Many students are so much in debt when they graduate that it takes them more than 10 years (sometimes even more than 20 years!) to pay off. THAT is not a situation you want to find yourself in. College students today need to get smarter about what they pay for their education and manage their finances carefully. That means getting a job as soon as possible and preferably getting one that may lead to a full time job later. Be smart and keep your debt low!

A recent article outlines the possible hard times ahead for younger generations who want to live a good life and retire in their 60′s which is the traditional age most people associate with retirement. With 40 years of inflation ahead of us, the switch from guaranteed pensions to employee funded 401K’s, and the uncertainty that Social Security will still be solvent, it is clear that today’s college students have a very unsure future ahead of them.

It is clear that making as much money as possible and learning how to invest it is the best path if you want to be able to retire comfortably. An additional problem is that so many students now graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in school debt that it is often many years before they can pay it off and actually start saving. That is if they can even find a job in the first place!

College students should be thinking long and hard about what they want in their future because the direction they take with their major and classes could be a determining factor. For instance, while history may be interesting to some students, they should know that it won’t lead to any high paying jobs. There are a lot of crazy majors now days and many of them will get you a degree but that is about it. Employers want to see a work history and a solid education in the same field as the job opening.

Jobs for college students that are in the same field as your major are a great addition to your resume as all relevant work history is a plus. The important thing is that it is vital in today’s floundering economy that college students get serious about their futures right away. Yes, college is fun and should be fun but those students who actively look to their futures with a plan will be the ones who do best in the long run.

Hopefully the $2,000,000 number is way high but it serves as a reminder that students are in the beginning stages of mapping out their dreams and their lives. It is going to be a long hard uphill battle for many young people and they should be picking their college majors carefully with an eye on what different jobs pay.

We all want good jobs for college students and graduates but now you have to start being smart about it and planning ahead. Way ahead.

Picking the right major is imperative today because lets face it, not all jobs pay the same. And with unemployment such a concern, there are industries and fields that have much more opportunity and higher pay than others.

For instance, based on this very useful chart from the Wall Street Journal (you can sort it too), it seems that careers in science, engineering, finance, and nursing will be some of the better choices for new college graduates. Those fields not only have the lowest unemployment rates but they have some of the highest pay as well. On the flip side, it is not hard to understand why majoring in history, English, art, or psychology will make it harder for you to find a good job that pays what you probably think you are worth.

Planning ahead and choosing the right major and career is so important now that the cost of getting a degree is so high. You can read article after article on how students today are struggling with debt, having to move back home, and even having to declare bankruptcy just because their debts are so high and jobs are so hard to find. Now is the time to do the smart thing and plan your major carefully and know what you are getting yourself into when you graduate.

Jobs for college graduate used to be something that students could take for granted. With a degree in hand, most students would be able to find some kind of work. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case and the sooner you realize exactly how dire the situation is, the more able you will be to plan ahead and make the right choices.

Young adults today who are looking for jobs for college students or for graduates, surely know how to sign up for sites like Snagajob, Monster, and Job.com. They of all people are familiar with the Internet and are comfortable using it to do a variety of things which include getting their resumes online so that the right people can find them. But for this “Internet generation”, they must fight the tendency to be lazy and stop there.

The job hunt can’t end with what you do online. Not in this economy. Several years ago you might have been able to get away with putting your resume online and applying to a few jobs before being accepted but not now. In 2011 and going forward, getting a job usually means having to work hard to get it.

So, what should you be doing after you put your resume online?

1) Networking. Do it online and offline. Connect with as many people and businesses as you can and let them all know you are looking for a job. The more legwork you do on your own, the better chance you will have of meeting someone that has a job for you or knows someone who can help you.

2) Personalize every resume and cover letter you send out. It’s much easier to send your stock resume along with a general cover letter but that is what most other people are doing. You need to set yourself apart and show employers that you are the real deal. The extra effort you put into constructing customized resumes and cover letters tailored for each possible job could make the difference.

3) Double and triple check your spelling and grammar. A mispelled misspelled word or sloppy sentence is not what you want to have at this stage of the game. Given two candidates that are equal, an employer will probably hire the one that didn’t make the mistake(s) on their resume.

4) Look everywhere. If you can’t seem to find a job on campus, look off campus. If you can’t find a job in your college town, start expanding your search. Look for online jobs or freelance opportunities online. Be as creative as you can and think out of the box. Yes, I know that is easier said than done but use this job hunting time to learn about yourself and figure out what you can and can’t do.

