Was finding a job much easier back in the 60's, 70's , 90's? (license, job offers)

[CosmoStars]

Originally Posted by dazeddude8

Bingo, end of the day there are just far more applicants for the bottom rung, climb your way up the totem pole office jobs than there are actual job openings. So if Cigna is hiring 15 customer service reps, what do the other 40 people who applied to the position do if they don't get in? Hopefully he/she will be able to land a position with another company and climb their way up the ladder (though since many positions are gated behind X degree and to bad for you if you don't have X degree, I wonder how viable it is to climb up that ladder). And if you don't land that "good" job, more than likely you will fall behind (at least temporarily-hopefully you will be able to get a better job down the line), economically, finically working at Burger King or Stop and Shop etc...


For college the question has to be what do we do with degrees that are not as readily marketable as the Engineering, Computer Programming, Nursing, etc... type degrees? Do we get rid of those degrees, do students get less student loan money if they decide to study Philosophy, English etc...? For my money I think that there should be a greater push on internships, work experience for all majors (why should nursing be the only major where work experience is part of the curriculum?). Make internships a required part of the curriculum, have more project based work , teach software that companies want- I don't know, I am spit balling.

At the college I used to go
They strongly encouraged you to enroll in a degree program that realistically has good job growth given the bad. Economy.
Health care , Information technology , Engineering, Computer Science , Accounting , Finance etc. were all encoriaged majors to enrolled in

It was really up to you what you wanted to major in overall but most other majored where way overcrowded
Psychology, Liberal Arts, Music , Public Relations , Education
If you were to major in these, you were more likely to have a harder time finding a job related to your field

I think most people know the risk they get themselves into

Seems silly to get into a degree program not knowing how much growth there will be in terms of jobs related to your field

[Sunny DeSurf]

when it was time for us kids to get a job, my dad told us our job was to treat it like a job. I remember my dad gave my brother a lunch and told him he was to hit the streets for 8 hours until he could come home. He had a job in 3 days. It doesn't matter what decade it is. It's about being assertive...

[s1alker]

Originally Posted by CosmoStars

At the college I used to go
They strongly encouraged you to enroll in a degree program that realistically has good job growth given the bad. Economy.
Health care , Information technology , Engineering, Computer Science , Accounting , Finance etc. were all encoriaged majors to enrolled in

It was really up to you what you wanted to major in overall but most other majored where way overcrowded
Psychology, Liberal Arts, Music , Public Relations , Education
If you were to major in these, you were more likely to have a harder time finding a job related to your field

I think most people know the risk they get themselves into

Seems silly to get into a degree program not knowing how much growth there will be in terms of jobs related to your field

A degree in computer science is no walk in the park. There is a good reason why the majority of students choose a soft major like psychology or gender studies.

I used to tutor math in community college years ago. I worked with students who struggled with even basic math, and this was college How is someone like that going to study computer science?

A good potion of people should not even be in college. Problem is the jobs that people like that once did are gone.

[dazeddude8]

Originally Posted by Onestep4ward

When I graduated college with a B.A in the early '80's it was a down economy. Even with that, all I did was get a resume together and contact an employment agency in NYC. They called me within a week and I had 3 interviews lined up! I went on 2 interviews at 2 entirely different industries, and was offered 2 jobs. No second interview, no special testing, etc.
All this within 2 weeks of graduating college in a bad economy. And I don't remember my friends having much trouble finding jobs either. I really felt badly for young people who were trying to find employment in the 2008 recession.

Funny, when talking to older relatives or heck even the slightly older cousins, aunts this is kind of the same story. Now granted some did have a plan "I want to be an Accountant so I a going to major in A, get an internship in B"-there was a thorough concrete plan from A-B. At the same time however there some relatives who went to college with no real plan or those who ended up majoring in a "useless" major yet where still able to find relatively good work and eventually work his/her way up. Now clearly the advice of "well my cousin majored in psychology and is now working a good job at X, means I can major in psychology" is flawed but I can see why one would go for the "useless" major.

