Ivy League son is graduating next month with a rubbish GPA and no FT job offer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I graduated from an Ivy with an engineering degree back in 1991, I only knew one person who got a job by May. We all managed to become productive citizens since. He’ll be fine.

Engineering and you didn't have any internships? No employer offered you and your friends jobs at the end of your rising senior summer internships?

No. Internships were something a small number of kids got back then, not the whole class. Most potential employers were laying people off, not hiring interns.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like law school material. At least, my top 5 law school 15 years ago was full of people who were there because they didn’t know what other next steps to take after college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has he done anything substantive to show interest in his field while in college? Did he do research for a professor? Did he join any professional societies? Intern during the semester anywhere? Work a campus job? A summer job?

It's been 1.5 years since COVID were rolled back. If he has done nothing to sell about himself, he's just lazy.

I'm his mother and I'm not going to disagree with your appraisal. Now that we have that out of the way, how does he get a good job with a practically vacant resume and one month from earning an Ivy League bachelor's degree?

[Anonymous]

It’s his major, not the economy.

[Anonymous]

You haven’t answered the question about major? Also truly empty resumes are rare. No on campus job or research or volunteering?

[Anonymous]

Usually students will have at least one internship, and summer jobs on their resumes.

[Anonymous]

He’s got to do more than just apply to random jobs on Handshake. He needs to be networking by talking to professors, reaching out to alumni for informational interviews, advice. and hopefully some job leads. Has he really done nothing? No clubs, no activities, no volunteer stuff?

What does he want to do? Does he even know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s his major, not the economy.

Kids with all kinds of majors get jobs from Ivys. It’s just that you may have to hustle a little more if you aren’t marching straight into some consulting or banking gig or whatever. There’s not an obvious well laid path that you can just continue to follow along anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s got to do more than just apply to random jobs on Handshake. He needs to be networking by talking to professors, reaching out to alumni for informational interviews, advice. and hopefully some job leads. Has he really done nothing? No clubs, no activities, no volunteer stuff?

What does he want to do? Does he even know?

+1

He also needs to stop blaming COVID for not getting an internship. Everyone went through COVID. There were internships available last summer. Even if he didn't get an internship, he could have volunteered, gotten a non-internship job, joined a major-related organization and attended workshops, and networked. What did he do last summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually students will have at least one internship, and summer jobs on their resumes.

Yeah or they’ll have something like research, on campus jobs, a project, etc

[Anonymous]

I see entry level jobs listed all the time on LinkedIn from friends and colleagues. Any of them would be appropriate for him. Are you on LinkedIn?

[Anonymous]

If he really is lazy, he probably also hasn’t been writing good cover letters with the resumes he has submitted.

Since he has no internships, work or volunteer experience or it sounds like anything relevant to employers in his resume, he’ll need to write good cover letters that talk about some skill or course he’s taken that would actually apply to the job and distinguish him from probably hundreds of other resumes they will receive.

Also, he might look into positions (not on his schools career services sites) in less popular (maybe mid-western or fly over places) where an ivy diploma would be much more uncommon and might help him get an interview. Because it sound like if he has to compete for his classmates for an interview he’s not going to be the one to get it.

[Anonymous]

If he can’t find a job, he should look for a good summer internship so he at least improves his resume while he job hunts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has he done anything substantive to show interest in his field while in college? Did he do research for a professor? Did he join any professional societies? Intern during the semester anywhere? Work a campus job? A summer job?

It's been 1.5 years since COVID were rolled back. If he has done nothing to sell about himself, he's just lazy.

I'm his mother and I'm not going to disagree with your appraisal. Now that we have that out of the way, how does he get a good job with a practically vacant resume and one month from earning an Ivy League bachelor's degree?

He doesn’t get a good job, he gets a job and builds up from there. There are plenty of places interested in hiring people with bachelor’s degrees in any field.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of jobs out there I bet he just doesn’t seem them as good enough- child protective services always needs employees (yes you can get some with a bachelor’s degree), paralegal. Hell tell him to get a job in retail and see if he can work his way up to management. That’s what my 21 year old cousin with only a HS diploma did.