Throughout the months of May and June there is an excitement on college campuses across the country that is unmatched by any other in academic life (except for maybe $1 beer night) as thousands of students get ready to leave their school books behind and graduate into the “real world”.

Heady times indeed, but what kind of job market can the Class of 2010 expect to walk into? According to a recent survey conducted by NACE (the National Associate of Colleges and Employers) their prospects are not as gloomy as one might think, given the current economic climate.

According to that survey in 2010 44 percent of the employers questioned do intend to hire college graduates. Last year 43 percent said the same thing so the good news is that the number went up (even if ever so slightly) rather than down. These same employers do admit however that they intend to scale back the compensation packages they offer to new grads though.

So what does the new college graduate need on their resume to put them ahead of the competition and land their first “real world’ job? Of the employers surveyed a massive 62% said that the candidate having completed some form of internship would be impress them greatly with only 31% caring about the level of class work a student had maintained over the course of their academic career.

When asked about what they personally might look for when interviewing graduates the top answer was a candidate that comes to the interview well prepared, asks intelligent questions and has some knowledge about the company that they are hoping to work for. In other words, exactly what they are looking for from any potential new hire.

So the bottom line is that there will be jobs out there for the Class of 2010, as long as they are willing to put as much work into finding the right one as they were their lessons over the last four years.