Life isn't fair...

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>My parents work at a local high school, and they gave me this paper. You can take this as an isolated case or a warning to stay away from civil engineering. Either way, it's depressing :(</p>

<p>(some names have been changed)</p>

<p>A photo on page four of last Friday's paper had the following words underneath: Michael Lee, a janitor at our high school, cleans...
Two readers contacted me and wondered whether he was the same person who set two school track and field records back in 2005, both of which still stand today. He was.</p>

<p>Coach Roberts tells a story of wasted talent and frustration. "He only put in the minimum required amount of work. If I said that 4 missed practices would get you kicked off the team, he'd miss three. If I said that coming ten minutes late would get you suspended from the next meet, he'd come in nine minutes late." In May 2005, he went to a party, stayed up the whole night, and took a nap during the bus ride to the track meet. When he got up, he ran a 4:23 mile and broke the old school record by six seconds.</p>

<p>The situation was no different in the classroom. Mrs. Travis, the AP Calc teacher, remembered that he was the only student who didn't take notes and admitted to not studying for any tests. When I asked her what his grade was, she said that he scored the highest in the class. He narrowly missed becoming valedictorian, and his first - and only - attempt taking the SAT resulted in a score of 1550 (at that time, a 1600 was the perfect score).</p>

<p>Even in college, his natural talent carried over and made life nearly effortless. He chose civil engineering as his major since the housing market and construction industry were booming, and he received a full scholarship and remained debt-free. His running career was hampered by injuries, but it did not affect his academic performance. Despite attending a top university, being an engineering major, and studying less than an hour for midterms and finals, he ended up with a 3.6 GPA.</p>

<p>It seemed too good to be true, and it was.</p>

<p>The Great Recession of the late 2000s robbed Lee of countless life opportunities. When the housing market crashed, it was too late for him to change his major. He graduated college in 2009, just after the job market had tanked. Unable to find work, he moved in with his parents, but they were no better off. His dad lost his job, and his parents soon lost their house to foreclosure. "Times were tough", he said. "I sent out hundreds of resumes and was desperate for any job - flipping burgers, waiting tables, or even doing the dirty work at a slaughterhouse."</p>

<p>Just when it seemed that things couldn't get any worse, it did. "I had too much pride to beg friends for a place to stay since I didn't know how long I'd be out of work and reliant on them. During my darkest days, I sold the car, relied on churches for food, and lived in a homeless shelter. After that, the only place to go is up. If you go any lower, you're dead." Over the summer, he got a job sweeping floors at a nearby school. In September, he got transferred to the school where he was once a student who received the adulation of teachers and the envy of classmates.</p>

<p>While talking to him about wasted potential and whether life would have been different if he graduated during boom times, I found that he seemed calm and accepting of his fate. "I don't think too much about that now", Lee said. "After all, society needs janitors too."</p>

2

<p>This story is a 100% BS made up by some Humanities major who is jealous that he/she didn’t go into engineering and scare others off too.</p>

<p>The tone of it alone and the word choice makes it very obvious.</p>

<p>If you believe this garbage, you’re seriously too dumb to go into the field of engineering in the first place.</p>

3

<p>Man, I bet that guy would have had sooooo many job offers if he had majored in Sociology or Women’s Studies… too bad he did Civil Engineering!</p>

4

<p>sorry but this story seems like utter ********. there is no way that a guy who graduated with a 3.6 gpa in engineering cannot find a better job than being a janitor. he should have easily been able to get into good co-op program at his school and easily found an internship or two. and doesn’t the school he went to have a career services center to help him find a job his senior year/after graduation? even my school has one and i go to some no name state university that is booming with these career programs for engineers. I would say that engineering majors at my school should have a much smoother time finding a job than any other major at my school, becuase they have a special co-op program just for them and the have their own career center separated from the other career centers. something in this story is wrong.</p>

5

<p>

It was a high school paper, not a college one.</p>

<p>

He might have gotten one or more internships, but it/they did not lead to a job. </p>

<p>

I don’t know. Even if his school did have one, the quality of career service centers vary a lot from school to school, and some of them are of very little help.</p>

6

<p>times are tough… even for a well educated person without any support what do you do?</p>

7

<p>2002-2003 and 2008-2009, were very tough years for engineers just beginning their careers.</p>

8

<p>Then clearly he should’ve tried harder to make a future for himself. Half the people studying in the fields of science don’t know of the co-ops and internships at such high levels, or if they do they don’t care enough or figure out how they can make themselves competitive for these things. You have to care about yourself and your own future because no one else is going to do it for you.</p>

<p>Also, I call BS on this story as well, but just in case it’s not, ^^^.</p>

9

<p>You think that all have you to do is try and care and you will succeed? That is pretty naive. I like your gusto, but it’s just not true.</p>

