Very soon after the graduation high wears off, the panic can set in.

Recent graduates worry about how long it will take them to land a job that leads them down a solid career path. Parents worry about how long their adult child will linger jobless in their home. With record levels of student debt and a tough economy, the competition for jobs is fierce.

Take heart, graduates and parents.

This year's college graduates will have an easier time finding jobs than those in years past, according to a report by the New York Federal Reserve.

The unemployment rate among college graduates continues to fall, and is now just over 5 percent. While the job market slowly recovers, there are ways for recent graduates to increase their odds of success.

Mark Smith, associate vice chancellor and director of the Career Center at Washington University, shared strategies to help students land that first career-oriented job.

1. Don't approach your job search like applying to college.

All graduates figured out how to get accepted to a university, but the job search requires a paradigm shift from what worked in the past.

"Students would like to (just) fill out forms, which is easy to do, especially on the Internet," Smith said. "But you cannot rely on the Internet and job boards."

Most jobs are not advertised, and the ones on massive online sites are flooded with applicants. Think of the job search more like dating, he said: It's about trying to find the right match, and it requires a lot of face-to-face interaction.

2. Research, reach out and rehearse.

Research the companies to which you want to apply. Tailor cover letters on what you can offer them rather than what they can do for you. Tweak your resume, too: While it can seem difficult, it should be customized for different types of industries and positions. Use words included in job listings to get through initial keyword filters and increase the odds that your resume might be seen by an actual person.

Reach out to your parents' friends, previous employers, friends' parents, relatives, anyone who might be able to tell you about openings in a given field. Don't be afraid to ask for a referral from anyone willing to help you. Follow up and send a thank-you note to whomever agreed to meet with you, even if it doesn't immediately result in a job.

Expand your network by requesting informational interviews to find out more about a career even when a company is not advertising a job for which you are qualified. Join your college's alumni group. Use your school's career office to get advice on your cover letter, resume and interviewing skills.

If you land an interview, be well prepared. Google the most frequently asked interview questions and practice your answers with someone.

3. Learn how to network. Networking with professionals will help you practice important skills. Don't check your cellphone or text while at a networking event or informational interview. Make eye contact. Ask questions. Don't be long-winded when asked a question. Dress professionally.

Join professional organizations and attend industry-specific events. Introduce yourself to people.

4. Get organized: Set specific daily, weekly and monthly goals.

Set goals for how many people you will personally contact, how many networking events you'll attend, how many follow-up emails or thank-you letters need to be sent, how many informational interviews you'll set up, along with how many job leads you'll pursue.

5. Revamp your social media presence. Clean up your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and remove unprofessional photos and remarks. Join professional sites like LinkedIn and accentuate the positive. Think of yourself like a brand. How do you project a brand? How do you protect a brand? You can search sites like LinkedIn to see how successful employees in an industry present and promote themselves.

6. The job search takes time and requires some hustle. But in the meantime, consider work that could lead to a full-time job: Volunteer with an organization, work part-time, freelance, consult or take on an (or another) internship.

7. Make yourself more valuable. Take classes or get certifications outside your degree that will boost your skill set and make you more valuable. Do not, however, enroll in graduate school for the wrong reasons. That can be a pricey mistake that only adds to a graduate's debt burden.

Don't expect to have it all figured out, Smith said. For most people, their 20s are a difficult time.

Four out of 10 students who graduated in the last two years report being underemployed, meaning they are working in jobs that do not require their degrees, according to a recent report by Accenture. Nearly a quarter of 25- to 34-year-olds live with parents or grandparents, up from 11 percent in 1980, according to Pew research.

"You're not alone," Smith said. "You are trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, and you're not going to figure it out at once."

Ellen Reed sent an email to her son's preschool two years ago, asking parents if their children would play with her son.

Her son, Robbie, is now 6 and high-functioning on the autism spectrum. He has had intensive therapies since he was diagnosed four years ago. One of his therapists suggested scheduled, supervised play dates to help reinforce social skills.

More than half the parents from his preschool class in suburban St. Louis volunteered to help out, and Robbie had regular play dates with classmates during the summers.

"It's been incredibly helpful," Reed said.

Playing with another child is actually pretty complicated. There are lots of social cues to pick up on and unspoken rules to follow. There are expectations about taking turns, sharing, asking questions -- things that may come easily to most children by a certain age, but require a great deal more practice for children with special needs.

Autism, in particular, which is characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people, can make friendship the hardest skill to learn.

Kim Stagliano, a Connecticut mom of three autistic daughters, has seen how isolating this can be.

"My girls do not have friendships with peers that aren't facilitated by an adult either at school or in therapy or at a camp," she said. The differences that set her children apart in elementary school widened as they moved on to middle school.

"By high school, it's really a chasm."

Her daughters are 14, 18 and 20. They have never been invited to a sleepover. They haven't been invited to a party since grade school.

They have nice interactions with other peers. "But that's not the same as a social life," Stagliano said.

She remembers a moment when her middle child, 13 at the time, stood at their front doorway watching a group of girls play outside in the neighborhood.