Remember, this is probably not going to be the last time in your life you will be looking for a job. Hopefully it will, but the odds say it isn’t. Work hard to learn how to find a job. Some people are definitely better at it than others and generally speaking, those that put in the most effort are the ones that end up being the most successful at finding something.

President Obama got voted into office by a wave of people wanting change. Many of them were first time voters and younger voters who bought into his vision of hope and change. Well, so far that change hasn’t worked out for anyone looking for work.

You are spending a LOT of money to get your degree, all in the hopes that it will lead to a better job or at least SOME job. But if there aren’t jobs to get you through college and there aren’t any good jobs after you graduate, what will you do then? A degree is worthless if there isn’t someone to hire you when you get out!

When President Obama was sworn into office in January 2009 the unemployment rate was over 7%. Now more than TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER, unemployment is over 9%. That is NOT progress and NOT the kind of change we need. Apparently Obama has been working on jobs all the time but things are just getting worse. How long do we give him until we admit he doesn’t know how to make things better?

One of the best ways to get good at something is by doing it and practicing it. Something like a job interview is no different and that is why every one you go to is valuable experience, even if you don’t get the job.

I have a friend who has gone to many interviews for jobs she had no interest in! When I asked why she spent all that time interviewing for jobs she didn’t even want, she told me it was for the experience. You never know what questions will be asked and every interview you show up for, the more practice you get answering the wide array of questions thrown at you. Believe me, one bad answer to a question you never anticipated can turn a whole interview into a downward spiral.

That is why you should never turn down a job interview. Too many job seekers are lazy these days and hope to get a job by doing little more than filling out applications online. Sending out resumes and cover letters by email and applying to things online has almost gotten too easy. Many people looking for work treat the job hunt like email spammers do: the more you send out, the better your odds of someone being interested. Jobs for college students and graduates are out there but you have to work harder than that to get them.

Another thing you can do to get better at job interviews are to record yourself with video. Everyone has or knows someone with a video camera and you should use it to your advantage. It has never been easier to see for yourself exactly what you look and sound like in an interview.

Have a friend prepare five to ten questions and then sit down with you for the interview. Being able to watch yourself in action may reveal some things that need to be worked on that you weren’t aware of. We all have an idea of what we think we sound and look like but when we see ourselves on camera, it’s not always as good as we think. Video taping practice job interviews is a great way to polish your style and give you a better shot at impressing a recruiter or hiring manager.

If you somehow have the ability to offer your services for free, in other words get an unpaid internship, you might be able to turn that into a paid job down the road. This idea is obviously not for everyone as many won’t have the finances to do it and will need a real job that pays. But remember, you have just spent four (or more) years in college where you weren’t getting paid so if you can somehow afford to do it a bit longer, the gamble might pay off.

In today’s economy, you sometimes have to really go out of your way to get noticed to get a job. Just having a college degree doesn’t mean as much as it once did and many employers are wanting experience as much as an education from their prospective employees. That means you might have to be creative to get hired and working for free is a creative idea.

Getting your foot in the door of any company is the hardest part, as you have probably found out. If you are willing to take an internship to do that, even if it pays nothing, at least you will have gotten in the door. From that point on, it is up to you to impress everyone at the company and show them what a great person and worker you are.

Before you take any unpaid internship that you hope will lead to a job, it is best to ask up front if that is a possibility. There is no use working for free somewhere that has zero intension of hiring you. Asking whether an internship could lead to a job is a reasonable question and no employer should take offense at it. They should understand that you will need a paying job at some point and if they don’t, then that is probably not the right company for you anyway.

Good jobs for college students and graduates are harder than ever to come by and it is unfortunate that many in your age group are having such a difficult time. It just might be that you will have to sacrifice a bit longer before you land that first job and if you have to work for free for a while to make that happen, it could be worth it.

Unlike high school and college where you just signed up for the classes you wanted to take (maybe you had to earn your way into some of them), the real world is much different. It is cutthroat out there and you are soon going to be thrown right into the mix.

The High Unemployment Issue

Most college students who will soon be graduating should be well aware of the national unemployment rate of 8.9%. What are their chances of getting a job with the limited work history they have? What kind of job will they realistically be able to get and what will it pay?

These questions are prompting many students to consider graduate school instead. They figure they can put off the pain of looking for,and maybe not getting, a job a bit longer. With more education under their belt they should be more employable in a year or two when they look for a job and the economy might be doing better then as well. But is this really a good choice, especially if you are doing it just to avoid the job crunch right now?

