<p>I wanted to get all of your opinions on something.
Did the recession "spoil" a lot of opportunities for "good" (not great) college grads around 2010-2011, who should have gotten into better companies and gotten better jobs, if the economy had been better? </p>
<p>Coming out of college in May of 2011, I had a business degree, a relatively good 3.8 GPA and some good leadership experience and internships. My parent's wishes for me throughout HS and college was that I get a good job at a big company with prestige (which is pretty infuriating now that I look back, how I obediently followed their wishes without learning how to decide for myself and explore my passions in college). </p>
<p>I interviewed with companies like IBM, Google, Ogilvy & Mather, Bain, Amazon, American Express ... and got to final interviews for some of them ... and ultimately got rejected by all.</p>
<p>I do understand my interviewing skills might have been the cause ... (I also think it's the 'lack of motivation' I showed during those interviews because I was so overwhelmed and confused about my career direction at that point, especially since I had no real passion for business, blindly following my parents) </p>
<p>I'm not trying to tell a pity story but I personally observe this a lot and don't think it's something unique that happened to me. Right now, I reside in NYC, and see a lot of Ivy League grads, even Harvard, who graduated around 2010, 2011, who are working at less-than-average jobs at less-than-prestigious companies.</p>
<p>My question is, am I a "rare" case, or are there a lot of other people like me?</p>
<p>I think that’s a loaded question. Are you a rare case? No, but it depends on your definition of rare. You can blame the economy for not seeing good job opportunities and, to a lesser extent, for not getting offered interviews, but neither of those apply to you: the interviews you had indicate that you set your hopes high and had credentials that giants in business found appealing. All of those companies recruit out of college, and while they may have had fewer entry level jobs due to the economic situation, that meant that their recruiting budgets were probably smaller, meaning that the number of available interviews was likely reduced proportionally to the number of job openings.</p>
<p>I do have some friends who are severely underemployed, but they are pursuing industries that were definitely hard hit by the recession. At this point they are running into the issue that jobs beget other jobs, and their extended underemployment is making it difficult to get out of the rut.</p>
<p>But the definition of “underemployment” varies by person. I don’t know of all that many Ivy grads who graduated in 2010 and 2011 who also are helplessly underemployed. Many are underemployed because they are working to earn experience they can put on a grad school application, which doesn’t really count (in my opinion); many others are not employed because they chose post-bachelor level education instead of venturing into the workforce at a vulnerable time; the rest are gainfully employed, based on my definition. </p>
<p>When I say “underemployed,” I am talking about a college graduate earning less than 80% of the median income for the area he is living AND who is not working in a job he considers beneficial to his career. This includes fast food workers, most minimum wage jobs, and most low wage positions that did not require a college degree. Where you went to college is irrelevant - underemployment for a low tier state school grad is the same as underemployment for a Harvard grad… this is where I think some people get mixed up. If you graduated from an Ivy League school, you might think that you are deserving of a job at a top company, paying $70k+ to start in a Megalopolis city… but your thinking does not a reality make. </p>
<p>If you are working a wage job in NYC, earning $19 an hour or less in a position that has nothing to do with your career aspirations, then you are probably underemployed. If you’re making $45k in Manhattan, you are below median and certainly below average, but that doesn’t mean you are underemployed. Only 50% - 1 of people can be above average, and Ivy League alone does not mean above average.</p>
<p>That’s probably the problem right there. Finding a job would have been much easier provided you were willing to relocate anywhere had you majored in something like Electrical Engineering or Computer Science.</p>
<p>**I graduated with a BS Computer Science and graduated mid-pack with a 2.8 GPA from a state school. I had a 30 minute phone interview for a software engineer position with a major defense contractor in the Baltimore, MD market and I was hired. **They offered $75k/year starting, no more than 40 hour work weeks, flex schedule, tuition reimbursement for grad school, and over 5 weeks of vacation a year. They were also supportive of my National Guard commitment and I get anywhere from an extra $10k-25k in a typical year from that. I walked out with $0 of educational debt due to Tuition Wavier (National Guard).</p>
<p>There was few or no employers that could afford $200,000k/year (in a high cost metro area such as NYC to match my then standard of living), work-life balance, further educational opportunities, and support to serve in uniform as an entry level software engineer.</p>
<p>Bottom line - You don’t have to be a “good” grad. You just need to be a “smart” grad and understand how to play your cards.</p>
<p>Also, regarding engineering and computer science, the most recent downturn was worst for civil engineering graduates. The previous one (.com bust) was worst for computer science graduates. So which industries and types of jobs are hit worst in downturns can differ from previous downturns.</p>