What happened to those who graduated straight into the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression?

Kim Gittleson is one of them, and she goes in search of three others who - like her - found their career prospects straight out of university blighted by a disaster not of their making. Are they angry? Or did they actually learn some useful life lessons unique to their generation?

And how long a shadow has the grim milestone in financial history cast over their financial wellbeing and their ability to have families? Professor of sociology Kenneth Johnson of the University of New Hampshire and Lowell Ricketts of the St Louis Federal Reserve provide some of the answers.

(Picture: Students at a George Washington University graduation ceremonies in 2008. Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images)