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

[Anonymous]

look into pathways internship program at usajobs

[Anonymous]

Taking some time to find yourself isn't a terrible thing. Once his friends are gone and he really has nothing to do, that motivation will probably kick in.

[Anonymous]

Paralegal for a few years and while he’s there he can think about going to law school. He can get in directly or through a staffing agency.

[Anonymous]

I graduated from a mediocre state school with a rubbish GPA and no internships and I did fine.

If he's interested in living in DC have him apply to trade associations. The pay sucks at first but they'll take anyone with a degree and definitely don't care about GPA. Work-life balance is great and if you're halfway intelligent it's easy to get promoted.

From there he can transition into government, consulting, other nonprofits, pretty much anything that doesn't require professional licensing. Or if he sticks with it higher up people in associations can make perfectly decent money - Directors and VPs are usually in the mid to high $100s and Presidents/C-suite can make $200-$500K depending on how big the association is.

[Anonymous]

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

What did he do all summer? He didn't volunteer or intern? He lived under your roof with no job and just relaxed and you paid for everything? And then he returned to school and didn't have a job or play sports or join clubs and you again, just paid for everything?

When I graduated from Williams over a decade ago there was a kid who I knew who was like this. He was very smart and a Econ major plus a national caliber athlete, but had no internship experience. His family hung out at their Lake House in New Hampshire all summer like it was the good old days and he just did that every summer instead of working. He was job searching in the middle of the financial crisis, so times were arguably tougher, but he did get a job around the time he graduated. He didn't get a job in a sought after destination though. He got a job at some company about 45 minutes west of Stamford, CT (not where you want to be geographically when you graduate from college). The good news is that now he is an SVP at a Fortune 50 and doing fine. Your son should try to use his connections to get his foot in the door since he doesn't have anything on his resume that will help him. He should also consider interning for a summer since he's missed out on this right of passage and doesn't have anyone who can vouch for the fact that he's a good worker. He's going to have a tougher path without a good GPA or a sought after major. Someone would much rather employ a finance major from Colby or Bucknell who interned the last two years at good companies than some Anthro major from Cornell who sat at home every summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why are you being so coy about his major and field? We could give you much better advice if we knew.

They're probably embarrassed that DS wasted his ivy league educational opportunity on something lame and embarrassing like English Lit or Philosophy.

DD is graduating from an Ivy next month and has had no issues finding internships, even during covid, or a post-grad job.

OP's son sounds lazy, tbh. Graduating from an ivy is not enough to secure a job like it used to be decades ago.

English literature and philosophy aren't lame and get you in many jobs requiring analytical skills.

It's just hard to translate these majors into job offers if you haven't interned and the economy isn't good. I say this as someone who graduated with English and Poli Sci degrees during the financial crisis whose experience was mostly doing research for professors. That really wasn't a boon when I tried to get a 9 to 5 job. Employers want to know you can do the work. And I went to a top/the top SLAC. It's just reality. I experienced it as did many of my peers from college. It was rough. I will not let my kids go down that road. I tell my husband they can major in dance or film or whatever, but there has also got to be Econ. You never know what economy you'll graduate into and going to a good school - Williams, Amherst, Harvard, etc. - gives you a leg up when job searching but not if you don't have a good major and good internships to back it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why are you being so coy about his major and field? We could give you much better advice if we knew.

They're probably embarrassed that DS wasted his ivy league educational opportunity on something lame and embarrassing like English Lit or Philosophy.

DD is graduating from an Ivy next month and has had no issues finding internships, even during covid, or a post-grad job.

OP's son sounds lazy, tbh. Graduating from an ivy is not enough to secure a job like it used to be decades ago.

English literature and philosophy aren't lame and get you in many jobs requiring analytical skills.

It's just hard to translate these majors into job offers if you haven't interned and the economy isn't good. I say this as someone who graduated with English and Poli Sci degrees during the financial crisis whose experience was mostly doing research for professors. That really wasn't a boon when I tried to get a 9 to 5 job. Employers want to know you can do the work. And I went to a top/the top SLAC. It's just reality. I experienced it as did many of my peers from college. It was rough. I will not let my kids go down that road. I tell my husband they can major in dance or film or whatever, but there has also got to be Econ. You never know what economy you'll graduate into and going to a good school - Williams, Amherst, Harvard, etc. - gives you a leg up when job searching but not if you don't have a good major and good internships to back it up.

