<p>I was amazed that my son actually figured out about networking - or at least his friends networked for him. When his internship sophomore year fizzled due to the market crash, CMU friends found another place for him. The job he got started with a CMU buddy recommending him for an internship last year. I used to kid him about how much time he spent on line chatting to CMU alumni he had never met, but it really paid off.</p>
<p>montegut: i understand it must be difficult to have a child who doesn’t sell themselves well but it’s really important to learn how to do that, for the first job and the fifth job!</p>
<p>The apple rarely falls far from the tree so maybe parents with socially awkward kids should look to how they got going in the work world and see if there are any lessons there for their child.</p>
<p>“or at least his friends networked for him”</p>
<p>the true sign of a first class networker, getting his network to network for him.</p>
<p>great story!</p>
<p>I think this is a key statement into understanding what it takes to be successful:</p>
<p>“Really stinks, doesn’t it? Especially since he only passes his classes thanks to the free tutoring he gets from my son.”</p>
<p>life is unfair, life is a series of set backs, life stinks. Or as the Buddhist correctly state, “life is suffering”. those who succeed don’t complain, they never retreat, and they learn to use their deficits to their advantage. and guess what as they succeed they still suffer, that’s life.</p>
<p>I really don’t think he’s a first class networker at all. He’s naturally pretty anti-social, but I think the CMU culture is to look out for each other. It’s an unexpected benefit of the school.</p>
<p>“but I think the CMU culture is to look out for each other. It’s an unexpected benefit of the school.”</p>
<p>Yes, definitely. I’d hope there are many places where people do that for each other, though surely CMU kids do. When my son got his internship this summer, they asked if he knew anyone else from the school was looking. So he found a friend of a friend who didn’t have an internship job yet, and asked him if he was interested. Apparently the kid found something else in the interim, but you certainly can’t downplay networking. Whether the kid is shy or not, parents, friends, teachers can help them out.</p>
<p>Wow, that link limabeans provided was really interesting. I had no idea that scams like that existed. Not that I’m surprised…</p>
<p>I ignored this thread for a long time, because it rang too true (in my case it was daughter graduating without job). Then, a few days after graduation, she got a job! It’s a great opportunity in a not-so-great location. While she is disappointed to be in this location, she knows from all her job-hunting friends just how rough it is out there and that she would be foolish to turn it down. </p>
<p>Good luck, Emaheevul07. I’m rooting for you!</p>
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<p>Sounds like my D’s situation! But she has great benefits, a 401K and a new car that she’s already paid off–all of which she has begun to appreciate as she has matured. She talks about moving to a more cool location…we’ll see.</p>
<p>I spoke to a sister that has been out of work for a year (by choice). She started looking for work recently (she was an accountant at an M&A company for a long time) and she’s found the same things that a lot of new grads have reported - hard to get interviews; nobody gets back to you after the interview; employers are very picky about three-letter-acronyms - you must have a, b, c, d.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that the accounting business requires so much software training today.</p>
<p>Has anybody heard the radio commercials for Walsh College? They’re reading off a fake job posting, and it lists off a ton of OUTLANDISH requirements and then says, “References must include at least one living President… this posting is for a summer internship.”</p>
<p>It’s a funny commercial but it really… isn’t. In my neighborhood, it’s looking like most places are expecting a bachelors degree and 3-5 years office experience to be a receptionist. I had an interview to be a receptionist at a doctors office and got laughed out of the place because my bachelors wasn’t in a medical field. But then on the other hand, other places don’t consider you for the same job because they think you’re OVER qualified. It’s a really weird position to be in.</p>
<p>We had a new hire start yesterday. Phd from a good public school. We seem to be hiring mainly Phds from non-elite schools instead of BS grads from elites (we did a lot of that a few years ago). It may be that the MS is the new BS and the Phd the new MS.</p>
<p>^^what type of business hires Phds but use to hire BS grads for the same position? </p>
<p>I’ve ruled out health care, higher education, engineering, and labs…what biz are you in where a BS and a Phd can be interchanged?</p>
<p>Software engineering.</p>
<p>^^wow, that’s interesting. big company??</p>
<p>I don’t see that at Cisco but then most of the young software engineers are not US citizens, they are from India, yet they do work in North Carolina…it’s a global economy in software</p>
<p>Huge company. The last three engineers hired are from China. The one before that has an MS from MIT (US Citizen and URM). We still have a few positions to fill and my guess is that they will be Phds. The one potential downside in hiring Phds is that they will miss research and we’ve lost a few of these folks that decided to return to doing research.</p>
<p>Frazzled S has friends (US citizens) who passed up opportunities to attend elite schools in order to take advantage of scholarship and undergrad research opportunities in science and engineering at honors colleges. Many found that by the time they graduated, recruiters for the types of BS level jobs that interested them were primarily interested in grads from elite schools, so quite a few decided to go straight to funded grad school programs and have been hitting the market around now. </p>
<p>Others did attend elite schools, but found that in many areas of engineering the MS is now considered the entry level degree for research work, so quite a few of these also went to funded grad school, especially if they did not have large loans to repay and could be comfortable on a stipend.</p>
<p>And still others worked for a couple of years but got caught up in one or more lay-offs and find themselves back in school. </p>
<p>In this economy, I would expect that both newly-minted grads and unemployed workers in their forties and older are competing with these types of job-seekers, many of whom are still young enough to be mobile (and likely to be single), and would accept lower salaries than was once the case just to stay employed in a down market.</p>
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<p>Those PhDs aren’t starting at the same salary that you would start a BS person, are they?</p>
<p>No, they get paid quite a bit more.</p>
<p>The last time I wrote a recommendation for a promotion was for a Phd hire and he was being promoted from a Senior Software Engineer (SWE 3) to Principal Software Engineer (SWE 4) and this was only after about 18 months. I don’t know whether he came in as an SWE 2 and was promoted to an SWE3 and that this was his second promotion or if he was hired in as an SWE 3. Undergrad hires come in at SWE 1.</p>
<p>@HPuck35 (OP)</p>
<p>I noticed that your profile says “southern california.” Might I ask what university your son goes to? Perhaps UCLA?</p>
<p>I go to UCLA (2nd year) and the reality is that engr. undergrad here (esp. in mechE. Personally, I’m civilE.) is all theory, almost no labs or “hands-on” that is part of the curriculum. The only thing valued by employers is what you do outside the curriculum, since the only thing the degree says is that you were able to drudge through “theory” classes for 4 years. Well, a UCLA engr. bachelors is perfect for going to grad school, but no so good for anything else. In that light, a masters from cal poly would presumably turn the tables somewhat.</p>
<p>I suppose that is why many of the engineering majors I know do internships at companies…to give them (and their resumes) a bit of worldly experience.</p>