Looking for a post-graduation job can be the toughest test for most college seniors. Not only must they find a job, but they might face anxieties like moving to a new state or taking on a challenging position.

Based on past surveys of graduating seniors, the numbers reflect more Marquette students have been through the interview process than actually offered a full-time, non-military job.

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment’s 2010 student survey, the most recent conducted, showed many students have difficulty finding full-time jobs after graduation.

Only 26 percent of respondents answered “yes” when asked whether they had been offered a full-time, non-military job. In contrast, 57 percent said they had applied or interviewed for either of those jobs.

Broken down by college, 77 percent of College of Arts & Sciences respondents answered “no” to the job offer question. Only 21 percent answered “yes.”

The gap was smaller in the responses from College of Business Administration students. Fifty-three percent had not been offered a job, while 46 percent were offered one.

Despite students’ concerns, Matt Myers, a career counselor at the Career Services Center, said area businesses are interested in hiring recent graduates.

“We just had recruiters from KPMG (an audit, tax and advisory firm) come to campus for first round interviews with students,” Myers said. “Businesses are definitely looking to college campuses first in their recruiting process.”

Businesses typically attend career fairs, with the next one coming up this Tuesday. The Spring Career Fair will go from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Alumni Memorial Union Ballrooms.

The numbers may be better for upcoming spring 2011 graduates. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national college graduate unemployment rate is 4.2 percent, well under the 9 percent total unemployment rate.

Myers said Career Services does not have the means to record how many seniors have jobs lined up for after graduation. But he has heard enough anecdotal accounts of successful job hunting to make it apparent that finding a job is possible.

Such a situation occurred for Samantha Talsky, a senior in the College of Communication, who landed a job at an advertising firm. After being flown to North Carolina for interviews, Talsky accepted the offer despite the distance.

“I feel very fortunate to not have only found a job for after graduation, but to have gotten the one that was at the top of my list,” Talsky said. “I know a lot of seniors are struggling and scrambling to find jobs right now. I wanted to be ahead of the game, so I started getting in contact with people from the places I wanted to work at back in January and February.”

Mandi Baronas, a senior in the College of Communication, was offered a full-time job by marketing communication agency Nelson Schmidt after interning there for a few years. She, too, has heard positive accounts of graduating seniors finding jobs.

“One of my roommates is going to law school, one is doing Jesuit Volunteer Corps, two of us have jobs and then there’s the one that has to student-teach still. Also, a lot of my friends in business and communication have jobs or seem very close to having jobs,” she said.

Using additional resources to find jobs has helped in both these situations. Talsky, for example, said she made good use of Twitter to learn more about the culture of the workplaces she was interested in and build relationships with employees.

Once she had developed a relationship with them, she asked them for advice and feedback on her resume. Her professor then helped her send it to the right person at the company, and she was called for an interview.

“I think you really get out of it what you put into it,” Talsky said. “Sure, it takes luck to land a job, but if you dedicate time to really researching and targeting specific companies that you want to work at, and using your network and reaching out to their employees via LinkedIn and Twitter, eventually things will go your way.”

Myers noted that putting in the extra effort, time and networking will lead to job opportunities.