Trina, Trina, Trina: suing Monroe College may NOT be the best way to find a job

Trina Thompson graduated, with a BA degree, from Monroe College in the Bronx. She's been out since April, and she hasn't yet found a job in her major, information technology.

So Trina's doing what no one who really and truly wants a job in this day and age should be doing: she's suing the college to get back the $70K she spent on tuition.

Trina, Trina, Trina.

I understand that you're mad as hell.

You no doubt worked hard for that BA, and you've no doubt got some loan payments hanging over your unemployed head.

Whatever Monroe College admissions and career counseling actually said to you, what you no doubt heard was 'when your come out of Monroe, you'll have a job."

But you don't, so you're pissed.

And if you're not going to have an income, you might as well have a little walking around money, so you want your $70K back.

Trina, Trina, Trina.

This is probably not a very good idea on your part.

Because, in this world, before anyone gets hired they get googled. They get bing'd.

And when they google and bing you, the first thing they see is not going to be your smiling face on Facebook. It's not going to be the article in the college news about the Let's-Help-Little-Kids-and-Old-Ladies volunteer initiative you spearheaded. It's not going to be about the bank deposit satchel that you found on the sidewalk returned to the business that dropped it, and refused any reward. It's not going to be about the IT Stars of the Future Scholarship you won.

Now, I obviously made these things up, but there may well be plenty of stuff about you on the 'net that's positive. But I don't know - and neither do any potential recruiters - because all that's on page one is that you're suing Monroe College.

Trina, Trina, Trina.

If I were an IT hiring manager, or an HR recruiter, here's what I'd be telling myself  - and it wouldn't be, 'hey, here's someone with the guts to push back on the establishment'. It'd be, 'I wouldn't touch this candidate with a barge pole. What if someone looked cross-eyed at her? What if we had to lay her off? She's obviously the litigious type. Gosh, she'd probably sue us. I think I'll take a pass on this application.'

Trina, Trina, Trina.

Maybe someone told you that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Maybe someone told you that the best way to get a job in this economy is to separate yourself from the pack, to get yourself known. Maybe suing your college struck you as a nifty way to differentiate yourself from job-seekers who are putting out clever little YouTube's, or standing in Times Square on stilts handing out résumés.

But there's positive differentiation, and there's negative differentiation. And I'm afraid that this falls under the category of negative differentiation.

Sure, there may be someone out there who will, in fact, give you a job because of this. Maybe there's a disgruntled Monroe alum who feels he or she was screwed by the old alma mater. Although I'm going to venture a guess that Monroe College is not all that supremely picky about acceptances, maybe it's someone who didn't get in - or who got kicked out for some reason -  and years later, is still pissed off. Maybe it's someone who's never heard of Monroe College who just decides to give you a chance. So maybe you do get a job offer.

Guess what?

The next time you look for a job, people are still going to be bing-ing and googling. And they're going to find this vapor trail that your law suit is leaving behind. And it's still not going to make you look good.

Trina, Trina, Trina.

You graduate smack dab in the midst of a mighty recession, and there's nowhere near as much hiring going on as there was when you started out to get your degree.

This is a rotten thing to have happen to anybody. And I'm a good enough guesser to guess that you particularly find that it's a rotten thing to have happen to you.

But there might have been better career moves you could have made - and it may not be too late for some of them.

Yes, you may feel that you've burned your bridges with Monroe placement, but if there's anyone there who you think could give you some constructive, non-defensive, non-pissy help, you might want to give that person a holler. Surely, there must be someone at Monroe who can talk to you about improving your résumé, about alternative jobs while you wait out the recession, about volunteer positions that might give you some good, résumé-building experience.

If there's no one at Monroe, then try getting some career counsel from someone older (and, perhaps - just perhaps - wiser) who's in your profession, who can give you some advice - and who may even let you piss and moan about the injustice of the royal Monroe College job placement screw job you've suffered through. (Try keeping the p & m to a minimum, however.)

Whether you have someone to talk to or not, try looking in the mirror, and ask yourself honestly if any of the situation you've found yourself in could possibly be about you. Did you do well in your studies? Do you have any relevant experience? Were your references strong? Is it possible that you give off a kind of chip on the shoulder, hostile vibe?

Maybe the answer to the first three questions is 'yes', and to the final question is a decided 'no.'

So maybe you are just a victim of a crappy economy.

But I don't think suing Monroe College - with the attendant bad publicity - was a good idea. (By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, the person who told you that there's no such thing as bad publicity is wrong.)

Anyway, now that you've done your see-you-in-court thing, the genie is pretty much out of the bottle.

But you really do need to see if you can make it so that good stuff surfaces on Bing and Google before the 'sue the bastards' stuff does.

Check out the folks at Brand-Yourself. They specialize in creating a positive web identity. I don't know if they can carry off a 'new you', but if anyone can help you on this front, it's them.

Another alternative is to start putting out 'only kidding' information. Speak with anyone who'll interview you, get on all the online articles and blogs ranking on you and make some comments. Twitter: you can absolutely say 'only kidding/whaddaya think, I'm crazy' in fewer than 140 characters.

Say that you really didn't intend to sue your college, but were just trying to expose the plight of recent grads who can't find work - yourself in particular. Make a point that all publicity is good publicity - just don't make it on my blog, because I don't think it's true, at all, at all.

Good luck with the job search!

I hope it works out better than the law suit, which I'm guessing goes nowhere. And even if it does pay off, that $70K - which may look like a fortune t0 you right now - isn't going to last very long.

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Source: AP article on boston.com.

Tip of the mortarboard: My sister Trish, who did not sue her college when she got out, even though she had to find her first job without any help from college placement, thank you.