Here's one big red flag for the problem:
"She said some students are not using college effectively... [they're not] immersing themselves in experiences throughout their college years that prepare them for the job market"
How is that the students' fault? Traditional college provides no explicit experiences that qualify students for the job market. At selective schools, college means lots of classes (and sports and clubs) that bear little to no relationship to the skills actual jobs demand.
Effectively, students have to figure out how to gain the hands-on "work" experience that employers demand OUTSIDE of their full-time college commitments.
For most majors (certainly liberal arts), no employer EVER asks a prospective hire about what they've studied or done at school. They want to know what they've done at WORK. There's the disconnect. Yes, a B.A. is a de facto requirement, but it doesn't get most grads a job that pays a living wage.
And I don't students are being idealistic for thinking that a $250,000 education should qualify them for a job that pays the rent and bills. I think they're being reasonable.
5
Hasn’t this always been true? I was born in 1975 and got the same you-can-be-anything-you-are-so-special spiel from my well-intentioned Boomer mother. I had to unlearn a lot of that as I moved into my 30’s and eventually figured out that I, like virtually everyone I know, would not be able to earn a good living doing work I genuinely loved.
Work usually is not great. That’s why they pay you. The people I know doing work they truly love are either (a) broke or (b) supported by a spouse /family money or (c) have a day job that pays the bills.
Not to sound bleak - it’s just reality. The world can only support so many successful artists and writers and academics. The vast majority are in it for the paycheck. And you know what? That can be just fine, balanced with other things.
I don’t think this is just a millennial issue - It’s an American Dream issue.
Welcome to adulting, kids :)
4
Would love to see a breakdown of average or median salaries of college grads after deletion of high-skewing STEM degrees. Boomers’ chances five years after the 70s recession were likely much better than Millennials’ now. I doubt that their “high standards” are the issue.
2
Before the industrial revolution, it was understood from both a societal (or collective) perspective and a familial perspective that the purpose of having a child was to provide labor for the family.
When the industrial revolution occurred and people moved out from farms into cities, labor became repurposed for companies and factories instead of for the family.
People no longer have children for the purposes of labor. People have offspring for "love" and "purpose" and as a defense against loneliness. And even for a sense of winning.
And yet, jobs are still very much vested in asking for labor.
Employers don't create jobs to fulfill the need of self-actualization or grand purpose, let alone provide the steady stream of hollow idealization that parents may have provided. A job is a practical thing after all.
Children had out of idealization, raised as a narcissistic extensions, are poorly equipped to be adult employees i.e. a unit of human capital for society.
6
If I read ONE MORE article about students being “surprised” that certain degrees do not lead to a good job .... students need to wake up to this reality when they choose a major.
4
An important topic - wish the article had gone deeper and addressed related issues.
First, worth noting that income inequality is huge among the millennial demographic - the high salaries (and perks) earned by young people in tech, finance, media etc - the 1% of millennials. And then everyone else...
(New paradigm too as traditionally people earned more as they aged).
My oldest, did an unpaid internship while looking for a job. She later found a good entry level job with respect to skill-building but low in salarary. (She also took a PT job on weekends) She has been there a few years and is now looking for the “next” job. But it is tough. Difficult to locate openings and salaries very low. She is not sure what to do, what makes sense as a next step. (She continues to live with us.)
Our middle child graduated a year ago and found a long term temp job. Fortunately, after a year, the company offered him a 1 year contract with benefits.
Youngest still in college.
Seems to me a critical issue is that there is so much uncertainty. Where are jobs now and where will there be jobs in a year or 5 years. Things can change overnight so really hard to know what to do...
try to join the tech industry and learn coding?
anticipate aging baby boomers and become a physical therapist?
Give up and get a job as a bartender?
In the end though, it is clear that the 1% of all ages are benefiting - and everyone else is left struggling one way or another.
3
Like many of my peers finishing grad school in the late 70’s, I had dreams too! I did graduate work at University of Michigan and wanted to be college English professor. During that time, I visited the Career Counseling center at the University and began to do some research and realized that I had about as much chance to be a tenured professor at a decent University, than I did to be a brain surgeon. Too many candidates, too few positions, even back then.The last thing I, or my parents would have wanted or allowed was for me to move back home.i was expected to get a job,never a discussion. So, I did the rudimentary personality tests at the time, used the results to match to specific careers and ended up with an entry position in an insurance company. Wallace Stevens worked for the Hartford, so what could be so bad.Far from glamorous, but I made enough to have an apartment and begin my independent adult life.I could always read poetry.
Both our 30-ish daughters have dreams, but realized that sometimes dreams take a back seat to practical realities- how many talented dancers are in the market chasing so few opportunities? Or, how do you make money and support yourself working at an farm animal rescue? They are both engaged in good careers and can volunteer in their dream areas.
Parents have fed their kids a load of false messages.Everybody is not a winner.You can’t always be what you want!My dad’s message was simple:Get a job! Oh yes, I still read poetry in my mid 60’s.
16
@Peter Scanlon
An Ordinary Evening in Colorado?
T.S. Eliot was an editor and John Milton worked for the government.
2
A few things I would add to this, is that employers are also looking for the 'perfect' candidate. The article seems to blame job seekers for being to idealistic. I'm sure some are. But some are just looking for a job and the employer wants someone who thinks that project management (or data entry or whatever) is their dream job. Spoiler alert: it's probably not going to be anyone's dream job even if they say so in an interview. Employers look for candidates that are a good 'fit' and enthusiatic. I've found it's not simply enough to want a job. One must really really want to do that job in the interview or at least say they do. Other issues are low pay or no pay internships that could be great entry level jobs. Not to mention all the freelance or contract work that is now being given out.
Also, what's wrong with living with family during your twenties. This is common all over the world. We should be way more accepting of young adults living with family while they get on their own feet. Living on your own is expensive.
11
Before getting beyond the first paragraph, I thought I understood why Ms. Hanway struggled to find a job in her field.
Every year, environmental science programs graduate a sizable number of young people hoping to positively impact their world.
How many jobs are there in the environmental science field? Sadly, I am guessing, not many.
Every year, more graduates and not necessarily much job growth.
Result? Unemployed grads, every year.
Somewhere I used to live had a local library school program, the only one for miles around. Each year, a hundred or so library school degree holders - librarians! - entered the job market. Despite a huge number of public, school and college libraries in the region, there were few openings available each year, and they didn't necessarily pay well, either.
When I moved here, a local librarian noted that librarians were paid well, possibly even fairly, in this market. The big reason, he thought: no library school for a hundred plus miles in a huge metropolitan area with a large number of libraries. More possible jobs, fewer graduates fighting for them, leading to newcomers bringing their talents to the area and getting some of the jobs each year.
So, back to Ms. Hanley. Maybe it isn't the overall job market. Maybe it is her chosen field and that tricky concept known as arithmetic.
8
@Barry: I'd like to add that library science is a MASTER'S DEGREE program. Most people who enter it, have a bachelor's in something like English literature -- can't find a job -- remember that they LOVE reading & libraries!
Just one year of grad school, however, can run $40-$70K....
The jobs market for library jobs are very tight. My friend got her library degree in 1980 and it was tight then -- 38 years ago.
One twist many do not realize: libraries demand a master's in library science (vs. training a college grad) BUT will not hire you without "library experience". If you get your library science master's BEFORE working in a library....your goose is cooked. Nobody will hire you with a masters and no experience!
It's a double bind, and it has screwed up many thousands of wannabe librarians....
6
Let's be real: The "national unemployment rate" number is fraudulent, has always been fraudulent.
Millions quit looking, old, young, middle, skilled, unskilled. You can't live on $12/hour. I tried.
12
@Jake News: it does vary by where you live.
I'll bet you could manage -- nothing luxurious mind you -- on $12 an hour (roughly $25,000 a year) IF you had health insurance and if you live in a low cost are like West Virginia or Kentucky.
In San Francisco, the poverty line is now $117,000. That is not a typo. People earning $100K a year are "poor" because they cannot afford even the least costly housing.
So in San Francisco, the minimum to get by would be roughly $60 an hour. How many jobs pay $60 an hour????
5
@Jake News the actual (absoute) employment rate is the employment population ratio, ages 25-54, and during the Obama administration, it never grew higher than the depths of the 1992 recession. NEVER. Clinton administration invented the fictitious category of "discouraged workers" to exclude minorities from the unemployment figures. I may sound like a conservative but I'm a democrat.
2
What on earth is the problem with living with your family a little bit longer. Strategic stays with parents, especially with silicon valley salaries equals a $300K down payment faster than you think. Instead, kids just want to out do each other with credit card debt and car leases and overpriced apartment in the Marina and take pictures of the same overpriced single pour coffee and kale salad. If you don't stand out because you do what everyone else does how do you expect to stand out to employers? I call silicon valley the land of false peacocks. I don't have anything against millennials, but somehow I suspect the Russian trolls are still at it trying to create generational warfare amongst us american trolls.
3
This article makes a lot of sense if you’re a wealthy middle aged or older person whose idea of college scarcely extends beyond the Ivy League (in short, I suppose, it is tailor made for your standard NYT audience). It rings utterly false for people who sit outside of that narrow milieu.
People going to a commuter school while working 30 hours a week to support themselves are NOT drifting, whimsical idealists who want to change the world....they just want a job, and a chance to break into the ever-shrinking middle class. These students are the vast, vast majority of college students today.
Yes, young people (like myself) are struggling. Houses have never been more expensive, jobs have never been harder to get (outside of fluke occurrences like the Great Depression), and the deck is more heavily stacked in favour of established wealth than it has been in roughly a century. Sitting here and listening to people who came of age during the Trente Glorieuses tell me that ‘they had it rough too’ is just beyond insulting.
