I have a four-year degree in Internet security and a two-year degree in programming … and I am unemployed.

Some may ask why?

The dynamic of the job market has changed in the past 10 years. I am finding myself in a strange and all-too-common predicament. Though I have the education, I lack the experience for the jobs I am educated to do. And, because I am educated, I am immediately dismissed from consideration from a good number of jobs (read that as regular, blue-collar jobs) that are currently available.

How did that happen?

It used to be that all a person had to do was walk into a place, fill out an application and be interviewed. Not so anymore.

Since the employment (economic) crash of 2009, employers have shifted their priorities from getting a good, inexperienced candidate who could grow into a position, to shifting those responsibilities to existing employees or requiring mounds of experience in three or four different areas in addition.

I have been looking for work since I graduated in September, both in Tennessee and Maine, and am finding the problem exists in both locations. I would surmise that the problem is common in most places.

My question is simply: How do I get past this?

How do I (and others like me) find decent jobs requiring education if companies are not willing to hire people without experience? It is a catch-22.

Christopher Anderson, Auburn