Published 2005-01-26T00:00:00Z”/>

Kelsey Kittle<br>Opinion Editor

My friend Greg wants to sell drugs.

He just graduated college with loads of practical experience in his field and a beautiful portfolio. He’s talented, smart and qualified. He’s put resumes in all over Chico, but he hasn’t even been offered an interview. So last week, he whispered to me, “I don’t want a job. I want to be a drug dealer.”

OK, so maybe he’s not serious. He isn’t really going to install bars on his windows, keep an unregistered weapon under his bed and meet up in the alleys with shady characters looking to score.

I’m not going to lose any sleep over him going to jail or getting killed over a deal gone bad. I do worry about him, though, because while the physical danger is exaggerated, the frustration he’s experiencing is not.

He’s looking for a job.

In Chico, the job market is bleak, at best. A quick glance through the classifieds of our local daily paper reveals a plethora of low-wage, low-skill and manual labor openings. Most of the postgraduate-degree-required positions involve moving or commuting out of Chico.

And entry-level professional positions? You don’t have to move home, but you can’t stay here.

Most people don’t land their dream jobs in the first three minutes of looking. Many won’t find a career that suits them in three years–or even three decades. My dad, who got his degree in speech communication, worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 26 years before he found a career he’s passionate about. I doubt anyone with a higher education would find sorting mail on the graveyard shift very fulfilling. That’s certainly not what we go to college for.

But more people are going to college, and therefore an undergraduate degree is worth less than in years past. Now, to have a real leg up on the competition, you have to have more–more schooling, more training, more talent, more experience. It also helps if you can be more patient and more tenacious, as the good jobs are going fast. You have to stay on top of it and be a little lucky just to land an interview. Qualified applicants are glutting the market, and employers have the luxury of being choosier than ever before.

So where does it leave the recent graduates, the starving ex-students who just want to start life in the “real world” and become self-sufficient? Fresh out of college and seeing the world unfold, seemingly limitless, in front of you is understandably an optimistic, idealistic phase of life.

But raw idealism doesn’t put bills in the bank. The somewhat-sad fact is that you might have to take the type of job you thought you’d left in the dust upon receiving your degree.

It doesn’t have to get you down, though. Frustration about not finding your perfect job can be catalyzed into reflection. It might be scary, but it can give you a chance to find out who you really are and what you really want.

And stocking shelves at a grocery store might give you enough time to figure out exactly what you need to do to get there.

Kelsey Kittle can be reached at

<a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>