The Graduates

December 23, 2011 at 1:11 AM UTC

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This article is part of the December 26, 2011 issue of businessweek.

Cindy Trinh
2011 JD, Syracuse University College of Law
Seven months since graduation, Brooklyn resident Trinh, 28, has been unable to parlay her law degree into a full-time job.

I went to Syracuse in the fall of 2008. After my first year, I figured out what I wanted to practice. I took intellectual property and completely fell in love with the subject. I took entertainment law. I took media law. I took communi-cations law. I used to draw and design, and I’m very involved with the creative arts. I was never good enough to be a creative professional, but why not be the professional who protects those creative authors and their works?

I took the New York bar exam in July, and I passed. During those two months, I was studying 16, 18 hours a day. I’ve been searching for a job far and wide. On Craigslist. On Monster. On Simply Hired. Directly to law firms. I signed up with a placement agency.