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I'm early Gen Y myself, and I'm not defending the kid for turning down a 40K starting salary job, but I think it stands to reason that the value system under which millenials were brought up to adult-hood under has a lot to do with the reasons for which we "opt-out". When it was drilled into your head for 12 years of grade school that all you had to do was get a college education and the job security your parents enjoyed was just a nominal work ethic and that piece of paper away, then it shouldn't be so surprising to see these stories.
I mean honestly, what was the reason mom and pops had to start low? Because they didn't have much to offer? Or because the boss was dragging his feet into retirement? Probably the former. My own boomer parents recognize it. They admit the competition today is crazy stiff. All they had to do was get a masters degree and have the ability to socially function in the workplace as a corollary to the performance of their duties, and they were set. And they did!
In the millennials' case the economy is holding their income growth hostage due to the realization on the part of the boomers that their own " pie in the sky" plan for riches in retirement fizzled with the lie of the stock market and "defined contribution" bridge-to-nowhere retirement plans. So they're delaying their exit. I know that to be true in my field, where absent taking a de facto temp job contractor work (engineering) and moving all over kingdom come (migrant labor anybody?) there's no availability to career positions absent playing actuarial tables against your boomer superiors. Hoping they tire or get sick before you too become a 40-some-year-old has been who'll never be able to catch up; the aforementioned underclass from the other thread.
So it's not so much the starting salary that should be a concern, it's the false reassurance that you'll make up for it as a pure function of time. The latter WAS true for my parents generation, but I'd be very skeptical of adjudicating that outcome on the millennial generation. Plenty of 35 yo professionals still making 40K-60K after 10 years of laborious job-hopping, destined to tread water and doomed to stifle their family's future by the scar-inducing job-moving that uproot families and erodes our social fiber, all in the name of your proverbial " gotta move to get ahead". And don't get me wrong, I've seen families of boomers shattered by the loss of jobs in your 40s, unable to regain the income position you enjoyed and unwilling to uproot your now teenage children and wife from an established life. My heart aches for these people, and they are of my parent's generation. Simply telling these folks to suck it up and get a job in Timbuktu is deplorable on our part as a society.
The guy in the article is simply a statistic to the realization that the job he turned down was gonna be a one to two year stint and then he'd have to start all over again somewhere else, and good bad or indifferent that wasn't what he was sold in college. His father is proof positive of it. Yeah a cold shower for the kid, but simply stoning the guy and rejoicing in yalls Schadenfreude is missing the underlying dynamic highlighted by the article. Which is, if you fell off the wagon already, that we're losing our social fiber in the globalization of our labor construct, and the "it is what it is" attitude of the gainfully employed (for now...) is doing nothing but to seal our eventual Brazilization. But of course his parents will be GLADLY dead by then.
Just saying...
I kind of have to agree with this, despite it being a bit long-winded.
As much as it pains me, the social fiber in America that once was or that could have been is probably dead for quite some time. It will take a crisis far worse than the low-boil recession to give us any chance of rebuilding it.
Yes, he probably should have taken the $40k job, but I actually tend to agree with his grandfather that the kid should probably look to work overseas. The last comment in the NYT piece, #1487, is full of great advice. He should got overseas, live cheaply, experience something new and see what possibilities open up to him. I mean, if he has no debt and no family to depend on him, what on earth could be stopping him? I did it, and although I probably could be making more money now had I settled into a comfortable corporate job in America when I graduated college in 2001 (assuming I could have kept job), I'd be much more miserable. Like this person who wrote the comment, I have no regrets.
Speaking as a fellow millennial who understands how tough the job market is, that kid is a tool! I'm sorry, but if I were his parents, I would kick him out the second I found out he turned down a decent job because it didn't "pay enough" and wasn't prestigious enough. Yes, it's tough to get a cushy white collar job these days, but so what? I'm technically qualified to do much more difficult ones than the job I'm doing now but I have to compete with people with the same education and much more experience, so I'm getting the experience now and paying all my bills.
