FCC Students Face Lack of Jobs

Amanda Kateeb wakes up in the dark every day at 3 a.m. to get to work by 4.

The Fresno City College student clocks in at 4 a.m. at the Starbucks at Shaw and Villa in Clovis until 8:30. She gets to campus by 10, stays for classes until 2 p.m., and then goes to work at her second job at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Fresno from 4 to 9 p.m.

Kateeb, the president of the FCC Diversity Club, doesn’t recommend her 19-hour day. But she kept turning in job applications all over town because she was living on her own and had to find a way to work.

“It’s just not a sign in front of a store saying 'now hiring' anymore,” she said. “I hear some people complaining 'they aren’t hiring'. They are hiring. You aren’t looking!”

Many students like Kateeb face one of the toughest job climates in California history. The state’s Employment Development Department report released in October 2009 placed unemployment projections at 2.3 million or more people statewide.

California’s statewide unemployment rate hasn't changed since October, at 12.2 percent.

With low cash flow abundant, it’s not surprising to find that students have been returning to school to re-evaluate their earlier career choices,Mary Beth Wynn says, an interim coordinator for the employment resource center on campus.

As coordinator, Wynn serves as the diplomat between the center’s workers, and keeps in contact with the administration and attends employer meetings around Fresno.

“There is a big increase in the number of older students returning to school,” Wynn said.

Wynn pointed to an overall spike in the number of students attending FCC during this last semester from 22,000 to 25,000.

What does this increase mean to students here?

If future economic collapse brings a halt to the need for your career you may be forced to return to school to rethink your career, and community college is a popular and affordable option.

FCC does not keep record or account for the number of unemployed students and the Employment Resource Center does not require those who seek jobs to return to inform them if they got their jobs or not.

“If they don’t come back in we assume they got the job,” Wynn said.

Although the number of students the resource center helps is unknown, about 20 students or so a month come and go, Wynn said. The Employment Resource Center does not actively employ students but provides an up to date database of jobs available.

"It’s up to the students to go and turn in their applications and actually get the job,” she said.

Nick Romero, a four-year student at FCC, recently came to the employment resource center, adjusting his application to be more appealing to security contractors.

“I’ve changed my resume about 10 times over the last two years, listing different awards or different skills that I think the company may be looking for,” he said. “If you’re turning applications in and no one is calling back, maybe you should try re-working your resume, try different things and something will eventually work.”

Kateeb, who got her first job at age 16 at a Starbucks in Visalia, transferred to a Clovis store. She kept turning in applications everywhere before landing her second job at the Radisson.

Kateeb’s advice: “Don’t stop turning in job applications! There is work out there.”