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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want? Any kid with an Ivy league degree can get *a* job. Seriously.

I don't know. He doesn't know. Ideally, he'd like to make a lot of money. But I don't think he realizes the degree isn't enough? His classmates who are going to make a lot of money have excellent resumes and/or lots of family connections. He/we have neither.

He could try to get a research position with a professor for the end of semester and summer. They'll often provide on campus housing and let him stay and work. He could get a part time job as a waiter or lifeguard in the college town. By the end of the summer he'd then have two things on his resume.

If he resume is bad enough, he could not graduate this semester and retake a class over the summer with his worst grade to bring up his GPA, but that will cost you $$$$.

You can try to pull strings for him with people you know to get him an entry level job somewhere. That's what rich people do for their lazy spawn.

He could volunteer for a campaign (probably parent funded) and he could see if he can turn it into a paid position with some networking and hard work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want? Any kid with an Ivy league degree can get *a* job. Seriously.

I don't know. He doesn't know. Ideally, he'd like to make a lot of money. But I don't think he realizes the degree isn't enough? His classmates who are going to make a lot of money have excellent resumes and/or lots of family connections. He/we have neither.

Don't let him move home and stop bankrolling him. He's smart enough to figure it out. You shouldn't solve this for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want? Any kid with an Ivy league degree can get *a* job. Seriously.

I don't know. He doesn't know. Ideally, he'd like to make a lot of money. But I don't think he realizes the degree isn't enough? His classmates who are going to make a lot of money have excellent resumes and/or lots of family connections. He/we have neither.

Don't let him move home and stop bankrolling him. He's smart enough to figure it out. You shouldn't solve this for him.

At the Ivies, kids generally live on-campus, and they kick you out on graduation day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want? Any kid with an Ivy league degree can get *a* job. Seriously.

I don't know. He doesn't know. Ideally, he'd like to make a lot of money. But I don't think he realizes the degree isn't enough? His classmates who are going to make a lot of money have excellent resumes and/or lots of family connections. He/we have neither.

Don't let him move home and stop bankrolling him. He's smart enough to figure it out. You shouldn't solve this for him.

At the Ivies, kids generally live on-campus, and they kick you out on graduation day.

So he needs to figure out where to go. Make it his problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One word - Plastics.

I LOL’d

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of job does he want? Any kid with an Ivy league degree can get *a* job. Seriously.

I don't know. He doesn't know. Ideally, he'd like to make a lot of money. But I don't think he realizes the degree isn't enough? His classmates who are going to make a lot of money have excellent resumes and/or lots of family connections. He/we have neither.

Don't let him move home and stop bankrolling him. He's smart enough to figure it out. You shouldn't solve this for him.

Yes, need to discourage co-dependent behaviors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Well in 2004 my now DH graduated from a third tier school with a degree in engineering. Almost everyone in his major had a job offer by March of senior year.

Yes, folks, thanks for the history lesson. Guess what? Things have changed since 1991 and since 2004.

Well, in 1989 most of my graduating class was not able to find a job by graduation, and most of us had to work doing whatever we could find until we received that first professional break.

Schools and temp agencies are hiring OP. Lots of federal internships are also available but there is competition. There are plenty of federal problems for young college graduates and usually large Universities have career fairs in person or even virtual career fairs.

+1 goodness, younger people act like we had it easy in the 1980s early 1990s. No, we didn't. If anything, it's much easier now to apply for jobs than back in the early 90s when you literally had to cold call, go to the career center and look at the job boards, or read the want ads in the newspaper.

Right? We were broke and had to hustle. Time for him to figure this out. He doesn’t have to get his dream job right out of school. He needs a job, any job, and from there he figures out what he likes and what he’s good at, what he sucks at, and moves on from there. He won’t learn those things sitting at home waiting for the perfect internship to show up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Of course these aren’t good enough. The kid should be in some kind of professional program not working at McDonalds or CPS which is one step above.

Should be? Maybe he should’ve worked harder then.

Sounds like he needs guidance and or has some mental health issues but anyway your approach just holds him down it’s stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starbucks, McDonalds, Lowes, Home Depot, taking practical classes at a local community college that are designed to train for specific jobs.

Yeah Ivy League grad should definitely go work at Home Depot and attend community college. Jeez it’s like you can’t wait to make this guy a working class prole. Guess what: he has better options he just needs to go get one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Starbucks or equivelant while he searches for something more substantive.

He should start calling around places he might like to work and offer to be an intern, even an unpaid intern. I can’t fathom why he wasn’t doing this in college and allowed to slack but whatever, here we are. Or, teaching at a private school for the year can save face; they love Ivy grads. During that year he needs to get his ass in gear and either get into some corporate training program (these places literally recruit from ivies so he has a huge advantage) or prepare to apply to grad school while he sorts his stuff out. Why was his GPA so low? If it’s too low for grad school he should do a masters at the most prestigious school he can get into and apply with those grades under his belt.
You’ve got your work cut out for you getting him on track.
How did he have the ability and performance to attend an Ivy but not to get good grades or a job afterwards?

[Anonymous]

OP what’s his major/field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starbucks, McDonalds, Lowes, Home Depot, taking practical classes at a local community college that are designed to train for specific jobs.

Yeah Ivy League grad should definitely go work at Home Depot and attend community college. Jeez it’s like you can’t wait to make this guy a working class prole. Guess what: he has better options he just needs to go get one.

Only has the options he wants. Relative has Ivy grad degree and likes letting everyone know. I have no degree and make more in a month than he does in a year. I have zero stress.

[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.

Is this 1991?

It was probably harder to get a job in 1991 than it is today. There were less jobs and it took real effort to find jobs, apply to them and get/pass interviews. Today you just fire off your resume electronically. Pretty easy to find a job now - maybe not a GOOD job but you can find a job if you try.

[Anonymous]

Right now he's apply for job like a guy who doesn't really need a job. Cut him off and he'll figure it out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Starbucks or equivelant while he searches for something more substantive.

Why do you keep pushing Starbucks? Have you never heard of temp agencies? Those pay better wages if you have skills and get you into offices where you can make connections.