with the guests she serves as a waitress. She's also
earned certifications that will allow her to teach a broader range of
science classes and become a more marketable candidate. She still
worries about competition from teachers who have more experience,
either because they didn't get a master's directly after college
graduation or were laid off because of the economy.
"I'm 24. I didn't have another job where I have that teaching
experience. I just haven't had that opportunity in my life," she said.
Genn channeled his energy into starting a Web site,
www.jobstench.com, where frustrated job seekers can go to share stories
about their situations. He said the site has become a place where people are "sharing their stories, venting about their frustrations [and] talking about their experiences."
Genn, who recently moved back into his parents' house in Bellmore,
said, "The plan was I'd get a nice job on Wall Street, you know; I'd
live in the city, and that's not what happened. I couldn't find a job,
so I just kind of created a job for myself. I like being in charge and
being in control of the success of myself and my Web site."
Oshan is trying to settle into her new role at the insurance agency, pay down her debt and think about what her career means to her. She said debt "basically
forces me to keep this job, because I know there's other things I can
do to make money, like waitressing. But with that, there's no security
to know that I'm going be making the same amount of money every week or
every two weeks," she said
Sapadin offered this advice for young job-seekers: "Monitor your momentum. The crucial factor is not how quickly you're getting the job; it's in what direction you're moving. If you're staying in the same place or falling behind, you deliberately need to take action." The most important thing, she said, is to be proactive, and not stay home or inside all day, which can exacerbate negative feelings about being unemployed.
Oshan said current students shouldn't be discouraged if they see that it's hard to get a job now, and that it probably will take a while to find one. And if they have to end up taking a job outside their field of study, it's not the worst thing in the world.
But she offered these words of caution: Young people should "make sure they take time to do things that make them happy and keep their interests
going, because it's easy to get comfortable somewhere and forget about
your original intentions."
Comments about this story? SZeidler@liherald.com or (516)
569-4000 ext. 236.