50 years ago CEO pay was hard-capped and their pay tended to be around 30x that if their average worker. Today the average ratio is over 300-1 and in some companies it is as bad as 4,000-1. Middle class prosperity and working class stability has not disappeared...it was stolen. Virtually no one is willing to admit that and then take the necessary steps demanded by that reality.
15
I wonder if “resilience” isn’t just a code word for willingness to tolerate being exploited.
11
The problem is simple: “Ecosystem Management” is not a valuable skill, even with a high GPA.
7
@Ted Barnett: honestly....what IS ecosystem management? I have NO IDEA!
Does Ms. Hanway? could she boil it down to one sentence, so anyone could understand?
It sounds like she wanted to be some kind of lordly consultant, telling other people what to do about their "environment" -- writing reports -- applying for grants -- lecturing, perhaps -- attending meetings.
Kinda of a phony make-work job.
2
Well it may sound like that, but we don’t know for sure, do we? The fact is, with the consistent degradation of our local and national environment, managing ecosystems may be an important skill and area of knowledge. There may not be many jobs in the field because it is no match for all the developers and oil drillers out there.
3
People are complaining about college, my son with 3.7UW GPA and 4.3W GPA and 33 on ACT couldn't even get into any UC except UC Merced. 33 ACT is 98th percentile.
4
@DL: too bad, there is plenty of room for the children of Russian, Chinese, and Indian MULTI MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES....
There is plenty of room for poor black students and illegal aliens from Central America and Mexico (DACA) with C and D grades....who get preference over your son.
There is always plenty of room for Malia and Sasha Obama.
You live in Berkeley. May I suggest "you are reaping what you have sown"?
5
Could he be choosing a major that is too popular?
I graduated college in 1984. This is not new news. We had big student loans and few job prospects. But I am still grateful for the hard years waiting tables and living in the slums of Chicago. It taught me more about the world than college ever did.
13
As an employer and a millennial I can attest that the criteria that sets resumes apart is life experience (typically through military service and/or other work experience post high school) and internships within a related field. I will note, as many have stated, that many of the stereotypes of my generation are evident in some of the candidates we hire. However, for our firm, it is more important that we find qualified candidates that have documented experience that they can work with a team and take direction (hence the service background) and/or have a practical knowledge of our industry (through internships).
3
People are getting married later, which I suspect has something to do with that figure about rising numbers of young people living with parents post college.
If they were married, they more likely could be underemployed, but pool resources as a couple, able (& doubly motivated) to afford a small place of their own somewhere.
3
When I graduated from college the cultural revolution was happening. The war that we’ve been waging for 50 years. The guys reasonably didn’t want to go to Vietnam. We all wanted to save the world. Unlike many of my wealthier Ivy League classmates I always knew that I would have to work. Like many other young women I became an urban teacher at a time when jobs were scarce.
Although salaries were much lower I could afford to live quite well in the 1970’s. My own child works in a field that didn’t exist back then. But in Silicon Valley a family earning $120,000 a year is low income. That’s an outrage.
7
It is my experience that very few high school graduates should go directly to college. Most high school graduates would benefit ENORMOUSLY from a couple of years of life experience ... maybe take a community college course to fill in a weakness or explore interests ... while finding out what life is really like. Get out of the bubble wrap and figure out what it takes to launch successfully before entering the fantasyland of a four year college.
16
Times have changed and with it the types of jobs. Many younger people have been seduced by Social Media; their friends appear to be “making it” online so many follow their lead into an entirely different type of “business type” with very relaxed rules and short-term promises. They insert “AF” (google it if you don’t know the meaning) randomly into subject lines and conversation while trading snarky rebuttals publicly. And then they wonder why they aren’t getting interviews or call-backs for coveted jobs from those in a position to hire them. Should we tell them that most hiring managers use Google? That eye contact and firm handshakes are expected? That EQ and public decorum and restraint is a necessary quality, regardless the number of degrees? I continue to remind my twenty-something son and daughter-in-law that until they are multi-millionaires; as long as they “need” jobs - that they must practice restraint, show respect and exhibit their “A Game” in person and online.
9
I too am tired of the younger generation bashing. My 20 something millennial children and their pears are highly productive citizens and great young adults to boot. An elementary school teacher (at a disadvantaged district), a computer programer, and tech recruiter. They work super long hours for pay, inflation adjusted, not far off from my early engineers’ pay 40 years ago. And they participate in volunteer community service - a lot more than my peers and I did. And not one of their jobs is possible without a college education, which they earned at both state and private colleges with partial scholarships they earned with their own sweat and toil. Worth every penny. But they are nothing special mind you. Their peers are just the same. One heck of a generation if you ask me.
20
The only way one can get into an elite college, more or less, (and this applies for all socioeconomic strata) is by being extremely sheltered, and essentially just focusing on studying, and excelling in scholastic sports and activities. But the real world rewards EQ, not IQ.
Perhaps 90% (if not higher) of one's post-college success is entirely due to Daniel Goleman's five components of EQ: self-awareness, self-regulation, internal motivation, empathy, and social skills. Students in therapy in College should really hone in on these five areas of self-development.
Elite colleges claim that living a "life of the mind" and "learning how to think" are important, except leading researchers have long declared that success in any career is largely determined by social skills and EQ.
How foster EQ? Experiential learning is key for EQ. Outdoor survival schools. Working brutal, physical minimum wage jobs. Getting a pilot's license, etc.
One of my favorite books is Simon Murray's enduring autobiographical classic, "The Legionnaire" which should be required reading for any teen. Rather than go right to college, the bookish English kid enlists in the French Foreign Legion, home of the "March or Die!" motto and a "laundromat of thugs".
Murray's EQ skills were honed to the absolute max, especially internal motivation and self-awareness. He learned never to feel sorry for himself, and to push harder than he ever imagined, and used that EQ to become a fantastic success.
7
I trust that their expensive alma maters provided these graduates with the benefit of a liberal education: the ability to understand who they are and what role they play in a complex world that has relegated them to their parents' guest room.
5
I am a millennial by definition and I am sick to death of seeing the kinds of comments that invariably show up attached to articles like this one. They are filled with personal experiences (perceptions, really) that simply don't line up with the numbers. Two important things to think over:
1) Millennials have the highest participation rate in the work force today
2) Millennials are likely the most productive workforce in American history. We work longer hours for less inflation-adjusted pay and we take fewer vacations than our older work place counterparts. That $19 trillion US GDP doesn't come from magic, after all. No need to thank us.
What would really be helpful is for the country to stop infantilizing anyone under forty and welcome them into the stage of adulthood they've long been a part of whether you like it or not.
28
Your item (1) is kind of a “duh” — one would expect current millennials to be the dominant age group of workers, since the millennials are the largest generation numerically right now.
2
When many (not all) of your peer group stop acting like infants and expecting the world to bend to them, then we’ll start treating them like the adults they should already be.
6
I’m all in behind you. If anything, millennial’s could rightly be trashing us baby boomers. After all, we are the generation that ushered in global warming and elected Donald Trump.
3
universities need to phase out master's degrees. they are useless and cost money. a doctorate is useful and is usually tuition free. master's degrees are the big cash cow of most universities. master's students essentially pay the stipends of doctoral students. never ever pursue a terminal master's degree.
5
My son graduated from college in 1992. It was the worst year for jobs for college graduates in decades.
He wanted to work on Capitol Hill and plastered it with his resume. Nothing. He had not had the opportunity to have unpaid internships in his field during the summer - he needed a job in order to have money - we gave him no allowance while in college - could not afford to do so.
So we suggested that if he wanted to stay in Washington DC, he should try the temp agencies. He was outraged! With his "background"? His background consisted of graduating from a prestigious New England boarding school and a Top 50 university. But he had zero skills! But since he did not want to come back home, he did followed our advise.
His first job, a 90 day job, was with a trade association. They liked him and extended it again and again. After 2 years, he finally had a job will full benefits and a career. He was a federal lobbyist.
He moved from this group to being a lobbyist for an international corporation, and later to a job in a related field in another city.
They liked him as he had a good work ethic, knew how to dress appropriately and had poise and manners. He was also intelligent.
The young I see today have no idea how to dress for an interview, to make eye contact, to shake hands. They have no poise. They're like awkward 13 yr olds.
12
There's no universal law that children must move away from their families and "seek their fortune." There are far more cultures in the world where extended families are the norm than those where young folk move away and "make it on their own." A lot of you self-righteous, condescending commentators on this thread are merely parroting another (perverted) version of "the American Dream." It's a tired-worn-out theme that doesn't work for a lot of people today. On the other hand, there's power among those who love you. There's support both emotionally and financially. There are opportunities to contribute to the good of the many. Ironically, these are all values that Americas claim to believe in (read David Brooks who pines for "the good old days") until reality hits: it's not easy out here in the world. How any of you can be critical of someone like Hayley Hanway (no sloucher) is beyond me. Give people a break would you all?
13
The fact that a "Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches" even exists is part of the problem, and the problem runs deep. The problem behind the problem, of course, is growth-based capitalism, but the problem I kept thinking about is the problem of "full employment" as some sort of holy grail.
If I had a billion dollars, I'd buy a copy of David Graeber's recentish book, "Bullsh*t Jobs," and give it to everyone between the ages of 14 and 40. There simply aren't enough "good jobs" out there. We need to either reduce the number of hours we all go to work (and spread the work around) or redefine what we recognize and reward as work. Preferably both.
