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Maybe its time these high school counselors leveled with these kids and admitted that a college degree will be a waste of time and money for most of them today. Only those who are extreme "go getters" or those who have a degree in an area of extreme need or of course those who are well connected will get professional level jobs. The vast majority will accept lower level employment or "underemployment". The low level jobs they are forced to accept do not require a college degree. These people will have a low wage and a large student debt to pay off and many will never recover from this devastating start to their work life. We live in a new America, one where we have offshored most of our manufacturing base and because of this massive large scale unemployment and underemployment are a permanent part of our economy now. It would be better for the average 18 year old to go get the best job he/she can and start living. Teaching kids to live frugally and economically will help them live with less income, so schools should bring back "home economics". Am I saying no one should bother with college?? No I am not, but unless you are very very smart, or very aggressive it most likely will not help you. It may be a fun 80000 dollar four year party but it wont help you get a job in todays ruined economy.
Maybe its time these high school counselors leveled with these kids and admitted that a college degree will be a waste of time and money for most of them today. Only those who are extreme "go getters" or those who have a degree in an area of extreme need or of course those who are well connected will get professional level jobs. The vast majority will accept lower level employment or "underemployment". The low level jobs they are forced to accept do not require a college degree. These people will have a low wage and a large student debt to pay off and many will never recover from this devastating start to their work life. We live in a new America, one where we have offshored most of our manufacturing base and because of this massive large scale unemployment and underemployment are a permanent part of our economy now. It would be better for the average 18 year old to go get the best job he/she can and start living. Teaching kids to live frugally and economically will help them live with less income, so schools should bring back "home economics". Am I saying no one should bother with college?? No I am not, but unless you are very very smart, or very aggressive it most likely will not help you. It may be a fun 80000 dollar four year party but it wont help you get a job in todays ruined economy.
Agreed whole-heartedly. The millenials are basically the new greatest generation. We are living through the worst post-depression economy and had as tough of a time as they had. I am not looking for pity, I am looking for an understanding and a way out of the misery of unemployment and underemployment of millenials with degrees.
The economy was in the crapper when I graduated three years ago. I have a bachelor's in economics, which I thought would be at least a decent degree, considering I had just moved over from political science and sociology. I ended up getting a job in IT right out of school (though at $29k with a 100 mile commute), got a better job (in IA @ $45k w/ 8% state income tax, not TN), then moved back to TN (making $34k, 9 mile commute, no income tax, living with family) this winter. Out of my immediate circle of friends, and excluding those not working in government or health care, I'm probably doing the best since I've remained consistently employed and have been able to increase my salary and shorten my commute. I am working on a W-2 contract with no PTO (though I do get paid holidays), have very poor health insurance, and the client company is of very questionable financial health. My situation isn't the best, but many of the people I grew up with are far worse off. Many are still working retail/restaurants in their mid-late 20s, are unemployed, or have criminal convictions.
In hindsight, I wasn't as active as I should have been in high school and college in laying the groundwork for a secure financial future. Maybe I should have majored in a health care or education related field. Maybe I should have looked for more internships. Maybe this or maybe that. What's sad is that almost every young person I know is struggling except the medical and government workers. I can't point to anything that I can say with high probability would have improved my situation. When you don't know what you could have done differently to improve things, that's scary.
If someone comes out of college with a British literature degree and ends up unemployed, that's a legitimate "told you so." However, when new accountants, finance majors, computer scientists, etc, are out of work or out of field, those indicate structural economic problems. Society is doing very little to address these problems so far.
Emigrations, your post is right on the money. As mentioned in the above threads, I have one graduating nest spring, and it's a very scary world to be graduating into, best of luck.
The economy was in the crapper when I graduated three years ago. I have a bachelor's in economics, which I thought would be at least a decent degree, considering I had just moved over from political science and sociology. I ended up getting a job in IT right out of school (though at $29k with a 100 mile commute), got a better job (in IA @ $45k w/ 8% state income tax, not TN), then moved back to TN (making $34k, 9 mile commute, no income tax, living with family) this winter. Out of my immediate circle of friends, and excluding those not working in government or health care, I'm probably doing the best since I've remained consistently employed and have been able to increase my salary and shorten my commute. I am working on a W-2 contract with no PTO (though I do get paid holidays), have very poor health insurance, and the client company is of very questionable financial health. My situation isn't the best, but many of the people I grew up with are far worse off. Many are still working retail/restaurants in their mid-late 20s, are unemployed, or have criminal convictions.
