Has she found a job yet?

Parents Forum
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<p>It is certainly not too late for a recent grad to make use of her college career office. Even LAC’s can have very helpful ones.</p>

<p>I also don’t think it’s horrible or unusual for a new college grad not to have a job lined up. I wouldn’t have any problem with a new grad moving home and looking for work. My brother did this years ago before grad school and a successful career in the film industry. My close friend’s daughter lived at home for several years after graduating from a prestigious LAC. She eventually found work locally, changed jobs a couple times with increasing responsibilities, built up a great set of skills and finally moved away to take a wonderful job in another town. Her 2 or 3 years of local job experience were just as important as her LAC degree in helping her find a desirable job.</p>

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Actually by more than that. Many students start visiting the career center early in their college career to learn about various job fields, talk to alums to find out about career paths and get advice, attend job fairs, etc. Summer after junior year is the right time to find an internship which helps you really stand out to employers. Senior year is the time to cash in on all the groundwork that’s been laid.</p>

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<p>Link to list of 25 companies hiring many 2009 grads, and the kind of jobs that are being offered:
[Employers</a> hiring the Class of 2009 - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/25/cb.whos.hiring.2009class/index.html]Employers”>Employers hiring the Class of 2009 - CNN.com)</p>

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<p>MikeMac, what you say is so true. </p>

<p>Senior job hunting rides on the back of the summer internships, research projects, coop, and outreach activities and contacts made in the prior years. </p>

<p>Plus keeping up prep school contacts etc is critical.</p>

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Well, I asked a couple of times what sort of work experience your kid had and mentioned the importance of networking with prior employers and contacts from internships. So far… no hint of a response to that. </p>

<p>You did mention somewhere along the line that YOU contacted your daughter’s school placement office after your daughter refused… obviously not a very useful approach. You didn’t say why your daughter doesn’t want to work with the college placement office, so I have no clue what the issues are there. </p>

<p>But the reality is that your daughter will be competing for employment against students who have work experience to draw on in their resumes. They see “work” and “education” as being 2 different things – and since high school they have focused on building up a resume of appropriate job skills and references through some combination of volunteer work, paid jobs, & internships. </p>

<p>My comment was in direct response to your belittling of LAC’s – the complaint that a liberal arts education wasn’t worth much on the employment market. Well… it NEVER was. I remember graduating with a B.S. in 1974 and going out and finding work with temp agencies doing filing and secretarial work. (I was headed to law school, but needed work in the interim). Employers want to know what work-related <em>skills</em> the person has. They look at a college degree as a minimum prerequisite for some positions – that is, it established eligibility but it doesn’t get the person the job. </p>

<p>Maybe your d. needs to work with a career counselor, who can help her identify better what her skills are and where there is a good fit. All “skills” don’t have to be gained on the job – but skills that were honed during college, such as writing ability – still need to be presented to to employers in a way that makes sense as a job qualifier. The employer doesn’t care if the hiree can write a thesis, but they may want to know whether that person can put together a power point presentation or write a press release. </p>

<p>My point is that it is not the fault of the college when grads are unemployed months out. LAC’s never promised a path to employment – their goal is to educate. Most of the more elite colleges are providing a foundation for higher education – their goal is to make their undergrads into good candidates for grad school and future Ph.D.'s. Many of the students are bound for professional schools, like law or medicine.</p>

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<p>toodleooo,</p>

<p>Were you serious when you said on another thread that your D now wants to go to circus school?</p>

<p>And what kind of job did she and you expect that she’d get with a degree in English and art? There certainly are jobs she can get with that combination, but I’m curious about what employment you’d expected her to get after graduation.</p>

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<p>My son has a very marketable major (computer science) and he still managed to be too picky and start too late the summer after his freshman year to find a job. Luckily he had a decent Plan B which was to work for my brother. He doesn’t love the work, but it pays well and they love him. This summer he realized he needed to start earlier. He had a couple of internships fall through, but ended up with a good position. We’ve made it very, very clear to him that we expect him to work in the summer and we expect him to pay for his personal expenses. (We pay tuition, room and board and cell phone.)</p>

<p>I knew from experience that finding summer work isn’t easy, but doing something is always better than doing nothing.</p>

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<p>Hey, don’t knock art majors OR circus school!
My son, who graduated from art school recently, is doing just fine, thank you. He majored in graphic design, got a paid internship during his senior year at a nationally recognized clothing company, and was hired full time as a designer soon after. </p>

<p>Several friends of mine went to circus school and joined Ringling Brothers. It was an interesting life, traveling all over by train, performing under the big tent. (Of course, they had been studying theater and dance for years before going to circus school – I don’t think it works if you go on a lark.)</p>

