More worrisome were the new grads in his study who were involuntarily underemployed. They tended to come from working-class backgrounds and often were the first in their families to go to college, which can make it harder to secure that first post-college job because they lack family friends who can put a good word in at a desired employer. Those grads felt highly stressed about not finding work commensurate with their education, which their families had believed would be the ticket to upward mobility, and several cried during their interviews, Steffy said.