<p>This week I've heard about a number of HS classmates of my S.</p>
<p>Despite the conventional wisdom that people in certain majors are doomed to working at MacDonald's, the architecture grad has a job with an architecture firm, the English major has a job teaching (in Hawaii!!), and my S the language major has a summer job in Europe followed by a fully-funded year at a European university with a teaching job on the side. </p>
<p>The (multiple) economics, business, math, bio, neuroscience majors are all "looking." An interesting turnabout.</p>
<p>Friends that DS met over the years have had good results. A Rhetoric major has cushy job lined up in DC public relations firm. Spanish major has a sales job in Miami, math major has job on Wall Street. All science majors are enrolling in med school, dental school. One is gong to grad school in biophysics and two are doing Teach for America. </p>
<p>The hs friends that are graduating from state school are all “looking” except for engineers. They all have job offers. Family friend, political science/gender studies major is interning in DC but no jobs after the summer.</p>
<p>You can’t really generalize a small number of people you know as a statistically accurate sample, as tempting as it may be. Based on my tiny sample of kid’s current friends, I would assume that everybody is going to get hired after graduation for 80-100K+. But that’s not statistically significant for anyone, though it sounds quite nice.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids could find jobs. My daughter came close, was hired, funding fell through, all sorts of things happened. </p>
<p>My son didn’t look hard, but he certainly didn’t have a job lined up before he graduated. Neither did his friends.</p>
<p>They were '09 and '11. I think the economy is beginning to turn around, and these students are lucky because they still have the wind beneath their sales and the college employment office to help them. Things have been bleak in this family.</p>
<p>DD had a wonderful internship and supported herself as a nanny.</p>
<p>DS decided to switch fields and took courses at local state u in new field.</p>
<p>Both are in non-funded, but very reasonable masters programs with the promise of funded PhD’s for September. But the cheery news certainly didn’t happen here for DD, her friends or DS and his friends.</p>
<p>Based on career surveys, biology majors at the bachelor’s level are so numerous compared to the available jobs that the pay levels and employment rates are not particularly good. Can’t imagine neuroscience to be much better.</p>
<p>Math is better in this respect if the student is willing to work in, and has prepared for with appropriate elective course work / minor / second major, certain types of finance, actuarial, or computer software jobs.</p>
<p>mythmom – sorry to hear about your kids – were they looking exclusively for jobs in the NY area? I wonder if our area is a worse job market now than other parts of the country.</p>
<p>Interested to hear from parents of kids with jobs – did they have to relocate?</p>
<p>Agree that thinking bio, neuroscience, or pure mathematics are majors that have plenty of jobs waiting hasn’t really paid attention to the job market in those majors! Bio is stuffed with wanna be doctors who don’t quite have the grades/MCATs to get into med school. It is also the easiest of the science majors (IMHO), and quite a crowded major given the jobs available.</p>
<p>Neuroscience is kind of similar, and seems very “sexy” to college students right now. So it is a very popular major… again, with limited job opportunities.</p>
<p>Mathematics can be a great major in combination with another major (eg, business, something with computers, possibly something like biology). One of my kids is considering a math major, but only in combination with something that will prepare her for the job market.</p>
<p>Assuming the econ and business majors have decent and some people skills, they will likely land something soon. And it will probably pay better than the rest of the majors listed.</p>
<p>Over the past ten years, we have seen students from all types of programs struggle to find and maintain stable emplyment. Of course, some majors have better employment prospects than others, but outside of the health care professions it does seem that it can be difficult to find stability. </p>
<p>What I find interesting is the number of students who will attempt a second undergraduate degree, a certificate program, or a post-bac in accounting, pre-med, or an area providing vocational training if they can afford this. Many can be successful going this route. </p>
<p>It is my guess that more would add a second program if they did not not have staggering amounts of debt from undergrad. I think it is prudent for most of us parents to budget for this type of outcome (as well as for the possibility of summer classes or an extra semester or two) when we are helping our children decide among schools.</p>
<p>NY area, in my small sampling of kids friends. Non are working, three engineers, one business major, english major, psychology.
D friends from school that are not NY residents, or decided to live elsewhere, ALL WORKING, all had job offers way before graduation.</p>
<p>My DD graduated with a bachelors degree in Music Ed. She is applying for lots of jobs but so far not even an interview. Of her circle of acquaintances it seems only those who already have Masters degrees are getting calls. Of course that could all change.</p>
<p>She is interviewing for a nannying job for the summer, also working at the local grocery store.</p>
<p>She had accepted a placement at Graduate school but the two assistantships she applied for did not come through (the one she was offered pending funding did not get funded). So she may pay the full shot for the first year or work for a year and apply for other assistantships next year.</p>
<p>If one has UG major in bio, NS, or some other STEM field, why not apply for positionas a lab tech? That might not pay a lot, but is a good step towards future school or job.</p>
<p>Definitely agree. Employers have been getting very precise with the skills that they want and proficiency with one more thing can be the tipping point to getting a job. Many undergraduate programs require a concentration out of a bunch of options and so the student has to pick one, two, or three things to do their concentration or an elective in out of ten or eleven areas. Sometimes having two or three more things from a graduate program (not necessarily a degree) or a certificate program makes the difference.</p>
<p>I agree about your debt comments - which is why it is so important to try to minimize it during undergrad.</p>
<p>Among coworkers, those that graduated within the last few years had difficulty finding work but they eventually did find work; actually pretty good work. We are somewhat overrepresented with students that go into STEM areas as we’re an engineering company. There is one close coworker with a son graduating from a slightly-below top-tier school with an engineering degree that doesn’t have a job yet. He has internships and a very good GPA but he got a late start on looking. It doesn’t look like graduate school is an option unless he is willing to take out loans.</p>