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When career coach Lindsey Pollak, the author of "Getting from College to Career," meets with a group of young women on the Upper West Side who are trying to make the big leap from student to professional, she wants her messages to be nourishing. So to make her messages go down easier, Pollak cooks a batch of gourmet cupcakes as she dishes out career advice.

"Job hunting is like baking a cupcake in that there are many steps to the process," says Pollak. "Follow up is involved and once you finish the cupcake and you finish the job hunt, the enjoyment of the work you've put in - eating the cupcake or finding a job that you love - is always worth it."

The young women share a number of first-time job seeker concerns, like where to look.

"I just graduated from NYU, and some of my friends can't get a job here, so they're leaving, saving and will come back later," said one woman.

"If your base priority is living in New York, you're dying to be here, then you may have to make some other sacrifices, like working at a coffee shop just to sustain a lifestyle," says Pollak.

The job applicants also ask how they can get experience, if business will not hire those without experience.

"You have to figure out why they are asking for [experience]," says Pollak. "Is it they want profession and mature and can you handle that? Or is it an actual technical skill that they want to know that you've done?"

Others raise concerns about the current recession and rising unemployment rates.

"I don't think there are many entry level jobs available to college graduates," says one woman.

"It's really trickle down," says Pollak. "So you used to compete with each other, and now you're dealing with people who are really willing to take a step back in their careers and take an entry-level job."

Each attendee takes a cupcake and takes a bite out of what will hopefully turn out to be a sweet future. But Pollak has other advice for making the job applications more successful.

"Follow up really separates the good job hunters from the okay job hunters, because how you follow up is an indication of how you'll be on the job," says Pollak. "Do you have the proper etiquette to follow up with clients or customers?"

Finally, Pollak says a balance should be made between job hunting and technology.

"You can't be entirely offline and not use technology at all, but you also can't hide behind your computer screen and only send emails and never talk to people in person," says Pollak.