"Gianna wants friends," the girl said, referring to herself in the third person.

"It's a kick in your gut," Stagliano said.

She asked her daughter if she wanted to go outside.

"We can ask them if they want to play," she said to her daughter.

Gianna said no.

The situation was too intimidating.

Learning to initiate a conversation, engage and interact with a person is like learning a foreign language for autistic kids, Stagliano said.

"It's about breaking down social interactions into tiny, tiny steps, into things that most of us do not have to think about," she explained.

While there is much more awareness of autism than there used to be, many people may be unsure of how to encourage a friendship between a child who struggles socially and their own child.

How should the parent of a typically developing child attempt to include a classmate who appears to have few friends?

"Invite the child," Stagliano said. "Send the invitation." Then, call the parent. Ask if the child is on a special diet. If the invitation is for a birthday party, ask if the parent would mind staying with the child.

When Stagliano's children were invited to parties when they were younger, she would tell the hosting parent that she would bring her child's snack or cake since she was on a special diet, stay in the background during the party to make sure things were going smoothly, and leave when it looked like her daughter might be getting tired.

"Don't be intimidated," she said. "The mom will be so happy to get an invitation."

Reed, Robbie's mom, said her hopes and dreams for her child are the same as any other parent's.

"Will he be able to do well in school, go to college, get married and have a family?" she wondered. When he was diagnosed at 2, "I didn't think any of that was an option." Now, "he's doing so well, I think those options are distinct possibilities."

She expects her child will encounter many kind and generous children who will look out for him, as well as some bullies who may pick on him.

Maybe the skills he learns from his weekly, highly structured play dates with his peers will help him learn the social skills he needs to survive. She hopes to be able to continue them for as long as he needs.

"Maybe when you are 17, you shouldn't have your mom scheduling your play dates," she said. "But if that's something we need at the time, I'd totally be doing it."

I hid my face behind two dozen white and red roses as I rang the doorbell.

I held my cellphone to my ear in the other hand, asking my mother about her weekend plans.

"Hold on," she said. "There's someone at the door."

She opened the door.

"Happy birthday, Mama!" I said, having flown in to Houston late last night for this surprise. She screamed loud enough to frighten a few neighbors and grabbed me in a tight hug.

This was just the start of the weekend surprises for my parents.

My mom turned 65 in March. I wish that meant she retired from her job as a sales clerk at Macy's, but like so many other Americans, she will need to delay retirement at least a year. My father, in his early 70s, went back to work as a full-time substitute teacher a couple of years ago.

I've never heard them complain about having to work past retirement age, although I have wished I could make things easier for them since they've spent their lives raising six children. In more than 40 years of marriage, I remember them taking a vacation alone together -- not to visit family or friends -- once.

My father had won an award as the top salesman at his car dealership, which sent them to Bermuda for a weekend. That was more than 25 years ago.

My siblings and I decided this would be a good year to surprise them with a gift they would never give themselves. We settled on a cruise to Alaska.

The gift was a big risk. They are scared of cold weather. In Houston, 50 degrees is cold. They have never taken a cruise. They get worried about navigating unfamiliar places.

But, they love the beauty found in nature. We wanted to push them a little out of their comfort zone.

Their sacrifices in our childhoods opened up the world to us as adults. Here was a chance to do the same for them.

We decided to present the "big reveal" at my mother's birthday party the next day by having them unwrap a series of clues.

There were six boxes to open. One from each of us. One by one, they found a plastic gray wolf, a headband with antlers, a jar of maple syrup, a toy plane and a ship.

Of course, they guessed it.

"We're going to Alaska," my dad said.

At the moment, they seemed touched by the gesture. Later on, each of them privately approached one of us children, trying to get out of the trip or have it delayed.

We held firm. We reassured them all the details had been arranged and sent them off with a big binder of everything they needed to know.

Meanwhile, all of us held our breath. They were only gone for five days, but it felt much longer.

I talked to them as soon as they returned.

"It was so majestic and beautiful," my dad said. He pointed out that most of the people on the cruise were middle-aged or seniors.

"Older people really enjoy it," he explained. "They feed you the best food on the face of the earth. They really take care of you like no one would."

My mother, who is notoriously particular about food, agreed.

"I loved it," she said. The ocean, mountains and trees were breathtaking.

"We got sunshine," she said. "No clouds, no cold."

What a relief.

They made friends with a traveler from Canada, an elderly South Korean woman, who said she prayed for good weather after meeting and talking to my parents.

Bless that woman.

It didn't surprise any of us that after this experience, my mother decided that her entire family -- children, spouses and grandchildren -- needed to take a cruise with them next.

It's that parental instinct to immediately want to share the best things you experience with your children. My father said the minute they landed at their port in Alaska, my mother became a woman on a mission.

"Can you believe she spent all day in Alaska shopping for her grandkids and children?" he said. "As soon as we reached there, that's all she thought about: her grandkids."

He laughed.

"Boy, that kind of love is unbelievable."

It really is.