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or, they don't understand the concept of "entry level job" and all want to start out making 6 figures in upper management because they have a degree and an inflated sense of self worth
Most college grads I know are hard workers and get it, but those that are complaining about the lack of jobs fall into the above category. Those smaller town employers tend to pay better, cost of living is generally a fraction of what it costs in the larger cities, benefits tend to be better as well...which means you get a HUGE leg up on your agemates for salary, etc.
It depends on what they want a career in.
You don't have advertising or Wall Street in small towns. You have to go to a big city for those fields and it is sink or swim. Ditto the tech sector to a degree. To get anywhere you have to be the creme of the crop.
You also get what you pay for. Cortland, NY is much less expensive than NYC. Because nobody wants to live in Cortland, versus people all around the world live in NYC. I teach English as a Second language and somehow I do not think the job market for that is that good in Cortland, NY so I'll deal with expensive NYC or similar cities.
Why would some College Grads end up in a minimum wage job?
Because they lose every employment opportunity due to other candidates over a period of time which dwindles what money they have, now they need money, so they work at McDonald's until they finally get a better job.
Because they lose every employment opportunity due to other candidates over a period of time which dwindles what money they have, now they need money, so they work at McDonald's until they finally get a better job.
That is probably the most accurate answer. A friend's son was delivering pizza; is now going to start his first professional job, 1 1/2 years after college graduation as an engineer.
You don't have advertising or Wall Street in small towns. You have to go to a big city for those fields and it is sink or swim. Ditto the tech sector to a degree. To get anywhere you have to be the creme of the crop.
You also get what you pay for. Cortland, NY is much less expensive than NYC. Because nobody wants to live in Cortland, versus people all around the world live in NYC. I teach English as a Second language and somehow I do not think the job market for that is that good in Cortland, NY so I'll deal with expensive NYC or similar cities.
So, you would rather work at McDonald's than live in a smaller town for a couple years, gaining some valuable work experience, and then move to NYC with a well paying job in hand
No, you don't have Wall Street in a smaller town, but you do have finance companies, investment companies and such. You also can find advertising work and such as well. Certainly not in every small town, but NYC isn't exclusive to those careers either. The point being, with attitudes like yours, you severely limit your job prospects and thus, why "you" don't have a job. You don't even need "small" towns to get some of these jobs. Places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, etc. have all of these careers and VERY low unemployment rates. Doing a fast search on Indeed for "Advertising Jobs" pulls up 35,000 jobs across the country and the first 2 pages of jobs, NONE of them are in NYC. They are in places like Lincoln, NE, Muskego, WI, Orlando, FL, Indianapolis, IN, etc, etc, etc.
Same search with investment banking pulls up 9,000+ jobs with large investment companies like T Rowe Price, JP Chase Morgan, etc in places like Atlanta, Portland, White Plains, Chicago, Charlotte, NC, etc. Again, look around, get your experience and then once you are in with these companies, look to transfer to NYC if that is your real goal. That is how entry-level jobs work.
Psychologists are people who have masters if not phds and they have licenses to practice psychology. A psychology BS is not enough to launch a career in mental health.
Which tells you how useless a BS in psychology is if you can't get any decent employment with it. Not everyone wants to go back and get a masters degree because people get tired of school. Now that I finally found decent employment in my field I am done with school. A masters in chemistry is waste of money if you already have a full time chemist position because you can advance and increase your salary through your company and job performance yet your only option with a BS in psych is to get a teaching certificate to teach high school social studies.
One of the problems that recent college grads have is that they aren't willing to work in "unfashionable" or "undesirable" areas. Rural areas and small cities that are 50-100 miles from the nearest big or medium sized metro can have all kinds of job openings that go begging because there are no qualified local candidates but the places can't attract workers from outside because "they're too small". This can also happen with states as redguard notes in his excellent post.
Agreed. Jobs are NOT going to just fall from heaven. You have to work at getting one. That means that you have to be relentless in your job hunt.
If you think that your major isn't "useful" enough, you need to take an inventory of what skills you do have, and stress those over your degree. Did you learn to write well through writing history or psych or English papers? Can you speak easily in front of a group because you expected to make presentations? Did you learn how to use MS Office? SPSS? What jobs have you held since HS and since your college graduation? What skills have you garnered from those? Have you had any notable accomplishments such as organizing and digitizing church or organization records and learning MS Access in the process?