8
It's so weird to be about to say, "Back in my day," but in 1974, during a recession, having gone to college so that I didn't have to be "only" a secretary (not that there's anything wrong with that. Sigh.) and, of course, my first job was as a secretary at a record company in NYC. But even as a secretary - who purposefully went through college and never learned to type (not a smart move - but someone hired me who wanted a "college graduate"), I could afford, and did rent, an apartment in Manhattan. There are many reasons why this was possible then, and impossible now - but I won't digress. So I - and thousands of other college graduates - had to learn that "to get a good job, get a good education" was a lie, and suck it up and secretary away until I could get a job I wanted. We called it "paying your dues." Even, years later, after I had two graduate degrees, I began a new career at age 44, and had to start "at the bottom" all over again. Bother!! But, I have spent the last 22 years becoming better and better at what I now do - and have had interesting careers at times even before this. It appears that there has now sprouted a profession that helps new graduates to learn these life skills. Okay, good for them and the graduates who are struggling now.
5
what does a 'science writer' on a university staff do? scholarly papers would come from the faculty.
5
A science writer at a university might interview faculty about their research, then write about it, explaining it in layman’s terms, spreading the word about important research going on at the university to the public, including alumni, prospective students, university donors, and the media.
9
@John Probably writes a blog for the university's communications department.
Them H-1B visa holders...Lock Them Up ! Then deport them as long as there's a single American willing to take the job they have/seek/are-imported--to-fill.
As for college administration staffers who encourage youngsters to pay outrageous tuition for useless degrees -- Lock Them Up !
Build walls around all the for-profit "colleges" to keep out the innocent young kids who don't know any better, and, as for their administrators, trustees and managers, Lock Them Up !
8
Infosys, Tata Consulting, IBM and Accenture alone have 70,000 H1B visa holders working in largely entry level roles in the US right now. Abolish the H1B program and watch this problem of new grads not finding work disappear.
16
@Truth Teller: deport all illegal aliens and watch working class employment problems disappear too!
4
Hey, the 70k is a only a one-year supply. That does not cover the full three year term of the badly abused little audited so-called skilled worker visas. Well north of 250k are better estimates. Then, count the ones who have applied for green cards and are in pending status.
The H1b visa is a contrived program meant to exploit workers willing to take lower pay.
How about going back to school ... and I mean community college ... to learn a trade? Is that beneath a college graduate?
10
There are so many well paying jobs in the software industries, and paying for your boomerang kid to get a 2 year "Master's in Computer Science for Non-Majors" will get them out of the basement.
6
After graduating from college, my highest paying jobs were waiting tables in better restaurants in high end, seasonal resorts. I made so much money it was ridiculous.
Never used my degree for what it was worth or majored in.
Find your many talents and bundle them. Then sell yourself to employers like a ruthless carny.
16
As a former professor who helped thousands of students find great jobs and launch satisfying, happy, and fulfilling careers, I share this advice:
1. Work--and learn to enjoy it--in high school and in college. It makes work a positive, welcome part of living. It also shares balance--and gives you a financial boost.
2. Develop a great resume before college--and keep growing it. Update it constantly--you will be amazed how it blossoms. And learn to customize your resume for each job, internships, etc. you seek.
3. Master great letter writing. And storytelling. Then celebrate FINDING great opportunities. I'll post an article on Facebook and LinkedIn about this. Put this mix together and you will send memorable messages--by letter, e-mail, or whatever--to super job sources.
4. Think creatively. And pinpoint what you love. I told my students this and one found an amazing internship on Oahu that did not exist previously--he wrote and shared his interest in the company and CONVINCED THEM that he could help them. And he did. Another found an awesome summer experience on Maui teaching teens watersports. I have hundreds of stories like this.
5. Quit being so negative and defeatist. Optimism wins, and is treasured. I have seen many, many students share amazingly positive approaches to "closed" jobs and other roadblocks--and all succeeded!
You can do it! Think big, and CHAMPION your success!!!!! And celebrate and THANK everyone you meet along the way.
17
@Frederick Talbott I've also advised students to do #4 but I doubt that many follow it. When I had finished my training and was looking for a position, I wrote one of my dream places out of the blue -- there was no job opening posted -- about why I wanted to work there and sent it along with some supporting materials. Naturally, I did my "homework" about the place before sending the letter - finding out its latest projects, people, values, history, etc. To my surprise, they wrote me back, flew me out for an interview, and offered me a position. At the same time, I was offered an even better position from another group, which was the one I took. But I tell students, you never know until you try. Employers are impressed by initiative and by "homework."
Also, visit your professors and TAs and get to know them. My brother received 2 job offers at different time through his professors' connections. And treat everyone around you with respect. Your peer or even subordinate today could be your job lead or boss tomorrow.
4
@ms: while I am happy for you that it all worked out so splendidly (without knowing your age when this happened -- recently? in the 60s/)….
I can tell you that many of us -- including myself -- DID ALL OF THOSE THINGS. I wrote not one but a dozen of my "dream places" out of the blue -- and told them why I wanted tow work there, and sent resumes & samples and….I got slapped down HARD.
Of the places that even let me interview (only a few) …. it was an exercise in humiliation and browbeating, as they told me all the reasons they would NEVER hire me.
Do this has about a 0.01% of success, so you are like a lottery winner. For the rest of us, it is demoralizing and ego-destroying to be told by your dream job or people you admire, that you are worthless scum not fit to scrub the toilets in their business.
6
Just being able to read and write marked someone as part of a tiny elite at one time.
4
All my clients tell me they do not want to hire domestics. They want low wage foreign workers. They see US students as lazy, opinionated, likely to sue, and unable to take orders. Why should they take a US student when they can get an H1B for half the price. Since we manufacture essentially nothing in the US we don't really need manufacturing talent.....we have outsourced that to China. Encouraging our kids in STEM is questionable....other than a very small percentage they will have no future.
7
@as: two of my kids are in STEM and doing avery well RIGHT NOW.
But what happens in the next recession?
What happens when their Fortune 500 companies figure out they can hire an H1B for half the wages, or farm the work out to Pakistan or India to computer jocks who only lake $9K to $10K (and no benefits, no affirmative action, no safety regulations, no EOC, etc.) vs. $60-$90K?
Also many of these jobs will be replaced in the future by SELF PROGRAMMING computers, AI and robotics.
More likely than those things will obsolete blue collar jobs!
2
'Ms. Hanway only applied for jobs that she felt would make a positive impact on the world. “It limits your pool and they’re lower paying, but it’s still more moral than making a ton of money on Wall Street,” she said.'
Fair enough. But moral superiority doesn't pay the bills.
14
All generations struggle but the current one seems to expect more and whine more.
8
@Mary
Because they pay more, much more, and earn less. It’s a squeeze play after a long commitment and a lot of prep work. People do prep work for a payoff, and that’s important to remember.
9
"England is mine, it owes me a living." Morrissey sang that straightfacedly, and so I would equally utter and amend it for the U.S. Why not? A previous generation got everything they ever wanted and were able to call it virtue.
2
Bashing young people for grandiose expectations isn't fair. Colleges rely on airbrushed fantasies of post-college life to sell their majors and program.
Employers have eliminated many training programs and now expect candidates to have done the job before, either in an internship or a lowly entry-level position. On several occasions, older mentors have advised me to grind it out in an entry-level position that wouldn't pay my rent...but they leapfrogged over that step and learned on the job.
10
The student loan program in this country is obscene. Too many young people are buried in debt even before they get their first job because they chose to educate themselves. I'm sure there are too many people in college and some degrees are nearly worthless, people need to figure that out, but going to college shouldn't ruin anyone's life.
5
This is nothing new. I graduated college in 1991. My first job? Working for minimum wage in a deli. Many of my classmates were working in offices as temps. Most of the rest were in grad school, med school, law school... If you define a "real job" as one that pays benefits and enough to live on, I didn't have one until I was 35 years old with a PhD and years of research experience.
What's different? Maybe today's students have more debt. Maybe housing costs more. Or maybe, since most of us did not consider moving back home to be an option, we were more willing to have roommates/housemates and eat ramen until we got that "real job".
20
Environmental Science major - works part-time at Macy's, lives with their parents. Went to college to save the world.
Petroleum Engineering major - got a job straight out of college, six-figure salary. Went to college to get a job.
What's wrong with this picture (and our world)?
16
@Michael F
I don't get your point. One doesn't get paid for having a good heart or nobility of purpose. One gets paid for the rarity of one's skillset. The reward for having a good heart or noble purpose is the satisfaction of having it. Given your reasoning, everyone in a band that sings about injustice should be making tons of money.
3
@richguy
aren't you arguing the same point? Go to college to get skills that will land you a job doing what the EMPLOYER wants you to do. Save the world thru volunteer time ... or when you retire.
5
@Barb Sieg
No, the OP is implying that people who try help the world and others should have as much luck getting hired as those who have skills that make a company money. I believe the OP is saying that he studied an intellectually and spiritually enriching field that has no real world application in making a profit for an employer.
1
Graduated Uni in 2008. So, maybe a millennial depending on whose definition you use.
Although I was lucky to intern for Biotech companies during my university years and land a job at graduation, I had plenty of smart, hard working, motivated friends who ended up with "Internships" where they were essentially indefinite free labor.
It frustrates me to here older generations complain about millennials. They were hippies in the 60's/70's, voted in Reagan in the 80's once they had a little money, caused the financial crisis in 2008, then took advantage of young people struggling to find work by paying them nothing and luring them in with the false hope of a job when it was over. Then they call millenials lazy. It boggles the mind.
67
It’s really hard to give your complaints about millennial-bashing any credence while you’re concurrently demeaning and over-generalizing older generations. It would also help if you got some of your facts straight.
