I graduated in 2011. IIRC it was a somewhat tough market but also I had not focused enough throughout college on building employable skills. I had studied history. The age-old vicious cycle I encountered was that you need experience to get a job, but it seemed like you needed a job to get experience. I found a loophole by taking technical writing contracts to build my experience and portfolio. At first they were very small and I worked for nothing and asked the clients to take a shot on me because I am very hungry to succeed. After a year of that a family friend got my foot in the door at the startup he worked at. The connection got my foot in the door but the skill-building and portfolio-building I had been doing over the last year sealed the deal. I mention this not to massage my ego but to suggest that they're both important so your best bet is to spend proper time/energy on both. Also during my year of contracts I took a lot of CS classes at community college. After 3 years at the startup Google poached me and I'm now going on 7 years at Goog.