Entry Level Limbo

I have been seeking an entry level job. I have a BS in Chemical Engineering but no relevant job experience to go with it, just my summer jobs which did give me valuable experiences but unfortunately were not directly related to my field. I have found many websites that are supposed to be specifically for finding entry level jobs but I think there is a disconnect. For some reason most entry level jobs seem to require 3-5 years of experience in some very specific field, which is contrary to what I always thought an entry level job was. To me, and entry level job is for someone who probably has the education for the area of expertise that the job is in but is lacking the real world experience in the field they are trying to enter into. The entry level job is supposed to give this person experience in the field, it's probably relatively low paying tedious work but you have to start at the bottom. Few of the "entry level" jobs I find posted meet this criteria. Maybe my definition is wrong, so I did what I normally do when I have a question, I googled "the definition of entry level." Here is what I found:

From yourdictionary.com - Entry Level: adjective, designating or of a job or position offered to an inexperienced person, that usually pays low wages but provides training and experience and the prospect of future advancement
From thefreedictionary.com - Entry Level: adjective, Appropriate for or accessible to one who is inexperienced in a field or new to a market
From merriam-webster.com - Entry Level: adjective, of or being at the lowest level of a hierarchy
From dictionary.reference.com - Entry Level: adjective, of, pertaining to, or filling a low-level job in which an employee may gain experience or skills: This year's college graduates have a limited choice of entry-level jobs. (Yes that is the sample sentence given by dictionary.com when you look at the definition of entry level, definitely adds to my already astounding optimism.)

Well, based on these definitions I don't think that my own is completely off mark. I really wish that employers used these definitions as well. I spend a lot of time wandering through websites seeking the jobs that I am qualified for and I really wish that when I say to limit the search to entry level positions that the results would be entry level positions, meaning ones the require less than a year of experience and not ones that want me to have 3-5 years in something highly specific. I have wasted a lot of time reading through the job descriptions for supposed entry level jobs only to read the list of requirements and find that I am no where near qualified.
I know that recent college graduates are finding it hard to find entry level jobs and I am not the only one. The problem is that employers are now just using "entry level" as code for we want someone with experience that we don't have to pay a lot to. Employers don't seem to want an inexperienced college graduate when they can get an experienced employee for the same price. This doesn't surprise me, but it is short sighted. Employers may be able to get experienced employees for cheap now, but what are they creating, a group of current college graduates who are unable to get that magical 2-3 years of experience but it saves money now so screw the future.

Well, I am stuck. I have a BS in chemical engineering but no experience to go with it which means I have no hope of getting a job but without a job I can't get that experience. I am so sick of constantly trying to explain my situation to the previous generations. They decided they wanted a job and they went out and got one, therefore I must be lazy and doing something wrong because I am not employed. I came across a lot of comments and blogs that where thought provoking to me as I did some research for this post so I certainly will be commenting on the generational disconnect in a future blog. In the meantime I will continue to search for the elusive entry level job that does not require experience that at this rate I will never have ... and don't say volunteer I so tired of the response to lack of experience being to volunteer. I am broke, I have college loans, I can't volunteer. I don't expect to have a job that makes me happy, or makes me a lot of money. I just need a job to provide me with experience and pay me enough so I can live in a tiny apartment, eat ramen noodles and at least start to make some payments on my college loans. I don't think an entry level job is too much to ask, if they still existed.

I think that my real concern is the disconnect between what many of us were taught in college and the reality of the current business world. It use to be that a company was willing to take a recent college grad with little to no experience and train them to know what they wanted for them to be an effective employee at the company. Now, companies know that employee retention has declined. They don't want to waste their money to train the employee that is only going to stick around for a couple years. They can get the more experienced employee who already knows something about the job for the same low price and won't waste as much money in the training. I don't know how new college grads can compensate for this. Even an internship isn't a lot of experience, it's only a few months of work, not the years of specialized experience that I see employers asking for. No recent college grad is going to have a huge amount of experience, I always thought that this was what the entry level job was for. I thought that I have a useful degree and potential to be a good employee at a company so somebody would want to hire me and yes I would have a lot to learn but I'd be working hard and not being paid that well but that's how it goes. I didn't expect a job to be handed to me but I expected there to be options out there. I know there are the companies out there that are still taking us recent college grads but there aren't enough jobs out there for all and the competition is so incredibly fierce. There are just way too many qualified people also applying for every job I apply for and I just don't have those connections to get me noticed.

Between college and industry, they need to figure out something that will take us out of this odd limbo that so many of us find ourselves in. I've got the degree but I don't have the 3-5 years of experience to get the entry level job, but if I can't get the job then how do I ever get that experience. Well, since I am still in limbo I guess I'll just keep writing and drawing and applying to many jobs I will never hear back from.