2
The phrase “idealized vision of the post-college world” sounds contemptuous. My daughter can’t find a position that pays enough to pay her expenses. She’s struggling but still looking. My son is living at home because his job doesn’t pay enough to pay his expenses. Neither are laggards.
17
Yawn. Another tin-eared article about fragile twenty-somethings. I guarantee many of these kids have experiences that would blow past generations out of the water. Granted, I graduated into the recession, but with two paid co-op experiences, one international internship, and an excellent grade point average, I struggled to hear back from prospective employers. After hustling for two years, I finally landed in a position where I could actually grow. And I’m one of the lucky ones.
The supply of fair-paying, entry-level jobs with viable career ladders is overwhelmed by the demand. I know young nurses and engineers who are struggling to find work. Meanwhile, service-jobs pay peanuts, and a two bedroom in the area I grew up in is half a million dollars to buy or $2,000 to rent. Do the math. Our economy is working for a smaller slice of the population than it used to.
47
@Mia
You could move to Lynn or Framingham or Providence.
2
And walk away from the friends and family who will catch you if you fall? No. Companies don't care if you starve, but parents certainly do.
@Barbara Fu: I see….so SHE has the right to stay in Boston, even though it is unaffordable because of her "family and friends"….but THE DEPLORABLES in coal mining country? they have to MOVE! every year if necessary! to chase those jobs! never mind they lose their homes, friends, family -- THEY must move to find jobs in big blue cities!
Everyone else is permitted to stay put.
1
This is not an entirely new phenomenon.
In 1976, I was a journalism grad with a master's degree in mass communications in hand when my career was launched
The only job I could land was an entry level reporting position at a weekly newspaper in Ventura County, CA.
I had garnered two highly competitive merit scholarships as an undergrad and a collegiate journalism award.
So, I was more than a bit chagrined to find myself covering high school football games and small town school board meetings.
My dream was to be a foreign correspondent, and many a time during my two-year stint at this obscure publication I felt it would forever remain a dream.
But I never gave up the dream and worked intelligently and hard to reach my goal.
Nine years into my career I was promoted to foreign correspondent for a major U.S. publication.
As my name indicates, I'm a Latino.
One might assume that I was beneficiary of affirmative action.
To the contrary, my ethnicity worked against me. In countless ways I got the message that I was assumed to be less intelligent, less capable and less driven than my white colleagues.
I always let my stories and, later, editing demonstrate what sort of journalist I was.
Never did I forget that I would have to prove myself time and again. And I did.
As a university lecturer these days I have the impression that many young people think a degree and sterling GPA will open the golden gates.
Patience, diligence and faith in hard work seem to be in short supply.
14
@Ricardo Chavira
As a university lecturer these days I have the impression that many young people think a degree and sterling GPA will open the golden gates.
from Princeton, Swarthmore, Haverford, and CMU, they probably will.
When I applied to PhD English programs in 1996, UW-Madison sent out a letter telling prospective applicants that the English job market was terrible and that if you don't get a degree from a top 20 program (there are about 140 in the USA), your chance of getting a desirable job is dim. There was a big drop off in employment after the top 20. 30 might as well have been 60. I attended a program ranked in the 30's, but I would not have, if I'd had to pay tuition for it.
And where are the jobs paying say $75,000 per year (with real benefits and pension) to 37 year-olds with college degrees now 15 years old?
9
In the STEM areas.
1
@Yaj
oil rigs?
Not really. Those jobs are being filled by H1B visas.
Also, I know it's trendy to bash Millenials as lazy or lacking skills or whatever....but I hire several each year and I have had the opposite experience. I usually have 100 applicants for each job posting, and most are far more poised and well-spoken than I was at that age. They have worked hard to get good grades and continue to work hard once they have the job.
The difference may be the type of work I hire for.... a entry level position in a well-known company with clear career growth, and we recruit from well-known schools. The applicants are generally from well-to-do backgrounds, and while their parents have been very involved throughout their lives, I've never had a parent attempt to contact me or join them on an interview. Might be yet another example where the spoils go to the privileged, but this Lazy Millenial trope just doesn't ring true to me,
54
@Itsy Thanks for being open minded. I don't know where or how this trope started, but almost everyone I've talked to finds it to be untrue as well.
4
I relate to Ms Hanway, because I had a similar degree and also did the same graduate program. I agree that many people are fed an unrealistic story of what a career should look like. Growing up, I heard a lot of rhetoric about follow your passions, don't worry about the money.
I saw this this during grad school, where young students were told not to worry about the loans, and be proud they were pursuing noble jobs in environmental nonprofits.
I'm grateful my parents gave me more pragmatic advice. I worked non-glamorous jobs during grad school en lieu of the fascinating but unpaid research gigs some of my peers did--and managed to keep my loans at a reasonable level. I "sold out" when I determined I needed a certain minimum salary to make ends meet--all but sealing my fate working for a for-profit company rather than a nonprofit.
I feel a bit bad for some of my classmates, who made a valiant attempt of living the life of high loans, fun (expensive) cities, and noble (poorly-paid) work. Everyone told them it would work out....but most of them continue to struggle financially, 12 years after graduation.
I'm sometimes asked for advice on grad school or getting into the environmental field. I tell people that if they need to take out boatloads of debt for grad school--don't do it. And there's nothing wrong with working for a for-profit. They are not all evil. And at the end of the day, a job is really a means to support the other important things in your life.
18
@Itsy I have no problem with people being idealistic and working for non-profits at low wage but then they can't turn around and complain about their wages and standard of living. I once dated a medical student who decided to drop out and become an artist. His family (generations of docs) disowned him temporarily and he lived very simply for a few years. He knew that would be a consequence of pursuing what he wanted. But he never complained nor regretted it and I admired him for that.
7
@ms I totally agree. I know some people who choose to follow their passions and fully accept the financial trade-offs. I know a lot more people who choose low-paying careers thinking they just need to sacrifice a fancy car and designer clothes---and then become really bitter when they can't buy a house, can't afford to have kids, can't save much for retirement, etc.
The difference with your friend is that his family was telling him, in their own way, loud and clear that his choices had trade-offs. My former classmates, rather, had their families telling them that low-paying-but-noble jobs are fine, don't worry about it, you'll figure it out. And those are the ones shocked when they struggle to make ends meet.
6
Every time I read that college educated people earn a million dollars more in their lifetime, I look for the asterisk saying the figure is based on an historic average that includes folks who matriculated decades ago and your mileage may vary.
9
We do young people a disservice when we constantly tell them they can do anything, which sets them up for inevitable disappointment. More useful, practical advice would be, “Do something you can tolerate for 40 years and allows you to earn a decent living.”
45
Very few of the things mentioned in the article ring true when describing myself and peers. However, the people I know may not be reflective of all young ppl. I got a degree and Bio Sci and it was near impossible to get a job. I had to take an internship with a stipend to get a foothold. I was privileged enough to do so. Others don't have the support needed to take such a deep cut in pay. I was on food stamps during the time but it worked. Finally I found a job bc they were able to see what I was capable of. I didn't know how to do all the task my job has but they knew I could learn it. I'm lucky someone saw my potential and was willing to invest in me. Other companies should realize that todays students may not check all the boxes of what skills you need but that they are capable. Now i'm running sql queries and setting up data visuals. My bio background is relevant bc my job focuses on public health. I know plenty of young adults taking jobs that aren't ideal trying to get ahead and build up their experience. Sometimes its a deadend though
8
@Alfred
Congratulations on your success.
Now, some advice from a university writing instructor, me. I trust you will take it as kind guidance and not harsh criticism.
You very much need to bring your writing up to professional level. For instance, you should not use bc in place of because. The same goes for ppl in place of people.
These abbreviations, of course, are fine for texting or emailing, but reflect poorly on you in formal writing.
Also, you would benefit from outlining your thoughts. Your post is really scattered.
10
@Ricardo Chavira
Psst... an anonymous comment in the New York Times is not a sample of Alfred's formal writing skills. For the most part, comments are impromptu responses on a topic; they are closer to a casual email (where you think these Alfred's abbreviations would be fine) than to a cover letter for a job application.
If this is difficult for recent college grads, can you imagine how challenging this would be for anybody over age 40? Or 50?
As if going back to school for re-training is going to help any.
Welcome to the world of low-pay, low-skilled, no benefits jobs.
Reality bites.
65
@Tim: which is why telling 55 year old coalminers -- as theHillary did -- that they should lose their jobs, but "retrain" in "something" -- is clueless, heartless and tone deaf.
It's incredibly hard to land jobs for NEW GRADS who are young, attractive, healthy and flexible and can move anywhere, have no spouses or kids or dependents!
Imagine telling this to people over 45 or 50, who must care for elderly parents AND raise children, who have to contend with a spouse's job/career and may have health problems of their own.
Going back to school for even minimal retraining -- like a certificate -- is at least one year and probably two. A bachelor's degree is 4-5 years. This is all quite costly, even community college is about $5000 a year -- you can borrow it all and then some, but are stuck with decades of NON DISCHARGEABLE debts.
And then god forbid, you can't find that good paying job after all of that!
The truth is we off shored a LOT of our good paying, union jobs with benefits -- to China, India, Mexico -- because greedy employers wanted to pay much less salary & no benefits and lefty libs were madly in love with "globalization".
4
I heard during my undergrad "Liberal arts degrees will prepare you for the jobs that haven't been created yet."
At this point, I think that's hokum.
College is cleanly split between career-oriented folks in STEM, Law, and Business, for whom there is a clear and direct path to a job with a competitive salary; and folks who are either unsure or wanted to live a beautiful life...like I did in academia...and for whom prospects are murky at best, abysmal at worst.
