<p>^^It used to be said that Simmons College in Boston’s main draw was that its campus is adjacent to Harvard Medical School.</p>
<p>BTW, Simmons was and is an excellent small women’s university. </p>
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<p>My DD started her freshman year, this fall, and I’ve been gently prodding her to attend the big fall career fair. We’ve gotten her a new outfit, she’s going to use the career resource center to work on a resume and elevator speech, and finally she’s signed up to met with the recruiters at the fair. The point, as I’ve told her, isn’t so much to land an internship as a freshman, but to start mastering the process and becoming more comfortable talking with recruiters (and finding out what skills/experiences they are looking for in a potential intern/employee). </p>
<p>Do NOT wait till you’re a senior!</p>
<p>“Is a Degree Still Worth It? Yes, Researchers Say, and the Payoff Is Getting Better”</p>
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<p><a href=“http://chronicle.com/blogs/data/2014/09/05/is-a-degree-still-worth-it-yes-researchers-say-and-the-payoff-is-getting-better/”>http://chronicle.com/blogs/data/2014/09/05/is-a-degree-still-worth-it-yes-researchers-say-and-the-payoff-is-getting-better/</a></p>
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<p>In other words, it’s even worse if you don’t have the degree. </p>
<p>"And yes, it is a “pink collar” job – my d. does feel she would have had a leg up in the employment field if she had been male. "</p>
<p>@calmom - I’m not sure where your DD is working or what field she is in however at least where DH works they have programs in place that make sure that they hire and promote women and minorities. Most large companies do. If the company your DD works at truly does discriminate against women than it’s not the best place for her.</p>
<p>My company has male administrative assistants- not a big deal at all and not a pink collar job. A talented Admin can get promoted into a wide range of other jobs; we post all openings internally before we look outside. This is the norm at most large corporations.</p>
<p>Both my kids, even the one who hasn’t graduated from college yet, have jobs with living wages, the graduate is doing way better than any of these articles would indicate. Both work hard and have for years. </p>
<p>I don’t believe the work isn’t out there for someone who likes to work. All of my oldest’s friends have found great jobs and all of them graduated in the arts. Actually, the only two who haven’t found jobs are the ones who are STEM grads “holding out” for better opportunities. I hope those opportunities show up soon. Otherwise they are going to fall behind the ones who took the personal assistant jobs and have already been promoted out of those.</p>
<p>The oldest worked as a PA to a creative director all through college. Now she’s a creative director. I said this on another thread, but I will say it again. Unless a kid is in engineering or math, and maybe even then, work experience during the college years is invaluable, even if it’s total scut work, even if it’s getting dry cleaning and coffee.</p>
<p>@MichiganGeorgia - my daughter’s opinion about barriers to women isn’t specific to where she works, its based on her experience LOOKING for work after she already had 2 years’ full time employment under her belt and was looking for job #2. She got call backs from certain type of jobs and not for others where she was clearly well qualified, and she could get a sense pretty quickly at an interview as to what the employers had in mind.</p>
<p>There is still plenty of gender-based discrimination, and it is pervasive. It is not overt, but if a company has a “program in place” to hire women and minorities it is because that company is aware that it’s got a problem already with their numbers. That “program” is there to fix a perceived problem – and it tends to be needed because of longstanding biases in hiring. </p>
<p>@blossom: (“My company has male administrative assistants- not a big deal at all and not a pink collar job”) — what’s the ratio? The point isn’t’ that 100% of the administrative assistants are female-- there are also many male elementary school teachers and male nurses - but those occupations are still perceived to be women’s jobs, and it is easier for women to get jobs in those fields than to break into male-dominated fields. </p>
<p>From the article:</p>
<p>“There’s a greater supply of college graduates than a demand for college graduates in the labor market.”</p>
<p>I think there’s a lot to this. The market for many professionals is relatively small. For example, how many clinical psychologists do you know? There just aren’t that many job openings for this, as far as I am aware.</p>
<p>What type of major is Sally (or Billy) choosing?</p>
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<p>That’s an awful lot of psychology majors. </p>
<p><a href=“Fast Facts: Most popular majors (37)”>Fast Facts: Most popular majors (37);
<p>Lots of interesting trend data is available. For example, for 1970-71, 839,730 bachelor degree’s where conferred (US Population in 1970 was 203+ Million) of which 21% where in education. Compare this to 2010-11, with 1,716,000 bachelor degree’s (US Population in 2010 was 308+ Million) of which 5.9% where in education. Engineering and computer sciences have gone up from 6.3% to 8.1% (not a significant increase).</p>
<p>EDIT:</p>
<p>While bachelor degree’s increased by about 50%, Masters (235,564 to 754,229) and Doctor’s degrees (64,998 to 170,062) increased by about 300%. </p>
<p>Correction: Bachelor’s degree’s increased by about 100% (while the US pop increased by about 50% during the same time period).</p>
<p>But a degree in psychology doesn’t mean you become a psychologist. Ad agencies hire people with degrees in psychology for positions in market research and media buying; banks hire people with psychology degrees for roles in human resources and client relations; insurance companies hire people with psychology degrees for jobs in claims support and analysis.</p>
<p>And Master’s level psychologists become HS guidance counselors, gets jobs as case managers or claims reviewers at hospitals and HMO’s, etc.</p>
<p>This is a more comprehensive article I read a while ago concerning Peter Cappelli’s research:</p>
<p><a href=“Inquirer.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes”>Inquirer.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes;
<p>When the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School speaks, I do tend to listen.</p>
<p>" It is not overt, but if a company has a “program in place” to hire women and minorities it is because that company is aware that it’s got a problem already with their numbers."</p>
<p>@calmom - Not all companies have a program in place because of a problem with their numbers. Remember it’s against the law to discriminate. However it sounds like that your DD has run across some companies that need to have a program. </p>
<p>And some companies have a “program in place” because even though they DON’T have a problem with their numbers, their business model requires a significantly more diverse population than statistics would suggest. If you are a company marketing consumer products to new moms, just to pick an example, you need to make sure you’ve got more than your “fair share” of new moms weighing in on your strategy, marketing plan, execution, packaging, etc. Some companies go above and beyond because it’s smart business, not because there’s a problem…</p>
<p>Here is an article on women in the video game industry . In part in says
“Nationally, 18 percent of computer-science graduates were female in 2010, compared with 30 percent about 20 years ago, according to a recent National Science Foundation study.”</p>
<p>I was shocked as a former Computer programmer. I thought that there would have been a higher percentage of women going into CS now than 20 years ago. Why isn’t “Sally” picking CS anymore? </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140908/BIZ01/309080011/Women-score-jobs-video-game-industry-gender-gap-persists”>http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140908/BIZ01/309080011/Women-score-jobs-video-game-industry-gender-gap-persists</a></p>
<p>Some people are way too choosy, got to grab ANY job and use it as “spring board”. This is based on my history of being at job #9, which is by far is my best position (and I hope the last)</p>
<p>…another comment is that there are always affordable options for every family, including “free” option. Apparently, Sally did not research this side when choosing her UG, wich has resulted in student loan debt which is avoidable with proper research. And definitely job market analysis has to be performed when they are back in middle school as HS may be a bit too late for them to change their mind.</p>
<p>^ For the most part I agree with you however while I don’t know any Foster care kids. I would imagine that they probably don’t have a “free” option. </p>
<p>Why not? </p>
<p>I assume the free option is living with their parents. Unless I’m wrong in most states they “age” out at 18 or when they finish high school. Maybe someone who actually is a foster parent or works with them could answer that better.</p>