This is excellent advice.

Are you willing to name your undergraduate school ("a top/the top SLAC"). I think that it would be helpful even though most understand that you are referring to Amherst or Williams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nephew graduated from an Ivy last year with a communication degree and no job.  He spent six months after graduation working at an exclusive golf country club.  He happened to be a very good golfer and got noticed by corporate senior management who are members at the club.  He got to play with them whenever they were short handed.  They found out that he graduated from Ivy so one of the COO gave him a job at the Fortune 500 company.  He was recently promoted to Senior Director and he is making around 285K/yr.  The moral of the story is to hustle and get close to important people.  Good things will happen.  A degree from Ivy will get people attention.

I would express the moral of this story in a slightly different manner. The moral of the story is to learn to play golf well & connect with other, older golfers.

However, I do find it incredible that you nephew is making $285,000 a year after working in a real job for just about 6 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

What did he do all summer? He didn't volunteer or intern? He lived under your roof with no job and just relaxed and you paid for everything? And then he returned to school and didn't have a job or play sports or join clubs and you again, just paid for everything?

When I graduated from Williams over a decade ago there was a kid who I knew who was like this. He was very smart and a Econ major plus a national caliber athlete, but had no internship experience. His family hung out at their Lake House in New Hampshire all summer like it was the good old days and he just did that every summer instead of working. He was job searching in the middle of the financial crisis, so times were arguably tougher, but he did get a job around the time he graduated. He didn't get a job in a sought after destination though. He got a job at some company about 45 minutes west of Stamford, CT (not where you want to be geographically when you graduate from college). The good news is that now he is an SVP at a Fortune 50 and doing fine. Your son should try to use his connections to get his foot in the door since he doesn't have anything on his resume that will help him. He should also consider interning for a summer since he's missed out on this right of passage and doesn't have anyone who can vouch for the fact that he's a good worker. He's going to have a tougher path without a good GPA or a sought after major. Someone would much rather employ a finance major from Colby or Bucknell who interned the last two years at good companies than some Anthro major from Cornell who sat at home every summer.

This is more common than some people think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew graduated from an Ivy last year with a communication degree and no job.  He spent six months after graduation working at an exclusive golf country club.  He happened to be a very good golfer and got noticed by corporate senior management who are members at the club.  He got to play with them whenever they were short handed.  They found out that he graduated from Ivy so one of the COO gave him a job at the Fortune 500 company.  He was recently promoted to Senior Director and he is making around 285K/yr.  The moral of the story is to hustle and get close to important people.  Good things will happen.  A degree from Ivy will get people attention.

I would express the moral of this story in a slightly different manner. The moral of the story is to learn to play golf well & connect with other, older golfers.

However, I do find it incredible that you nephew is making $285,000 a year after working in a real job for just about 6 months.

Exactly.  Golf allows you the opportunity to meet older golfers who can give you jobs.  Golf in itself requires a lot of hard work to get good at it and important people who play golf recognize this. The key is to take advantage of the situation when it is presented to you.  Most people are not capable of doing that. Btw, there are quite a few people at my workplace who are making 250K one year after graduation with one person making 290K after 18 months after graduation so it is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew graduated from an Ivy last year with a communication degree and no job.  He spent six months after graduation working at an exclusive golf country club.  He happened to be a very good golfer and got noticed by corporate senior management who are members at the club.  He got to play with them whenever they were short handed.  They found out that he graduated from Ivy so one of the COO gave him a job at the Fortune 500 company.  He was recently promoted to Senior Director and he is making around 285K/yr.  The moral of the story is to hustle and get close to important people.  Good things will happen.  A degree from Ivy will get people attention.

I would express the moral of this story in a slightly different manner. The moral of the story is to learn to play golf well & connect with other, older golfers.

However, I do find it incredible that you nephew is making $285,000 a year after working in a real job for just about 6 months.

Exactly.  Golf allows you the opportunity to meet older golfers who can give you jobs.  Golf in itself requires a lot of hard work to get good at it and important people who play golf recognize this. The key is to take advantage of the situation when it is presented to you.  Most people are not capable of doing that. Btw, there are quite a few people at my workplace who are making 250K one year after graduation with one person making 290K after 18 months after graduation so it is possible.

