New College Grads Face Competitive, Lengthy Job SearchesRyan Fitzpatrick didn’t take the easiest path in planning his post-graduate life. As a senior majoring in finance at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he started his job search in January by going to career fairs on campus but didn’t find any of the companies recruiting at MU to be a match. “A lot of companies recruiting at Mizzou are huge corporations, so it’s hard to get a big role in one of those,” Fitzpatrick said. “Plus, most of those companies were looking for graduates to come to St. Louis, and I was looking to go more to the Kansas City side.” Not having any luck with MU resources, Fitzpatrick turned to a neighbor who works for a staffing company just a week before graduation. There, he found spark of hope. He says he now has a promising prospect in Overland Park, Kan.-based Shaner Appraisals. Fitzpatrick is especially attracted to Shaner because it’s a smaller company with less than 50 employees, the sort of small firm he’s wanted all along.