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Once upon a time....a social level called the 'establishment' worked and worked to buy a suburban house, a station wagon and a country club membership. Papa made lots of money, at a plastics mfg. plant, Momma lollied in her college sorority alumni membership....and Junior 'dropped out' to--of all things--teach English literature for a paltry sum of money. They worried that he had ruined his life.
Maybe I'm out of my element, here. I was referring to the early to mid 60's. Mrs. Robison and Dustin Hoffman?? ring a bell w/anyone, out there?
Before LSD, Vietnam, there was so much rabble rousing about conforming to suburban life. College students wanted to explore the liberal arts instead of being pushed into the corporate world, making napalm and more plastic. There was a line in the movie, The Graduate, "What should I do, sir, now that I've graduated?" "Plastics, my boy, get into plastics. There's money in it."
My lament is for the death of interest in learning for the sake of learning. I can't believe the nobility of an education is cursed as ruination, in the face of low pay.
The fault is the times in which we live. The values that our time has given recent Graduates.
Your life is not ruined. I got a BA in psychology. In order to do anything in psyche you have to have a Masters, PsyD or PhD. I couldn't afford that. What I found was that people respect the fact that you got a Bachelors, no matter what it is in. It shows discipline and follow through. I did office work while in college as well. Worked for several temp agencies each summer and winter breaks. My best friend got the same degree, but made more money than I did waitressing while in college. When we graduated I got a full-time office job at $22k with benefits (1993), she got a temporary assignment @ $8/hour, no benefits. She never was able to land anything decent. She returned to waitressing because it paid better and went back to a community college to get her dental assistant certificate.
I eventually figured out what aspect of business management I liked and got a certificate. After listening to some mentors and learning about my field I decided to further my education. I highly suggest you look at attending luncheons and/or conferences for trade groups, associations, and organizations in industries or field that interest you and network. Find a mentor or two. In 2002 got my Masters degree in Organizational Management. Company paid for 50% of my tuition. In 2007 I was making $54,000/year with 401(k) match and other perks. My counterparts in other divisions and companies were making $38-45k with their Bachelors. I am married, own 2 homes and have 2 kids. When our first child came along I started working part-time @ $25/hour until I was laid off. Company closed its doors. Now I am a SAHM and don't regret any of my education. I hope to return to work when my youngest is 5: 2 more years. I figure I will have to start over again at $38-40k, but that is my choice.
At 24, I never would have imagined where I am now. You have plenty of time to figure things out.
I paid a total of $80k for my education and certificates and my first job out of college paid $8/hr (2003). In fact over the course of 6 six years from graduation, I've averaged <$15/hr. Starting out at $29k/yr you'll be able to save a bundle - in 6 years with your salary I had 6 figures saved. And you started out making double what I made.
You'll be fine. Live frugally and don't blow your money, make some sacrifices now that will pay off in a few years. Learn to fix things like your car that take up a majority of your money when on such a low salary.
I hated college. Waste of time. The place is infested with corporate nutbags and greedy psychos.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcb1025
I'm only 24, and I feel that I ruined my life. But not because I killed anybody, took too many drugs, or performed any other criminal act. No, I feel I've ruined my life because I tried to better myself by going to college.
In college, I went from computer science major (dropped that because of what I heard about these jobs being offshored), to economics major (dropped that because it would have taken an extra semester at a cost of about $10,000), and finally, to political science major. Because of working a full time job, transferring schools, not having money to attend summer semesters, it took me 5 years to complete my bachelor's degree. While doing so, I amassed a debt in the $40k range.
While I was in school, I did some research as to how I could work my degree. Many legitimate job/salary websites (Payscale.com, Salary.com, CNN, MSNBC, etc.) showed the types of jobs and salaries one could expect to see after graduation with my degree and work experience. The salaries ranged from $38k/yr to $43k/yr; not bad to start out on. Well, I can say that those certainly weren't the job offers I received. The job I have now initially offered me $29k per year. I took it, because I had bills to pay.
The sentiments on Internet forums such as this one have led me to my greatest fear. I fear that I will be stuck with low paying jobs that offer no career growth or advancement opportunities for the rest of my life. In addition, I fear that I will never be able to start a family, purchase a house, or simply live a financially stable life. There seems to be a widespread belief that white collar jobs are diminishing and that my degree is nothing more than the "new high school diploma". Well, I don't recall a high school diploma ever costing an individual $60k, but I digress.
Trust me, I don't have an issue with confidence. I do a very good job at what I do. I have a lot of essential skills that I see lacking in even some of the upper level management people. Having taken business and advanced math classes in college and working with computers since I was 10, I have a strong background in all of these areas. I've been working office jobs since I was 17 years old. Yet, it seems that a lot of people now days frown upon college graduates. The mentoring I received in the past seems worthless. I used to hear that many people worked in fields other than what they studied in college and were successful. Are these happy days over? Have I dug myself into a hole that I'll never get out of? Is it worth going on?
Bottom line...I don't want to spend the rest of my life working only to pay off my student loans. That's not a life worth living.
Your life is not ruined. I got a BA in psychology. In order to do anything in psyche you have to have a Masters, PsyD or PhD. I couldn't afford that. What I found was that people respect the fact that you got a Bachelors, no matter what it is in. It shows discipline and follow through. I did office work while in college as well. Worked for several temp agencies each summer and winter breaks. My best friend got the same degree, but made more money than I did waitressing while in college. When we graduated I got a full-time office job at $22k with benefits (1993), she got a temporary assignment @ $8/hour, no benefits. She never was able to land anything decent. She returned to waitressing because it paid better and went back to a community college to get her dental assistant certificate.
