The incessant questioning began months ago for members of the Brandeis class of 2003: "What are you doing next year?" "What are your plans for the future?" These inquiries are perennially difficult to handle, but to this year's graduating seniors, who are facing an unusually bleak job market, the questions were especially nerve-racking.According to The New York Times, current seniors face the worst hiring slump in 20 years. Carrying the weight of nearly two years of economic decline, employers have fewer jobs to offer, according to Jobweb.com.

Focusing on the University of North Carolina, the Times article said that about 15 percent of North Carolina seniors have jobs lined up and 25 percent are enrolling in graduate school, "leaving about six in 10 seniors without a long-term plan come Monday morning." Many seniors, it seems, have no answers to the tireless questioning from curious friends and relatives.

This uncertainty is not confined to North Carolina; it has permeated the Waltham air as well. "I've noticed at Brandeis that very few people actually know what they're doing next year," Emily Berry '03 said. "Maybe 10 of my friends know what they're doing; I envy them." She added that although the company is comforting, "on the other hand, it's like, 'Oh, you're looking for a job too?' They're competition."

Seniors are beginning to sense the lessening opportunities. "There is so much competition to get into the job market," Berry said. "It's really intimidating."

"I remember coming here as a freshman and people were just getting money thrown at them for jobs they really didn't seem to be qualified for," Joshua DeFlorio '03 said. " It's just a bad, bad time to be graduating."

Meryl Glatt-Rader, director of the Hiatt Career Center, cited a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. This survey, she said, "found that about 42 percent of employers plan to hire fewer new graduates this year than they did last year, while about 36 percent said they plan to hire more. The remaining 21 percent said they will hire the same number." This comes after corporations cut their hiring of new graduates by 36 percent between 2001 and 2002, the Times reported.

So why are there so few job openings for this year's graduating class? According to Jobweb.com, employers blame the phenomenon on "diminished hiring needs, on their organizations having fewer clients requiring services, budgetary cutbacks, hiring freezes, low attrition and layoffs."

With the same number of applicants but fewer job offerings, positions that would usually be available to recent graduates are now reserved for those with more experience. "I know that one firm told me that in any normal economy I would have had a job," DeFlorio said. "It was an entry-level position ... but there are people who are willing to accept less money and take a step backwards career-wise."

Many students have accepted are settling for less than they originally hoped - but only temporarily. A number of Brandeis seniors diving into the job market share the ambition of procuring some sort of income for the next few years while they crystallize their goals for the future.

"It's not a career path, but something to earn money with low stress before I go on to grad school," Margie Justice '03 said about her job next year as a receptionist.

David Silver '03 will work for his father's manufacturing company next year. "It's not my ideal job, but since the market is so bad, I will take it and make the most of it," he said. He has also applied for other jobs more related to his archeology and anthropology major, and he will continue to apply.

In light of all this, seniors must be realistic and flexible. "I've noticed that students are more willing to look at a wide range of career options," Glatt-Rader said. "I think that's a wise strategy."

One of these options, chosen by a number of graduating students, is to apply to selective service programs such as the Peace Corps, Americorps and Teach for America. Noah Branman '03, for example, was accepted to City Year through Americorps. He will spend the year assisting teachers in public schools in poor neighborhoods in San Jose, Calif. "I only applied for one job and I got it," he said. "But it's a little different. It's still competitive, but it's not the same level."

Many students this year have chosen to avoid the job market by going directly to graduate school. The Times reported that both law school and medical school applications have increased and that the number of students taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) has reached an all time high.

"I started (the job search) very slowly and I was very picky ... I started now to become more promiscuous in my guidelines," DeFlorio, an English major who said he hopes work in the field of architecture, said. For now, he is doing a summer program at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. DeFlorio said he hopes this will help him decide if he wants to pursue architecture and also establish connections to architecture firms. "I'll make sure everyone knows that I'm open ended starting August 1st," he said.

Berry mentioned an additional challenge plaguing some students: "It's really tough if you don't know what you want to go into," she said. "I want to go into advertising, but ... it's a little harder because I don't have a set goal."

Other seniors are yet to rule out the option of graduate school, but all those interviewed said that they want to wait until they are more certain of a career path. "I had always wanted to take a year or two off. I had no intention of going next year," Silver said. Justice said that she needed "time to unwind" prior to continuing her studies.

Some students rule out graduate school for more practical reasons. Berry said she wants to pay back some loans before accruing more.

The seniors' patience may pay off sooner than they anticipated, according to The New York Times Job Market Confidence Index, which measures the "perceptions of employers and job seekers about the job market in the greater New York metropolitan area." The index reported that job market confidence had fallen steadily since October, hitting its lowest point in February, but is now rising again. Glatt-Rader corroborated this information, saying that she has seen data that "points to increased hiring in 2004."

And until then, DeFlorio said, "The interest rates are very low. At least it's a good time to be in debt.