No Job for College Grads?

[Pop_Rivit]

I hear a lot of complaining and whining about good jobs not being available, especially for college grads. Yet I continue to see grads get good paying jobs, even here locally.

We have a goddaughter who is now 24 years old. She attended school in Colorado, graduating in 2014 with a bachelors in Computer Science. She was able to find a pretty good job in her chosen career field right out of school, stayed in Colorado, lived frugally, paid off her student loan within a year after graduating, and recently decided to make a job change. Between her college education and the 18 months at her current job, as soon as she started making inquiries she started receiving offers. Yesterday she called us to let us know she accepted an offer as a .Net developer for $70K/year plus 500 shares of stock in the company as a sign on bonus. Now that her student loan is paid off, she's debt free and working on building savings and wealth. Not too shabby for a 24 year old who, a very few short years ago, would house sit for us.

Her brothers (also our godsons) are a couple years older, and both doing outstanding. One is a water treatment plant designer here in Iowa, the other an HR manager for an insurance company in Des Moines. Both had their student loans paid off within 2 years of graduating, and both found jobs shortly after graduating; one in 2009 and the other in 2011. The water treatment plant designer has discussed with us the possibility of starting his own design and consulting business.

Who says that there are no good jobs available, and "young people" today are lazy and can't pay off their student loans?

 

[Pablo]

A BA in Trans-alliteration of Repressed Mud Painting is only a stepping stone within academia.

 

[SeaJay]

Nope, you are right. High paying jobs for all college grads just waiting for them to show up. And yes, they all are hard workers, not a slacker in the crowd.

 

[Bandito440]

Good for them. Some folks would rather blame corporations, the government, or a grand conspiracy rather than take initiative and improve their situation.

 

[Andrew1972]

It's area specific. Most folks who complain live in dead dried up places. Or they simply do not have skills desired. My state has less then 3% rate and I am constantly getting begged to interview. However the pay is nothing special locally so I remotely contract.

.net is still being desired? I guess I work for a web/mobile game & business application development company with not a lick of .net

 

[aualtima3.5]

I graduated at the height of the recession (IMO, 2009). My viewpoint about your perception of the job market is you don't understand how the past recession stills affects wages today, and how your family member has a job in demand but could also be debated maybe by some people). I found a job three months after graduating.

First, generally speaking - most people are underemployed. My generation faces a lot of consequences from this, particularly greater debt load dragging them down. Your goddaughter has an income high enough to overcome her debt. She is an exception, a majority of millennials didn't pursue a STEM degree.

Next, your other God children may not make nearly the income of your god daughter compared to same time earlier in their careers. Many of my peers (also engineers) have seen some diminished wages because we just needed a job in the recession to pay our debts and caved to lower pay because of competitiveness. (At this time, no one was hiring and employers scooped up people for cheap)

Currently, my employer is having a difficult time finding new hires because of a shortage of engineers.

Since I rarely see anyone citing sources, the below document shows a decrease in the percentage of stem graduates compared among other generations. The first 20 pages are most relevant to me.

https://m.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
It's area specific. Most folks who complain live in dead dried up places. Or they simply do not have skills desired. My state has less then 3% rate and I am constantly getting begged to interview. However the pay is nothing special locally so I remotely contract.

.net is still being desired? I guess I work for a web/mobile game & business application development company with not a lick of .net


Exactly. Welcome to world according to Pop!

 

[Kestas]

Here is the other side of the issue:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth

I wouldn't believe what the White House says. It is their job to keep engineering salaries as low as possible to benefit American business and the economy.

There is no shortage of STEM graduates. There is only a shortage of companies willing to pay the STEM salary that is commensurate with the training. There was a time when engineers made more money than rookie pro baseball players. The fact that many Union workers make as much money sweeping floors as talented engineers who sacrificed through school is appalling, and that the STEM initiative is not needed.

Also - and I hate to say this publicly - but I've seen reverse discrimination in the field of engineering, where women are preferentially hired over men, and even given more salary. I've seen lots of layoffs and downsizing in my microcosm. At one time my engineer friends joked that if you want to ensure your family has an income, marry a female engineer. She stands a better chance of making good money and retaining her job.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
There is no shortage of STEM graduates. There is only a shortage of companies willing to pay the STEM salary that is commensurate with the training.


From my single datapoint, I would have to say that there is no lack of resumes coming across my desk. I'm not convinced that the training is up to par but there seems to be plenty of people fresh from college. However: at least where I work, we figure a person is going to need months before they pull their own weight. One doesn't walk off the street and start doing what we do. Therefore we're very selective.

I do think college degrees are being pushed too hard, or at the very least, it's too easy to rack up too much debt. Maybe that's the parents fault for not providing for college, maybe it's the kids fault for signing up for that debt w/o thinking about it, or maybe it's someone else's fault. I have no idea if that issue is being brought up to kids and families before they hustle off to college.

