Reality 101 : College seniors who study the job market know it’s ugly out there. How can anyone get ahead? Three students share hopes and strategies.

The coming spring could be uncharacteristically chilly--if you’re a new college graduate.

Employment prospects are not encouraging. Modest improvements in the job market during the last two years won’t nearly offset a decline of more than 30% between 1988 and 1993, says Patrick Scheetz, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

What’s more, the efforts of college seniors seem “very laid back,” says Scheetz, who talks to students in his other capacity as assistant director of placement services at Michigan State.

Seniors seem to think that they need to earn grades now and look for work later, or that, “The dear Lord will take care of me when graduation rolls around.”

But Scheetz warns that seniors should be pursuing jobs now through networking, resumes, cover letters and interviews.

So what does it take to get that first post-graduation paycheck? Starting today, The Times will follow three Southern California students through their job searches to find out. We’ll catch up with them in a couple of months and conclude when they graduate in the spring.

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Name: Lance Ralls

Age: 22

School: UCLA

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Leaving the large Placement and Career Planning Center at UCLA, Lance Ralls is upbeat.

“I’ll be here all day tomorrow,” he tells a receptionist. “I’ve got three interviews.”

Ralls, who grew up in Chowchilla and is the son of a tire shop manager and a city clerk, says he is optimistic about getting a job: “It seems I could get at least a few offers in different fields.”

He started his search early.

As a junior, he talked to seniors about their plans, attended career days and learned how to use the placement center.

“They installed a computer that does everything,” he says. “If someone doesn’t understand the procedure, it could cost them an interview.”

The summer after his junior year, Ralls landed an engineering internship with a Pasadena firm.

This fall, he arranged for campus placement counselors to critique his resume and film him in a mock job interview. The first four weeks of the quarter, he spent more time at the placement center than on any class.

“You need to research the companies,” he says. “They all have pamphlets and annual reports. The interviewer asks what do you know about us or like about us? You should ask questions. They want to see if you’ve spent time on them.”

His 3.6 grade-point average in his major (3.3 overall) helped get Ralls about 15 interviews, which he attends in a new pin-striped dark suit and white shirt.

“When you go through interviews, you see that it’s engineers and econ majors with lots of math and accounting (that) a lot of the jobs are targeted for,” he says.

“My friends who are history, political science or sociology majors, unless they’ve had some accounting, are going to grad school or law school.”

Interviews have also taught him about the quirkiness of the process.

“The interesting thing is that some time you could have an off day or you are not compatible with the interviewer. That can decide your future with the company.

“I’ve had some where it clicked and I had a great time. Another time I didn’t click and you could tell it was over. You know your fate in about 10 minutes.”

Because some interviews clicked, Ralls recently bought another suit because companies have invited him back for 10 second or third meetings.

“The fact that he’s invited back on two-thirds of the first interviews suggests that he has what companies are looking for,” says Bill Locklear, acting director of the placement center.

“I’d like to find a job that has a lot of diversity,” Ralls says. “And a job where I can lead and still be a team player. And I’m looking for work with a client--people who are having a problem I can help solve.”

He’s applying for positions including engineering management, technical sales and training as a consultant.

“That’s just to make sure I’m not flipping burgers next fall,” he says, “even though I could probably figure the aerodynamics of the burgers as they flip.”

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Name: Matthew Glasser

Age: 21

School: Occidental College

Major: Public Policy

News reports told Matthew Glasser that the economy would not welcome new graduates.

His concerns about his future are magnified by Democratic losses in the Nov. 8 election. Glasser is seeking a job as a political or community organizer with “the progressive left.”

“Not only are a lot of people I might have worked for no longer in office, but a lot of their staffs are looking for work,” he says.

“It’s disillusioning to recognize that it’s going to be an uphill battle. We’ve been studying hard and honing our skills. Getting a job should be the easy part.”

Nevertheless, his 3.65 grade-point average, work experience and contacts make the slender, soft-spoken former Calabasas High student optimistic.

“I’m single and willing to travel,” says Glasser, whose father is a psychiatrist and whose mother is a dietitian. “I think I have not only the skills, but the confidence to know I can do the job. The opportunities are there. I just need to find them.”

Glasser helped with strategy and media relations for Proposition 186, the unsuccessful health-care measure in the November election.

He walked precincts and phoned voters to fight the National Rifle Assn.’s attempt to recall state Sen. David Roberti (D-Van Nuys).

He also worked with a coalition to defeat a state Assembly bill that limited local rent control.

And he studied one semester in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the U.S. attorney’s office.

“I feel prepared to go out to work because I’ve already worked,” Glasser says. “It’s tough, but especially in the field I’m in, it’s essential. It’s one thing to study how things should be and another to experience how they are.

“The field isn’t that organized,” he says. “People rarely come out looking for help. You have to network with contacts and see what’s available. People have said they were very happy with my performance, and we’d like to have you if the money is around. I’ll have to see if those opportunities materialize.”

Glasser has been trying to enhance his opportunities by checking Occidental’s Career Development Center for names of alumni in his field and training on how to interview.

He says it’s too early to interview now. “Often, political and community groups need to hire right away and get someone who can begin soon, and I wouldn’t be available until graduation.”

He’ll send out resumes and make contacts after Christmas. He’d prefer a permanent position with a campaign consulting firm or a progressive foundation to a temporary one with a political campaign.

If no opportunity develops, he’ll start an organization to “disseminate information about jobs on the progressive left.”

He’d try to finance the project through donations from foundations or the Democratic Party.

“I’ve had to find information by networking,” he says. “This will go a step further and help place people in internships and jobs.”

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Name: Adria Blakely

Age: 22

School: Cal State Dominguez Hills

Major: Public Administration

Adria Blakely’s search for a job in health education has been frustrating.

A graduate of Locke High School in South Los Angeles, Blakely has taken steps to prepare herself for a career teaching people in hospitals or schools how to stay healthy.

“I talked to many people about my interests just to get a feel for the profession,” says Blakely, whose mother is a clerk at the Watts Health Foundation and a former dental hygienist; her father is a plumber in Sacramento. Some time ago, she had seen a job announcement for a health educator. “The duties--speaking with patients about nutrition or sexually transmitted diseases or doing workshops--made me realize here was something I would be interested in doing.”

She will graduate from Cal State Dominguez Hills in May with a degree in public administration. That will provide management skills, while a concentration in health sciences prepares her for her chosen specialty.

She’s employed part-time in the school’s health center, where she’s learned to work on computers, and as a teen-ager she worked as a summer receptionist at the King/Drew Medical Center; it was that experience that started her thinking about the health professions.

And she serves on the board of directors of the school’s student union, gaining experience in leadership.

But Blakely, who has a 2.49 grade-point average, lacks experience with patients, which she says is important if she applies for jobs without a degree in a health field.

To become employable, she may have to get experience as a volunteer.

“I’m going for a master’s degree in public health and I’m going to try to work at the same time,” she says. “I know something is going to come up where I won’t need an additional degree, but maybe not in the area I want.

“My biggest fear is that in order to get the experience, I’ll have to volunteer and the job won’t be paid,” Blakely says.

So far, she has applied for one position in health education and two clerical jobs in case nothing is available in her field.

To enhance her chances, she’s had her supervisor at the student health center critique her resume and will go through a mock job interview at the Student Development Office.

She’s also bought outfits appropriate for interviews.

“I’m very positive,” she says. “I’m very organized. I’m pretty good at diagnosing problems and finding ways to get around them or fix them and I’m an excellent planner.”

If she doesn’t get a scholarship for graduate school, she’ll need a job by next fall to pay for it. “That’s when things will become critical,” she says.