<p>One of the things that made EE S stand out when he applied for permanent positions in his senior year of college was that he had done internships for summer after soph year and after JR year, plus done research work during last two years. Employers considered that two years of experience and he was a top candidate, landing 3 job offers by Feb 2010. Sadly, he doesn’t get to practice engineering but is an excellent project manager! </p>
<p>I know many young people who want but are having a hard time getting full time jobs. They have majored and gotten their bachelor’s degrees in a range of fields. D has a friend who is doing very well in NYC, 1.5 years since graduation in her dream job as an editor in English and French at a major publishing house. Many of her other friends are still hoping to get full time jobs. It is a tough job market these days and a lot of part time work by employers who want to minimize benefits.</p>
<p>I feel like this thread (I didn’t read all of the posts, but I read enough to get the gist) ignores to an extent the fact that more people are going to college than really need to be. Not all the jobs in America are going to be bachelor requiring jobs, and it seems like the lower paying jobs would be a lot more livable if people didn’t have student loans to pay off. Another part of not attending 4 year college that would help is if people got into the job market sooner, perhaps taking classes at CC while being employed. Sure, the networking at some 4 year schools is great and helps line people up with jobs, but there’s nothing like getting into a company at a lower level and proving to management that you belong somewhere up the ladder. College seems to be becoming more and more of a 4 or 5 or even 6 year break from reality for many kids that can’t really afford to accrue all that debt. I’m probably not really qualified to pass judgment on people in college, but that’s my 2 cents.</p>
<p>However, a lot of the white collar jobs that do not really require the education level of a bachelor’s degree graduate specify that anyway, due to credential creep and the devaluation of the high school diploma, since that may seem to an employer as a way to filter the flood of applicants. Blue collar jobs including physical labor are a different situation, but there is a general disdain for and unwillingness to do them, even though they may require more skill and be paid more than the aforementioned white collar jobs.</p>
<p>Blue collar jobs may pay well, but they can also take a toll on the body. There is no way that a back/knees/shoulders/whatever can hold up until full Social Security in some occupations. DH is retiring at the age of 60 because he feels like his body is giving out and doesn’t want to retire in constant pain. This is a guy who goes to the gym regularly. But yes, unionized blue collar jobs can pay well, but one cannot work as long as one can at a desk job.</p>
<p>Some people just had the bad luck to graduate during an industry downturn (e.g. CS majors graduating in 2002, or civil engineering majors graduating in 2009).</p>
<p>“Not all the jobs in America are going to be bachelor requiring jobs, and it seems like the lower paying jobs would be a lot more livable if people didn’t have student loans to pay off.”</p>
<p>B-I-N-G-O. Even when I finally did get a job for over 40k a year in the South (reasonable housing costs compared to DC, NYC, SF etc) with health insurance, 401k contributions and time off I still felt pretty poor and got another part-time job due to the stupid loans. And heck my balance after 2 degrees was pretty average. I try to pay more than the monthly minimum because at over 6% interest it really sucks letting it accrue. If you don’t have a decent job (or 2, 3) when your loan payments hit it means you’re going back to your old high school room in your parents house. With the loans on people’s backs no one can get a low paid just above minimum wage job at the company of choice and work their way up. It’s either get a solid entry level job within 6 months of graduation or go back to your parent’s home. If they don’t live in a good job market either then you truly are SOL. The only option is often more loans and another degree, or apply to the rapidly downsizing military or police forces and hope for the best. Of course their are trades people could do but no one knows about them.</p>
<p>Would I have preferred to just join a union and get a job as an apprenticed crane operator or something of the sort in retrospect? Possibly. The BLS states that fully 3/4 of the new jobs being created in the next several decades won’t require a college degree. Given more than 1/3 of people graduate with bachelor degrees already, it’s safe to say there will be a lot of indebted underemployed people for years to come. And the average student loan debt for the class of 2014 is over 35k and rising rapidly.</p>
<p>As was said earlier the student loan program itself has made college unaffordable. While universities like Stanford have huge endowments that afford them to spend on state of the art laboratories, many schools are using loans to fund bloated six figure administrator salaries and pensions, fancy gyms and student spas and other frivolous garbage,</p>
<p>The government needs to either get out of the business of loaning money and let banks and the schools themselves loan out money (and the free market will weed out useless degrees and schools over time) or carefully completely regulate it like Australia at the Federal level. The crappy hybrid system is awful and essentially privatizes the gains and socializes the losses.</p>