<p>I actually agree with OP that liberal arts college is not a good preparation for the average working life unless you plan to go into academia. But it is the current system for funneling intelligent (and not so) young people into the work field. I myself went to art school and there is nothing like being an artist to prepare you for an economic meltdown! </p>

<p>My D is at a LAC college now, and I expect her to “pursue her passion” as well as keep an eye on the bottom line. I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. I see the four years of college as a golden opportunity to explore your interests and go as far with them as you can without worrying about practical applications. However, that doesn’t mean you live in a bubble without a thought for the future. It has been my experience that really dedicating yourself to something you love can open doors for all kinds of opportunities. But students need to be creative and not expect their path to be all laid out for them. They need to be open-minded about their direction, especially now.</p>

<p>I’ve been able to help both my kids find jobs through my contacts. OP, your daughter needs to understand that going to the placement office is about that, increasing your field of contacts, not necessarily finding the dream job. I told my kids that the most important thing in looking for a job (aside from cultivating their employability) is to tell EVERYONE (including the mailman) and leave no stone unturned. Artists and writers have always known this—most writers have a stack of rejection letters for every successful inquiry.</p>

<p>Being an art major can be great preparation for today’s job market, but only if you went to art school (and not a LAC).</p>

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<p>"Hey, don’t knock art majors OR circus school!
My son, who graduated from art school recently, is doing just fine, thank you. He majored in graphic design, got a paid internship during his senior year at a nationally recognized clothing company, and was hired full time as a designer soon after. "</p>

<p>As the mom of a theater major who loves aerial work and also does graphic design, I am not knocking art majors or circus school.</p>

<p>I am, though, curious about what the OP and his D’s expectations were for her finding a job after college with an English/art major. I’m particularly curious about this since the OP said that – at the behest of his wife – neither he nor his wife had talked to the D about a job after graduation. He also has expressed concern about all of the money he has paid for his D’s LAC degree, so I am wondering whether he is serious about the D’s now planning to go to circus school. If so, how does the D plan to pay for it? Is she still expecting parents to cheerfully fund her education while they also don’t talk to her about what kind of job she’s preparing for? Does she plan to stay in school forever while not doing anything to take care of herself financially?</p>

<p>Before changing his major to theater, S already had started applying for summer jobs related to his major, and he had been talking to professors and others about job and career possibilities. He was doing those things before he changed majors, and he did this because of his own concern about the job market, not because of my pushing him to investigate these things.</p>

<p>He has said that his peers are very concerned about jobs – particularly because they see how the recession has affected so many people.</p>

<p>I know art majors who are doing very well in careers. That’s because they also started thinking about careers long before they graduated from college. </p>

<p>I also know someone who’s D is in Cirque de Soleil and seems to be doing well there.</p>

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<p>Again, thanks to all for some really great feedback out of this, except for calmom’s condescension.</p>

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<p>There are many roads to a good career, and advanced planning is only one of them. (Good for your son, Northstarmom, he is a chip off the old block, eh?)</p>

<p>It’s not everyone’s style though, and can be counterproductive for some—premature choices, second-guessing, focusing too much on outcome. It can be a real killjoy.</p>

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<p>"I actually agree with OP that liberal arts college is not a good preparation for the average working life unless you plan to go into academia. "</p>

<p>I don’t agree but I’m biased… I have spent 20+ years in corporate HR and have hired (or managed teams which hired) hundreds of LAC grads over the years for various corporate positions. The issue isn’t the LAC preparation, it’s the mindset or the lack thereof of the grad in question.</p>

<p>Kid is applying for an entry level position in market research- great. We want someone who is reasonably numerate (i.e. can read a chart, make a graph, interpret data); can write a succinct summary or report; can interact with all kinds of people; can meet deadlines; can make a presentation in front of 20 people or so and respond to questions appropriately. That’s what’s in the job description. Kid gets an interview, and the first question is, “so what kind of products does your company sell?” Hello? This is a research position, and kid is either too dumb or too lazy or so lacking in curiosity that s/he didn’t do enough research to discover what products we make???</p>

<p>It’s not 1974 when the kid would have had to go to a library and put forth some effort, or obtain an annual report, or go to a grocery store and actually look on the shelves. Any 8 year old can google and download the list of brands/products. And this interviewee… with the prestigious degree from prestigious U, and awards and honors out the wazzoo for the senior research thesis, and latin honors, and all that jazz… can’t find 10 minutes to prepare for a job interview?</p>

<p>So I don’t agree that LAC’s do a poor job of preparing kids for a host of interesting jobs and careers. I think that some kids have a warped understanding of the working world, and that some parents, however unwittingly, have fostered a climate of entitlement which makes their kid poorly suited for getting (and keeping) that first or second job.</p>