Initally, I didn't want to move or relocate to a new area for a chemist job but I realized most decent full time chemist jobs in the Atlanta area want 3-5 years of experience in a research and development lab. So I started off as a temp for 8+ months at Georgia-Pacific. The only company that will hire chemists with minimal experience but as a temp with no benefits.
I managed to find a full time job at Georgia-Pacific but as a chemical technician paying 45k a year. I was working as an associate chemist in another research group for $17 an hour as temp before that. The work I was doing in the chemical technician role is extremely boring and the position only required an associates in science; therefore, I finally decided to expand my job search nationally and applied to several chemist jobs across the country.
I got a call for a phone interview then an onsite interview for a chemist job in a small college town in West Virginia back in September and got a call November 6th with the company offering me the job. The chemist position pays 55k a year and it's with a relatively large pharmacetuical company with excellent benefits and are offering a relocation allowance of $5,000.
If I knew about this job before I graduated college I wouldn't had to work as a temp for 8+ months and as a lab tech for another couple months here in the Atlanta area. At first I was shocked that I got the job offer after a month after the interview because after two weeks I thought I was passed on for the position. I guess they have a long hiring process but I am so fourtanate for landing this position.
I guess northern West Virginia is an area not a lot people want to live which is why they start their chemist off with really good money and pay for all of their relocation expenses. I start the new job December 7th and I will be moving in two weeks and I can't wait to start.
So, you would rather work at McDonald's than live in a smaller town for a couple years, gaining some valuable work experience, and then move to NYC with a well paying job in hand
No, you don't have Wall Street in a smaller town, but you do have finance companies, investment companies and such. You also can find advertising work and such as well. Certainly not in every small town, but NYC isn't exclusive to those careers either. The point being, with attitudes like yours, you severely limit your job prospects and thus, why "you" don't have a job. You don't even need "small" towns to get some of these jobs. Places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, etc. have all of these careers and VERY low unemployment rates. Doing a fast search on Indeed for "Advertising Jobs" pulls up 35,000 jobs across the country and the first 2 pages of jobs, NONE of them are in NYC. They are in places like Lincoln, NE, Muskego, WI, Orlando, FL, Indianapolis, IN, etc, etc, etc.
Same search with investment banking pulls up 9,000+ jobs with large investment companies like T Rowe Price, JP Chase Morgan, etc in places like Atlanta, Portland, White Plains, Chicago, Charlotte, NC, etc. Again, look around, get your experience and then once you are in with these companies, look to transfer to NYC if that is your real goal. That is how entry-level jobs work.
How many years of experience do all of those jobs require. Entry level jobs today want 2-3 years of experience and some some fresh college grads don't have 2-3 years of relevant experience in those fields. Now if the job description says 0-2 years of work experience a fresh college grad might have a chance to land that position.
The chemist job I just got offered asked for 0-2 years of experience in research and development and I manage to get that position but it's in a small college town in West Virginia. All the chemist jobs I applied to in Atlanta wanted 3-5 years of experience in a R&D lab and they meant they wanted that experience because I didn't get any call backs for those jobs but you are correct that you have to move to undesirable areas to get solid employment in your profession with limited experience.
I was hesitant to relocating when I graduated but with no decent chemist jobs in Atlanta that are looking for entry level chemists I finally expanded my job search and it's finally paid off.
This has been said, but bears repeating. A big problem today's graduates/Gen Y (or whatever) have is very poor interview skills. Many don't know how to dress professionally, let alone conduct themselves in a professional manner and carry on an intelligent conversation with potential employers. I worked in HR (support role) for several years and job fairs were quite eye opening, both around the community and on campus. College students show up in pajamas, tees with swear words, they mumble, show cleavage or butt cheeks/cracks...it's shocking, considering they choose to attend these fairs in the hopes of landing a career. Some show up to actual interviews in jeans (!), low cut tops, loudly chewing gum, total lack of professional conduct. It's very basic stuff, seems like common sense.
The thinking with this generation is, "What's in it for ME?" or "What have you got to offer ME?" when they should be selling themselves and what they can offer the employer. That's the trade off, sorry kids, there's a game and if want to win you have to play by the rules. You won't get hired with your cans hanging out (well, maybe some places, but nowhere you'd want to) or backwards ball caps with "Female Body Inspector" emblazoned in big red letters. It's an employers market, they want to know, what is this person going to bring to the company- and if it's an entitled snotty attitude, forget it. Asking about pay and vacation/time off right off the bat? Forget it. It's out of turn, you'll get your chance to command bigger numbers. But not yet.
