<p>If there’s nothing else around, I’d agree that it’s a good first step - but it can be a pretty tough slog. Son has a friend from school that is working as a lab tech at his employer. He also works part-time bagging groceries at the supermarket to supplement his income. The employer is located in an area where it is very expensive to live so I assume that he commutes from someplace cheaper. That can be a tiring life - doing a long commute, working two jobs and scraping by. But it is a start.</p>
<p>Another bio grad that I know works at the local Apple Store as a salesperson/technical assistant. I bought my iMac from him a few years ago. I’d guess that he makes a lot more than the lab tech as Apple Stores pay quite well and I’m pretty sure that they provide good benefits.</p>
<p>I’m happily surprised by the architecture major’s success. Kudos to that student. Unemployment/underemployment for architects at all career-levels still is a problem.</p>
<p>In most stores, the customer relationship ends with a purchase. At the Apple Retail Store, that’s where it all begins. The Apple store is more than a store—it’s a place of community where open communication, learning, leading, and growing serve to enrich our customers’ lives. Creatives help build this community through their dedication to teaching and training all things Apple—because happy, enthusiastic customers tell their friends. </p>
<p>A candidate we’ll love:</p>
<pre><code>You’re warm and friendly, and you love sharing knowledge.
You enjoy meeting people and building relationship with customers.
You’re an artist who proudly dabbles in the digital realm.
Whether in front of a class or working one-on-one, you’re a natural-born teacher who believes in hands-on learning.
You know your way around Apple’s pro and consumer tools for creating and editing digital media.
You enjoy staying on top of Apple’s latest innovations and have a knack for choosing the perfect solutions for customers.
You speak in layman’s terms, but you’re also a good listener with lots of patience.
</code></pre>
<hr>
<p>Creatives share their passion for the digital arts by conducting workshops and one-to-one customer training sessions. This is a great job for aspiring digital artists of all kinds, including photographers, filmmakers, musicians, editors, and web designers.</p>
<p>Some professions require an additional year of study before getting the career work in the field. Accounting and teaching are some examples. To get CPA or teaching certification, another year is often a must. It’s often smarter to hold off graduation if financial aid is available for a fifth year to the student, but if not, graduating and just getting those credits/courses needed for certification is the best way to go. My son will probably do this if he continues on the accounting route. One can also go for a masters in the field as well, but that often requires more of a commitment, applications to programs, more courses, more time. Also for some fields like teaching, a masters could be a detriment to finding that first job because the schools have to pay more for those with that degree. Some districts prefer to save that money and get someone in the process of getting a master’s and have to work up to that salary…</p>
<p>It’s a mixed bag here in my area and with my son’s peers. Some are doing a “Graduate Summer” of glorious nothingness, some are in internships, some are looking, some have transitional jobs and some do have career starters. In our case, I told my son to focus on getting out with a degree. He wants to travel abroad for a few weeks so is working at a summer job from which he will save money to fund this trip and will start looking in earnest for a job in the fall. At that time, we’ll scrub him down, shave his stubble, get him a haircut and decent clothes, make him do his resume and maybe even visit his college’s career office. He can then focus on “What COlor is MY Parachute?” and other such books.</p>
<p>I know I sound like a broken record (remember those?) with this, but D and her graduating accounting friends all had multiple job offers prior to graduation. D actually had her full-time job lined up back in September 2011.</p>
<p>And actually, those lab-tech jobs for newly minted biologists and chemists can be hard to come by, too. Biotechs may be hiring, but big pharma (the traditional emplyer) is not.</p>
<p>My daughter the history major is working for a television news show. Hired before graduation after paid internship. It happens.</p>
<p>Gut tell me my other daughter, a non corporate office kind of gal, will probably go the three part time job route. She’s a communications marketing major visual arts minor who is into fitness, health, art, getting a fitness training cert, making things to sell, etc</p>
<p>She blogs, she researches, she will be slower getting established, but so long as she is working hard when she graduates next year, fine if she’s a receptionist at a gym, or helping organize marathons, she will make her mark</p>
<p>I have another history major who had luck with the job market. My D landed a consulting job back in November. She took full advantage of her school’s career services and On Campus Recruiting. I thought she was nuts last summer when she was updating her resume and reading books about Case interviews, but it worked. All of her college friends had job offers within a week of graduation, although a few are doing internships. Many of her HS friends are living at home and working in labs for a year while applying to med school.</p>
<p>S2, a criminal justice major, is doing an eleven week unpaid internship this summer. We are hoping for a job offer at the end of the internship but know the odds might be against it. A lot of his friends are on the “5 year college plan” so aren’t really looking for jobs now.</p>
<p>Communications major grad here; she is employed in her field starting in July; most of her classmates have jobs in their fields; some are holding out for “dream jobs” in their industry…many were employed before grad (but not by much!!)…</p>
<p>There is definitely a prevalence of grads taking paid internships though…my D was offered three of them prior to accepting her current offer…</p>
<p>There aren’t that many biotech hubs in the US. Thank goodness we live in one (neuroscience major D, class of 2013–will there be jobs when she graduates?)</p>
<p>Reading this thread fills me with concern for my graduating (hs) DS, who has no clue what he really wants to major in in college this Fall. For years, this STEM kid said he was going for premed but as of last year he is headed toward business. His father talked him out of premed by telling him how the profession is changing and it isn’t going to be stimulating, lucrative field that it once was. The kid really doesn’t know what he wants but my mothers intuition tells me that he is a born physician, regardless of the current or future state of the medical profession. I grew up in a medical family, DH is from a business one. Our son excelled in HS sciences and math. </p>
<p>I don’t know any unemployed doctors but many of the local kids who were business majors here are.</p>