<p>btw: even real jobs are tough in this economy. I just interviewed a recent Stanford (French Lit major, honors thesis) grad for a $10/hr PT admin job – essentially a glorified mailroom clerk, and he really wants to job.</p>
<p>I can relate to that bluebayou. I can recall interviewing recent grads from Harvard, Dartmouth and Smith College for minimum wage positions during the economic downturns of the late 70s, 1992 and 2002. These kids wanted to work and were not too proud to turn down what opportunities there were. Economic busts have a way of turning around and I’m sure all of these grads went on to rewarding and financially successful (however they defined that) careers.</p>
<p>Different areas have different levels of competitiveness for jobs. My sister told me her daughter walked into a Staples in flipflops and a sweatshirt and got offered a job where she lives; my son’s been to more than 100 places and not even a nibble. He’s still looking, but man, this sucks!</p>
<p>Bumping this thread. Son got a summer job today - a camp counselor- full time. He’s done work like this before. He’s happy to have something under his belt! It starts in June. </p>
<p>Question. Would it be horrible for him to still look for a job as a paid summer intern in his field of choice between now and June? There are still a few opportunities out there that he’s researching. </p>
<p>Endicott - good luck to your son - he sure seems persistent!</p>
<p>My son got an amazing job/internship at a computer firm two weeks ago. They’ll pay to fly him out to CA and give him a stipend for an apartment in addition to a very good salary. He applied for a bunch of internships that got canceled, but he’s very lucky that in his field there are still openings.</p>
<p>Mathmom, do you mind sharing which firm S will be interning at? That’s great news! My S has to pay his own airfare + his own housing but is happy to have the job & new experience with NASA.</p>
<p>Toneranger–since there isn’t that much time between now & when his job starts in June, your S might want to just offer to volunteer where he’s really hoping to get his foot in the door in his field of choice, if no internship is on the horizon. That’s what we’re urging D to do this summer.</p>
<p>My D did confirm with her private college that courses in German that she’s planning to take this summer WILL transfer and help her satisfy her language requirement when she returns in the fall.</p>
<p>mathmom – Congratulations. I hope your son got the same deal that the son of friends of ours got as a CS major at RPI back in the late 90s. His paid internship of $45K for 3 months work stunned his father, who as a second career beginning architect was making about $5,000 less than his son (and for a full year’s work). I don’t know if the tech firms are still spending money as freely as in the tech bubble years but it sounds like your son has been given a great opportunity.</p>
<p>My s took the pharmacy tech certification exam a few weeks ago so that he could get a job as a pharm tech this summer. Every place he goes is thrilled that he is certified, but then follows with “Oh gee, I wish you’d been in last week- we just hired someone who isnt certified”. He is still pounding the pavement…</p>
<p>Soph son came home yesterday. I sent him out today. One large hotel is having an temporary summer job fair. I don’t care what job as long as he has something.
He is taking one CC class. His college requires you to get pre-approval before you take a summer CC course. They also only allow it the first two summers.</p>
<p>I will be mentoring (erm, semi-tutoring?) at a local science program this summer; I’m very excited for it!</p>
<p>D finally landed an unpaid internship (but for credit) and can live with SIL. S returned to job with NPS and reported there are people with masters degrees competing for the GS4 positions (requirement - high school diploma). Now if I can only find something for the summer. Large garden and 15 lambs coming along so at least we will eat. ;)</p>
<p>After months of looking for a summer internship, I got an offer on Monday with a defense company =D.</p>
<p>I probably applied to something like 75-100 different jobs, interviewed with 8 different companies, and got only this 1 offer. And I’m super happy that I even got this 1 offer (this late in the semester too).</p>
<p>my step-daughter will be trying to get a job this summer for the first time. She thinks that all she has to do is apply and she is hired. Something tells me it won’t be that easy, particularly with all of the adults looking for summer jobs ( who can work into September when our area still has a demand )</p>
<p>Kyt–you can only work at one job during the day, so one offer is all that you need. Congrats on having the stick-to-it-iveness to apply to 100 companies and not give up!</p>
<p>After going to more than 100 places to try to get work, my son has two potential jobs–and by potential I mean, they’ll actually interview him. One is working at a local deli that is so unsanitary it makes his skin crawl. The other is picking up garbage in a park, a part time job that goes seven days a week. He would hate both of these jobs, but he would be very, very lucky to get either one of them. This really sucks!!</p>
<p>
Gee I wish we had 100 places to even consider to apply down here. Even suggested D become a field worker (chiles, lettuce, etc., not survey stuff). Was not met with enthusiasm.</p>
<p>I just heard about this site-it may be helpful to your child in securing a summer job/internship:[Jobs</a> for Change - Nonprofit Jobs](<a href=“http://jobs.change.org/]Jobs”>http://jobs.change.org/)</p>
<p>Our S, rising college senior, interned the last two summers in the IT department of a major international fast food corporation HQ’d 15 minutes from our home. The internship after freshman year was a real stroke of luck - hired about three days after applying. He was hoping to find a different company this summer whose primary business was related to his major. He filed for a number of internships, got interviewed by three, but no offers. </p>
<p>His boss from last summer asked a couple of months ago if DS was interested in coming back - at that time the answer was, in effect, not yet. By the time mid-April rolled around it was looking pretty good - and he starts back a week from Tuesday, no interview needed. Each year he’s been getting $1 more per hour so the pay’s decent. After reading about the problems students have been having, we recognize that he’s very lucky (although his performance the last two summers obviously have something to do with it!). So although we were concerned that he won’t get experience directly in his field, it’s now looking pretty positive.</p>
<p>I also want to suggest that students look into temp employment firms - our son got a job the summer after high school doing data entry type of work. If you have good computer skills there might be short term opportunities available.</p>