Honestly, I bet the kids who don't have parents to support them are the ones who will come out of this the strongest. They won't have a 2-3 year employment gap, they'll have real professional references (not just daddy's friends), and they'll have a much better understanding of the working world. A lot of companies promote internally, so even if you're starting low, you could easily work your way up. My partner, also a member of the young, supposedly doomed generation, has seen a 30% pay increase and multiple promotions over the last few years because he works really hard. He took a job (because it was a job) that he was massively overqualified for and worked his way up. What people like Scott seem to forget is that they won't be working in that entry level position forever if they have any gumption.
Most of our parents didn't start out with nice cushy salaries, so why do we think we can graduate from college and walk right into the lifestyle it took our parents years to attain? I do remember what it was like when my parents were young and it was tough. They made some smarter choices like staying out of debt and living within their means, so now they are in their 50s and pretty comfortable (and debt free). I made some financial mistakes as a young adult, but I'm working on them now with the knowledge that it will get better as I get older.
Ok, end of rant. Sorry, I can't stand spoiled kids who complain like that.
You are an example of the Millennials that my wife came home and told me about. She is a manager with the Feds and there are a number of "your" generation starting to work there.
She has been impressed to say the least.
Welcome to the work place and thank you for joining the real world.
I agree that this kid is out of touch with today's reality, but the people in the "comments" section who feel the need to go on for paragraphs about what jobs they/their kids had to take are such bores.
I'm early Gen Y myself, and I'm not defending the kid for turning down a 40K starting salary job, but I think it stands to reason that the value system under which millenials were brought up to adult-hood under has a lot to do with the reasons for which we "opt-out". When it was drilled into your head for 12 years of grade school that all you had to do was get a college education and the job security your parents enjoyed was just a nominal work ethic and that piece of paper away, then it shouldn't be so surprising to see these stories.
I mean honestly, what was the reason mom and pops had to start low? Because they didn't have much to offer? Or because the boss was dragging his feet into retirement? Probably the former. My own boomer parents recognize it. They admit the competition today is crazy stiff. All they had to do was get a masters degree and have the ability to socially function in the workplace as a corollary to the performance of their duties, and they were set. And they did!
In the millennials' case the economy is holding their income growth hostage due to the realization on the part of the boomers that their own " pie in the sky" plan for riches in retirement fizzled with the lie of the stock market and "defined contribution" bridge-to-nowhere retirement plans. So they're delaying their exit. I know that to be true in my field, where absent taking a de facto temp job contractor work (engineering) and moving all over kingdom come (migrant labor anybody?) there's no availability to career positions absent playing actuarial tables against your boomer superiors. Hoping they tire or get sick before you too become a 40-some-year-old has been who'll never be able to catch up; the aforementioned underclass from the other thread.
So it's not so much the starting salary that should be a concern, it's the false reassurance that you'll make up for it as a pure function of time. The latter WAS true for my parents generation, but I'd be very skeptical of adjudicating that outcome on the millennial generation. Plenty of 35 yo professionals still making 40K-60K after 10 years of laborious job-hopping, destined to tread water and doomed to stifle their family's future by the scar-inducing job-moving that uproot families and erodes our social fiber, all in the name of your proverbial " gotta move to get ahead". And don't get me wrong, I've seen families of boomers shattered by the loss of jobs in your 40s, unable to regain the income position you enjoyed and unwilling to uproot your now teenage children and wife from an established life. My heart aches for these people, and they are of my parent's generation. Simply telling these folks to suck it up and get a job in Timbuktu is deplorable on our part as a society.
The guy in the article is simply a statistic to the realization that the job he turned down was gonna be a one to two year stint and then he'd have to start all over again somewhere else, and good bad or indifferent that wasn't what he was sold in college. His father is proof positive of it. Yeah a cold shower for the kid, but simply stoning the guy and rejoicing in yalls Schadenfreude is missing the underlying dynamic highlighted by the article. Which is, if you fell off the wagon already, that we're losing our social fiber in the globalization of our labor construct, and the "it is what it is" attitude of the gainfully employed (for now...) is doing nothing but to seal our eventual Brazilization. But of course his parents will be GLADLY dead by then.
