After the tassel has been moved from right to left, recent college graduates face the final question: how do I get my first full time job? And with student loans, a competitive job market, and a lack of professional experience under their belts, many recent graduates find answering this question to be a challenge.

Elliot Emerson, television production major and recent December 2024 graduate, left Murray State with the hopes that he would be employed by now. But three months of job hunting later, he said he has been finding the search process more difficult than he expected.

“I moved back with my parents when I graduated, so I’m in Memphis now. It just made the most sense financially,” Emerson said. “So I have been looking for either a video-related job on site here or remote because I can’t just move anywhere for work. Part of that difficulty probably stems from the fact that I have no connections here in the media industry. Any Murray State faculty, job fairs, etc. didn’t have anyone they could connect me to in the area. That isn’t to say I would’ve had a job because of it, but connections certainly help.”

College graduates living with family has become a rising trend with the current housing market and state of the economy. According to USA Today, the most recent census data shows that more than half of young adults (ages 18 to 24) are living at home.  

As Emerson searches, he said he finds looking for work to be worse than actually doing work. With few media production jobs currently available in his area, the majority of the jobs he applies for are remote roles found through LinkedIn and Indeed. For him, the worst part of this search process has been the lack of communication from employers.

“The biggest issue is the silence, not because of fear of not getting the job, but because the overwhelming majority of these companies have not communicated at all, not even a courtesy rejection email in most cases,” Emerson said. “I can handle not getting a job, but not hearing anything back from an application is far more frustrating than a rejection email. I have applied to many entry level jobs as well just to be making money while I search for a job related to my field of study only to be met with the exact same silence. I try to not let it do this, but these long periods of silence can prime me to have a negative view of whatever company. If you aren’t going to give me status updates regarding an application, why should I even apply in the first place, let alone work for you?”

Emerson is not the only recent graduate feeling the sting of this silence. According to an article from CNBC, one reason for a lack of communication from companies could be because the job postings are fake–something known as ghost jobs. Ghost jobs are on the rise, with four in 10 companies posting fake job listings in 2024. 

While a company may not be hiring for a role at this time, they may want a line of applicants in case that role ever becomes available, or they may want to create a false impression of company growth, hence the ghost job listing. These listings have a negative impact on the job market as they can skew job vacancy rates and wage growth predictions and artificially inflate the number of available positions, creating a misleading picture of the job market. They can also lead to decreased job security for those currently hired as having qualified candidates lined up in advance significantly speeds up the hiring process after firing someone from a position.

According to CNBC, the rate of hires per job posting has halved over the past five years. In 2019, there were eight hires for every 10 job postings. By 2024, that number dropped to four hires per 10 job postings, leaving the job market more competitive and frustrating to navigate.

While Emerson said he believed Murray State did many things to help him after graduation, including learning how to make a good resume and cover letter, how to dress professionally and what to expect from an interview, he said he is disappointed that the career fairs weren’t more helpful. Emerson said the career fairs were often unbalanced, with the majority of companies in attendance relating to agriculture, engineering and computer science.

“The booths that were marked as ‘looking for communications majors’ were only looking for sales people. There were only a handful of companies even looking for anything related to broadcasting on the whole,” Emerson said. “I found it helpful for learning how to talk to professionals, but that’s all. As far as improving job prospects, I found it to be almost a complete failure.”

Erin Fairweather is another December 2024 graduate from Murray State. She majored in global language and Spanish translation and interpretation.

“When I graduated, I expected the job hunt process to take a good bit of time and effort, especially since seemingly everyone is always saying it is hard to find work right now. I hoped that it would be a quick and easy process, but I knew that was unlikely, which unfortunately didn’t make it any less frustrating,” Fairweather said.

After taking time to relax during the holiday season, Fairweather began the hunt for a full time position. She said the process was very different from what she anticipated.

“I had expected to dedicate lots of time to searching for work, but there was actually a lot of free time and waiting between applications and interviews. After the constant busyness of college, I found it hard to take things easy and rest during those waiting moments,” Fairweather said. “I mainly filled out job applications on Indeed, and several positions scheduled interviews with me within a couple weeks of applying for jobs. The job market felt like a strange dichotomy. There seemed to be both limited competition for roles but also not that many positions, at least for my career field. Part of the time-consuming nature of job hunting then stems from just hoping an intriguing position will pop up. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and now I am employed.”

Fairweather said it took about a month for her to find, apply for, interview for and accept a job. She currently works as an administrative assistant for Education Services at Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio.

Fairweather said she believes Murray State equipped her to be an excellent candidate in a difficult job market.

“The breadth of knowledge I acquired through diverse classes coupled with an in-depth understanding of my major and minor gave me confidence in pursuing roles because, while there’s a learning curve at the start of any job, I know my stuff well,” Fairweather said. “Also, the different MSU clubs and opportunities where I got to practice skills like communication, leadership, organization, etc. also prepared me for many of the aspects of a career, and they helped me respond to interview questions with practical experience!”

While enrolled in college, Fairweather studied abroad in Spanish speaking countries, served as president of Alpha Mu Gamma, the national honors language society on campus, and published a thesis that required reading and translating Spanish texts to study how translation can affect ideology.

Fairweather said this experience gained outside of the classroom was essential in landing her current role.

“If you know what career field you want to join, prepare yourself to best enter it. In my case, I needed a decent GPA but also, I would say more importantly, demonstrable ability and leadership experience,” Fairweather said. “If you don’t have a dream job already planned out, having practical experience provides transferable skills that can serve you in a variety of fields and jobs while you figure out a career over time.”

She also said that sometimes, the job market is just a waiting game.

“Despite all your intentional preparation for the job market, you also just have to be in the right place at the right time to find the right position,” Fairweather said. “It takes patience and perseverance, but it works out in the end.”

Murray State students who are looking for further guidance in navigating the job market after college can reach out to the Office of Career Services at msu.careerservices@murraystate.edu or visit their office at 100 Oakley Applied Science.