 

[jeepman3071]

As a 25 year old who graduated a year ago, I have experience in this.

It is definitely area and field specific. Connecticut sucks for decent jobs. I'm fortunate enough to have gotten a decent job, but then again it is a contractor position with no benefits. I was lucky to know somebody who put in a good word for me. I have many hard working friends with degrees who are working part-time jobs. The wonderful state government can't balance the budget here, and for pretty much 2-3 years now there has been a hiring freeze across the state. Now they have taken back state raises and are threatening layoffs. In my dad's organization (He works in education) they have just been told they have to cut $70 million from their budget. This is in an organization that is already understaffed and full of dead weight (80 year old people who don't do anything and won't retire). With all this going on nobody is hiring, and if they are it is temporary contractors like my position.

Gone are the days where you can start off by getting your foot in the door and working your way up. Lots of the "entry level" positions around here aren't entry level at all and require 5-10 years experience for entry level pay. I was fortunate enough to gain 5 years of IT experience working in the data center at my college. I worked full-time while going to school and was able to learn a lot and become my boss's go-to guy. Before I graduated my boss wanted me to work there full-time and begged his director to open up a position since two other people were retiring the same year. The response was "It isn't in the budget", and they didn't refill the positions for those two people who retired. My old boss currently runs the data center by himself.

Sure, anybody can work at Burger King and I have a friend who is, but these places are also smart. They know that if they let you work over a certain number of hours they have to give you healthcare, so instead they give you terrible hours. This particular friend works two part-time jobs and still works less than 40 hours a week. He is the shift lead at a Dunkin Donuts as well, but that doesn't come with any increase in pay. Dunkin knows that if he quits because he doesn't get a raise, they can easily fill his spot.

There are obviously two sides to every story. I have seen the lazy, the incompetent people who apply for one job and whine because they don't get in. I also know many hard working and well-educated people who can't find jobs. My father gets e-mails and phone calls every other day from people he knows asking for a job.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
I hear a lot of complaining and whining about good jobs not being available, especially for college grads. Yet I continue to see grads get good paying jobs, even here locally.

We have a goddaughter who is now 24 years old. She attended school in Colorado, graduating in 2014 with a bachelors in Computer Science. She was able to find a pretty good job in her chosen career field right out of school, stayed in Colorado, lived frugally, paid off her student loan within a year after graduating, and recently decided to make a job change. Between her college education and the 18 months at her current job, as soon as she started making inquiries she started receiving offers. Yesterday she called us to let us know she accepted an offer as a .Net developer for $70K/year plus 500 shares of stock in the company as a sign on bonus. Now that her student loan is paid off, she's debt free and working on building savings and wealth. Not too shabby for a 24 year old who, a very few short years ago, would house sit for us.

Her brothers (also our godsons) are a couple years older, and both doing outstanding. One is a water treatment plant designer here in Iowa, the other an HR manager for an insurance company in Des Moines. Both had their student loans paid off within 2 years of graduating, and both found jobs shortly after graduating; one in 2009 and the other in 2011. The water treatment plant designer has discussed with us the possibility of starting his own design and consulting business.

Who says that there are no good jobs available, and "young people" today are lazy and can't pay off their student loans?


Imagine that. She found a computer job in a world completely reliant on computers.....

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
It's area specific. Most folks who complain live in dead dried up places. Or they simply do not have skills desired. My state has less then 3% rate and I am constantly getting begged to interview. However the pay is nothing special locally so I remotely contract.

.net is still being desired? I guess I work for a web/mobile game & business application development company with not a lick of .net


My step-daughter got a BA in hygiene from NYU and looked for awhile, now has masters from London College of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is looking.

Is very area specific.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Here is the other side of the issue:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth

I wouldn't believe what the White House says. It is their job to keep engineering salaries as low as possible to benefit American business and the economy.

There is no shortage of STEM graduates. There is only a shortage of companies willing to pay the STEM salary that is commensurate with the training


Whatever, the money allocated is going into some excellent and high quality education opportunities my daughters (8 & 10) both participate in. It's funded by government and private companies. The engineers whining about pay just we're not smart enough to evolve into where opportunity lies. I smartened up and left consulting engineering after 3 years.

 

[Colt45ws]

Most places I've looked at for jobs in fields I would be interested in earning a degree, want 3-5 years of experience. That's on top of the degree. I haven't seen anything even remotely entry level and I've been looking for months.
Simply too risky to take on that debt load just to not find something.
Plus I struggled so hard just to do a B- in Pre-algebra when I would need Algebra and Calculus in those type of fields.
I'm left with just my manufacturing experience as my most marketable skill and I've almost given up on that too.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: Kestas

Also - and I hate to say this publicly - but I've seen reverse discrimination in the field of engineering, where women are preferentially hired over men, and even given more salary.


Reverse discrimination is definitely a reality.

I won't name the police department, but one of the local departments hired a female hispanic officer even though she "slipped through the cracks" for the drug test. One of the candidates who applied for the job I knew, and he is a young white ex-military guy. Long story short, the hispanic female didn't work out because she wasn't fit for the job, and they ended up having to re-do the search. The candidate I knew ended up getting hired, but it is interesting how someone who was unqualified for the job got the position because they met the quota.

 

[GenesisGuy70]

I just graduated in December with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Health Science with a Minor in Business and a Minor in Healthcare Administration and I have had a heck of a time finding a job. I just recently accepted a position with Pilot Flying J as a Shift Supervisor. A degree is great but every company wants experience for the well paying positions. I had set my sights high when I first graduated but after 30 applications and nothing offered too me I have had to take what I can find because I can't be unemployed much longer. Even with a healthcare degree I can't find a job. It's tough out there unless if you have the right degree.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Most places I've looked at for jobs in fields I would be interested in earning a degree, want 3-5 years of experience. That's on top of the degree. I haven't seen anything even remotely entry level and I've been looking for months.


The experience thing is almost comical. I heard a radio ad the other day and it made me shake my head. It was a local trucking company that only drives within the state. They claimed that they would hire you even if you had no CDL and that they would pay for your schooling, but you needed to have 2 years experience driving trucks. How can you legally have experience driving commercial trucks without a CDL??

Also, the experience thing shows just how bad the job market is. It's all economics. There are more people who need jobs and are willing to work for less, so employers can be picky about who they want to hire experience-wise and pay them less money.

 

[Kestas]

Requiring 3-5 years experience shows the companies aren't motivated enough to hire engineers.

My dad told a story from the 1960's where a manager of an auto company got up in front of a large room of engineers and draftsmen, and asked them if they knew any technical person - friend or family - who was looking for a job. The company just couldn't get the manpower for the work in front of them. There were no engineers unemployed back then.

 

[cptbarkey]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
I hear a lot of complaining and whining about good jobs not being available, especially for college grads. Yet I continue to see grads get good paying jobs, even here locally.

We have a goddaughter who is now 24 years old. She attended school in Colorado, graduating in 2014 with a bachelors in Computer Science. She was able to find a pretty good job in her chosen career field right out of school, stayed in Colorado, lived frugally, paid off her student loan within a year after graduating, and recently decided to make a job change. Between her college education and the 18 months at her current job, as soon as she started making inquiries she started receiving offers. Yesterday she called us to let us know she accepted an offer as a .Net developer for $70K/year plus 500 shares of stock in the company as a sign on bonus. Now that her student loan is paid off, she's debt free and working on building savings and wealth. Not too shabby for a 24 year old who, a very few short years ago, would house sit for us.

Her brothers (also our godsons) are a couple years older, and both doing outstanding. One is a water treatment plant designer here in Iowa, the other an HR manager for an insurance company in Des Moines. Both had their student loans paid off within 2 years of graduating, and both found jobs shortly after graduating; one in 2009 and the other in 2011. The water treatment plant designer has discussed with us the possibility of starting his own design and consulting business.

Who says that there are no good jobs available, and "young people" today are lazy and can't pay off their student loans?


foxnews is saying it, over and over again, pandering to the community that loves to hear that their old guard society is the best that ever was and will be.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: cptbarkey
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
I hear a lot of complaining and whining about good jobs not being available, especially for college grads. Yet I continue to see grads get good paying jobs, even here locally.

We have a goddaughter who is now 24 years old. She attended school in Colorado, graduating in 2014 with a bachelors in Computer Science. She was able to find a pretty good job in her chosen career field right out of school, stayed in Colorado, lived frugally, paid off her student loan within a year after graduating, and recently decided to make a job change. Between her college education and the 18 months at her current job, as soon as she started making inquiries she started receiving offers. Yesterday she called us to let us know she accepted an offer as a .Net developer for $70K/year plus 500 shares of stock in the company as a sign on bonus. Now that her student loan is paid off, she's debt free and working on building savings and wealth. Not too shabby for a 24 year old who, a very few short years ago, would house sit for us.

Her brothers (also our godsons) are a couple years older, and both doing outstanding. One is a water treatment plant designer here in Iowa, the other an HR manager for an insurance company in Des Moines. Both had their student loans paid off within 2 years of graduating, and both found jobs shortly after graduating; one in 2009 and the other in 2011. The water treatment plant designer has discussed with us the possibility of starting his own design and consulting business.

Who says that there are no good jobs available, and "young people" today are lazy and can't pay off their student loans?


foxnews is saying it, over and over again, pandering to the community that loves to hear that their old guard society is the best that ever was and will be.






Fox news and pretty much any other form of news media are the biggest bunch of liars this planet has ever seen.