Dear Readers,

This column is dedicated to all the newly minted college graduates who do not yet have a job offer in hand. What’s a newly but highly educated, unemployed person to do?

Try to stay energized and motivated. If you take the too-common approach of combining a defeatist with an escapist attitude – “I’m not going to win at this; what’s going on Friday night?” says Wayne Wallace, director of the University of Florida’s Career Resource Center, “you can get by for awhile, but it’s going to come back and haunt you.”

You are not alone, obviously. The ranks of the unemployed keep swelling, and the number of college students who are as yet uncommitted – without a job offer or acceptance to graduate school – is larger than it’s been in years. Take Derek Jose, who is about to graduate from the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Applied Security analysis. For the past two years, every graduate was employed within a week of receiving his or her degree, but that was not expected to happen this year. As of April 1, eight out of 17 students had offers; the rest, including Jose, were still on the market.

On the bright side, many corporations are still hiring. Even those firms that have laid off employees recently may be beefing up departments where they have an unmet need. Wallace reports that the employers who attended its spring career fair were down a third from a year earlier. But several of the university’s largest recruiters, big names like Lockheed-Martin, Microsoft, Target, and General Electric, have snapped up dozens of graduates from Florida and from other schools, just as they have in years past.

“The game’s not over,” says Wallace. Recent graduates who have the best chance at landing a job going forward are those who “take ownership of the whole process,” he says. Rather than throw your resume at a bunch of online job sites in hopes that something will stick, target your search. Take the time to answer some basic questions: “What is it I have to offer? What do I really want to do?”

Networking with alumni, former employers, and friends is another important step. For one thing, it may be the quickest route to an opening. “We work hard to connect students with our alumni because it’s wonderfully useful,” says Kathy Heinzen, director of Lawrence University’s Career Center in Appleton, Wisc.

Secondly, if you have a fear of interviews meetings with alumni can give you some practice. “Students have become so comfortable with electronic tools, we are seeing a need to help them with face-to-face meetings,” says Heinzen. “Just because you know how to speak it doesn’t mean you know how to interview,” Wallace concurs, noting that . interviews can be quite challenging, especially structured behavioral interviews and interview that test problem solving skills.

That doesn’t mean that a higher grade point average gives you the edge. Having an internship on your resume seems to be the biggest predictor as to who gets hired, says Wallace. The reasons are obvious: you have direct, related experience and have already been proven with a respected employer. “It’s as close to a silver bullet as there is,” says Wallace.

Some students are considering post-graduate internships which seem to be taking the place of being hired full time for a probationary period. “It can be a door opener,” says Wallace. If the internship does not lead to a full time position, it looks better on your resume than being hired and then failing probation. “It looks like a learning experience,” says Wallace. And, no doubt, it was.

Being flexible is another way to expand your options. If you can relocate, the world is your market. Similarly, it is wise to have several possibilities in mind regarding the type of organization, field, and even the jobs you will consider. Beyond that, says Heinzen, “we’re encouraging students to think outside the box, about more non-traditional arrangements like cobbling together a couple of positions.”

One more option, which Heinzen says worked for her when she was a graduate student in Minnesota: signing on with a staffing agency.

Just remember: you may have graduated from school, but at this wonderful stage of your life, everything is still a learning experience. And the rest of us envy you for that.