• Name/age: Ryan Richardville, 25
• Job Status: Wonders if his law degree was worth the debt

Ryan Richardville has loans to pay after graduating from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan in May, but no job or salary to help pay them.

Law students used to get full-time job offers after working summer jobs at law firms. These days, Richardville said, firms are cutting back.

"They make law school seem so glorious, and you think it would help you in this job market," he said. "But it doesn't."

He's applied for more than 50 jobs but is awaiting the results of his bar examination -- further slowing the hiring process.

"I feel as if I did everything right," he said. "However, I face an undeniable hurdle at the beginning of my adult life -- a poor job market and student debt."

NEXT: Got a job, a year later