Yep. Sure. That's right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why are you being so coy about his major and field? We could give you much better advice if we knew.

They're probably embarrassed that DS wasted his ivy league educational opportunity on something lame and embarrassing like English Lit or Philosophy.

DD is graduating from an Ivy next month and has had no issues finding internships, even during covid, or a post-grad job.

OP's son sounds lazy, tbh. Graduating from an ivy is not enough to secure a job like it used to be decades ago.

English literature and philosophy aren't lame and get you in many jobs requiring analytical skills.

It's just hard to translate these majors into job offers if you haven't interned and the economy isn't good. I say this as someone who graduated with English and Poli Sci degrees during the financial crisis whose experience was mostly doing research for professors. That really wasn't a boon when I tried to get a 9 to 5 job. Employers want to know you can do the work. And I went to a top/the top SLAC. It's just reality. I experienced it as did many of my peers from college. It was rough. I will not let my kids go down that road. I tell my husband they can major in dance or film or whatever, but there has also got to be Econ. You never know what economy you'll graduate into and going to a good school - Williams, Amherst, Harvard, etc. - gives you a leg up when job searching but not if you don't have a good major and good internships to back it up.

I think this is solid advice (my sister graduated with an English degree during a financial crisis and had a rough time of it) but will Econ actually help? Are there tons of Econ jobs available at all times? I would probably push my kids to do more prep for like accounting or programming certs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew graduated from an Ivy last year with a communication degree and no job.  He spent six months after graduation working at an exclusive golf country club.  He happened to be a very good golfer and got noticed by corporate senior management who are members at the club.  He got to play with them whenever they were short handed.  They found out that he graduated from Ivy so one of the COO gave him a job at the Fortune 500 company.  He was recently promoted to Senior Director and he is making around 285K/yr.  The moral of the story is to hustle and get close to important people.  Good things will happen.  A degree from Ivy will get people attention.

I would express the moral of this story in a slightly different manner. The moral of the story is to learn to play golf well & connect with other, older golfers.

However, I do find it incredible that you nephew is making $285,000 a year after working in a real job for just about 6 months.

Exactly.  Golf allows you the opportunity to meet older golfers who can give you jobs.  Golf in itself requires a lot of hard work to get good at it and important people who play golf recognize this. The key is to take advantage of the situation when it is presented to you.  Most people are not capable of doing that. Btw, there are quite a few people at my workplace who are making 250K one year after graduation with one person making 290K after 18 months after graduation so it is possible.

You forgot the most important step - have rich parents.

You could be a scratch golfer but you're never going to meet someone who will hand you a $285K job at Langston or Rock Creek, and if you don't have a ridiculously good job already the only way you're getting into the country club is mommy and daddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew graduated from an Ivy last year with a communication degree and no job.  He spent six months after graduation working at an exclusive golf country club.  He happened to be a very good golfer and got noticed by corporate senior management who are members at the club.  He got to play with them whenever they were short handed.  They found out that he graduated from Ivy so one of the COO gave him a job at the Fortune 500 company.  He was recently promoted to Senior Director and he is making around 285K/yr.  The moral of the story is to hustle and get close to important people.  Good things will happen.  A degree from Ivy will get people attention.

I would express the moral of this story in a slightly different manner. The moral of the story is to learn to play golf well & connect with other, older golfers.

However, I do find it incredible that you nephew is making $285,000 a year after working in a real job for just about 6 months.

Exactly.  Golf allows you the opportunity to meet older golfers who can give you jobs.  Golf in itself requires a lot of hard work to get good at it and important people who play golf recognize this. The key is to take advantage of the situation when it is presented to you.  Most people are not capable of doing that. Btw, there are quite a few people at my workplace who are making 250K one year after graduation with one person making 290K after 18 months after graduation so it is possible.

And this is why things are still stacked against women. The good ol' boys golf buddies usually don't include women, especially nonwhite women.

[Anonymous]

the low gpa college do-nothings I know have always gotten jobs in sales.

you have failed your son by letting him be one month from graduation with no internships and no job prospects. i know kids like this. kids whose parents didn't stay involved and guide them a little in college ended up floundering at the end.