I’ve recently discovered that there are few things more depressing than entering your dream job title and location into a job search engine and seeing a screen that reads, “No jobs were found matching that description.”

This is followed on the depressing scale by “minimum five years experience.”

Really, monster.com? There is no company executive in charge of hiring currently thinking to themselves, “Man, I REALLY need to hire recent graduate Lauren Slavin!”

Of course there isn’t, and there hasn’t been since, well, thinking of how long the job market has been spiraling is almost more depressing than my searching.

My esteemed colleague Andrew Constant was absolutely correct in his recent editorial regarding job rejection: “Think of the whole application process like a boxing match: You’re going to get hit a lot, and it’s probably going to hurt more often than not.”

The Class of 2012 is hurting. And while the Career Center and online research has done wonders for my résumé and cover letter, what I have yet to find a resource for is my pre-application anxiety.

My search for scarce job ads is only comforting in the fact that were I to find a job worth applying for, it would be difficult to take that next step.

Being a student leader is infinitely rewarding.

At the peak of senioritis, I’m also discovering how devastating it’s making many of us soon-to-be-out-in-the-real-world folks feel.

At Towson University, I’m the editor-in-chief of the publication I’ve dedication the vast majority of my time for the past four years to bettering.

Does that give me the job experience many employers are mandating before hiring? Probably not. Nor does it provide me with an answer to the question I’m hearing over and over outside the job search sites: “So, what do you want to do after you graduate?”

My smart-ass response since the fall has been, “I’d really like to have a job.” It’s sad, but true.

While I’m top dog at The Towerlight, I’m about to be thrown back to the bottom of the barrel faster than Maryland’s recently-plentiful crab population.

Of course, this is as exciting as it is frightening.

Half the fun of being part of an organization is working your way to the position where you hope to do the most good, and I know being part of the workforce will be no different.

Take a chance on the Class of 2012. We’re eager to learn, and if we’re passionate, many of us will work for next to nothing.

A positive attitude is bound to balance out job hunt apprehension, right?