This is the problem with Gen Entitlement. There's no insight into what weaknesses one possesses, as they think they have none. The world that doesn't immediately high five them and hand them a six-figure job and corner office (right out of college) is "unfair" and out to get them. Sue your school, if you can't get a job! No personal responsibility whatsoever!
So, my advice is to work on selling yourself. It can be done, with a degree in Underwater Basketweaving, even, if you research the employer and carefully read the job description. Everything they want is right there. Go through the job duties and desired qualifications, line by line, and figure out how to express your abilities in each area. Sell, sell, sell.
This has been said, but bears repeating. A big problem today's graduates/Gen Y (or whatever) have is very poor interview skills. Many don't know how to dress professionally, let alone conduct themselves in a professional manner and carry on an intelligent conversation with potential employers. I worked in HR (support role) for several years and job fairs were quite eye opening, both around the community and on campus. College students show up in pajamas, tees with swear words, they mumble, show cleavage or butt cheeks/cracks...it's shocking, considering they choose to attend these fairs in the hopes of landing a career. Some show up to actual interviews in jeans (!), low cut tops, loudly chewing gum, total lack of professional conduct. It's very basic stuff, seems like common sense.
The thinking with this generation is, "What's in it for ME?" or "What have you got to offer ME?" when they should be selling themselves and what they can offer the employer. That's the trade off, sorry kids, there's a game and if want to win you have to play by the rules. You won't get hired with your cans hanging out (well, maybe some places, but nowhere you'd want to) or backwards ball caps with "Female Body Inspector" emblazoned in big red letters. It's an employers market, they want to know, what is this person going to bring to the company- and if it's an entitled snotty attitude, forget it. Asking about pay and vacation/time off right off the bat? Forget it. It's out of turn, you'll get your chance to command bigger numbers. But not yet.
This is the problem with Gen Entitlement. There's no insight into what weaknesses one possesses, as they think they have none. The world that doesn't immediately high five them and hand them a six-figure job and corner office (right out of college) is "unfair" and out to get them. Sue your school, if you can't get a job! No personal responsibility whatsoever!
So, my advice is to work on selling yourself. It can be done, with a degree in Underwater Basketweaving, even, if you research the employer and carefully read the job description. Everything they want is right there. Go through the job duties and desired qualifications, line by line, and figure out how to express your abilities in each area. Sell, sell, sell.
I thinking you are generalizing millineals. Not all millineals entitiled and many millineals know better to come to an interview in dress shirt, slacks, and a tie. Most have very good interview skills who do an excellent job at asking STAR behavioral questions and know to research the company and throughly understand what that company does and understand the company's culture; However, some millilineals do expect a job that pays a living wage out of school 50k a year or better not a $15 an hour job with no benefits.
Initally, I didn't want to move or relocate to a new area for a chemist job but I realized most decent full time chemist jobs in the Atlanta area want 3-5 years of experience in a research and development lab. So I started off as a temp for 8+ months at Georgia-Pacific. The only company that will hire chemists with minimal experience but as a temp with no benefits.
I managed to find a full time job at Georgia-Pacific but as a chemical technician paying 45k a year. I was working as an associate chemist in another research group for $17 an hour as temp before that. The work I was doing in the chemical technician role is extremely boring and the position only required an associates in science; therefore, I finally decided to expand my job search nationally and applied to several chemist jobs across the country.
I got a call for a phone interview then an onsite interview for a chemist job in a small college town in West Virginia back in September and got a call November 6th with the company offering me the job. The chemist position pays 55k a year and it's with a relatively large pharmacetuical company with excellent benefits and are offering a relocation allowance of $5,000.
If I knew about this job before I graduated college I wouldn't had to work as a temp for 8+ months and as a lab tech for another couple months here in the Atlanta area. At first I was shocked that I got the job offer after a month after the interview because after two weeks I thought I was passed on for the position. I guess they have a long hiring process but I am so fourtanate for landing this position.
I guess northern West Virginia is an area not a lot people want to live which is why they start their chemist off with really good money and pay for all of their relocation expenses. I start the new job December 7th and I will be moving in two weeks and I can't wait to start.
Congratulations on the job! Is your location Morgantown, WVa?
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