<p>somebody should star this thread and post #19…I think the heat is getting to some people…</p>
<p>I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear my trousers rolled.</p>
<p>Where were we? oh yes, I work in corporate HR and I see this all the time among my friends and neighbors kids. The one who won’t pursue a job lead I pass on because “I want to work in Manhattan and this job is in Hoboken New Jersey”. (to the non- New Yorkers on this site- Hoboken is a quick PATH train ride away and it is minutes outside of NYC). The one who wants to pursue a career in TV production but turns down an offer because it’s a local cable news station and she’d have to have 3 roommates to pay her rent. The one who turns down an offer from PBS because even though it’s in the entertainment industry the salary is “pitiful”. The one who turns down the spot in the sales training program of a highly regarded consumer products company because the job is “in the middle of nowhere”. (I wonder- when you get a degree in “business” from a third tier U, your GPA is about a 2.8, did you really think you’d be living in London or San Fransisco?) Or the kid who won’t even apply for a job opening in the marketing department of a world renowned art museum… even when a family friend offers to write a cover note since she knows the head of HR… since as the kid put it, “I was really thinking of something more curatorial”.</p>
<p>Sheesh. So no, I don’t wonder why these kids are living off the Bank of Mom and Dad and sitting on the couch and texting their friends all day. I am just thankful that mine are out in the workforce getting experience, paying their rent, and not waiting around for the perfect upper middle class lifestyle to hit them in the face while they’re polishing their cover letter for the 250th time.</p>
<p>Unbelievable that he turned down the job offer! It could have lead to promotions or to contacts that could have turned into a more desirable job. The article doesn’t specify, but it sounds like he’s been unemployed since graduating in 2008. That makes it even more unbelievable that he didn’t take the job.</p>
<p>People have unrealistic expectations, as Blossom’s post points out.</p>
<p>I’ll admit I saw “entitlement thinking” in my DS this year. My H and I were leaning on him hard to get some kind of paying summer employment this summer. He applied to 1(!!!) internship and was rejected and refused to apply to anything else ( the jobs weren’t good enough!). My H blew his top and hustled on down to my DS’s university to lay down the law. If my DS didn’t start applying for paying work, my H and I were going to put up flyers in the local grocery store advertising my son’s services as a dog walker, gardener, furniture mover, etc. In addition, he was going to have to paint the interior of our house. We would be happy to pay him minimum wage.</p>
<p>Evidently my H’s lecture shook my son up. He got very busy the last month of the semester and was able to land paid work related to his field for 7 weeks. Okay, better than nothing.</p>
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<p>This young man needs to grow up. I have no patience for someone who is “too proud” to take a job.</p>
<p>This proves that for some childhood is not a stage of life - it’s a way of life.</p>
<p>Since this recession looks to be long and tedious I can only hope that many other entitled children with degrees from expensive NE colleges will follow this young man’s example. That way my state university educated children will have many more opportunities available to them while the entitled continue to hold out for a return to Neverland.</p>
<p>Bchan, this has nothing to do with State vs. private. Most of the kids in my neighborhood go to state schools- our flagship, other state’s flagships, or some non-flagship public U’s. Some of the ones who majored in education are flabbergasted that K-12 school systems aren’t welcoming them with open arms. Some of the “sports management” majors are stunned to discover that ESPN and the NFL haven’t rolled out the welcome mat. Many of the “Mass communications” majors haven’t yet realized that launching a career in mass media is a tough thing in any economy and tougher yet in this economy.</p>
<p>And don’t get me started on the Business Majors who haven’t figured out that when the global banking system goes through a chaotic period, the likelihood of getting a cushy job with a six figure bonus is about zero.</p>
<p>The entire family seems delusional. Why do the parents pay for a life insurance policy for a 24 yr old? The grandfather thinks his grandson should head to Europe - most European economies aren’t exactly thriving. $40K/yr sounds like a great starting salary to me, particularly in Worcester. Now more than two years past graduation, Mr. Nicholson would have been well advised to accept the claim adjuster job while he continued to look for whatever his “dream job” is.</p>
