<p>Is it true that cases of Harvard grads who end up waiting tables are not uncommon?</p>
<p>For real? I thought the rumor was a bad joke made up by people who wanted to prove that they ended up better off than some people who graduated from top schools.</p>
<p>Harvard College graduates about 1650 people per year, so I’m sure there must be some somewhere who are waiting tables or even completely unemployed, especially in this economy. The thing to remember about Harvard is that it’s a <em>college</em> - not a free ticket ot heaven or some other guarantee of success. Like graduates of all colleges, many new Harvard grads will have to look hard for opportunities and work at whatever jobs they can get until they get into a carreer path that suits them. </p>
<p>The biggest thing that Harvard grads have going for them that suggests that their time waiting tables will be short is not the Harvard diploma. It is the fact that the same intelligence, motivation, and hard work that got them into Harvard will also serve them well out in the wider world.</p>
<p>^ I agree completely.</p>
<p>Harvard Business School is more likely to help a lot more in the “employment after graduation” department.</p>
<p>Yes, I know people waiting tables both before and after graduation. Usually there
is a wanton reason for doing so as those that I know could have easily placed
themselves elsewhere and were not necessarily impacted by the economy.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that there are a lot of uber-talented young people who graduate from the top universities in the country and head out to take risks and dare to do great things rather than take on typical entry-level jobs. Conan O’Brien waited a lot of tables on his way to The Tonight Show.</p>
<p>^ Exactly. Despite the popular image of newly minted Harvard grads, not all of them want to work in an office environment or sit behind a desk all day.</p>
<p>I recently read an article about a “new phase” of life in the 20’s. The article said that many bright college graduates take low-commitment jobs that would appear to be beneath them, in order to retain freedom, spontaneity, and mobility in their lives, including the literal mobility of being able to pick up and move. The article also said this ethic may reflect on the values of their “sixties” parents. Or, perhaps many students just want a break from all this hustling, and waiting on tables, while paying the rent, affords a period of reflection. Most of these kids end up doing something considered more appropriate to their education, so this is, indeed, most often just a “phase.”</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it’s just a college.</p>
<p>Waiting tables is the right or necessary move for many people at different phases of their lives.</p>
<p>There are Harvard grads in the White House and the Supreme Court … and in homeless shelters and prisons.</p>