So I was just wondering how everyone is doing considering how bad the news makes the economy out to be. I am in business school right now, graduating in may. About 65% of our class has job offers, no word on how many of those might be taken away because a lot of the companies that hire here are having layoffs. I do not have a job offer and the 100k in debt that is waiting to be paid back, along with my dwindling bank account has me pretty worried.

When I quit my job to go to business school I knew things would probably get bad but I had no idea they would be like this. Everyone I have spoken to says their companies have hiring freezes. At this point I am not sure what I will do but I am definitely stressing about it. How are other people handling things?

I heard on NPR the other day that this is worse' then the great depression of 29, but it's a different kind of depression. The thing is, we have so much more to offer in talent, degreed people and material that we haven't fallen completely off the edge and we basically cannot fall all the way off, like they did in 29. 25% of the people back then were unemployed, so I guess we should all feel lucky.

The way I see it, there is opportunity out there. You have to either find it or 'create' it. One of the big things out there is temp jobs. If you go to www.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal) and hit career and then education, there are some interesting videos regarding graduates, jobs, executives and basically what people are doing for alternatives.

One of the things that is popular right now is that people are going back to school, to learn new skills or improve current ones. People are basically preparing themselves (with this time out) for when things start to come back. I keep hearing a year to a year and a half we should be back to normal somewhat.

But the thing is, once this whole thing bottoms out, that's when hiring starts up again. If you stay in school (and I'm not suggesting you stay) then I believe your having to pay back the loans will continue to be put on hold until you do' get out of school. You'll want to find out more about that.

The down side of this whole thing right now is, it will put a dent in your plans for now, but the upside is 'you'll survive' until it does get better. And then, you just might get lucky to. Good luck.

Here's the link. Look at the one about freelancing.

http://online.wsj.com/video/a-retiree-returns-to-work/4FBF9ECB-6880-427A-82D4-C611ACDF17F9.html

I also think the key to getting things rolling again is Obama's next plan to hit the hosing industry to prevent more foreclosures. They got to get the banks moving again.

its worse than the derpression cuz there are more people now, thus more people out of work.

Stats are squewed.

We have 93 percent employment rate.

Take risks. Life is great.

789 billion went through today. Now the housing market is on the table. All this couldn't come any faster. Come on' relief!

We all got bonuses. It was sweet and we were very grateful. We're expecting a raise in July. We work harder for our guys and keep a good rep going. Were we work' the entire field would have to crash for us to be laid off. We are very lucky. It's good to be in a Union during hard times. A good one works with good management companies, that help businesses find ways to get the most out of their buck and save thousands, if not millions. And that's exactly what we have. Like I said, it's good to be in a Union.

Thanks for the support - right now I am calling alums and seeing if they know of anything out there. I have gotten to word out to friends and family that I am looking and will basically so whatever is available right now - I am trying to be realistic about my expectations, dont need a huge salary just need to pay the bills etc.

My biggest concern is running out of money and not having employment. Right now I am overloading so in the final quarter I can take a lighter load and get a part time job to get some income. I have thought about project management and hear there are some jobs available in several industries - hopefully something will work out.

Supreme - where did you go to get your MS in finance?

http://www.vimeo.com/3261363

Good video explaining how we got here.

I am actually down at the University of Virginia for business school so I am looking at D.C., before coming to school I worked in Real Estate in sales and business management and over the summer I worked in Asset Management. I am trying to get into the finance/valuation/acquisitions side but dont have to need to Real Estate, its just the industry I have experience in.

You mean EVA? Economic Value Added? So instead of looking at a DCF model, we look at the capital employed by the project on a yearly basis or is this something different? If it is similar to EVA we just covered that in Corporate Financial Policies, seems pretty straight forward.