After graduating from the University of Southern California in 2005 with a degree in economics, Seddiqui said he failed close to 50 job interviews. Confused, distraught and wondering what came next, he hit the road with doubts and questions about his future. After a 50 job odyssey in 50 states over 50 weeks, he hopes to have some answers.

Seddiqui's journey continues this week on the Iowa State University campus, where he's working at Agronomy Hall collecting soil samples and running lab tests.

"My initial motivation for doing this was me not knowing what I want to do," Seddiqui said. "I used to sit in lobbies or hospitals or cafeterias and people watch. Not having a job myself, I wondered what these people were doing for a living."

Ames is his sixth stop after spending last week working for a Minnesota company that makes devices for the medical, industrial and computer and aerospace industries. On Friday, he will leave for Nebraska to farm corn for five days. "(Working with soil) is interesting," he said. "After working in the lab these first couple of days, we'll be in the field collecting samples the rest of the week."

Seddiqui, 26, has become a workforce chameleon, adapting quickly to whatever job he finds. He said it only takes him a few hours to learn a new skill, and by the time the first day is over, he has a good idea of how things work.

"I usually pick it up quickly," he said. "I kind of have to."

Before his journey started, Seddiqui had been a track runner at USC, coached track at Northwestern and volunteered as a football coach in Virginia.

"At one point, I thought I wanted to be a professional runner," he said. "My dad convinced me to get my degree so I can fall back on it."

He said he wants the experimental jobs to represent each state in a meaningful way. He was a rodeo announcer in South Dakota and a hydrologist in Colorado, and farther down the road he will be a lobster fisherman in Maine, direct a film in Los Angeles and teach surfing in Hawaii.

Some of the five-day jobs are paid and some aren't. The money doesn't matter to him, the experience does. Seddiqui is documenting the trip with a daily blog documentary on his We site, www.livethemap.com, which will lay the groundwork for a book. He said the focus of the book will be to show undergrads how hard it is to find a job after graduation. "There are a lot of people in my position after they graduate or even while they're in school who are curious what kind of careers are out there," Seddiqui said. "Just because your parents do something doesn't mean you have to follow in their footsteps. Graduates don't know what to do after graduating; they're kind of stuck in a bubble like I was."

It took Seddiqui eight months to schedule job locations and find places to stay. He said the opportunity to travel was intriguing, but living with strangers and sometimes sleeping overnight in the white 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee he bought before the trip has been difficult. "I slept in my car the last two nights," he said. "It's hard to sleep sometimes when rain pounds the roof of your car. Tonight I'm going to stay at a frat." Of the places he's been so far, he said ISU reminds him of home the most.

"To be back on a university is cool because this is one of the three universities during this tour that I'll be working at, along with William and Mary in Virginia and at Arkansas," he said. "It's funny how (ISU) has the exact same colors as USC. That's why I feel like I'm at home now."

Dan Wright can be reached at (515) 232-2161, Ext. 361, or dwright@amestrib.com.