Recession Graduate

If anyone had told me about five years ago that I would graduate in the middle of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, I would have done what pretty much all children of the Nineties would have done: I'd have laughed in their face.

After all, we grew up in an era when stocks didn't go down, houses only got more expensive, and the college degree was the only ticket to wealth anyone needed.

I was gonna be a scientist! I had visions of $50,000 starting salaries and delightful benefit packages dancing in my head as I bought my books for my first semester and got down to work in the fall of 2005.

In 2007, when I scored a prime internship at one of the top biopharmaceutical companies in the world, I knew I was on my way.

By December of 2008, I was starting to panic. There were no jobs ANYWHERE. Everyone wanted people with Ph.Ds. What was someone with a simple BS degree to do? And what about that pile of student loans, not to mention what my parents paid out of pocket?

So began my journey as a broke recent grad, in an era where 10% are unemployed. I got a pretty big reality check.