<p>Just curious as I do not belive the 80% number reported on blogs.</p>
<p>a lot of New College students go on to grad school</p>
<p>If you are talking about new college grads (recent) as opposed to New College (school in Florida), then count mine in as unemployed. Well, underemployed. He is a social science major from a top 15 university and is having trouble finding permanent employment. He is currently employed for the summer as a lifeguard.</p>
<p>Among my recent graduate’s cohort, “permanent”-type employment – a job with a career path, that could last more than a few years – is close to unknown right now. But out-and-out unemployment is not the rule, either. She and her friends fit into a few patterns: working in labs or other academically-oriented research jobs while preparing graduate (or medical) school applications, working for nonprofits while preparing law school applications, travelling on academic fellowships while preparing graduate school applications, actually going to graduate or professional school (surprisingly few right now), time-limited project-oriented jobs that will end in a few months (and possibly be replaced by other, similar opportunities), service employment like Teach For America, classic bohemian day-jobs (often part-time) while working on one’s “real” career for free, or sporadically. And, yes, a handful of people with real jobs and careers (albeit careers they may abandon for something else long before they develop real traction), and a few people who are pounding the pavements looking for something worthwhile.</p>
<p>Mine was also underemployed, having graduated with a social science degree from a top 15 U (maybe the same one as runnersmom’s son?). She believed she wanted a career in advertising or marketing, and she began by taking a series of low-paying but interesting internships. After about six months, she came to realize that what she really wants to do is teach. DH and I had the collective response of “Duh.” Her resume screams educator. She is now back in school getting a Masters in El Ed. I think she would have reached the same conclusion had she landed a “real” job out of college as opposed to the internships she cobbled together. But with a permanent job and the salary to go with it, I think the desire to shift gears and go to grad school would have come somewhat later and been somewhat more difficult to act on.</p>
<p>How have your recent grads being dealing with the dearth of internships that do not require “college credit.” He has been finding many interesting unpaid internships (that we are willing to support, at least as a means of getting experience), but all require the ability to get credit in order for the employers not to run afoul of the wage and hour laws. Since he is a college grad, with no immediate grad school plans, this is quite the Catch-22. This kid had regular summer jobs during college (think lifeguard!) to make money, and spent one summer doing field research. However, since he has no plans (or desire) to be a field archaeologist this leaves him quite lacking in the job experience category. He is currently living at home, working for the summer and we are willing to continue the arrangement so he can get some experience and try to figure out what his path will be, but he gets stymied by the credit requirement for most internships.</p>
<p>I was aksing 2009 College graduates. ABC news gives the number</p>
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<p>[Got</a> Work? - ABC News](<a href=“Got Work? - ABC News”>Got Work? - ABC News)</p>
<p>D did not run into the college credit conundrum with her internships. All were paid, although the pay was very low ($10-ish an hour). That minimal wage is probably enough to let employers skirt wage and hour law issues. She has many friends who also took on low-paying internships as college grads. I’m not aware of any who have had issues with credit, and some of the internships morphed into full-time jobs. Maybe it’s the difference between 2008 and 2009. Things just keep getting tighter. What was low-paying last year is non-paying this year.</p>
<p>I do think that’s the case. A $10/hr internship would be great. I suspect that once posted it would garner 100’s of applications! When my son left his last job in March prior to going to law school his entry level position attracted resumes from PhDs, lawyers etc. It’s a tough world out there and it seems the ones who are getting jobs are, at the very least, often getting their foot in the door via some kind of connection.</p>
<p>Son has three weeks to go in his internship - it pays $10/hour but also provides room and board and a budget for a lot of fun activities. He also has a part-time job that pays a much higher rate but there hasn’t been many hours from that job (just as well as he wouldn’t be able to handle two full-time jobs). I still see hiring in his area - there’s a local company looking for four coop students for July-December for research work. It’s a great job opportunity but the logistics would be a problem as it is in the Boston area.</p>
<p>The current period reminds me of the late 1970s - college students and graduates were having a really tough time finding work. I happened to be in an area in high demand and was recruited after one year of college. There can be opportunities out there even in bad economic times.</p>
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<p>My son’s internship had 70 applications. I saw another computer science internship in Wisconsin a few months ago - it looked like they got some late stimulus or NSF money and needed to get a bunch of students in a hurry - don’t know whether or not they succeeded. If you’re in the right place at the right time with the right background (GPA, major, skills, recommendations), it may be that you don’t have a lot of competition. One of my nieces had two internships from Harvard and took the one that was more convenient. She will be a junior in the fall but her research experience in the summer between freshman and sophomore years working with rats probably helped a lot. I think that a lot of students are a little squeamish on working on animals.</p>
<p>Paid Internships can be crazy competitive.
