Taking the Plunge

Saad Mahmoud is a Rice engineering grad. Instead of fielding $60,000-a-year job offers, he's been trading manual-labor skills for rent-free living -- while waiting out one of the worst job markets in two decades.

Comments (0) By Jennifer Mathieu Thursday, Jun 19 2003

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Despite Rob's disappointing job search, he takes some pride in knowing his parents have finally agreed to change his old bedroom back home into something else, proving he really isn't going back.

"My family's been real supportive," says Rob, "once they realized there was no way in hell I was going to move back to New Jersey."

Daniel Kramer

Rice graduate Rob Gaddi finally got a job at Baylor after a year of searching -- paying almost $30,000 less than he was expecting.

Daniel Kramer

UH's David Small says graduates must lower expectations in a rough job market.

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Rob and Saad sit in Rob's living room, surrounded by the memorabilia from Rob's job search. Despite the ironic quips and jokes, there's something about the two of them, and indeed about all of the graduates, that's endearing. After years of summer vacations and lives meted out in school years, they're finally in the adult world. And they're dealing with it.