A few weeks ago, I made plans on a Tuesday night to meet a college friend for happy hour. I showed up in a crisp, white button-down shirt, dark jeans and my favorite black flats, the standard outfit I wear to the book agency where I am an intern three days a week. That particular Tuesday was not one of those days. My friend Julia showed up at the Bleecker Street bar we decided on wearing an equally suitable work outfit: high heels, tights, a pencil skirt and a sweater.

I complimented Julia on her mature outfit, assuming she had come from work. She mentioned she scored her cute shoes on a great sale, and asked how work was for me that day. When I confessed that the only thing I read all day was my Tivo schedule, she confessed something as well. She had just been offered a full time job doing administrative work where she was temping but turned it down to pursue a career she was more passionate about. In “real world” speak, we were both very much unemployed.

As we both sat at the bar in our self-imposed work outfits, my eyes drifted and my thoughts wandered to the rest of the post-college-early-twenty-something crowd around us. Just how many of us there that night had gotten dressed up for happy hour?

Judging by the sea of button downs, ties, and similar cardigan-pencil-skirts combos, we appeared to be a successful group of young adults at early points in our careers. Recently, I read that 70% of 2008 college graduates are unemployed. According to that statistic, one look around the bar that night told me that Julia and I weren’t alone in our quest to appear professional.

Even though I had spent my day watching The Millionaire Matchmaker marathon in my sweats, and Julia had developed a love/hate relationship with her bedroom walls, we both had consciously made the effort to dress for happy hour as if we came straight from work. In college, if I went out in a button-down I would have offered a disclaimer to my friends. “I just came from a presentation,” I might have said. Bor-ing. But there we were, sitting prim, proper and professional by our own choice.

I realize sitting around lounging is not going to get me a secure paycheck anytime soon, but it wasn’t too un-imaginable that I did in fact, not do a whole lot of anything that day. For me, it has hit the point in the job search that while I’m still proactively pursuing it each and every day, pouring out resumes and cover letters for the first few hours of my mornings, the work is exhausting, not to mention depressing.

“It’s really difficult for recent graduates right now,” said Tanya Wilson, partner of Decorum Consulting Group, a temp agency in Manhattan. “It hasn’t been like this since the early 80’s, and there’s just no room for little to no experience. I’m seeing that employers want someone who has at least four or five years worth of experience, rather than someone fresh out of college and hungry for work.”

Even with five internships as experience under my belt, I’m in the fresh-out-of-college slot. The only bright side I can find about being young and broke in New York City is that for the first time in a long time, things haven’t come or been easy for me. Even though it plain sucks to not have a job, I feel as if these last few months in New York have pushed me, and it can only get better than eating popcorn for dinner.

As much as it sucks, I think these past few months have taught me more about myself than any first job could. I spent my first cold, snow-filled winter ever in New York, sitting around, calling home and wondering why my resume wasn’t making the cut. Maybe it’s the teasing of spring right around the corner, but I’ve learned to be patient.

Try as you might, you feel at the bottom of the barrel, because you figure if you weren’t, you’d be hired by now. This rejection can prove to be the best form of self development and leaves lots of room for improvement as well. You start to figure out what really, truly interests you, and hone in on your skills pertaining to that. Once you tap into your talents and discover what you honestly enjoy, your abilities will strengthen and what you bring to the table will become more valuable.

Am I embarrassed I don’t have a full-time job yet? More than a bit, but not completely. I know that I’m not alone, and it’s no secret New York has been hit hard with this economic melt down. I think when things come too easy there’s no challenge in anything, but I’m trying my best to fight this, any way I can. Even if that means playing dress up for a night.