<p>^ ^ </p>
<p>That assumes the industry which employs those “purple squirrel” STEM graduates didn’t hit a bust cycle as my engineer uncles experienced.</p>
<p>I know 9 recently graduated STEM majors, funny all actual Engineers. Civil, Chem, Mech.
One 2011 Cal Tech Mech E working as internet loan processor.
The other 8 are 2012 grads, NONE working. Funny how the media can taint a job outlook market as being an industry for jobs.
One of the above is taking a non paying 4 month course, had to sign a 2 year employment agreement to work for tech hiring firm. Wont guarantee a job, but a 2 year contract? Seems awfully suspect to me. Another kid applied to 4 similar looking ads, when contacted, the interview address was the same for all 4 ads, but different floor within building. These kids better protect their information/identity, many people could take advantage of desperate young people. </p>
<p>I guess these kids aren’t purple squirrels.</p>
<p>I CRINGE when I read/hear the jobs are all in healthcare.I work in healthcare.
The jobs that are currently available in healthcare are:</p>
<p>LOW PAYING orderly/ancillary staff jobs.
A friend who is second career person BS in Nursing, said local hospital was hiring, 100 RN’s interviewed for 3 spots. She only got the spot because she worked as an nurse’s aid while in nursing school. The other new grads, all fresh out of school and as far back 2010 grads non have been able to get jobs as nurses.</p>
<p>So when politicians say we need to spend more on education to eliminate unemployment and have a more competitive 21st century technological workforce, they are actually LYING? I am shocked …</p>
<p>(And that assumes spending on education actually goes towards academics.)</p>
<p>^ I suspect those 9 unemployed engineering grads have either poor gpa, no internships, or weak social/interview skills. </p>
<p>Everything I hear or read says engineering grads strong on all these points have no problems getting jobs.</p>
<p>^^^
We’ve hired about 25 to 30 or so entry level engineers in the last year and a half. And they all tell me their classmates are finding jobs, although it takes them a little while in many cases. Anecdotal I know, like virtually every post on here.</p>
<p>There seem to be different criteria for entry level vs experienced. Vastly different. Entry levels aren’t usually required to be purple squirrels, but may not get the job because they’ll bolt in a year or two to a better place. Experienced folks are the purple squirrels and good luck there. </p>
<p>One also sees the strange phenomenon of lots of hiring in one side of the building and people walking out with cardboard boxes in the other. We just had a 10% layoff while we actively recruit new hires. The skill sets are fairly similar, but why retrain?</p>
<p>Ultimately, most new hires we get will bolt after a few years, unless they’re going thru H1 to green card paperwork (in which case they’ll bolt a few months after green card). So, we’re at the envious position of having TONS of old people (myself included) and a few young people, and nobody in between 30’s and early 40’s.</p>
<p>samiamy,Your experience isn’t what I know either. My 09’engineer son and his friends all seem to be gainfuly employed. My '13 engineering son had an internshop this summer and already has been offered a job with this employer when he graduates.</p>
<p>HP is laying off some 27,000 people and HP is a tech company - I have to think that there are a fair number of engineers in those numbers - I used to work with a lot of the guys that are in HP now.</p>
<p>Is that 27K in the US or worldwide?</p>
<p>What does HP engineer recently?</p>
<p>In theory, 27k worldwide. In practice, 26995 in the US and 5 abroad.</p>
<p>Glad you have the inside track on this as usual turbo. Did Meg Whitman call you personally?
I’m certain the actual plans can be found somewhere.</p>
<p>No the engineers did not have any of those 3 negative things. In fact the lowest GPA in the bunch was 2.9. In fact the most telling similarity between them, they are all living in the northeast, originally preferred to work stay there, and are all females.
The other attribute they all have is they are anything but the typical “Engineer”, very outgoing personable, and they have all said it was a waste of their time and talents. Their male engineer friends have not had the door slammed in their faces as they have. </p>
<p>They do all say their peers did tend to relegate them to coffee gophers when working in school/internships. Sexism alive and well in the engineering field.</p>
<p>Wow, these 9 female engineering majors you know all seem to have had incredibly bad luck. One of the former roommates of my kid was a female engineer and she has been very successful at 3+ years out of schol. That is anecdotal of course, but I would hope that female engineers would be in demand. My husband is an engineer also and has worked for many years with a female engineer who also has been very successful. That is certainly a shame that these 9 have not had success.
My younger son was on a project this summer with a Cornell female engineering student and they were both offered full time employment for next year at the end of the internship.</p>
<p>samiamy, What is the typical “engineer” to you? You imply the female engineers did not get jobs because they were outgoing and personable. My sons are both outgoing,personable and athletic and none of these things has prevented them from getting jobs.</p>
<p>I think the unique point about bio majors versus other majors within the STEM field is that bio uniquely is the most common UG degree for those planning to go to med school and when those plans end up changed either because the student changed her/his mind about going to med school or because he/she wasn’t accepted, there the person is with the bio degree no particular field of interest anymore. They then sometimes compete for the lab jobs available and that supply and demand has an effect on wages.</p>
<p>STEM shouldn’t be lumped together anyway since there are such diverse areas within it.</p>
<p>As a recent bio grad, I think you just have to be more creative and diversify your skill set outside of just ‘lab’ skills. I was hired in at a Fortune 500 consulting firm that most business grads would give a left arm and leg for despite not having a business degree and not having experience in that field. Why? This firm likes that STEM majors can learn quickly and, while they do require some business type of training, they tend to be better analysts and produce better results.</p>
<p>Take chemistry out of STEM, too, along with biology. Job prospects for organic and medicinal chemists are bad and will remain so until all those pharma jobs come back - which could be decades from now.</p>
<p>I think American kids should learn all the math and science they can, but not necessarily because the job prospects are good.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That begs the question: are job prospects universally good for any major currently? It seems to me that even in the more marketable majors one needs to graduate in top half of one’s class or have multiple internships on record or have a personalty that can sell ice to the Inuit.</p>
<p>Meg won’t return my calls but Google reveals it’s an even 9,000 a piece for US, Europe, and rest of world, and also that India will continue to ‘see growth’ and will likely not see cuts.</p>
<p>Now, I’ve been around a layoff round or 12, and Mrs. T. did work for the company that is causing heartburn to HP after they were swallowed up by HP (??) and I’ll say that in this day and age, if 1000 positions are announced as cut, in practice it’s more like 1200-1300, if not more, in practice it’s mostly salary and wage specific (cut the high earners), and in practice such massive cuts don’t usually work long term.</p>