I did the grad-school-right-after-college thing too, but I didn't actually take a degree, which is a REALLY bad idea. If there's a temp agency in your town, that can be a good way to build up a lot of useful job experience really quickly, and in a small job market it also creates a lot of networking opportunities too. Most agencies, when I was starting anyway, were more interested in keyboard speed than in actual experience, too.

[/unsolicited advice]