Things that used to be better when I was your age… Jobs.

I remember a time, not so very long ago, when jobs were just these things that old people had to get when they left college. It didn’t sound like very much fun. After all, you had to leave college and go into this “real world” that everyone is always talking about. No more intramural sports, no more binge-drinking, no more co-eds.On the other hand, it sounded kind of cute. All you had to do — from what I was told — was show up to the office of your choice a couple months after graduating, present your Princeton diploma, and voila, instant job (six-figure salary to be determined)! Sure, it wasn’t going to be college, but it didn’t seem all bad.Now? We’re all fucked.What nobody bothers to tell you is that senior year isn’t all about having fun, spending time with your friends, or even toiling away at your thesis. No. Instead, senior year is all about the year after senior year. For most people, that means a job. More importantly, it means finding a job.This didn’t used to be all that difficult. You’d go into the basement of one of the 19 Career Services buildings on campus, spin the Wheel of Fortune™ wheel, and land on Bain, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey, or Barclays. You’d make a mental note, put your boat shoes back on, and head out into the abundant sunshine to enjoy the rest of senior year.Sounds great, right? Well sorry, Mr. John Q. Senior, times done changed. Now when you get on campus, you’re not supposed to enjoy freshman week (I know, the inhumanity of it all). Instead, you’re supposed to be working on applications, cover letters, and interview preparedness (whatever that means). And it’s a lot harder to do all of that if you plan on spending the first few weeks of school in the same drunken state that you spent them for the previous three years.I have one friend who said, as of last night, he’d written 40 cover letters. 40. I didn’t even know what to say to that. I can’t even name 40 companies that haven’t gone bankrupt in the last year (although you can probably name 40 that have).To make matters worse, all of these companies are barely even hiring. The days of prospective employers fighting over you are finished. Now you have to fight your friends to get to them.When we were freshmen, it was all living in the moment — meeting new people, trying new activities, enjoying new experiences — but now it’s all about looking forward, beyond the present time. Of course, to a certain extent, this has always been the case for seniors, but the discrepancy is even more dramatic now than it was three years ago. And it sucks.What does this mean for you, Ms. Jean Q. Young-Person? I’ll let 20th century philosopher Billy Madison explain: “Stay here. Stay as long as you can. For the love of God, cherish it.”Because jobs really suck. Especially now.