To what extent should the colleges be responsible for job training? I don't know...but I feel more and more like no one has been adequately prepared for the momentous sea-change happening beneath us all.
From the mushrooming (clouds) of student loan debt to the financial crisis of 2008 to the roaring (but low-paying) job market of today and the concentration of wealth among tech barons and investors...
I feel like the only refuge for young people today is in Mike Rowe style "dirty" jobs - high-paying, local-based, self-employed, and impossible-to-outsource-or-automate style jobs.
Plumber. Electrician. General Contractor. Door hanger. Tree trimmer.
A friend's brother makes six-figures crawling under houses every day as a home inspector, he's been doing it four years, and he can't keep up with the demand.
To me this makes the most sense: no expensive degree to pay for (or off!), no high urban cost of living, and TWICE the likelihood of becoming a millionaire as highly-paid employees.
47
A friend's daughter was a very good science student and did science-related extracurricular activities not for extra credit but because she truly loved doing them.
Impressed with her abilities and determination, I wrote a strong letter of recommendation that helped her land a prestigious and highly competitive summer internship at a world-famous science museum.
She was offered the internship, but turned it down because she would have to work at an exurban satellite branch of the institution. The problem? She wanted to be at the main facility in the city so she could party with her friends.
Her parents totally supported her decision, apparently not understanding, despite my efforts to explain, that completing the internship would almost inevitably lead to admission to--and financial aid from--a top graduate school.
The daughter succumbed to the party-party syndrome, transferred to a less-demanding college and now lives at home while finishing the fifth and final year of her bachelor's degree. Her parents are now complaining that they had to pay for her extended college education (no scholarship) and now are expected to pay for her master's degree studies at a no-name school (no scholarship there, either).
She still hopes to qualify for some sort of job in biology, but at this point she will be lucky to get a job as a lab assistant.
Parents and school counselors seem more inclined to coddle students these days, which is not good for any of those involved.
18
I've been around college teaching since 1998--part-time and full-time, in six different universities as contract faculty--my comments:
Undergraduate literal arts education, done well without grade inflation and softening courses, provides marketable skills in a wide variety of jobs. For example, once hired, a liberal arts background with almost any major enhances the young person's ability to be successful at the new job as well as accumulate knowledge and skills over time. Finally, when that person switches careers, the liberal arts foundation and accumulated knowledge and skills can be applied in many industries and work settings. I try and get students to strengthen soft skills (such as relationship-building, collaboration), commercial skills (such as systems thinking), hard skills (such as control sheets and public speaking), and technical skills (being able to have a basic ability to interpret the meaning in large data sets).
Do I train them to do X when in Y job in Z industry? No. Employer needs change over time--I want them prepared to learn how to keep learning over their lifetime.
I tell them--get what job you can; work; change; and keep pushing. I spent thirty years pushing before getting into college teaching. It wasn't fun at times--I moved six times and work in a lot of jobs, but I learned a lot about some very different workplaces and different parts of the country; raised a family; and at 50 became a professor. Fun!
9
When I graduated college, I took a job as a legal secretary. It was all I could find. My salary was $41,000 and more than enough in 1999. Took a few turns, two out of state moves, but now 40 I am now doing the work related to my business major. I need to refresh my skills by going to grad school, but that isn't an issue.
Millenials need to be willing to take some left turns, move, and know how to translate their skills to other jobs.
19
Part of this problem is not new: If you don't want to struggle to find a job, you need to choose a major with good job prospects. Merely going to college is insufficient.
IMO, we place too much emphasis on "following your dream" and not enough on making a living. If you have a true vocation, by all means, pursue it, but most people do not have a career "passion" for which they're willing to sacrifice all.
Seek a middle ground, if possible: A career you can find satisfying in a field with decent employment prospects. That attitude has to start at home, with the parents. The kids are too young to grasp it on their own.
14
@mosselyn One of my friends' father gave his kids the very best advice - get a profession. You don't need a job or a dream you need a profession. And in today's world it needs to one that can't be outsourced, automated or taken over by AI. Most college majors won't give you this. Accounting might. Professions that come to mind - auto mechanic, carpenter, nurse, welder, accountant, dentist, house painter, plumber, electrician. You don't need an expensive college degree for most of these. You need to be able to earn a living. Colleges, placement offices and college loan experts never seem to mention this part.
30
@Anita
And the professions you listed all pay well these days because there is more demand than supply. If you've had a car or your plumbing repaired recently you can vouch for this.
1
@Anita I agree with you on the trades but several of the jobs you list require at least a bachelors if not higher: nursing and dentistry both do. Health care jobs which require less might be positions like radiology, laboratory- tech type positions, which do have demand. And it should be noted that the best trade positions require education, apprenticeships, and even certificates: you can't just walk in and automatically get a great job. A friend who later became a pharma executive started out as an underwater welder.
1
It was not easy in the 1980s either. My peers and I worked at a lot of temp jobs, or waited tables and it took could take years to get a career level job going. I don't think it has been easy in a long time for college grads and all will deal with the economy of the moment.
17
True. I had a retail job and managed an apartment building. Unfortunately current tuition costs are huge by comparison, lower wage jobs are harder to come by.
I work closely with recent college grads. Our employer pays about $52k plus great benefits for entry level positions with a lot of room for career growth. Many of the young people I work with are quite entrenched in the view that the employer is there to help the employee further his or her goals rather than the employee working in a position to further the employer's goals. They treat their jobs like internships. Many are overly confident, quite vocally, in their abilities and knowledge base, yet struggle with basic skills like taking ownership of work product and following through on tasks. The most successful young people I encounter are the ones who are willing to take direction and recognize that there are skills to be learned.
43
I once saw a bumper sticker: “Hire a teenager while he still knows everything.”
Doting parents and inflated grades often produce unrealistic expectations and self-assessment. As board president of an arts non-profit, I had to let go a 24-year-old employee who talked a good game, had personal charm and some great ideas, but no ability to follow up with the inevitable grunt work to implement them. Part of his job was to write promotional copy, press releases and fundraising letters. His grammar was so atrocious that I had to proofread and rewrite everything. When I tried to coach him through his weaknesses, he ignored me at best and argued with me at worst. He also spent an inordinate amount of time searching for a better job.
While I deplore the modern emphasis on training, rather than education, I think every university should require a course in workplace skills, which would cover everything from how to follow directions to interacting with co-workers and clients, and taking correction and criticism. These skills apply in the office, classroom, lab, patient bedside, and government bureaucracies.
"...only a third of students believe they will graduate with the skills they need to succeed in the workplace, while just half believe their major will lead to a good job."
Universities pride themselves on not being vocational schools, and even use the inutility of many of their traditional offerings as a perverse marketing ploy to attract applicants, while ignoring or misrepresenting the marketability of modern majors like environmental science.
While education is certainly edifying, enlightening, and a bulwark of a democratic republic, so too is gainful participation in the economy. Many students might be better served by more career-oriented programs relevant to current actual job-market requirements.
13
@Robert M: my first husband, who was quite a brilliant student with A grades, a 4.0 average and graduated Phi Beta Kappa --- in 1973, graduated from college with a major in....Geography.
Even his professor told him this was stupid and to change majors, as there were no jobs. But he was stubborn. Later, he found he had to go back to graduate school to get anything degree remotely employable and so he majored in the new hot field of 1975: transportation planning.
After two more fruitless years, he found out that while it sounded great, and maybe big cities did NEED transportation planners….there were few if any actual JOBS doing this.
He ended up going back to college again, to learn computer programming. FINALLY he had an actual SKILL that could be used to get a good paying job. But it took 3 tries.
I'd say it is worse today than 45 years ago and schools are the blame IMHO to telling naive young people to major in obscure, jobless fields.
A lot of folks read this, and took away that Ms. Hanley "finally got a job in her field". But what happened is after working for 3 years "in her field" at $12 an hour…..she FINALLY got a job in A DIFFERENT FIELD -- as a science writer.
What might have happened had she majored in technical writing IN THE FIRST PLACE? She might have been saved from 6 years of spinning her wheels in the sand uselessly.
Also: she was incredibly lucky. Not everyone is this lucky.
3
If the jobs were there then college graduates would take them. Many entry level positions are now unpaid internships, the cost of living in the cities with the most employment opportunities is rising much faster than the salaries, and college costs a lot more now than it used to. It's easy to criticize young people and imagine that your generation was better but the truth is that there are much bigger issues at play than whether or not a kid knows how to give a firm handshake.
72
I’m in my late 20s. I got my first salaried job when I was 23. My first job out of college, I was making $14/hr, but in a very low key city, where I could still afford housing and to eat. My current pay is in the top 10% of my profession.
Yes, I hustled. And no, I didn’t study anything lucrative. I majored in the humanities. But I did have some advantages. My parents paid for my cross-country move after college. And they paid for my second move several months after for grad school. I worked for another company in a big, new city for almost a year, again only making $14/hr, but when I quit to spend time to find a better job, my parents floated me money for a few months to live on. As a result, I was a lot happier and more focused when it came to interviewing, and I landed a great job.
My sister was a professional volunteer for two years after college, living on a stipend that put her below poverty level. Fortunately for her, she had help from family to help pay for rent and other necessities. It was a really great experience for her, and it helped her get a fellowship for grad school in a very competitive field. She’s had very substantial opportunities to network and intern.
My point is that we put so much blame on younger people for not having it all together, but not everyone lives with enough security to realize the opportunities that might be out there. $12/hr or $14/hr isn’t enough to live, let alone save or invest.
24
@Anna
I believe you're describing what they call "inter-generational privilege."
And yes, it is indeed very helpful, and provides a huge competitive advantage over those who lack it. So much so there are plenty of people across the political spectrum who are scared of few things more than a world where it doesn't convey the same advantages it presently does.