<p>I’ve worked for companies which spend tens of millions of dollars a year on training. I can teach an employee virtually any function-specific skill given enough time and resources. But I’ve never worked for a company which can teach curiosity, work ethic, the ability to do basic high school math/algebra, or write a coherent paragraph or brief report. We expect our employees to walk in with those skills but we can teach the rest.</p>

<p>So note to parents- if your kid manages to snag an interview-- for every minute the kid spends texting his or her friends about said interview, it might be worth another minute actually learning what the company does.</p>

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<p>I have worked in H-R for a Fortune 500 company, and I agree with Blossom.</p>

<p>The most impressive young person whom I ever had interviewed was going to be a first generation college student. He was a high school senior, and his dad was a taxi driver. Before his interview for a rare high school internship, the young man had taken the time to obtain and read the company’s annual report. This was almost 20 years ago – when annual reports weren’t available on-line.</p>

<p>Yes, he got the internship!</p>

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<p>From an article in Forbes:
Top College Towns For Jobs - Post-grads in these 20 metros, where job growth is rising, should stay put. [Top</a> College Towns For Jobs - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/19/college-towns-jobs-lifestyle-real-estate-jobs.html]Top”>Top College Towns For Jobs)
As I mentioned earlier, if a kid is willing to move, the job prospects may improve.
New Mexico has TWO on the list! :D</p>

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<p>I am confused with the fact that people start thinking about employment close to or even after graduating from college. Is not it supposed to be done before going to college and choosing certain major? There are always choices, for example, the one who is a good artist might go for Fine Arts or Graphic Design. The Fine Arts are OK as long as there is understanding that without some kind of most likely teaching position, artist cannot support themselves, so there should be a back up plan (minor in Computer Science, for example) or a plan to go to Grad. school. This is just one example out of very many possibilities, when job market research had to be done ahead, not after. My own D. wanted to be Marine Biologist originally. It took her very little time to realise that there are no jobs for Marine Biologists. Thank goodness, she was a 9th grader, not college graduate at the time. They do not need a plan if they do not need to support themselves, I mean that there are unlimited resources and a kid goes to college just to get educated. Otherwise, I am not sure what is a sense of getting a History degree, just for a sake of another example.</p>

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<p>No recent college grad should limit herself geographically unless it’s for a stop-gap job.</p>

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<p>MiamiDAP, there are two huge reasons to go to college, and they are not always mutually exclusive: to become educated and to secure a job.</p>

<p>As others have said, a liberal arts education rarely directly prepares students for employment, but the skills they learn – critical thinking, problem solving, thorough research, analytical writing, etc. – are often in high demand at nationally-known companies in all fields. (Small, family-owned companies tend to value them less.) For example, someone with a history degree may end up as a researcher at Gallup or as trainee at a Wall Street firm or as an administrator at an NGO. In normal times, a non-professional degree from a well-known university or LAC gives the young adult more flexibility in terms of eventual career; however, in times of recession, employers often focus on knowledge sets instead of skill sets. Students entering college four years ago would have had no inkling about how the market would change.</p>

<p>As Blossom and others have stated, the trainability of a LAC graduate is often seen as being much greater. A finance student has been taught methods that are specific to the field and that adhere to the philosophies of her professors; a liberal arts student has been taught to problem-solve in a more general way.</p>

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<p>MiamiDap, I’ve hired plenty of history majors. It’s a fantastic major and discipline for all kinds of careers-- but it does require a certain mindset for a new grad to present the skills in the right way. I don’t care if a kid wakes up one day junior year and wonders what kind of a job does their education prepare them for… but it’s important that the wakeup doesn’t occur while sitting in my office halfway through an interview.</p>

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<p>"I am confused with the fact that people start thinking about employment close to or even after graduating from college. Is not it supposed to be done before going to college and choosing certain major? "</p>

<p>It depends on whether a person’s family views college as strictly a chance to educationally and personally expand or whether the person’s family views college as mainly a ticket to good employment.</p>

<p>I did not expect my kids to be selecting their majors and career paths before going to college. I wanted them to use college to gain a broader perspective on the world and to find out more about their interests and talents. After selecting a major based on their interests and talents, I wanted them to look for jobs that they would find fulfilling and that also would support themselves.</p>

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<p>"My own D. wanted to be Marine Biologist originally. It took her very little time to realise that there are no jobs for Marine Biologists. "</p>

<p>I know marine biologists who are employed. I wouldn’t have discouraged my kid from that field if that was my kid’s interest.</p>

<p>During my life, I’ve seen well paying, high demand fields go bust, and other fields become hot.</p>