2024 College Graduates, how’s the job market?

[Anonymous]

3.8+ GPA in hard majors at better / best schools are doing fine. Everyone else is going to be taking BDR / sales jobs or nothing. This is the downside of partying and focusing on sports. Reality hits hard at 22.

[Anonymous]

I know a few VT kids graduating. CS major is still looking and feeling discouraged. Business-Accounting major has a job from prior internship. Environmental/natural resources one has a federal job with Fish & Wildlife.

[Anonymous]

It’s true. College needs to be taken seriously. Students should take the hard classes and work hard to do well. It’s still the best formula for success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just spoke to my kid who’s about to graduate from what’s considered on this forum as a T10 LAC. He’s got something good lined up, but says there are two camps - those who went to boarding school, who all have jobs, and those who didn’t, where there’s much less success. Read into that what you will.. btw, he’s a public school kid

100%! This is the same for ivy's (at least for Harvard and Dartmouth). Equitable admissions is just a facade and license for the elite to keep on keeping on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:just spoke to my kid who’s about to graduate from what’s considered on this forum as a T10 LAC. He’s got something good lined up, but says there are two camps - those who went to boarding school, who all have jobs, and those who didn’t, where there’s much less success. Read into that what you will.. btw, he’s a public school kid

100%! This is the same for ivy's (at least for Harvard and Dartmouth). Equitable admissions is just a facade and license for the elite to keep on keeping on.

Where are the boarding school kids getting jobs? Are their parents all CEOs and placing their kids at their fellow CEOs’ firms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My regular DMV public high school kid at a t50 has a job offer but it's really low paying. Most of his friends think the market sucks and are going to grad school, except for those that are working for Big 4 consulting firms and have had jobs since their last summer internships.

This happens at every down cycle. It's not new. And it will continue to happen in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My English major was employed within a month of graduation at $74k. Truly ignorant to keep knocking liberal arts.

Statistics is not your friend.

Some CS majors are getting jobs that pay more than $74K, but there are those who aren't.

Your kid got a job that pays $74K as an English major (and I have to wonder if they have a grad degree), but the vast majority do not.

No grad degree but admittedly coming from a top school, which helps for both CS and English.

Right, so your example is an outlier, not the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, it often does. It’s easier to apply to jobs now but they get so many applications that companies often give preference to kids someone can vouch for.

I work for a big financial service company and we have 14 SWE opening positions to fill. There are 8,200 resumes for those 14 positions. Lot of resumes from Ivies and we only interviewed 65 candidates. Out of those 65 candidates, 62 of them have "network" from current employees. It is a tough environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s true. College needs to be taken seriously. Students should take the hard classes and work hard to do well. It’s still the best formula for success.

so you're saying CS major doesn't have hard classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s true. College needs to be taken seriously. Students should take the hard classes and work hard to do well. It’s still the best formula for success.

so you're saying CS major doesn't have hard classes?

No. I’m saying kids should take the toughest classes in whatever discipline they choose and work hard to get top grades.

[Anonymous]

The CS majors I know from Columbia snd Stanford have great tech jobs starting this summer/fall.

The humanities majors I know from Yale, Georgetown and Dartmouth have finance gigs or consulting.

The kids from Wisconsin, Denison and Miami-Ohio - also all graduating shortly - are still looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Know 5 W&M grads this year and of those one is going directly on to grad school, the other have jobs lined up. Four social science type majors and one business.

How many obtained positions through parental or other connections? Which fields? URMs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The CS majors I know from Columbia snd Stanford have great tech jobs starting this summer/fall.

The humanities majors I know from Yale, Georgetown and Dartmouth have finance gigs or consulting.

The kids from Wisconsin, Denison and Miami-Ohio - also all graduating shortly - are still looking.

Yeah, how connected are the students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A plumber yesterday told me they charge $420 per hour. I was shocked inflation drove plumbing service to $420 per hour! Now how many college majors offer $420 per hour, even ten years post-graduation? And the icing on the cake is AI will not replace residential plumbing maintenance jobs!

Earlier this week, I had a plumber snake a clogged kitchen sink drain - he charged $350 for 35 minutes of effort!

+1

If your kid has any interest in hands on jobs, plumbing is a great one. But do a business degree or AA in business along with the plumbing training. Because when you are 45+, your body will thank you when you now own the business and manage it and infrequently do the actual plumbing work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A plumber yesterday told me they charge $420 per hour. I was shocked inflation drove plumbing service to $420 per hour! Now how many college majors offer $420 per hour, even ten years post-graduation? And the icing on the cake is AI will not replace residential plumbing maintenance jobs!

Earlier this week, I had a plumber snake a clogged kitchen sink drain - he charged $350 for 35 minutes of effort!

I spent $1100 today for 5 hours of work bc the main drain was backed up and the drain needed to be snaked 70 feet. Ugh- but that man worked his butt off.

You got ripped off.

No, ~$200/hour for a plumber with a large company is typical. Also, it's business where you pay for them from the time they leave the previous job until they leave your house. The 45 mins they spend driving between a job to get to you is paid for by you. So in a HCOL area, $200/hour is a typical price.
Go for a small business and you might get $150/hr (less overhead, 1 person managing the office not 15 in a large company means less overhead)