Class of '10 enters a labor market with highest unemployment in at least a generation

Career Opportunities & Internships
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<p>Liberal arts majors (and women) have lower aggregate IQs, yet they have the highest GPAs</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure6rawdata.gif[/url]”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure6rawdata.gif&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Time to start learning how to market yourself effectively - it’s not good enough to get great grades from an Ivy League or equivalent school. Joe Queenan’s piece in this weekend references an Ivy Leaguer’s internship at a street fair ($250/week) that could, if the stars align, lead to a full-time job with the street fair!</p>

<p>There will always be a way to make a living for people who can demonstrate that they bring value to their employer or clients. So learn how to get the message out more effectively!</p>

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<p>Except the only way to do this is having a strong GPA.</p>

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Meant to say company.</p>

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<p>The idea that US companies don’t care about GPA strikes me as completely ridiculous. Many companies have hard GPA cutoffs and if you don’t meet that threshold, no one will even read your resume. I do agree that the importance of GPA diminishes with the number of years since college graduation.</p>

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<p>I think the salient message of most of the articles on this topic is that you need to get a job in your field after you graduate, even if you have to work for pennies; or even for free.</p>

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<p>quote from Whistleblower1:</p>

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<p>Wait, GPA’s are directly related to IQ? Maybe we should just have kids do IQ tests and put that on the transcript rather than GPA!</p>

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<p>That would be fantastic. Employers ask for SATs because they think it’s a proxy for IQ. Putting IQ would just be far more direct.</p>

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<p>Only a small handful of investment banking firms ask for your SAT score. It’s irrelevant for close to 100% of people after high school graduation. I attend an “elite” college, and I don’t even remember my SAT score.</p>

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<p>Quote:
I think the salient message of most of the articles on this topic is that you need to get a job in your field after you graduate, even if you have to work for pennies; or even for free.</p>

<p>Where are these jobs where a person could work for pennies or free and still get meaningful experience post graduation? When I tried to apply for a summer internship the year I graduated, I never got a single call back from even HR.</p>

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<p>^You can’t always get them (often?), even for no pay. See: high finance.</p>