10

<p>There are plenty of talented unemployed people out there.</p>

11

<p>

What do you mean? How else is someone supposed to be successful? If you’re going to cite luck, fine I’ll concede that to a certain point, but there are lots of things to greatly enhance your chances of ‘winning’.</p>

12

<p>well if any part of this story is true, which i doubt, he probbably could not do better becuase of other problems not listed in the “article”. did he have substance abuse problems? was he convicted of any crimes that would make employeers not hire him. anything of that nature?</p>

13

<p>I also question the authenticity of the story, but if his interviews revealed his “minimum possible effort” philosophy I doubt ANYONE would have hired him. And, to be honest, it can be pretty hard to find jobs “beneath” your qualifications, as most companies will assume that they are merely a stopgap measure and that you will leave as soon as possible.</p>

14

<p>This story is 100% horse crap.<br>
If only for this line:

His fate? His FATE?</p>

<p>Is that a joke? If he graduated in 2009, that would be 1.5 years ago. Based on the whole getting the janitor job in the summer, we can assume it would have been THIS summer, since he apparently spent time living at home first. </p>

<p>Meaning he’s been in the janitor job for less than 6 months.</p>

<p>And you expect us to believe he has accepted some crock of **** “fate” after 6 months of janitorial work?</p>

<p>Besides, I know plenty of civil engineers with work. Just because the housing boom crashed, doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of other projects a civil engineer could be doing.<br>
Infrastructure has been booming (especially where I live) since the stimulus.</p>

15

<p>But note that one characteristic of the labor market is that people with long term unemployment are generally assumed to be inferior (“something must be wrong if no one hired him”, “his skills must be decayed from non-use by now”). So someone who graduates during an economic downturn and, for whatever reason (whether lack of effort or bad luck or both), fails to find a job for a while may have great difficulty finding a job in the field until the economy, or at least that part of the labor market, is really booming and employers will take anyone they can get instead of being choosy.</p>

<p>[“The</a> Recession Generation” in Newsweek](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/08/the-recession-generation.html]"The”>Recession Generation Will Spend Less for Life) may also be of interest. It notes that those entering the work force during a recession tend to earn less, tend to save more, and tend to believe that the luck (relative to effort) component of success is greater.</p>

16

<p>I agree whole heartedly with the article and it describes me pretty well. I have little regard or faith in the private sector. I save more than 1/3 of my take home pay. I have been trying for years to get a job with the federal govt because they seem to be the only entity offering a viable career for someone of my background, science grad. Even if the economy does a complete 180 I can’t see that changing the way I feel.</p>

17

<p>

The issue isn’t the 6 months of janitorial work, it’s the fact that he hasn’t done anything related to his major since mid 2009. Like ucbalumnus said, employers would be unlikely to hire him since his skills have decayed. And besides, he might be mentally worn down.</p>

<p>

Possible but unlikely. How many drug addicts are engineering majors with 3.6 GPA’s?

Once again, it’s possible but unlikely. He was still in high school in May 2005, and he graduated college in 2009. It’s pretty hard to finish an engineering degree in four years if you have to spend some of that time in jail. Even being in the legal system would be a hassle (you’ve got to hire a lawyer, show up to court, etc).</p>

18

<p>First of all, I think this sob story is written by someone with a hidden agenda. I found it very hard to believe. It is true that the economy has been down the last several years but from what I have seen, engineers in general have been doing pretty well all things considered. In fact, engineering still provides far better options than 95% of other undergraduate degrees.</p>

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<p>This quote sums up the problem with this entire story. Nobody has to accept the fate of being a janitor. Option 1 is to sit around and cry about your situation or option 2 is to decide to be ambitious and do something about it. There is always a need for skilled engineers. I’m guessing even if there is some truth to this story that the root of the problem is the individual. If you are an engineering graduate with a high gpa and you interview well and are willing to relocate, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have job opportunities. I know several engineers who have graduated in the last several years who had no problems finding work. It seems the entire motive of this article is to try and discourage people from pursuing civil engineering. My response is what better undergraduate degree could you pursue aside from engineering? Good luck with business or liberal arts or anything else for that matter especially in a slow economy. To anyone reading this thread, I would be very cautious about believing it and I would most certainly not let it discourage you from pursuing engineering.</p>

19

<p>Its a high school newspaper. End of thread</p>

20

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</p>

<p>Actually there is, but it has nothing to do with the major. It’s all about the person. My brother graduated with a degree in math and statistics. What did he do with it? Well, he sat around in a funk for about a year, disappointed that the world wasn’t handed to him on a silver platter. Then he worked as a waiter (which he sucked at) and at a plant store (which he was okay at), and then handling packages on a conveyor belt at FedEx. Long story short, he’s a janitor now.</p>

<p>And don’t think we didn’t make him well aware of his opportunities with his degree. “Apply for this job, apply for this job!” It didn’t do any use. As I said, sometimes it’s the person.</p>