For Niko Antonio the process of securing his first job after college was nothing short of an anomaly. Antonio, who received two bachelor’s degrees in law, history and culture and non-governmental organizations and social change from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2023, was bracing for the rejection and at least temporary unemployment as he entered a maze of online job postings.

“I sent out hundreds of applications and it was really crazy,” Antonio said. “I was definitely very stressed, and then I got the email of a lifetime.”

As he neared the moment where he would cross the commencement stage, Antonio was met with a serendipitous message from the Television Academy Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Emmy Awards. After a slew of interviews, Antonio accepted an offer in April 2023 as a stewardship and donor relations coordinator.

Two years into his job, Antonio seems hopeful about a promotion from his current role and feels like there are opportunities to grow his skill set. Yet, Antonio’s circumstance could be chalked up to a little more something “lucky” as he described it at one point.

“Especially with there being such a highly competitive job market at the moment, which I don't think will get any much less competitive, it is very much about building a network with others and continuing those connections,” Antonio, who had three summer's worth of internship experience before graduation, said.

Connections. Internships. Networking. Three terms that have become both buzzwords and pillars for career centers at top universities like USC that are based in the reality of how American college grads are securing their first job.

Niko Antonio started at the Television Academy Foundation after graduation. (Courtesy of Niko Antonio)

“It's not enough to just apply for the job and fold your hands together and wait,” senior director for career engagement at the USC Career Center, Lori Shreve Blake said. “If there's somebody on the inside of an organization who's sending your resume over, or who is advocating for you behind the scenes, that helps students to be more successful.”

Regardless of how college graduates are securing their first jobs, the difference between landing a college-level position and settling for a position that requires less than a college degree within a year of graduation has shown to be financially and physically impacting college graduates decades later, according to a February 2024 the Talent Disrupted report by Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work. The nationwide study, which focused on career outcomes of centered adults with a “terminal bachelor's degree” or someone without an advanced degree, found that 52% of today’s college graduates are underemployed, with most of those people “severely unemployed,” or working jobs that only require up to a high school diploma.

The University of Southern California students are faring better than the nationwide pulse taken from the Strada and Burning Glass institutes. Yet the commonalities and recommendations for students to land the “First Destination” job, described as the postgraduate plans of USC undergraduate students six months after graduation, Career Center data remain closely aligned. The USC Career Center reported that roughly 64% of graduates secured a job within six months of graduation and about 7% who were currently seeking a job.

“We're seeing nationwide is that internships play a really big part in students landing that full time job faster and having that offer,” Blake said.

Class of 2022 graduate, Katherine Wick, accepted an offer as a senior consulting associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers after spending two summers interning at the company.

“I finished my internship in the first week of August before my senior year, and then I had until mid-September, or early October, to accept that offer which was honestly really hard because I didn't really have time to recruit other firms,” Wick said. “I didn't want to think about finding other jobs or thinking about what career actually might suit me, or what lifestyle actually might suit me.”

The Texas-based position Wick currently works is fully remote, barring less than a week of travel to meet with clients. After three years with the company, Wick is “grateful” for her experience, but is open to pursuing other roles in the industry.

“I had a couple interns [and] we were on a really rough project over the summer,” Wick said. “I know they didn't have a great experience, but they were still eager to accept their offers because the job market was horrible.”

Like Wick, Antonio had also received skills about networking and connection skills on LinkedIn through pre-professional programs during his time in college.

“Now, my boss told me that they liked how responsive I was, how much I wrapped around or looped back, said ‘Thank you’ and always pushed for next steps in my first and second, third round interviews,” Antonio said.

Determining Factors

Another key variant in outcomes boils down to one decision: college major. Along with internship experience, college graduates with majors including computer science, engineering or mathematics center business degrees face underemployment significantly less than individuals who majored in social sciences or humanities.

Almost a fifth of college graduates go on to earn an advanced degree five years after graduation and are less likely to face underemployment after earning a graduate degree. For people who were initially underemployed after receiving their bachelor’s degree, only about 11% were underemployed after receiving a graduate degree. Even still, roughly a quarter of all those who receive advanced degrees remain underemployed. The percentage of graduates pursuing advanced degrees as their first destination has doubled over the past five years.

“I find for college grads that can be a stumbling block [is] if they put their blinders up. “They say, ‘I want to do this thing,’ and it can be very narrow,” Blake said.

At the beginning of his senior year, 23-year-old Kyle Suarez was hopeful that he could secure a job in California in aerospace engineering upon his graduation in 2023. As he approached the completion of his undergraduate degree, he hoped to land a job somewhere he could live that was close enough to commute from his parents’ home and save a little cash before moving out. He eventually decided to broaden his search to anywhere in the country that was hiring, including Florida, Virginia, Maryland and Texas, due to the lack of responses.

“A lot of my friends had a lot more internships, a lot more involvement in young professional programs or clubs, and would participate in talks and work outreach with different employers,” Suarez said. “I definitely took for granted how long it would take to find a job coming into school in 2019 when everything was doing pretty well.”

Eight months and about 200 job applications later, Suarez heard back from one hiring manager in rural east Texas at defense and aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin in February 2024.

“The interview went well and I ended up hearing back from the interviewer that I was not selected for the position,” Suarez said. “But the interviewer referred me to my current manager for an interview, and said would give her a good recommendation for me.”

A few weeks later, Suarez had accepted a position as an associate engineer at Lockheed Martin missiles and fire control in Grand Prairie, Texas. Even though it was not a part of his initial timeline, moving out of the house to Texas for a position that he hopes could be a jumping off position for future roles more related to what Suarez is looking for. With his current income, he is able to afford his own apartment and a car.

“I definitely don't feel any financial pressure,” Suarez said. “I'm not saving as much money as I would like, but I'm definitely comfortable in that regard, and I'm very grateful for that.”

Looking ahead to the class of 2025, the National Association of Colleges and Employers projects hiring to increase by 7.3% for soon-to-be grads compared to the previous year, with a possibility for signing bonuses, according to the report.