I hate to tell you this, but doing all the right things up through college doesn't entitle you to a guaranteed job upon graduation. You still have to pull yourself up from your bootstraps, pound the pavement (figuratively), and get your first job or internship, start at the bottom of the corporate ladder, live in a 1 bedroom apartment on ramen noodles or beans and rice, and work your way up based on the merits of your work.
To be honest, every generation has had to do this, including the baby boomers. Getting a high paid manufacturing job with a pension and benefits right out of high school is a myth as far as I'm concerned, because it only happened for a few years in a few towns that happened to have factories in them.
But it isn't these people's fault for thinking so, they spent twenty years of their lives working "hard" (for the wrong definition of hard) and being told this lie.
To be honest, every generation has had to do this, including the baby boomers. Getting a high paid manufacturing job with a pension and benefits right out of high school is a myth as far as I'm concerned, because it only happened for a few years in a few towns that happened to have factories in them.