17
I’m a millennial, and everything in this article is true about me, sadly. I’m angry that the article never mentions where millennials got these “idealized” visions of our future. My parents definitely told me my whole life that I was special and could do anything I wanted - seems crazy now, but I guess it wasn’t crazy in the 90s! No one ever told me to be practical about my career choice. I actually received tons of encouragement to pursue my field of choice - internships at prestigious institutions, scholarships to grad school, even a semester-long recruitment seminar in college sponsored by a major foundation. Is it any wonder I was surprised by how tough it was to get my first actual job? And after you’ve spent years training for a certain field, yes, it can be difficult to devote yourself full heartedly to an entry level job as an office assistant, etc. Actually, when I eventually took that entry level office assistant job, my own mother made it clear the job was beneath me, and that if my boss found any fault with me, it’s because he didn’t understand how special I was.... hahaha. I’ve learned a lot over the years and see a lot of the mistakes I made throughout school and early career, but it’s not as if I went on this path all on my own. I did the best I could with the information I was getting from the adults around me.
85
@L The good news is that it seems you have figured it out! Sometimes the hard-learned lessons are the ones that eventually help us out the most. Hope you instill more reasonable expectations in your own kids.
7
Part of this undoubtedly is the simple fact that way more people are going to college than ever before which means the degree is not that special to HR. Then there is the whole mismatch thing where schools are cranking out excessive numbers of people with degrees that have shrinking to no demand.
To be honest, there are more than a few sketchy degrees being granted these days and not just by online for profit colleges. There are jobs that HR wants a degree for that do not require any skill taught exclusively in a college.
17
@David Gregory I've noticed that ads for receptionist jobs often require a Bachelors Degree. I think part of the reason for this is to weed out minorities, who are less likely to have degrees.
3
@David Gregory, When everyone is handed a trophy it makes them meaningless.
4
The ability to read and write and understand basic math - you don’t get that reliably in high school anymore. Most people come out of a four year able to do that - most jobs require at least this - so the college degree becomes entry level in a much wider range of fields
3
Another reason we need the government to help. Giving medical care, retirement, low cost education would cover lots of life's needs and allow one to survive on the lower incomes. WE have the money its a matter of distributing it.
16
The real problem is the crippling debt load that kids are faced with. And the fact that most of them and their families have been sold a bill of false goods regarding what the BA confers, to help keep the prices high.
As was the case with most of us - the value of your BA doesn't begin to emerge until you get enough real experience in a field to apply that learning to the task at hand. Until that point, learn to read, write, do the math, communicate, sell - and everybody has to mop the floor until they demonstrate they are worth more elsewhere.
We all thought the world should be our oyster on graduation too, if we're honest. What we didn't realize was that oysters start as a tiny grain of sand, but need to be nurtured for a lifetime. Because - it's not where you start. It's where you finish. And the journey along the way.
14
@Brian
The ACTUAL average debt of a recent grad is about the same as the price of their first used car - hardly crippling.
Yes - those who have mad silly choices can get six figures of debt but no the vast majority of grads.
3
My experience wasn't too much different than Ms. Hanaway's. I launched younger but not fresh out of college. The primary difference was I spent my time at my parents' house throwing money hand over fist at student loans while saving for an eventual relocation. The relocation did happen but not before some strange twists and turns.
If you had asked me then where I'd be living now, Utah would not have even entered the conversation. The idea wasn't even in my imagination. Yet here I am and very grateful for the decision too.
If I had any advice to offer struggling young professionals, I would say this:
1) All experience is experience. You simply need to figure out how to make your experience work for you.
2) Save and pay off debt as best you can. A bank roll is more important than your hobbies. You should learn to enjoy cheap hobbies instead.
3) Read "What Color is Your Parachute?"
4) Read "What Color is Your Parachute?"
5) Informational interviews. Find professionals you can talk to honestly without hitting them up for a job. For me, I spoke mostly with my friend's parents and extended relatives.
You might call them mock interviews but they never felt odd the way career services felt. People you know even 2nd or 3rd hand are more likely to give you an honest breakdown of their experiences and your mistakes. Ask questions but listen. You'll learn an awful lot about interviewing and career trajectories as a result. You'll feel more comfortable pitching later.
21
At the top of the business world, CEOs are grotesquely over-rewarded, but it's routine for lower-level employees to have to cobble together hours - at the ever-shifting behest of a boss who wants a workplace where everybody is part-time, benefits-less, and underpaid forever. (Or unpaid interns).
On top of that, there's the old situation that if you look after somebody else's big money, you'll be handsomely paid, but for much of the work needed by society - child or elder care, for example - the pay is a pittance.
Rather than simply dumping on young graduates for being idealistic, entitled, spoiled etc. etc...we should be asking ourselves some hard questions about the transformation of our economic life. Here's one: when all these pension-less, underpaid people reach old age and can no longer work this way, what is going to happen ?
59
@Oriole
Looking after people's money is hard. Elder care is relatively easy. It's important, but not difficult. Making money is stocks is actually quite difficult, but it is no way socially important. The mistake is to think people are or should be paid for work that is important. Firefighters are important. People get paid for the difficulty of their work (not the importance). Many more people have the skills to teach first grade that to predictably beat the market. I don't think being able to block a shot is important, but it requires a rare combination of height and physical skill. To make money, cultivate a rare skill(set).
3
Looking after money is difficult....says the gent called rich guy. And looking after elderly is easy? All the nonprofit, do-good education in the world lives among the crowd that spurns simple, civilized support for the weak, sick and old. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias has and will cut down millions among us. All of us. Elder care should be ennobled, well paid and trained for. And the hard time endured by playing the market should get a robust slap of reality.
1
I think this is the age old dilemma of new workers needing experience and no one wanting to give them a job because they lack experience. I graduated during a boom market with a degree in finance and struggled to find a job since I did not do a finance internship. Most internships were unpaid or were across town and I couldn't afford to give up my job that paid for my tuition. I think you need to do an internship with a company and then apply at that company since they already know you. Sometimes you just need to work at another job that may not be your dream job while you get experience which is what worked for me.
8
@hilliard
Versions of this have been playing out for decades, if not centuries, but what's more recent is the utter and complete capture of both major parties by finance and business interests.
We live in a world where it's expected that companies will reserve necessary tasks for "unpaid interns," who by law should not be doing work that would otherwise need to be done by a paid staff member.
We live in a world where tech giants lauded by papers like this one at every turn fix prices, sell user data, refuse to accept responsibility for the messes they create, and enter into agreements with one another not to "poach" employees, which is the (again, illegal) behavior of a cartel at best.
We live in a world where the world's richest man leverages his economic power to entice entire cities to grovel at his feet for the privilege of being the objects of extortion to the tune of billions of dollars.
&c.
&c.
And we live in a world where behavior like this is accepted as "economically efficient" and the "cost of doing business."
13
I would attribute some of the difficulties that graduates have getting jobs to the fields of study that they are choosing. Maybe it's not a bad thing to choose environmental management but don't expect instant results. You may get your dream job but dreams are often hard to pull down from the clouds.
Some of it might also be the narrowed focus of academic achievement or as I call it, "If a tree falls in the forest and it doesn't get a grade, does it matter." When I was in high school I noticed that there were a lot of students who did everything they could to game their schooling to produce the highest GPA. Nothing else mattered. They avoided classes that were hard, opting for easier classes with teachers that passed out good grades with less effort. They had neat predictable lives that followed a plan designed to get them into the college of their dreams. When they got to college, edging closer to reality, and leaving the confines of the predictable regularity of their prepacked lives they were not prepared to deal with it.
5
As college degrees have proliferated, young people and their families have downplayed the ongoing impact of social and financial capital in securing jobs.
It sounds like Hayley had a degree, but few contacts in her field and too much marginally relevant experience (Oxford?). In other words, not enough social capital. The article doesn't say whether Hayley had student loans, but that would make the situation worse, no matter how highly "rated" her program, is she lacked social capital.
Students with financial capital have more room to experiment, since they do not have loans. But I am amazed at how many of them will take several unpaid internships after college - that makes you look like a fool to employers.
Students need to get out there - be independent, resourceful and realistic. They should understand that developing their own social capital is the best investment they can make.
8
@Cousy I think her biggest obstacle was when she said she only applied for jobs that she perceived would have a positive impact. And even admitted it limited her pool. Younger people (and sometimes older people) think too much in black and white: most companies probably aren't fully green environmentally but they aren't evil incarnate either.
(Also she should consider what the founder of Patagonia said. (Paraphrasing) As a young man, given the choice between doing a low-paying, insecure environmentally-friendly job vs. making a lot of money in a "grey" field (business) and then contributing a lot to environmental causes, he chose the latter.)
1
Environmental science came into existence as a college major in recognition of importance to care for the environment. It will be even more important in the future. Because of Trump’s policies, there is a temporary setback to enforcement of environmental regulations. As a result, hiring in that field slowed. It is timing of the graduation. That should not discourage the young in pursuing such an important field for the future of the humanity. I am happy she found the job in her field and she will find huge potential in the future.
9
@Kodali
In an age when we're watching the planetary support systems crash, one after another, all around us, the fact that environmental management is widely considered a frivolous or unpractical major with thin job prospects, but advertising and finance are seen as both practical and laudable, tells you all you need to know.
20
@Kodali
The people who are going to tackle the environmental mess are not going to be Enviro Sci grads - it will be engineers developing new sources of power, new means of transport, etc
And far too many folks - esp young women - study and actually pass engineering
3
Anyone who does not see this as a result of the "everyone gets a prize, we are all great" culture is missing a sobering lesson from history. I am constantly flabbergasted at the ignorance of every day matters displayed by 20-30 year old group and their total inability to handle criticism.