"At the college I used to go
They strongly encouraged you to enroll in a degree program that realistically has good job growth given the bad. Economy.
Health care , Information technology , Engineering, Computer Science , Accounting , Finance etc. were all encoriaged majors to enrolled in

It was really up to you what you wanted to major in overall but most other majored where way overcrowded
Psychology, Liberal Arts, Music , Public Relations , Education
If you were to major in these, you were more likely to have a harder time finding a job related to your field

I think most people know the risk they get themselves into

Seems silly to get into a degree program not knowing how much growth there will be in terms of jobs related to your field"- Cosmos Stars

I think it is a two fold situation. First for sure the student should do research into the major he/she wants to pursue. (Again we are way past the point of "as long as I graduate I will find a good job"). So if I want to major in English, I should start looking now to what jobs can I get with an English degree, do I need to minor in something to make the English degree more attractive, should I get certifications in X to make the degree more sellable etc...

At the same time however I see nothing wrong with the school "beefing" up the LA degree to make it more attractive to employers. So taking English- yes you still have the courses in Shakespeare, American Literature, British Literature etc... but you now also have electives such as Technical Writing, Copy Editing, Copy Writing etc... (which btw when I was in school we did not have electives like that ).

[MLSFan]

So if I want to major in English, I should start looking now to what jobs can I get with an English degree

this is still backwards, you should know what job you want, then find the degree to get it.

IE, I could get an english degree and work as an author, but I could do the same with a spanish degree or fashion degree or no degree at all. An english degree adds little benefit to being an author

copy writing is a business skill, not an english skill so why would an english degree need it?

[redguard57]

Originally Posted by CosmoStars

At the college I used to go
They strongly encouraged you to enroll in a degree program that realistically has good job growth given the bad. Economy.
Health care , Information technology , Engineering, Computer Science , Accounting , Finance etc. were all encoriaged majors to enrolled in

It was really up to you what you wanted to major in overall but most other majored where way overcrowded
Psychology, Liberal Arts, Music , Public Relations , Education
If you were to major in these, you were more likely to have a harder time finding a job related to your field

I think most people know the risk they get themselves into

Seems silly to get into a degree program not knowing how much growth there will be in terms of jobs related to your field

Hopefully they also steered people into what they had talent in & were interested in.

I would have been a HORRIBLE accounting major. I'm generally skilled enough at academics that I could have passed an accounting degree, but I'd never make it as an accountant. They don't make enough money to make life not suck for me.

I'd be an even worse nurse. I actually thought about going back to school to be a nurse before my wife told me in no uncertain terms how bad a nurse I'd make. No hospital or doctor's office in their right mind would hire me to nurse for them.

If you're going to spend half your life in a certain field, you dang well better like your work. The money I would need to make to work 40-60 hours a week doing something I hate would have to be WELL into the 6 figures... enough so that I could retire in 10 years or less.

this is still backwards, you should know what job you want, then find the degree to get it.

Good advice.

However, this is more easily said than done. There are fields I know nothing about... most of them really. I can only give advice for my field, my prior fields my wife's field and my parents' field. This is maybe like 10-15% of jobs at most than I can even start discussing with any knowledge whatsoever.

An 18 year old is probably going to have mostly his or her own family to consult, & then a few advisors or teachers.

[mo8414]

I wasn't around back then but finding a job these days is pretty easy in my field.

[Mr.Hospitality]

Originally Posted by s1alker

I used to tutor math in community college years ago. I worked with students who struggled with even basic math, and this was college How is someone like that going to study computer science?

Well, it's not fair to look at community college as a real college. It's just an extension of high school.

[Mr.Hospitality]

You can't make general statements about the 60's, 70's , 90's, etc. There were ups and downs throughout every decade. Right now is an up period (where it's relatively easy to find a job). 7 years ago was a down period.

[pvande55]

Late 70's a good time. Everyone in my class got hired except those going on to graduate school or who had a military obligation. Those with a steady SO got married.