<p>"'ll admit I saw “entitlement thinking” in my DS this year. My H and I were leaning on him hard to get some kind of paying summer employment this summer. He applied to 1(!!!) internship and was rejected and refused to apply to anything else ( the jobs weren’t good enough!). "</p>
<p>BTDT.</p>
<p>Younger S-- my theater major rising senior – wanted a paid internship in theater. Great idea, except that despite my telling him to apply early and to apply to anything remotely related to his major, he applied “when he had time” – spring break – and applied only to the most interesting sounding internships. From what I can figure out, that meant he applied to 2. Although he has extensive experience working with kids, he didn’t bother to apply to counselors positions in theater camps because he doesn’t want to work with kids any more. This included his not applying to the theater camps within walking distance of our house (and where the directors know him well!).</p>
<p>He got letters back from the places that he had applied that said that they had picked their interns in Feb.</p>
<p>Then, despite my telling him to come home right after the semester ended, he spent a month with a friend, going to the beach, film festivals, and doing some work on his senior project (but he didn’t take the class to get credit for it!). </p>
<p>Somehow during that time, it did dawn on him that he really needs a car for an internship or job after he graduates next spring. He knows he will be the one buying that car just like he’ll be the one who’ll pay back his college loans.</p>
<p>The morning after he returned home, I saw on Facebook a telephone customer service job that was hiring immediately. I woke him up and – wonder of wonders – he immediately applied even though he hates talking on the phone. He was hired that day and started the next day. :)</p>
<p>Look, if you graduate college and you have to take a job waiting tables or working at Starbucks, so be it. That’s how life goes.</p>
<p>blossom - I’m not trying to make this a state school/private school thing. But the young man in this article went to a very expensive school, as the photo shows he lives in a very nice house, he has had the very best of everything apparently handed to him on a plate.</p>
<p>While this same school no doubt has children of working class families attending on scholarship who do not match this young man’s spoiled point of view, there are many, many students posting on this site who can’t afford most private schools because their parents income doesn’t leave them needy enough and although strong students, they don’t make the Ivy cut that would allow them a more generous need based allowance. Those kids go to state schools, they work - and they don’t turn up their noses at 40K job offers afer being unemployed for two years following college graduation.</p>
<p>Most kids who attend private colleges don’t go there to live in the world of Prada. But this young man is a shining example of someone who used his many advantages to cushion himself from reality.</p>
<p>Usually when a young person is this defective, there’s plenty of blame to go around…it’s his own fault, it’s his parents’ fault, and I bet Colgate is wishing it had tried harder to bang some sense into his head. He’s going to get some interesting email today that I doubt he’ll pay attention to, but he should.</p>
<p>Bchan, my point is that kids can have entitled attitudes whether or not they grew up privileged, and the price tag of the school is not really relevant. I know kids whose solution to their hefty college loan problem is to find a grad school somewhere which will take them so they can rack up more loans and defer payment on the old ones, rather than bite the bullet and take the job offer to join the management training program at a car rental company. (Pays a living wage but not prestigious). I know kids who would rather mooch off an older sibling’s couch than move to Dayton Ohio to take an entry level management job.</p>
<p>It’s crazy, but it has nothing to do with privilege and everything to do with entitlement.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the whole thread so this may have nothing to do with the conversation but I saw a documentary called “Why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” from the 90s by CBS and it was about how outsourcing is leading to the death of the middle class because of corporate greed. Companies are more about money than loyalty to their employees and even if someone has worked hard for them, they may get laid off because there are cheaper labor sources elsewhere.</p>
<p>Another interesting article I found today (though from the UK): [Who</a> taught them greed is good: are MBA course to blame | Business | The Observer](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/08/credit-crunch-mbas]Who”>Who taught them greed is good? | Credit crunch | The Guardian)
Pretty much blames some of the corporate greed on the MBA program.