20
Stagnant wages, rising inequality, and ballooning student debt are real problems. This isn’t an issue of an entire generation’s collective attitude, as convenient as that would be.
4
I’m glad Ms. Hanley finally found a job that matches her skills. But instead of working at Macy’s, she should have considered the Peace Corps — it’s great work experience, you get several thousand dollars of “readjustment allowance” upon finishing, and if you complete your service you get preferential hiring from the federal government. Something for young people to think about.
14
@FlipFlop My alma mater is one of the top suppliers of students who go on to Peace Corps and I have several acquaintances who had a wonderful time in it. However, I don't think it's that easy to do and people should not be naive about it. First, it's not easy to get in. Second, some PC members question if their time/ efforts really benefited the places where they were placed. For example, one agriculture student said it was ridiculous in hindsight that he was expected to teach farmers in another climate with decades of experience what they could do better. Third, some PC members have been harmed while in-country without much help from PC. Google it. Fourth, the allowance is not that much post-PC.
My suggestion is people look into domestic federal programs like Americorps, Vista, Teach for America -- which also have their pros and cons. People do not need to travel far to help others/ gain experience and US citizens need help just as much as people abroad. This is partly why I deferred an international health career and instead did part of my work in rural America, nursing homes, and Indian reservations.
7
@FlipFlop
I'm not in the military, but if I had to do it again, I would have sought a post-graduation commission. 10 years gives you skills, leadership, and a paid-for graduate degree.
4
@Ms:
I actually served in the Peace Corps, so I don’t need to Google anything.
You’re right — it is difficult to get in, which it should be. Whether or not you make a difference is very much up to you. It’s not for snowflakes — the conditions can be demanding, so it’s for adults who know what they’re getting into. After 27 months of service, you walk away with over $12,000 (current readjustment allowance) and the chance to get preferential hiring for federal jobs.
Not a bad deal as opposed to working retail for minimum wage like the woman highlighted in this story.
5
Idealized? I don't think my son is being idealistic in the least. What he has found is that there are lots of job ADS but actual ENTRY LEVEL jobs are very difficult to find because unpaid internships are completely out of control. Why hire a recent college graduate when you can get someone to work a whole summer or semester for free? Why hire someone just out when you can get someone who worked for free for a year and then worked for a year to take your "entry level" job? I'm sorry, but working for Starbucks and living at home while applying for positions that are more often than not made of vapor isn't "idealistic" - it is REALISTIC - it is the REALITY of modern life.
60
Many students do not fit this description. The anecdote of parents coming with kids to college or job interviews are oft-repeated, but not that widely observed.
Did we expect over-indulgent parents, mediocre teachers, and social isolation in the burbs to cause no damage? Our kids are over-stimulated, helicoptered, and seeking solace on social media and texts; numbed to much else. A growing segment of graduates are plain boring.
When you tell kids: "follow your heart," some do expect to become leading ballet dancers who sing and lead TV programs.
Ecosystem management is a mix of coursework. A graduate from mechanical, chemical, or industrial engineering program will trump anyone with this nonsense major. Of course the child is selling fragrances. Popular programs? Women and gender studies, American studies, sports studies (these kids know which stadium seats how many). What are students' expecting? Head these functions at publicly traded firms? In plain English: the economy has not kept pace with the proliferation of students and the variety of majors. Even lawyers and mechanical engineers are having problems finding good jobs - what were you expecting with other majors?
Please note, today's students are inordinately motivated by the prospect of being celebrities (for being famous, not because they produced a new vaccine). Schools have started programs on social media, and are heavily subscribed.
Older people, don't despair. These kids are our job security.
13
@Kalidan
This anecdote is not grounded in facts. I know plenty of college graduates (from top 20 schools at least, in "relevant" majors) who have struggled to find jobs. These graduates are former captains of college sports teams, speak multiple languages, have worked hard at highly sought after internships etc. etc. Some of them come from challenging backgrounds, and they have faced serious adversity to graduate from their respective institutions.
The common denominator is often the under utilization of career center services. Sometimes this is partly the fault of the student, as they should be considering career opportunities and using resources sooner, but students may have legitimate reasons and time constraints that limit their ability to benefit from these offerings. The institutions themselves can also be partially to blame by not providing amble hours for support, staff, programs and awareness to opportunities. There are many career centers with largely student run programming where advice is given by other students, which may not work for all students.
I haven't met a single person who is "motivated by the prospect of becoming a celebrity." They just want to do work that hopefully leads towards meaningful career in the field of their choice. Obviously not everyone is going to have their ideal reality - that's life, but you are out of touch with the experience of many hardworking graduates. They are not all spoiled snowflakes.
21
@Kalidan
Ecosystem Management is at least a STEM degree - you know, one of those fields that the older generation and the media have been telling kids to study for the last 15 years now. Maybe the older generation should come to terms with the fact that they don’t know as much as they think they do. The job market has changed a lot since they graduated. Have some sympathy for what these kids have to go through instead of handing out more ill-informed career advice.
4
@Bill
No sensible person ever said just get any random STEM degree - we have far too many biochem grads and that is the classic STEM degree that is only useful for applying to med school.
2
Highly relevant, but unmentioned in the article, is that many students at selective colleges have never worked at a paying job before they graduate. This is especially true of wealthy kids from zealous helicopter families, and the phenomenon is exacerbated if the kids goes to private school, which fosters a consumerist attitude. Many of those young adults struggle post-college.
Kids should work before college and during college. Not just babysitting and dog-walking - they should work for a business.
The added bonus of working in high school is that admissions officers at selective colleges say that work experience is highly regarded as part of the selection process. They wish that more kids would work and fewer kids would attempt to found useless non-profits and go on international service junkets.
38
@Cousy: nice idea, but its not reality today.
Back in the 70s, I worked all through college -- part time 20 hours a week during the school year (along with a full load of courses!) and full time on summer vacation (which mean, essentially I never had a vacation, ever, as a student).
But my nieces, nephews, other millennials I know -- did not work. They did not work in high school either outside of maybe an occasional babysitting job.
During the school year, their helicopter parent insisted they "concentrate on school". The parents handed out spending money, paid for vacations, fancy phones, gaming systems, new clothes so the young person had no need to work.
College? again, parents paid for everything. Most students today DO NOT WORK PART TIME, and do not grow up having done things like work at McD, mall stores, lipped burgers, served ice cream cones, cut lawns, shoveled snow, camp counselors -- any of the things that boomers routinely worked at from age 15 onward!
When they finally go out to find jobs after college….it is often literally the first time they have EVER worked for money.
And yes, they often start out expecting things like a pretty good newer car (with no payment on it!) and their own apartment (no roommates or sharing -- ew!). So parents have to fork over for that.
1
This is a superb article, thanks for publishing it! As a professional college and career counselor, I couldn't agree more with many of its premises.
The most important to me, without a doubt, is that students have a very romantic view of their identity and no one is willing to share with them the truth.
You don't always have to advance a social cause only by working in the field. The best example is Bill Gates who, with his wife, has helped change the world in education and global health although both had little to do with the commercial goals of Microsoft.
Ms. Hanway could have done a lot better had she chosen careers which are growing at 10% - 20% clips as listed by the Department of Labor's Occupational Handbook. She could have pursued her passion for ecosystems either on the side, or after a first career.
The idea that you should pursue college regardless of your investment's return, regardless of what happens in your post-collegiate career has been pushed by many small liberal arts colleges. This idea simply doesn't work in today's hyper competitive world of outsourcing, automation and high levels of skilled immigration.
37
@Rajkamal Rao Research shows that those who have a liberal arts undergraduate degree, and a more specific (marketable) Master’s degree are more successful professionally than those who without the liberal arts background. And I have no doubt they are also more informed, educated citizens. The real worth of a liberal arts education: priceless.
14
@Rajkamal Rao
Bill Gates and his wife could not have helped to change the world in education and global health if there aren’t any to work in those fields. It is those young with romantic view of their identity that bring to the realization of Bill Gates and his wife’s compassions to realization.
4
@Rajkamal Rao, my son has a "desirable" degree in statistics, and he can't find a job either.
I'm nearly 60 years old, and picking a career by the Department of Labor's Occupational Handbook seems like a very depressing prospect to me if I don't have the interest or skill set to do those jobs.
After college, I couldn't figure out what "field" I wanted to be in. And when I did, I got a job in it when I was 26 years old--after graduate school. It takes time.
8
Certainly, college can become a bubble. However, my time in college exposed me to extraordinarily motivated young people. Most of them worked multiple internships over the course of their college careers- including myself. Not all young people refuse to utilize resources such as career centers and cannot function face-to-face. In my current place of employment, I am impressed everyday with the high level of motivation and work ethic among my peers- while some of co-workers from other generations are clearly settled and do not necessarily demonstrate the ability to adjust to changes. Young people are not too aspirational to accept entry-level jobs- however, many "entry-level jobs" today are unpaid internships. Saddled with student loans, this is certainly limiting.
74
@Employed Millenial I could not agree more. During my BA, I met many, many people who worked hard academically and were still on the level with professional sensibilities. I strongly object to this idea that Millennials don't have savvy social skills and that they just can't connect with employers. In fact it was the employer side, in my experience, that pidgeonholed me into an online application and hence, a reduced and depersonalized virtual persona. I cannot over-emphasize how many times I would walk into a business with a resume in hand and was told, "Oh, if you want to view our job openings, just fill out a form online." Fortune here did not favor the bold. Instead of an employer finding a person and then checking their online presence, during my search for my first paid entry-level position (after two unpaid internships), I experienced the opposite. It felt like I wasn't allowed to be evaluated as a real person until my online profiles/bonafides--beyond my resume and cover letter--were vetted.
