In a time when intelligent, hard-working professionals are losing their jobs for circumstances well beyond their control, one woman is taking issue because she can’t get one.

    Trina Thompson, a Bronx, N.Y., resident and recent graduate of Monroe College, filed a lawsuit in July to recoup the money she spent on earning a bachelor’s degree because she hasn’t found a job in the three months since commencement, www.cnn.com reported Monday.

    She alleges that the college’s career advancement office didn’t try hard enough to help her obtain employment and that the office favors students with a 4.0 GPA, not students with a 2.7 like her.

    It’s been awhile since my initial post-baccalaureate job search and my memories of it are somewhat sketchy, but there is one portion I distinctly remember — I did it on my own. Professors and other college staff would alert students to job postings, help with resumes and cover letters and the like, but it was up to me to find gainful employment.

    From my first day at Rowan University until the day I received my degree, not once did anyone lead me to believe that a mediocre GPA and good attendance record would ensure employment. No college, in its collective right mind, would ever guarantee any student a job after graduation, not even the best student in the class.

    Ask any recent grad — and take the current lack of jobs out of the equation. Three months is a bit premature to give up on a job search, and subsequently file a lawsuit against someone else for not getting you a job.

    Thompson’s lawsuit perfectly illustrates her lack of interest in taking responsibility for herself. It must be someone else’s fault that she can’t get a job, clearly not hers.

    Earlier this year, the News Journal did a piece on how law firms aren’t hiring and the plight that new law school grads are suffering, although I’m sure at this point it could apply to any profession. I’d guarantee that many future lawyers spent more on their education than Thompson’s $70,000.

    It would be the ultimate irony to see a law school grad turn around to sue a place like Widener University because he or she couldn’t get a job, however unlikely that would be.

    And the $2,000 in Thompson’s suit for the stress she’s incurred during her job search? If someone ponied up cash every time I suffered from stress, I would be a very rich woman.

Email Maureen Raitz at maureen.raitz@doverpost.com.