<p>I am a USC graduate class of 2002, and I have mixed views on the value of a USC degree. I graduated with a major in Business with an emphasis on finance and entrepreneurship, cum laude. Immediately after graduation I searched for jobs and landed an internship in motion picture finance with Sony Pictures in Culver City which only lasted three months. Following this internship, I was not able to land any work for 6 months, which put a gap in my CV. In desperation I took work as a Financial Advisor at John Hancock in Anaheim, where I received my series 7 and 66 licenses. The position paid only sales commission (not even great at that) and required you to push Whole Universal Life Insurance to whomever you could find (an investment I found to be really terrible). I gave it a year and decided to move into the residential real estate finance where more money was being made. Take into account I had $70,000 in student loans looming so I needed to make money. I got my real estate license and did mortgage loans for a broker for about 3 years, making low-mid $40s each year, then business slowed to a crawl. I learned a great deal about real estate, and real estate development from developers I watched in the Inland Empire. Also my best friend was a civil engineer from USC, which sparked a passion for development. But the market, being inflated at the time, was not a good place to start in 2007. </p>
<p>At this point I took a risk, along with one of my most rewarding choices, and moved to Costa Rica to partner up with a friend, and ex-VP of Grubb and Ellis Land Acquisition division to start a consulting company for international real estate developers. I quickly learned the ins and outs of RE development in Costa Rica and Panama and made a great number of contacts with the planning departments, financial institutions, and local developers. I consulted on numerous deals, and was able to pay the bills for over a year. It is important to note that the Costa Rican market was a secondary investment market directly linked to the US housing bubble, so it would logically go down when the US bubble burst, which it did. This happened in 2008, but not before I was invited to partner on a development deal for 204 beachfront units on one of Panama’s most beautiful undiscovered coast. Long story short, I ran the deal for 8 months, got it entitled and half pre-sold, but wasn’t able to raise enough capital to close and build. The deal had a great deal of promise and was priced right, but the financial meltdown of 2009 shut down all development.</p>
<p>Fast forward to now, I am working as a personal banker at Chase for $36,000 because that is the only job I could find quickly when I returned to CA. Due to my scattered resume I am having difficulty finding a job that does not require specific or technical experience. RE development is dead in the water and my mentor even told me to go golfing until 2015… yeah right. My USC degree does not help me get into professional positions such as analysis or consulting, and the big name firms all look for younger, cleaner slates to pick fresh out of undergrad. I have applied to every position I see, and even in some entry level positions I receive no responses.</p>
<p>I remember coming out of USC thinking that I was going to have jobs lined up with six figure salaries pre-30, as well as with an overinflated sense of self-worth. This did not happen for me. Perhaps this is a testament to the terrible jobs market, but at this point I am thankful for any job I have, and am not too proud to work for $17 per hour even with a bachelor’s from USC.</p>