A newly minted college graduate from New Mexico was headed to his “dream job” when he was killed in a Russian jet fire, his friends said Monday.

Jeremy Brooks, 22, of Santa Fe had just gotten work as a fishing guide in Russia and was headed to the city of Murmansk when the jet caught fire Sunday, killing him and at least 40 other people, pals said.

“He was very excited about it,” longtime friend Cruze Armendariz told The Post of Brooks’ trip. “He knew that after that season, he was going to be set. He wanted to go to Alaska. He wanted go to Argentina. He had a lot of plans.’’

Another pal, Stewart Ottersberg, said Brooks had just graduated from college in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Ottersberg said fly-fishing “was all [Brooks] ever talked about. It was what he loved to do.”

The pals said they were stunned when they heard about Brooks’ death.

“My friend called me saying [Brooks] was aboard that plane that caught on fire and he didn’t make it. And at first, I couldn’t believe it,” Armendariz said.

“We have this theory, just from knowing him, he was such a sweet soul. We kind of in our minds believe that he might have tried to help people” when he died.

Another friend, Koa Forese, said Brooks “was in the back of the plane, and apparently the fire started on the other side of the aisle where he was sitting.

“I guarantee you that he never stepped in front of or took any initiative to pass a woman or child,” Forese said.

Friend Liam Daly called Brooks “magnetic.

“Everyone always wanted to be around him, he was so positive,” Daly said.

A rep for the US embassy in Russian confirmed to the Moscow Times that one American was killed in the plane fire.

The Russian TASS news agency also identified Brooks as the US victim.