The problem I see also though is the “consumerism” attitude that we as Americans have.</p>
<p>When I graduated from college in 1980, I moved 900 miles (from Iowa to Upstate New York) for my first job. I was hired in a telephone conference call. Talk about a leap of faith.</p>
<p>My first job was came after my internship. The company said they couldn’t hire me as a real employee but would like to keep me on as a contractor for 6 months. </p>
<p>My reply: Well, in order to work full-time here I’ll have to give up my waitressing night job. Can you match that pay?
Employer: How much do you make as a waitress?
Me: $100 per week.
Employer: Um, yeah, I think that’s a wage we can pay. </p>
<p>You read that right. In 1987 I accepted a 40-hour job for $100 per week. $2.50 per hour. I look back and LAUGH at myself now. But at the time I thought I was queen of the world for landing a “real” job before graduation. </p>
<p>Oh, and I’ve been with that same company ever since. I converted to real employee after 8 months as a contractor and started makin’ the big bucks: $18,000.</p>
<p>I’m sorta with the poster that speculates that the entitlement kids (as well as the HR poster postulates) opens the door for the more grounded kids. I’m fortunate to have grounded kids that value independence (even dirt poor independence) over mom and dad’s pad and dole (and rules) so these types of stories amuse me more than horrify me or cause me angst. I have the vision of the parents in this story doing major spin control among their social and business networks over this train wreck of a story and wishing they had never participated.</p>
<p>Around here it is a real problem. To find safe housing, you are talking a lot of money. When you have adult children at home sharing in your upper middle class life with a lower class income, it leads to some dysfunctional situations. I have one at home that isn’t making much money but enjoys luxuries like central air, a car, unlimited food, washer and dryer right there, cable, tv, computer and all of the benefits that our children enjoy. No way he could live this way on his own.</p>
<p>His brother is literally sweating and pounding salt trying to keep a room in an apartment that he can barely afford. But he too is lucky and not truly self sufficient, in that we live close enough that he visits and “shops the house”. He thinks my pantry is Costco. These are not advantages H and I had when we first left school and got jobs. The jobs were not only low paying, we had to pay for all of our needs since we did not live close to home and did not get much help from family. </p>
<p>I remember sweltering in the heat and humidity at night, with the hot air being fanned uselessly around the room. No where to go with central air–did not have a car, and public transportation at night was not that safe. Friends in the same situation so nowhere to go. My son has the out of being able to come home for a night, or staying at my brother’s place in the city or with other friends who have air conditioning. A whole different story. Meals are guaranteed and I suspect my brother and his slip him some extra money, certainly treat him to stuff he can’t afford when they see him which is often.
My kids are 'poor", monetarily, but not in access to luxuries that we did not have.</p>
<p>I can’t help but wonder how the subjects of this article must be reacting to the outpouring of venom their situation has elicited both in the article’s comments section and boards such as CC. I agree with the poster who postulated that it certainly wouldn’t be the way I wanted to earn my 15 minutes. My feeling is serves them right – the whole family came across as smug, delusional, and parochial with a huge sprinkling of misguided entitlement. I wonder if Boy Wonder thinks that some hot honcho corporate guru will read the article, take pity on him and hire him on the spot. I wouldn’t be surprised. The NYT seems overly fascinated by over-achieving upper middle class kids on the ‘skids,’ particularly on its Choice Blog; it’s hard to root for their perceived and manufactured injustices.</p>
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<p>I certainly agree with this. My nephew is an example…he grew up poor; certainly not privileged. He’s a HS drop-out who eventually earned his GED and got a job a a fast-food place. Things were okay for a couple of months, but then he quit the job because “he wasn’t getting enough hours”. Now he has no job. HELLO?? Earth to nephew…if you’re not getting enough work, use your free time to find an additional job. </p>
<p>I suspect the real reason he quit was that he felt the work was below him. And I know where he learned that attitude…he’s just like his father (my brother).</p>