My friends and I were dealing with the same awful job market. All of us had gone to college, done pretty well academically, and had solid track records. Yet none of us could find any decent prospects. Our inboxes were full of emails from our parents, containing listings from CareerBuilder and Monster with job titles that we didn't want. All the good jobs seemed like they were being snatched up by recently laid off 35-year olds who were desperate and willing to take a cut in pay. The college grads were left to compete for jobs that barely required a pulse.

"You gotta take what you can get in this market" became the mantra of my peers. I stood in shock as someone who I'd partied with months prior proudly exclaimed that they'd been hired in sales at Verizon, and how excited they were to move up to middle manager in a few months...

What?!

Is this what we'd spent the last four years preparing for?

Did our degrees really count for nothing?

Were we doomed to lame 9-5 jobs and hating our lives right out of college?

Not one professor had taught us how to buoy ourselves through a recession. And I had no idea what to do, except linger in unemployment and continue eating Hot Pockets twice a day.