Graduate School Is Not Always An Asset

First of all, the more educated you are may NOT necessarily help you in your search for a job now or at any time. If all you have ever done is go to school, many employers may prefer to hire job candidates that have real world and real job experience. Just because you have proven you can be a student does NOT prove you can be a good employee.

Then there is the cost issue: piling on more years of student loans and increasing your debt will just mean that it will take that much longer to dig out from under it. Remember, those student loans are not going to go away and it really sucks (excuse me) to have to pay those things back when you are well into your 30′s or even 40′s.

Graduate school can be beneficial if you have a plan and know that it can ultimately help you get a job or get a higher salary. But now days many people get jobs first and go to graduate school later on. After they have some of that valuable job experience on their resume and a clear idea of what career path they want to pursue, they then go to grad school to increase their chances.

Employers Always Like Experience

The most important thing to think about is the fact that employers ALWAYS like experience. The more you have of it the better. Going to grad school right after you graduate college will, in most cases, limit the amount of real world job experience you will be able to get. Being overeducated is not good either and may actually sometimes  hurt your chances of being hired.

Finding jobs for college graduates in 2011 is not going to be easy or fun, that is for sure. You probably won’t get your dream job or the job you really want but going to graduate school might not be the best choice either. It might actually end up hurting you by putting you more in debt without having gained any real advantage. So think about it carefully: either way it’s a tough decision.

Probably every one of you has a Facebook and Twitter account. You might also have a Myspace and LinkedIn account as well. Social media has taken off and the younger you are the more likely you are to be participating in it.

When you start applying for college jobs, you need to be very aware that the things you do online can affect you in ways you never thought of. Everything you put on the Internet, even if it is in a password protected forum or account, could conceivably be found by someone. That someone could be your boss or future boss and they might not like what they read! We have all heard the very real stories of people being fired for things they have said on Facebook.

Looking for jobs for college students is stressful and there are a lot of things to do and think of. Where do I apply? What do I say in the interview? What if they don’t like me? What do I do if no one hires me? Where do I start?

All of these things may be going through your mind, especially if you are under pressure to find a job fast. But one thing you don’t want to have to deal with is being scared that the things you have said or written online could be found by an employer or potential employer.

Going online and posting things on your Facebook and Twitter accounts may seem second nature to you. But how often has it crossed your mind to NOT write something because you didn’t want your boss to see it? If you are in college now, you most likely have grown up with the Internet and are very used to socializing through these online sites. But now that you are looking for a job in the “real” world, you might want to go back through some of your accounts and see if they need to be cleaned up.

Most importantly you need to remember, and this is from here on as an adult, that you ALWAYS need to think twice before you put things out there for everyone to read. Even if it is just a political opinion, it might offend someone or come back to hurt you in ways you never imagined. This is a new world full of great technology and endless possibilities: just make sure you don’t use it in a way that you might regret later.

Environmental control: Governmental organizations like the EPA and environmental groups like the Sierra Club or the NRDC all rely on scientists to provide them with the most relevant environmental data. Chemistry is extremely important, especially when measuring air, soil, and water quality for potential contaminants.

Forensics: From your local police force to the CIA or FBI, chemistry plays a huge role in the field of forensics, performing tests to help solve crime.

Pharmaceuticals: Whether you decide to work at a local pharmacy or help design new life saving drugs, some of the most lucrative careers for those with a chemistry degree can come in this field.

Graduate Study: Having a background in chemistry also builds a solid foundation for those looking to enter medical school or law school, and also provides a solid base for those interested in teaching at the high school or college level.

One other interesting and emerging concept is that of “green chemistry” which, according to the EPA , is the design of chemical products that eliminate the use of hazardous substances. When picturing a chemical plant, it can sometimes bring to mind pipes with green ooze dripping out into the local water supply. Historically in chemistry, hazardous waste came from solvents and materials needed for the chemical reaction to create the end product. But through green chemistry, scientists are developing ways to remove these hazardous materials from the process altogether, creating a safer way to produce items we need daily without polluting the environment.

Overall, the list above is just a small sample of the possibilities that are presented to those with a background in chemistry. With the food, water, and energy problems facing the world today, Liveris , along with the UN and other international organizations, deemed 2011 the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) to help encourage students to consider chemistry and to inspire people from around the world to apply chemistry as a catalyst for change. Clearly chemists are needed now more than ever, and hopefully students realize the potential of a chemistry degree, and use it to distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive job market.

This is a guest post for Jobs For College Students by Alan Parker who is a blogger based out of New York, NY who writes about alternative energy, green business, sustainability, and climate change.

Follow on Twitter @AGreenParker