How hard is it to find a job after college?

That's a great question to be thinking about, Azra, but it's really going to vary based on a number of factors. Those factors include what you major in, what career path you're looking to follow, the location you're looking in, the job market at the time of graduation, how prepared you are for the interviews, and so much more. It's really different for each person.

At the consulting firm I work at, we just finished a round of interviews with seniors in college, and made offers to the ones we felt would be a good fit. So they will start their job as soon as they are ready. Other people won't necessarily be in that boat and will end up spending a few months or longer securing a position.

This last part highlights an important point. The sooner you start your job search, the more likely you are to have something lined up to start the minute after you walk across that stage at graduation. So people who start later in the year will be at a significant disadvantage to those who start earlier, or to those who receive offers from internships from the previous summer.

When I started looking for engineering jobs as I was graduating, it was March and many companies had already filled their spots. So it took a bit of time, ~3-4 months, to get the interview that eventually landed me my first job in September. Some of my friends had jobs in June and others weren't able to start until February of the following year. But like I mentioned earlier, there are many factors, and the fact that I wanted to be in a certain type of company limited my options, and at the time the economy was still early in it's recovery, so jobs were more scarce than they are today.

Hope that helps!

If you're thinking about career options post-graduation, now is a great time to go meet the people at the campus career services center. They'll have tons of information and can give you lots of tips and coaching. You might even be able to get some data around average length of time to full-time employment for different majors at your school.

Anecdotally, I have a music degree and I was employed full time 6 months after graduation. It wouldn't have been quite so long if I'd not had to wait a few months on a visa. So being prepared for a job search to take a few months is a good thing, and starting well before you finish school is highly recommended!

I think Ryan has given a really great answer, but I just wanted to add that the timing of when people are hiring can also vary dramatically by field. For example, consulting and finance firms might make offers in the late summer and fall for people to start the following summer, whereas some nonprofits and lots of other organizations likely won't even know what positions they need to fill for the summer until after the New Year. So start thinking early, but don't be discouraged if you're not finding the kinds of positions you want right away. (If you need a sense of when the industry you want to work in after college typically lists open positions, one great resource is any older friends you might have who had similar career aspirations. These older friends, or even siblings, are really useful because they were just there and can offer up-to-date career advice for you individually - they're a great complement to the help you can get from your college's career center.)