Wishing and Hoping and Networking

"Those senior people will want to be involved in the hiring decisions" for the lower jobs, McGrath said. "Most of the young people hired so far are people either from the campaign or Capitol Hill. We're giving special attention to people who have an education background -- we've had a lot from Teach for America."

Long waits for a new administration are not unusual, especially when the weak economy is spewing out many jobless, more experienced and older people. But the volume of administration applications, along with controversial appointments and withdrawals, has protracted the wait for jobs whose titles -- special assistant or confidential assistant -- can stud a résumé in ways that "campaign field director" might not.

Mathews, the Navy contractor, really wants to be a special assistant to a senior-ranking official, and she might pull it off: Working for the Obama campaign in West Virginia as a volunteer, she arranged meetings between local veterans groups and Army generals and other high-ranking officials supportive of Obama. After the election, she started networking. She used Evite to organize the dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill.

"The dinner was a good opportunity for all of us young people to say, 'Hey, don't forget us,' and just have fun," she said. "We took some time to thank everyone. . . . I went around the room; they all introduced themselves.

"I've e-mailed and chatted and had lunch with them, but none of them have been offered a position yet -- it's disappointing," she said. "I've been sitting tight. Maybe one of them will give me a call. They all need staffers. I just had lunch with a female general who was in Clinton's administration."

Kristen Psaki, 24, a former new media director for the Obama campaign, has applied for positions at the Treasury, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development departments but hasn't gotten any offers. Her sister, Jennifer Psaki, is well ensconced in the White House press office -- she was even featured in a recent Vanity Fair magazine spread -- but Kristen is hesitant to leverage the family connection.

"She knows that [working with the press] is not what I am looking for," the younger Psaki said. "I would rather work for something on my own."

She has gotten a nibble from HUD. "I worked for the field director of Florida, and she's the one who gave my name to the people at HUD to contact me," she said. "But it's a slower process than I realized, and that becomes more difficult when you are forced to pay your car off. I have money saved up, but I had to dip into my savings."

Recently Psaki and her roommate, Chambliss, sat in the kitchen of their rowhouse discussing their mutual plight of joblessness and "catastrophic health care" costs of about $80 a month.

Wearing flip-flops, jeans and a flannel shirt, Chambliss was downing some coffee and a bagel, awaiting an afternoon meeting with a former campaign staffer and Ultimate Frisbee. Psaki was dressed and ready for a day volunteering at a homeless shelter, where she is launching a program to train homeless people in such "green" jobs as refurbishing computers.

They were divided on whether their campaign experiences would net them jobs.

"I would say [campaigning] is only a marginally relevant skill set," Chambliss said. "That's why we put so much faith in the personnel department of the administration to find out if we're an appropriate fit. You just keep your expectations low. . . . It's a decision you make when you come to D.C."

Psaki was hopeful. "It's a little different" for her, she said. "New media is now a marketable skill."