In hindsight, I wasn't as active as I should have been in high school and college in laying the groundwork for a secure financial future. Maybe I should have majored in a health care or education related field. Maybe I should have looked for more internships. Maybe this or maybe that. What's sad is that almost every young person I know is struggling except the medical and government workers. I can't point to anything that I can say with high probability would have improved my situation. When you don't know what you could have done differently to improve things, that's scary.
If someone comes out of college with a British literature degree and ends up unemployed, that's a legitimate "told you so." However, when new accountants, finance majors, computer scientists, etc, are out of work or out of field, those indicate structural economic problems. Society is doing very little to address these problems so far.
I bolded the most important point. We have a structural economic problem in this country that it looks like no one is trying to fix. This even goes to D.C. Forget it being just Republicans, Democrats also voted down Obama's jobs bill.
Do you know how hard it is to get an internship these days? It's nearly as hard as finding a paying job in some sectors! I talked with someone who runs an online literary journal and she received over 300 applications for an unpaid internship she was offering! 300 application for the "privilege" of doing fairly menial work (i.e., filing, calls, random updates on social media, maybe the chance to read 1 or 2 submissions, etc) at a tiny, little known online lit journal for free. Just for the chance to say, "hey, I worked in publishing!". A friend of mine who has years of paid, salaried experience working with at risk youth had to compete with recent college grads for an unpaid summer internship and a summer camp position with a meager stipend of $2000 for the entire summer. She didn't get either spots, probably b/c she did have experience. I know no fewer than 14 former classmates and friends who have joined the Peace Corps to dodge upcoming student loan payments and to have something exotic on their resume.
Honestly, the whole situation has me wondering if there aren't slightly greener pastures elsewhere or even outside the country or if there's even a point to getting a MA/MS and risk the same situation all over again.
Well that's why you can't simply apply only to formal internship programs. That's a major mistake lots of kids make. Most students aren't competitive for the good ones anyway.
You have to be flexible in your approach to looking. Approach a company you're interested in even if they don't have an internship posted, be willing to work for free if you can (or be willing to work at the pizza shop on the side), design your own project you can do for a non profit perhaps, put together some extended shadowing experiences, get yourself a consulting job, write a grant for someone, spend the summer in a lab or doing a research project, go overseas... the thing is, what you need is experience outside the classroom, it doesn't really matter how you get it. It's okay to make your own.
A college degree is not just for getting one job. A college graduate usually has a work life that lasts over 40 years. As you can see, college graduates fare better in job markets over their entire careers. I would hesitate to tell a young person that college is not worth it simply because it might be more difficult to find his first job than it had been 30 years ago.
Let's look at this in detail.
There are now jobs that previously did not require a college degree that now require a college degree. While the degree might not be necessary to do the job the job is going to a college graduate. That means the job is NOT going to a high school graduate. So the jobs that were previously going to HS graduates are now going to college graduates, making the even less attractive jobs available to HS graduates. I think I would rather be a college graduate. Additionally, college graduates are in position to receive promotions more quickly than HS graduates.
Over the course of a lifetime college graduates earn more:
"In 2012, the typical full-time worker with a bachelor’s degree earned 79 percent more than a similar full-time worker with no more than a high school diploma. For comparison, 20 years earlier the premium was 73 percent, and 30 years earlier it was 48 percent."
So while the earnings of college graduates has gone down, along with the earnings of HS graduates they still make more over time and the gap is growing. I would counsel any student who can succeed to go to college.
Well that's why you can't simply apply only to formal internship programs. That's a major mistake lots of kids make. Most students aren't competitive for the good ones anyway.
You have to be flexible in your approach to looking. Approach a company you're interested in even if they don't have an internship posted, be willing to work for free if you can (or be willing to work at the pizza shop on the side), design your own project you can do for a non profit perhaps, put together some extended shadowing experiences, get yourself a consulting job, write a grant for someone, spend the summer in a lab or doing a research project, go overseas... the thing is, what you need is experience outside the classroom, it doesn't really matter how you get it. It's okay to make your own.
Very true and very good advice.
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