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Okay, not spell checking, but I empathise somewhat with the bitter Asian guy(?). That's part of the reason I'm not a consultant! I could never voluntarily sign up for "at-will" employment. I worked for one large company in particular that hired non-talented um non-European males... ahem. for long term positions and got rid of the hard-working persons of other races as soon as possible. It was so obvious, and pretty sad. So the guys who did most of the work, and did a great job, had to scramble around for another project so quickly. How can they live like that?
They also paid those consultants much lower rates and gave them the most difficult work. They did the same to the female consultants, too. It was gross in the real sense of the word. Large and icky and blatant. I'm aware this may not happen everywhere, but wake up and smell the coffee. It's human nature and poo happens.
At this point, I try to live below my means, not because I'm a nice person or even super-smart, but because I don't want to have to depend on a bunch of people who may not like me (I'm awesome anyway) to live.
A few of the things I have seen in my working years disturb me.
I know of a man with MULTIPLE graduate degrees (at least one from an IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL) who's old, in poverty, toothless, dirty and alone. Okay, the description made me giggle, but it's true. I know another one who's highly-educated and similarly broke and alone.
It seems that neither of them worked enough in the US to get decent social security benefits. I believe the benefits are based on how much you made in taxable income over your lifetime... They apparently didn't save a lot of money, either or they did not work in fields that provided a pension. They also seemed to have partied a lot in their younger days--and still try to party, albeit in an older more decrepit manner. LOL
Well, that could be me one day. I really need to get on the ball and have some kids, so maybe one of them will take care of me!
What's with the 'even though he was white' comment??? That makes no sense, really.
Yes it does. Those of us non-whites out here with college degrees have it at least 10x harder in the job market. No matter what the degree was in. If you don't believe me, kindly change skin colors with me and lead my life for a while.
The people who are "degreed failures" are generally that way because of their GPA, personal ambition/work ethic and probably a heaping spoonful of bad luck rather than because of the course of study they selected.
Sometimes there's also where they went to college. State colleges just don't have the career services for when you're about to graduate that the Ivy Leagues have. Job fairs at State colleges...well, they just aren't attended very well by employers these days. The Career Center has no internships, no staff, all they do is point you to the computer or some of the smaller ones even have the local newspapers around. You know, stuff you didn't need THEM to do for you. That stuff you could do in the public library. That's why the Ivy Leagues are so popular. Their degree alone, no matter how low the GPA, would open doors at least at the internship or entry level, that State colleges just can't.
This is not to say that the attitude I experienced in Boston, that anything less than Harvard isn't a four-year college at all, (including the nearby UMass Boston campus) is correct either. I'm not saying that anything less than Harvard or Yale is the equivalent of high-school-dropout (which is how I was treated in Boston). I'm just saying that these days that's what the job market is treating us "State college" graduates like!
I don't think there is really such thing as a "college degreed failure". It takes four years full time to earn a college degree. This shows that one has the discipline to complete this four year commitment. How is that deemed a failure? I would view this as an accomplishment, no?
I know some who majored in art that didn't get high paying jobs and usually don't work in their field of study at all - but I don't think they're failures. They did get something out of their degrees and like many true artists, they're not always driven by big money. They're educated about art - but they don't make a lot of money doing what they do for a living.
^^^ That's true for alot of art majors. Half my graduating class works in different fields, while the other half (including me) make a good living in art related occupations. Been to the movies? Watched tv? Read a magazine? Surf the web? You've seen our work.
Two words: "commercially viable" - the portfolio gets the job.
Add in "enjoyable to work with" and "improves the bottom line/makes the boss look good" and you get to keep your job. Once you turn into a pain in the neck, nobody cares how good you are.
lol...try working for a pain in the neck co-workers or boss. It is super fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robineli
^^^ That's true for alot of art majors. Half my graduating class works in different fields, while the other half (including me) make a good living in art related occupations. Been to the movies? Watched tv? Read a magazine? Surf the web? You've seen our work.
Two words: "commercially viable" - the portfolio gets the job.
Add in "enjoyable to work with" and "improves the bottom line/makes the boss look good" and you get to keep your job. Once you turn into a pain in the neck, nobody cares how good you are.
If you hadn't come out swinging at every other college major, I would have actually felt sorry for you. Too many times on this forum I have come across ARROGANT people like yourself who think they are god's gift to the world. Guess what? You are not. YOUR ATTITUDE SUCKS! Yes, a big reason you may not be getting a job is YOUR ATTITUDE.
Maybe once you've grown up a bit and stopped feeling like you're a victim in all of this, you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime, your rage will continue to blind you.
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I know a couple of smart, degreed men who seem as if they work at being unsuccessful. One is a lawyer and a CPA, and one is a licenced electrician with an engineering degree from a top school. They are both past middle age and neither one has a pot to **** in.
Seriously though, I was doing fine, worked at several places, found some direction, worked into management at MindSpring/EarthLink, moved to an executive position at another company, they went under, I could not find ANYthing to replace that income (or anything else for that matter in SoCal), moved to NC and I'm a truck driver right now. I tried to get my Insurance Brokerage off the ground last fall but ran out of money (both living expenses and marketing money). I have not given up though, and will probably try again real soon, possibly as a captive agent with a particular company that pays a starting salary.
These days, college degrees are a dime a dozen I've found. My degree doesn't turn many heads anymore, especially considering I am 45 years old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse69
Do you know of any college degreed failures?
Do you know of any college degreed failures? Like what college degree did they take, and what job they are doing now? I'm thinking a useless degree like sociology or communications are set up for failure and working at Starbucks! But sometimes these degrees are useful in working as a government social worker or TV newscaster then you hit the jackpot! But not everyone can do this and sometimes they end up working at Home Depot!
The worst kind of failures are the ones that took a hard degree and ended up being nobodies in life! Like I heard of a mechanical engineer becoming a homeless person... and when I went to a Alumni night fair helping people get entry-level engineer jobs I ran into mechanical engineers who couldn't get a job after graduation for 2 to 5 years! But the five-year unemployed guy was a slob even in the way he sat, and in his appearance... so blame is unemployment on being a slob and unpersonable, even though he was white!
So do you know of any underemployed college degree failures, - what was their degree and where are they working at now? Do you think they have hope of ever breaking into their careers and becoming successful in life?
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