Two programs in our area attracted over 2,000 applications for less than 25 slots.
Some of these slots went to kids who already graduated…I don’t remember that being an issue in the past. Those graduates usually got real jobs…<br>
The last internship my son applied for attracted hundreds of apps…he was one of the top three going into the final stages. The job was canceled.
I think he would have done better if he was more flexible about living somewhere else. Lesson learned…
Not looking forward to next year!</p>
<p>My D was offered a prestigious job at The NY Lawyers Association. There were 250 applications – all from elite college graduates. It was quite a feather in her cap to be offered the job.</p>
<p>The problem? She was offered 4 hours a day @ $12 an hour. She can’t commute or make rent on that.</p>
<p>She was in the third round of interviews for another wonderful job. The funding dried up.</p>
<p>That’s it. Two nibbles with 200 resumes sent to specific jobs. Maybe science is easier than social sciences, but it’s a tough world out there right now.</p>
<p>She is working part time for her College Provost and commuting, but the job will end in September.</p>
<p>She wants to go to law school but various factors came together to prevent her going next year. And truth to tell, lawyers aren’t being hired either.</p>
<p>So, when we saw how things were going in late June she found a program at King’s College, London (where she’d been for study abroad) and she’s going to get a one year masters there from the school of law. The tuition is less than half of a US masters. </p>
<p>We hadn’t expected to fund a graduate degree, but she has made remarkable efforts, and I don’t want her to lose momentum, so I am encouraging her to go.</p>
<p>The masters is in “Human Values and Global Ethics” and it lays the foundations of international law. I hope it’s useful in the future. If not, it gets her through a very difficult time.</p>
<p>I need to assert, SHE CANNOT FIND A JOB.</p>
<p>I am thinking of FDR reading this and the old “fear itself” line. I think we all have to avoid freak out mode. </p>
<p>My DH sees many parents at his company pushing to get their kids hired. Don’t blame them a bit but it’s just so depressing.</p>
<p>This seems to be where networking comes into play. One of my grad school professors always told us “if you’re going threw the HR department you’re doing something wrong” and that seems to hold true. The students landing jobs are the ones that are pulled threw the system by a hire up as opposed to pushing their way threw HR.</p>
<p>Good luck to all the recent graduates. It’s rough out there.</p>
<p>I’m sad to see of all these college grad kids with $10 / hour offerings … my rising hs junior makes $9.25 / hour working retail at the mall!</p>
<p>Sadly, it’s what the market will bear, Pizzagirl. Salaried jobs in 2007 became paid short-term internships in 2008 and now, apparently, many have switched to unpaid internships. I heard a radio ad recently from a local community college that is offering a continuing ed course for employers who want to learn how to structure internships. They’re doing it because they can.</p>
<p>I feel really lucky that both me (rising senior) and my sister (NYU rising junior) have well paid (well, for liberal arts folks) internships this summer.</p>
<p>I am TERRIFIED for next year. I will be visiting the career center on Sep. 1. I have strong experience, strong recommendations, etc etc, but in this market, that may not be enough.</p>
<p>Ten dollars an hour does seem unreal. I am running a remodeling project at our church - and we are paying painters $35 an hour. The electrician, $75. Both discounted their normal rates since it is a church.</p>
<p>Good painters/electricians are harder to find than an history major with no particular job skills.</p>