68
Reply to Another Employed Millennial:
Did it ever occur to you that they didn’t have time to look into everyone’s details and their “real person” until they knew they possessed certain basic qualities which were best found out by the filling out of THEIR form made up of THEIR concerns? There’s plenty of time to sell yourself once you merit an interview. Time is money!
4
@Another Employed Millennial
I experienced something very similar too. They want their algorithms to approve you before they bother talking to you in person.
2
Then, there are those of us who are seniors and looking for jobs and have to pay our own bills. It's disheartening and frightening. I hope that I can repeat your last line soon, “It was a lot of work, but I did finally get there."
24
There is nothing "new" about this issue. I graduated from the Univ of Maryland, College Park in 1973 and the challenges were similar.
High Schools, Colleges and Universities love to give out awards and honors for high achievement. In the real world the boss wants the job done, and done properly, on time with no errors. Plus the reward is a paycheck at the end of the week, not a gold star, honor certificate, or other personal acknowledgement.
My advice is to get a job, any job and work hard and learn about the real world of work. Eventually you will find your niche and keep your eyes open for opportunities in the fields you enjoy. Employers usually want work experience, someone who has a positive attitude and is willing to learn. As has been said: "a lot is gained by just showing up everyday ready, willing and able to work."
85
@Coolhandred I hate to tell you this, but, no, the challenges are not similar. I have young people - one in college, one just out, and the challenge of debt for many is incredibly different. In your day, part time minimum wage paid all your college expenses, and loans were easy to get.
I suggest that you talk to an actual young person before making ridiculous comparisons.
46
@Coolhandred I have to agree with @multimodalmama on this one. This is not the case of "the old days were so much harder and kids these days have it easier." Low wages plus student debt plus the noxious effect of social media has significantly changed the landscape. Things were easier in the 70's and 80's and even 90's.
10
@Coolhandred I graduated in 1972-- I worked where I could get work; I moved to where the work was in the country; and I continually pushed to increase my skills.
Many of my friends "of the '60s" had idealistic visions of careers--some made it to Wall Street, some didn't make it at all. I just kept setting the alarm clock, popping out of bed, and hitting every day hard. I had learned from my father--work is work, do it, get paid, and over time try and steer to what you would like to do.
I went through four extremely different work settings to pay the bills and raise and family and moved them six times. I'm now happily teaching online as my retirement fun and visiting kids and grandkids.
Liberal arts + willingness to take the pain for years paid off. Good article. Thanks.
11
The underemployment of the college graduate is not new, although it’s getting worse. Important research and important government work is underfunded, and the corporate world has little interest in anything like improving their services or products. They have found a supine Congress, lobbying, mergers, acquisition of competitors, and deceptive advertising to be less expensive and less precarious than employing folks who can think or create or indulge their idealism.
25
One of the more striking observations that I have over the course of my career is seeing how many of the entry level positions at large corporations and consulting firms are now taken up by H1B visa holders. This is especially true in the STEM fields. Abolish the H1B and other work visa programs and watch the entry level positions get filled by American college graduates again.
79
@Truth Teller Precisely. OPT is even worse. It has no limit, and vastly outnumbers the number H1Bs issued every year. It has been extended through executive action, so that it's valid for 36 months. OPT needs to be either eliminated, or scaled back to its original intent of 12 months.
And yes, most of these are entry level jobs that require some company training anyway. And once former H1Bs become managers, they tend to hire others from their country of origin, instead of Americans. And this also has to do with the fact that many new hires are done through referrals. And H1Bs/OPT holders almost always refer someone from their own tribe, at the expense of US citizens.
30
@Truth Teller
It's like banning the smart kids from the math competition because you want your less well-prepared kid to win. Isn't this type of coddling part of the problem in the first place?
7
@Truth Teller I think the problem is that you still need a computer science/math degree for the entry level jobs. Some american college kids don't want or cant handle the work required for these classes. I work in IT and don't know any unemployed american STEM grad.
10
Living with your family ( parents) has nothing to do with this. The job market is exactly that. A "market." In fact, it is what the finance world thinks of a a 'Dutch Auction." Price changes as does supply and demand rather quickly. Or, as the author calls it: "a mismatch." The required "skills" can often yield a lower priced person and sometimes the person seeking employment passes up job openings because their pay expectation is not met, or perhaps unrealistic. With people living longer, it won't get better anytime soon. Unemployment "rates" are only broadly useful in the above exercise and mostly comparative for one era to another. Too many variables that one can measure, make the "problem" one we just have to live with.
11
@Mark
In my experience, people who determine problem x "is one we just have to live with" tend not to be people affected by problem x.
Let me guess: you're over 40 with a stable income aren't you?
@Mark: it has nothing whatsoever to do with "people living longer".
People still retire at roughly the same age. The college grads are not competing with 70 year old grey-beards!
The jobs market is not static because of all those malingering 65+ folks.
The reason for this (also see: Warming, Global) is TOO MANY PEOPLE. The US has taken in countless millions of immigrants plus tens of millions of illegal aliens. These folks are all competing for the same jobs -- while GLOBALIZATION is sending many of those good paying jobs overseas to the third world!
It's a game of musical chairs with not enough chairs for everyone -- and the door is open, and more people entering daily -- BUT NO MORE CHAIRS.
1
I'm a small business owner trying to hire someone right now, and the reason people have a hard time finding jobs is because they struggle with even basic skills. After reviewing hundreds of resumes and conducting dozens of interviews, I still have not found one person who can follow directions and do simple entry-level tasks without mistakes. I'm talking about simple tasks like rescheduling a meeting, sending a message without spelling and grammar errors, and simple math calculating percentages even with the help of a calculator.
that's not even taking into account all the people that never even make it to an interview. People who cannot follow directions ( they are instructed to fill out a simple form instead of emailing me a resume) and people whose resumes have blatant errors in proofreading, spelling, or grammar.
Let's not forget the people who do not have the tact to not bad-mouth previous bosses, who admit that they were constantly late to their previous job, or who asked how much longer the interview will take because they have an eye doctor's appointment.
This is an entry-level position, but it pays $20 an hour and does not involve any late nights or work that needs to be done from home.
And still no one competent enough to fill the position.
It seems to me what we have is an educational system that fails to prepare students for the basic tasks of the real world. I don't care what your GPA is if you cannot answer the phone without being rude to my clients.
138
@Drpsuedonym
Did you look at the local high school COOP Program?
Lots of students need work experience to obtain the credit for the course. As long as the work does not violate the Federal guidelines for the COOP Experience - that might be a great source for employees.
5
Drpsuedonym:
You’ve hit the nail on the head but I’d also add that it is these young people’s parents who fail to prepare them for the real world and who fail to impart them with either general knowledge or common sense.
I am also a small business owner and many of my employees are either students or recent graduates who continually amaze me with their ignorance, haplessness and inability to understand or accept that a job is a job, period. They seem more interested in their technological devices, in pop culture or in vague, lofty motifs like “save the whales” while not putting out the trash! I encounter countless young people in my employ who’ll suddenly say “I need a break, I have a bad back”, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I myself am more than double their age and yet work alongside them without issues. I also encounter countless recent and not-so-recent graduates from above-average universities who lack so much knowledge it leaves me speechless.
What on earth are they being taught?!
47
@Drpsuedonym
I don't believe you. Either you're not paying enough to attract those who are able to perform the job or your job listing isn't describing who would qualify for the job.
There are plenty of graduates who can do what you describe here.
44
Many recent college grads, especially Americans, think that once they graduate a great job will be handed to them on a silver platter. They fail to recognize that we live in a global economy and they are now competing against Indian, Chinese and Asians who spent their college years working, doing internships, getting professional certifications. None of us had it easy finding the great first or even second job. We did menial things, working our way up the ladder and we worked 50-60 hour weeks to do this. I don't see this work ethic in Americans today. Rarely. And I hire many many people. The field is not level and the cream does rise to the top. Parents have not done their kids any favors IMHO.
67
@Anita
Thanks so much and I agree with you. I taught school and told my students parents and my students that we live in a global community. We are competing against students from all countries in the world.
My classes were demanding and you had to work on
assignments aligned to a job
IE. write a report in 12 hours.
From time to time I would see some of my former students, who found my words to be true and the work
they did in class good preparation.
11
@Anita No. They do not. Try talking to one sometime.
2
@Anita The difference is that the corporate ladder isn't the same anymore. The bottom rung is unpaid internships that many students can't afford to take so they end up in dead end jobs that won't go anywhere. Lots of people work very hard for long hours but if the job is at the counter at Macy's, like in this interview, then it might never add up to a viable career.
12
Julie Halpert hits the nail on the head here. Many millennials face difficulties transitioning from college to career. Often times, they are academic high achievers.
It is as if they excelled in all their coursework save one— the one where you synthesize your years of learning and apply it to the special skills and requirements of a specific role in an organization.
Failure to learn how to do this leads to mismatches in the career search arena. These failures can often lead to despair and depression.
Parents can play a great role here— connecting their children with a community of adults that can mentor and help manage expectations.
28
Failure to synthesize is a dangerous side effect of high tech.
I know a 50-something physician who guest lectures in a specialty, once a year, at a prestigious medical school.
Unfortunately they completely rely on test results to support their diagnostic plan, rather than synthesizing ALL information (tests, patients’ history, etc) to THINK of the solution.
We should fear for this limited way of problem solving.
The big lie has been technology in schools - at all levels from kindergarten forwards.
32