9 Degrees of Frustration : New college graduates try to work it out amid bleak job prospects. Expectations are lowered, and part-time; and temp positions are facts of life.

After taking the last exam of her college career, Kendra Pfenning couldn’t decide if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, or an even heavier one had settled there.

For Pfenning and the three women she shared a suite with at California Lutheran University, the month leading up to graduation was a blur of activity: finals, term papers, student government duties, recitals, packing. The four were so busy they had to tape episodes of “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills 90210” to watch later.

During a rare pause, one roommate, Staci Stouch, previewed the postgraduate life.

“I won’t have a place to live. I won’t have a job. I’ll be $24,000 in debt, and my parents are anxious to get me out of their pocket.”

Now, more than a month after graduation, those four women and a similar group of male roommates--three of whom graduated last year-- are still coming to terms with the demands of being independent adults--principally, finding jobs.

These nine young adults--three of whom are the children of Lutheran pastors--all come from middle-class backgrounds, and all attended a private, religious university.

But as a group, they are representative of that rather hefty segment of the recent college graduate population that is looking for work and meeting with little success.

None of the nine has secured permanent, full-time employment. And the three who are roommates from previous academic terms have been in the job market for a full year.

How an ex--roommate is doing is arguably the clearest gauge of the economy for many young adults. Newly minted baccalaureates may not be able to cite the latest Labor Department statistics, but they definitely know whether former roomies are festering in retail sales or knocking ‘em dead at in R & D at a corporation.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Bryan Biermann, 23, of Simi Valley graduated last summer. He got married and moved to the Seattle area, where he and his wife now live with their baby boy.

“I feel the pressure of the job market even more now that I have a little kid,” Biermann said. “I don’t dwell on it, but I definitely feel it.”

He landed a temporary job at Microsoft, and since February he’s been shuffling through assignments in the licensing department at the Redmond, Wash., software giant.

“It’s not something I would want to do for any length of time,” he said. “I was aiming for marketing.”

As a temp, Beirmann’s identification badge is a different color than those of permanent employees, the self-described “microserfs.” But the main difference comes when paychecks are opened.

Microserfs get full salary and stock options; Biermann gets a check from which a substantial portion of the money for his position has been paid to the agency that placed him.

“Even though it’s better to raise a family here, I’ve thought of returning to (Southern California),” he said. “I’m more connected down there. I have lots of friends already in the working world.”

KEEPING THE FAITH

One of them is Steve Foster, who shared a room with Biermann during their school years.

Foster is a pastor’s son, looking bright and earnest from the top of his close-cropped hair to the freshly laundered cotton laces in his deck shoes. He used his biology degree to land a three-month paid internship with Amgen, the Fortune 500 biotech firm in Thousand Oaks.

He’s hopeful of landing a permanent job, since Amgen frequently hires CLU biology graduates. If not, he has resumes in the pipeline.

“My brother-in-law does a lot of work in personnel,” Foster said. “I sent him my resume for a critique. The first thing he told me to do was take my grade-point average off. I graduated with a 3.61, and I worked hard for it. But I guess it’s like high school. Once you get into college, how you did in high school doesn’t mean a thing. Once you get into the work force, nobody cares how you did in college.”

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

Amgen was not the answer for Stouch, a 23-year-old communication arts major. She was the runner-up for a job in the company’s public relations department.

She’s been replaying the interview in her head.

“I felt like a stewardess in the blue suit and heels,” she said. “The heels were a really dumb idea because I got nervous and wobbly.”

She now lives at home in Lancaster while looking for work in Ventura County, where she can be closer to her boyfriend.

Her mother has told her it may take until September to find a job, a prospect that is hardly reassuring to Stouch.

Yet, three or even six months is not an unusually long job search, according to career placement counselors.

Hiring of college graduates has picked up, according to the College Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University in East Lansing. But the gain was just 1%, hardly noticeable, given that hiring declined 30% from the high in 1989.

“Students are really launching careers through contract, part-time and temp employment rather than entering as permanent hires,” said Vernicka Tyson, director of the institute. “It’s taking longer for them to get connected.”

MAKING SACRIFICES

Michelle Murray, credits her internship at KADY television for landing her a part-time job at the station. A communication arts major from Newbury Park, Murray works 25 hours as a technician producing the evening news.

