My condolence. I graduated in May 2001 post bubble. A lot of my friends had their offers withdrawn by the time they graduated.

I started a small dev firm in lower mid town manhattan instead. Then 9/11 hit that year.

I know kids that graduated just a year prior actually ended up doing quite well overall. But class of 01 and couple years following, I think jobs were harder to find.

Best of luck. I think timing may still be on your side, but I feel sorry for kids graduating next year.

This too shall pass.

Also a recession is a cleansing thing (Austrian school). A lot of unproductive people will be fired and a lot of stupid projects will be shut down, creating space for new ventures. You should take risks exactly during the time of a recession, not during the time of market & general confidence all time highs. Same with young age - take risks when you're young and your downside is small.

But it ain't going to be easy.

(contingent on the recession actually materializing).

If you are skilled at what you do, you'll survive unscathed, in the long term. Those statistics about people earning less in aggregate (that graduated during the last recession) are true, but you don't have to be the average employee. If you work for it, these forces working against you can be overcome.