Just saying...
This is an OLD story. It bounced down generations. I am one of those Boomers who is said to be holding up jobs. I happen to be disabled and live at poverty level now, but way back when my parents had this automatic expectation of success for their kids. You go to college, take basket weaving and get that degree, and you know you'll find that right job for you. So easy. And the parents of the boomers were raised in a very dark time. And they wanted their kids never to know that and have all they didn't get. My parents didn't give extravagenly as parents often do today, but I needed it it was there. I remember how proud of the chair bought for myself out fo baby sitting money. It was MINE. All else came from mom and dad.
But when I got out in the world, delayed because of illness, but still applies, lots of reality I'd never dealt with happened. Things like rent and utilities and dealing with roommates on how to split the costs... things never dealt with. I didn't do so well with that and wish my parents had done more to teach me, but eventually got a really good job in something I loved.
Which lasted two years and the recession of the 80's came. Not trained for other things. Lousey at phones and all that kind of stuff. And the jobs I'd get were being taken by people with 7/8 years experience. All and all my ill prepared childhood cost me a lot. I have learned how not to need a lot of money and be happy, but that all came at a big hard price.
I hate that my generation often has raised their kids just like grampa did. Except they get even more. I have an 18 year old son who is going in this volunteer program for a few years. Which is good because his dad's family had money and spent it like it was easy to have. He doesn't get it anymore than I did. Hoping he'll grow up and get some sense.
So yes gen y should not be a surprise. But this being an old story, they can't cling to the I was raised that way argument for very long or it just says that they are unwilling to learn. OMG, a 40k job... I would have been delirously happy about that, and even more now. Part of growing up is learning that mom and dad missed a few things they should have taught, but its also learning to compensate for that in the face of reality.
This kid is in no position to be picky. Take what you can get, build on it any way you can, and hold on until the economy improves. Then be picky.
ITA. In this economy, you take what you can get. I don't feel sorry for someone, who after months of looking, turns down a $40K job. So he has to live at home for a while, pay his parents rent so he can save for a place of his own. He'll live.
The worst part is it's easier to find a job if you have a job. If one company wants you, other companies see you as more desirable . He may have just shot his job search in the foot.
He may be ashamed because his brother makes more but $40K is a whole lot closer to $75K than $0K.
-Late gen x, gen y (millennials) probably got the worst k-12 education of anyone in the 20th century. Wild exaggeration drilled into your head for 12 years. They got a terrible disservice done in this new world, new labor economy.
"Just go to school. You'll be successful".
"Just go to college. Study hard. Opportunities will open up".
Everything was real nebulous and vague for this generation. No hard look at globalization was taught in k-12. No hard analysis was done of the economy. Everything was happy, happy, happy. Pats on the back for being a good student.
There's probably a correlation between pats on the back in school (and false confidence), and false confidence after you leave school into the real world. Certainly it's a lingering factor. If you've been told certain things, your expectations are probably at a certain level. Getting use to a *lower level* that you never anticipated, probably will take some time.
-I bet he was taught in highschool that depressions don't happen anymore. I was taught that in highschool in the 90's (at a large public highschool). Bank runs and bank panics don't happen anymore. Problems happened in the "old days". Funny how everything turned in 10 or 15 years.
-I don't think millennials have been taught the future. They've been taught things that sound nice. The future has been papered over.
That's partly why expectations are so high ($50-$75 k a year or more starting). Millennials got a happy party for 12 or 15 years. Everyone is a winner. Every degree will work out.
That talk about the $40K claims adjustor offer being a dead end job with no upward opportunities is a lame excuse. If he really had the talent to become an executive, he can become one even if he started out as a clerk. What more a claims adjustor?
Which is the real issue with him. It's not that there weren't any opportunities. It's just that he doesn't have the talent, which is why he wanted a fast track position that would catapult him to the executive office.
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