When she took the internship, she wondered whether the sacrifices she made, like working Friday nights, would impress the managers enough to win her a paid job after graduation, or if she would be just another waitress with a college degree.

Both prospects turned out to be true. Since the job at KADY pays less than $6 an hour, Murray has to keep serving up meatloaf and chicken-fried steak while she lives at home to save money.

“I’ll have to keep waiting tables,” she said, “if I want to move out on my own in the fall.”

RISE & SHINE

After all, what good is a job if it doesn’t provide independence. Lack of autonomy is something Pfenning feels resoundingly at 9 a.m. every day.

“I like to sleep late, but my dad, he’s the rooster in the family.”

She explained that her bed is up against an interior wall and at 9 a.m. her dad, all 6 feet 3 inches, 230 pounds of him, bangs on the wall just above her head to wake her up.

Pfenning told her friends she’s anxious to find a job in Southern California, if not Ventura County.

“It would almost be easier to stay in school and just have to worry about grades and exams,” she said.

CAREER STUDENTS

Indeed, throughout the recession, the number of people seeking higher education has risen. The Council of Graduate Schools reports that applications increased at an average of 7% per year.

One man and one woman in our group of nine graduates will be continuing their education.

Foster’s roommate, Sean Kelly, a 22-year-old voice major from Diamond Bar, will go on to graduate school in Minnesota to study music and divinity with the aim of becoming either a choir director or a Lutheran minister.

Lori Downs, an international business major, will study for a year in Europe, funded by a scholarship from the Rotary Club. Before she leaves, she’s spending the summer in Thousand Oaks, where she shares an apartment with Craig Kuehne.

STRICTLY LOW-BUDGET

Kuehne shared a room last year with Biermann and another ’93 graduate named Mark McCracken. So far opportunities have been slow to develop for McCracken and Kuehne, both of whom want to make feature films.

Both delayed the career search after graduation. McCracken manned a steam table for a caterer. Kuehne worked as a sales clerk for Blockbuster Video before he quit over “creative differences.”

“It was a great loss,” he said sardonically. “I was earning $4.25, and just before I quit, I was set for a raise. I could have gotten as much as 12 cents more per hour.”

Both are now working on a film project tentatively called “The Aimless Avenger,” which McCracken describes as a martial arts-action-adventure-comedy-love story with a heart.

McCracken stars as the Avenger. Kuehne directs.

“I’m the first American martial artist since Bruce Lee who can act,” McCracken declared, “and I want to bring a different type of martial arts action movie to this country. I mean, there’s so many bad martial arts films, I have to think mine has a chance.”

Kuehne is betting on it.

All the production equipment for “Aimless”--a digital video mixer, two VHS stereo tape decks, a super-VHS deck, camera and mount and a Macintosh computer for the sound effects--Kuehne purchased on credit.

“I now have five credit cards,” Kuehne said with a nervous laugh. “They just keep sending them to me.”

A few low-budget films from new, young directors have been produced this way, but it’s hardly a front door into The Business. Nevertheless, McCracken is planning his long-term strategy.

“As soon as I make it, I’m going to move back to Colorado and work from there,” he said. “I mean Coppola doesn’t live in Hollywood, does he?”

For all his enthusiasm, he recognizes that “Aimless” might not take off and that even if the dream of making feature films dies, he’ll still have car payments to make.

“Domino’s is the only job I’ve ever left where I was on good terms,” he said. “I can always go back to delivering pizzas.”

Real Life, 101

* Of college graduates below the age of 24, 91.3% were employed. Of those, 8.5% were employed part time. One-fifth were employed in jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree.

* College graduates of all ages earn an average of $696 a week.

* Those with an associate’s degree earn an average of $503.

* Those with some higher education but no degree earn an average of $438.

* High school graduates with no college earn an average of $394 a week, while those with no high school degree average less than $300 a week.

* The average weekly wage for all 20- to 24-year-olds regardless of education level dropped 7.4% during the past 10 years when adjusted for inflation.

* Of Americans between the ages of 20 and 24, 12% have bachelor’s degrees, while 20% of all Americans have bachelor’s degrees.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics