Atlanta - #1 City in US for new grads (fit in, health insurance)

[davesm]

This was on CNN yesterday. It's always good to take these lists with a grain of salt, but I think this qualifies as good news for Atlanta.

Top 10 cities for new grads - CNN.com

Vive La Atlanta!!!

[rcsteiner]

The article says:

"Popular entry-level categories: sales, marketing, customer service."

Yup, those sound like good career choices for people with a hard-earned engineering degree. Though some job is far better than no job.

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

The article says:

"Popular entry-level categories: sales, marketing, customer service."

Yup, those sound like good career choices for people with a hard-earned engineering degree. Though some job is far better than no job.

There are alot of people out there working jobs that are not in there field. Its either you take a job thats going to pay you well thats not in your field or you can sit at home and blame it on the recession , which alot of people do

[cityrover]

Yes call centers and cold calling marketing jobs plenty.. I see at least 100 ads daily during my empty minded browse

Call me when real jobs surface.

[cityrover]

Originally Posted by MikeandIke27

There are alot of people out there working jobs that are not in there field. Its either you take a job thats going to pay you well thats not in your field or you can sit at home and blame it on the recession , which alot of people do

How about a crappy dead end job that you can't even put on your resume that will not pay the bills, let alone your student loans? Because you do realize that is what is available out there..

[Mishap]

Not all that many people have engineering degrees. Those that do don't really have that many problems finding decent enough jobs. I don't really have any unemployed friends that have engineering degrees and those that did I was able to help find interviews for quickly and the longest I saw someone out for was about 5 months. The only friend I haven't been able to help has a UGA MBA and is in marketing/finance which I have fewer connections in. I was able to change jobs in November w/ a single interview and my new employer was eager to bring me on w/ a 15% raise and I got another raise and a 5 figure bonus within 3 months. We still have plenty of open positions to fill but not a ton of people are matching our fairly strict criteria indicating things are still fairly tight in the mid level roles. Of course if you apply w/o any experience and a degree in Comparative Leisure Studies (made that up) from For Profit U, then you won't stand out and will wind up selling diet drugs over the phone.

Even my mom got a job that pays over 60k/yr and she's never held a 9-5 office job. She has a Master's from UGA but owned restaurants for the last 20+ yrs before selling the last one and semi-retiring in '05 when my younger brother graduated. It is temporary work w/ the Census but she's been there since late '08 so its not too shabby for someone w/ limited computer skills, limited English, and zero office experience. My parents don't really have any major expenses outside health insurance and their travels these days so they can pick and choose roles so they can still take extended vacations.

There is a lot of competition these days but if my mom can find a decent office job despite having to call me for tech help every time she has an email attachment, then most people need to evaluate if their strategy needs work or if they need interview coaching.

[jeffreda30238]

How did THAT happen??lol

[MikeandIke27]

Originally Posted by cityrover

How about a crappy dead end job that you can't even put on your resume that will not pay the bills, let alone your student loans? Because you do realize that is what is available out there..

Well you have a choice make some type of money until u find what u want.. Beggers can't be choosers especially when u have things to take care of... Some income is better than none..

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Mishap

Not all that many people have engineering degrees. Those that do don't really have that many problems finding decent enough jobs.

I probably should have listed several different classes of specialized degrees and not just that one general type (that was my original intent, but I was typing quickly and forgot to fix it), but I know at least three people which such degrees who are currently out of work. One of those folks is here in Atlanta.

Some job is certainly better than no job, as others have said, and I personally have very little respect for anyone who complains about having no job if they are rejecting employment opportunities in the process, tho there are exceptions (like folks who are going to school to retrain and who might have limited hours of availability).

I was just noting that there's a big difference between a job which doesn't fit in someone's career path and a job which does, and many of the jobs in the categories listed are often low-paying jobs with high-stress and high-turnover. While it's nice that they're around, I don't know that such jobs would be a good reason to move anywhere. Unless there isn't a local alternative, I guess, and that could be the case for some.