Editor: I moved back to Hanford a little over a year ago after going to a very prestigious university in California. I have been looking for full-time work ever since I graduated. Currently I am fortunate that I have two part-time jobs, but I don't have health insurance provided and I barely have enough money to pay my bills each month, and not enough money to even begin to pay my student loans that are about to come out of forbearance.

I still live at home, which is horrifying to my ego after being on my own so long (but tolerable and I am fortunate to have a parent who allows me to do so). I know a lot of this has to do with the current economy, but I think there might be another reason.

Recently I read in The Sentinel about the lack of college graduates in this area, and how we are the worst off economically in the state. I think part of the reason Kings and surrounding counties are low on the education scale is not because of lack of access to education, it is because people who move back home after college cannot get a job, and thus move away. I recently applied for a job where I had double the education requirements and met all the posted requirements. I was rejected from an interview because others had more experience than me. I didn't even get a shot at an interview.

I can understand not being hired if someone is more experienced than me, but I did not even get a shot at the job at all. I even went in to the office after I received my rejection letter to ask the person in charge why I was rejected, if there was anything I could do better, if there was something wrong with my resume or my experience, anything ... and he brushed me off and told me he didn't know why and he could not get me in contact with someone who does.

I think that if Kings County wants a higher educated populous, the business owners and hiring committees should make an effort to hire more recent graduates. I don't have five years of solid work experience, but I do have two bachelor's degrees, a minor, and quite a bit of summer work experience. I couldn't go to school full-time and work full-time, so it makes sense that I wouldn't have as much experience as someone who started working straight out of high school and has five years of work experience under their belt.

I work at PetsMart on the weekends selling pet food. It's a lot of fun, but it's not remotely related to what I went to college for. I applied to work at IHOP and never got a call back. I don't have enough work experience to be a manager at Taco Bell. I've applied with the county, various cities around the area -- lots of different types of jobs. I am not particularly snooty with my choices and I'm not just another whiny spoiled kid who isn't getting what they want. I am trying and I am getting very frustrated.

Now that I've been back home for around a year, I'm considering my situation. It would have been financially smarter for me to have got a job out of high school and work my way up the ladder. Go figure people aren't motivated to get an education around here: one could work out of high school at Leprinos and make $25 an hour. There is nothing wrong with working at Leprinos or not going to college, I'm just saying that if this area wants more educated people living here, the job market needs to be more friendly towards recent college graduates.

I like living here, for the most part -- I grew up here, I pay my taxes here. I don't expect a job handed to me, I look, I go to job fairs, I apply, I interview and I wait. The rejection letters keep coming in.

They say the average college graduate makes $1 million more in a lifetime than a non-graduate. I'm not sure if that's going to come true for me, but if I don't get a full-time job here soon, I am going to be forced to move somewhere else where I can be employed full-time and make a livable wage. I'll also be taking my degrees and my tax dollars with me.

Amy Leasure

Hanford

(Nov. 11, 2008)