I eventually figured out what aspect of business management I liked and got a certificate. After listening to some mentors and learning about my field I decided to further my education. I highly suggest you look at attending luncheons and/or conferences for trade groups, associations, and organizations in industries or field that interest you and network. Find a mentor or two. In 2002 got my Masters degree in Organizational Management. Company paid for 50% of my tuition. In 2007 I was making $54,000/year with 401(k) match and other perks. My counterparts in other divisions and companies were making $38-45k with their Bachelors. I am married, own 2 homes and have 2 kids. When our first child came along I started working part-time @ $25/hour until I was laid off. Company closed its doors. Now I am a SAHM and don't regret any of my education. I hope to return to work when my youngest is 5: 2 more years. I figure I will have to start over again at $38-40k, but that is my choice.
At 24, I never would have imagined where I am now. You have plenty of time to figure things out.
I'm really glad things worked out for you, but let me ask you something to make sure I understand you correctly. It took 10 years of working your way up and a Master's Degree to finally reach the $50k/yr. mark?
Not to sound ungrateful, but that doesn't sound too promising to me. I mean, I already have more than $40k in debt from my undergrad. If I go back to school for a Master's degree, I'm looking at tagging on another $20k-$30k, give or take. All in hope of getting a $10k-$15k pay increase. I'd imagine that the money and time I put into the degree would end up cancelling out any net benefit from the pay increase. I'd hope that in 10 years of diligent work and only my bachelor's degree, that a $10k-$15k/yr pay increase would be attainable.
I think I may be better off sticking it out and trying to work my way up without acquiring much more student loan debt. I would certainly hate to think that with a bachelor's degree and 10+ years of experience that I'd still be making in the $30k range. The mid to high $40k range sounds much more reasonable.
IDK, maybe I'm completely delusional, but most of the pay scale data (on sites like Payscale.com, Salary.com, CNN Money, etc.) show that most people start out in the high $30k and low $40k range after they graduate with a bachelor's degree. I'm beginning to wonder why that stuff is published if it's just a bunch of over-inflated BS.
I paid a total of $80k for my education and certificates and my first job out of college paid $8/hr (2003). In fact over the course of 6 six years from graduation, I've averaged <$15/hr. Starting out at $29k/yr you'll be able to save a bundle - in 6 years with your salary I had 6 figures saved. And you started out making double what I made.
You'll be fine. Live frugally and don't blow your money, make some sacrifices now that will pay off in a few years. Learn to fix things like your car that take up a majority of your money when on such a low salary.
In 6 years you had 6 figures saved? Did you live with your parents, not pay rent or bills, buy anything, or even eat for that matter? For that to even be possible, you'd pretty much have to save every dime you made.
That's not really possible for me since A)I had to move across country since Michigan didn't have any jobs for me, B) I had to buy a new car (car payments :-( ) and C) I have to pay certain bills like cell phone, electricity, gas, etc. But trust me, I'm living very frugally. Pasta has become a staple to my diet.
You have to deal with what is. The economy right now sucks so that makes getting a job difficult. The number of college graduates has skyrocketed as they've been told-- as you were-- that going to college was your ticket to a good job.
It's a supply and demand situation. There are tons of applicants for jobs now and companies can not only be very selective in who they hire but they can clip the salaries as well because if you turn up your nose at it, someone else will come along and take it and be happy that they have an income.
I work in IT. Any time we've listed a low level help desk job we get literally hundreds of resumes from people with advanced degrees, multiple certifications and years of experience who apply. We also get resumes from recent grads with little or no experience.
We prefer to hire the younger grads because they will more likely stay on as the advanced degree holders will bolt as soon as something better comes along but I'd say there are a lot of businesses that will jump at the chance to lease the skill set of someone with many degrees and certifications and pay them entry level wages just because they can.
There's also the matter-- which I mentioned in the other thread-- that older workers are not retiring out of necessity and therefore jobs are not being freed up for the younger people to get.
I don't have any answers for you but I'd say that to say that you think you've ruined your life by going to college is a bit extreme. What was the alternative? Not going? Where would you be if you took that route?
You sound very bitter and I understand your bitterness. You should know, however, that there is bitterness aplenty out there. People who worked for the same company for years, moved up the ladder in responsibility and pay, bought a house, started a family and carved out a modest existence and were summarily kicked to the curb only to find another job at half their former salary.
I would stay away from proclaiming yourself more knowledgeable than the upper level managers where you work. It sounds very immature as does the "working with computers since I was 10" bit. Yes, it sucks for you that the timing of your graduation coincided with a bad economy but try to keep things in perspective.
Unfortunately, these days people need to lower their expectations and appreciate what they have.
wow, strong grasp of IT... unfortunately I am one of the ones with more advanced mid level skills and get passed over... b/c h1b's eat the jobs up I could be doing, and as you said, the lower level entry jobs know I would bolt... I have been told the same thing from my friends who happen to be recruiters for spherion, etc...you are right on target with that analysis. Unfortunately I can't get even LOWER jobs like subway either...
I think the bay area where I am at has something to do with it though as it is such high skilled and so many people unemployed right now. I actually got offered my old job back but at a lower pay grade than when I left LOL, it isn't worth moving across the country over.
that being said I am trying to get out of IT altogether, I have been in it for 7 years now after college...I've had it
Graduating from college into a bad economy is a tough break but bide your time and prepare to take advantage of opportunities as they occur when things start to improve. It was my experience that kids were given to understand that a college degree was assurance of a healthy income not avialable to others without credentials but it was never true in my life time.
It is true that where you have specific skills an employer needs you can land a job irrespective of what your major was. You can earn certifications for technical skills that are more important to an employer than a B.S. I have worked with math and physics majors in an engineering organization that were doing software development.
Man im glad i am not graduating in this economy...
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A challenge to overcome
