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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He also blamed lack of summer internships on Covid, so his resume has practically nothing on it. Is it truly this difficult to land an offer in this uncertain economy, especially this late in the school year, or is he lying to us? Or is he nearly vacant resume as a graduating senior a huge red flag? He said he has submitted his resume to dozens of posts on the college's online job portal but he never gets responses. I have no way of verifying this.

I don't get your post. He's not entitled to a job because he went to an IVY. He may not have time to apply for jobs but either way tell him to start looking or he can move back home and get any job and pay rent, even if its a store job to also cover his basic expenses like car insurance, phone, food.

[Anonymous]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jobs-new-college-graduates-2023-labor-market-openings-7195e28

he’s not alone.

[Anonymous]

Look, I don't know if OP is a troll or not. Just because DS is at an Ivy doesn't mean that he doesn't need help with navigating life. Academic skills and job-seeking skills are not the same. I would highly recommend hiring a career coach. Honestly, he could have used one two years ago, but it's never too late. Don't rely upon career services at school. If he really cannot display any enthusiasm for anything with the career coach, then he may be depressed. I still am not sure if OP is a troll because the son must have done something during the past few summers. I help my college-age child with a lot of life navigation, because no one ever did that for me.

[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?

1991 was perhaps one of the toughest years to get a job in STEM/engineering. Companies that used to hire 10+ kids from Ivies and other top schools would hire 1 from each school. To even get an on campus interview (Which was the prelude to getting invited to an onsite interview) you had to have a top GPA---think 3.8/3.9+ in engineering.

Many many kids graduating in 1991 went immediately to grad school, because the jobs simply were not there.

My spouse and I worked for a company that in 5 previous years hired 250+ new hires from college and then sent them for their masters. Our year they hired ~100. By 2 years later, they were hiring only 30.

If you didn't have a top gpa, you were simply not getting a job because they did not exist.

[Anonymous]

A good friend was like this and spent a year working as a camp counselor at a sleepaway camp and then ski patrol in Colorado. He just really wasn’t sure what to do. Ended up doing a post bac yo get pre med classes and went to med school 2 years after graduation. He now does emergency medicine out west and skis when he’s not working. Seems like a nice life.

[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.

Oh, and yes, it's a huuuuuge red flag.

+1

Yes, last years grads were the last who can complain about not having an internship due to covid.

[Anonymous]

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.

Well 2004 was very different than 1991. 1991 nobody was hiring. Spouse graduated that year, from an Ivy in engineering, and 75-80% of their class of engineers went onto grad school. Not because they wanted to, they simply could not find jobs because they did NOT exist. Go look it up and see, it was perhaps the worst year for college grads around that time frame, especially in engineering.

[Anonymous]

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.

Is this 1991?

Yeah when I graduated in 1992 a lot didn’t have jobs but it was a recession. I did internships every summer and had a job within a few months.

+1 I graduated in '92 around when the recession hit. Even my low rated no name state u had local internships that paid but weren't glamorous jobs. They were boring office jobs, but I wanted the experience and the pay. That internship resulted in my first job right out of college - $26K.

I graduated '93. Got my first internship in '91 (man that was hard to find nobody was hiring anyone). Stuck with it the next summer. Interviewed with many companies, had 4 offers but took the one with my original internship company once my manager finally got approval to hire me (they were not really hiring) for many reasons (fiancee worked there, wanted to get my masters degree and they would pay me to do that and all in all it was a great company).

[Anonymous]

Do a year-long intensive Master’s in Accounting, anywhere, preferably in-person. Apply to internships right before starting it. Will lead automatically lead to at least $75k job starting the fall after graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A good friend was like this and spent a year working as a camp counselor at a sleepaway camp and then ski patrol in Colorado. He just really wasn’t sure what to do. Ended up doing a post bac yo get pre med classes and went to med school 2 years after graduation. He now does emergency medicine out west and skis when he’s not working. Seems like a nice life.

Being an ER doctor absolutely sucks. I wouod.never, ever want to do it. Hospitals are chronically under staffed so you have to lie or call in sick to get vacation as a doctor.

[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.

That ship has sailed. He did NOT take advantage of being at an Ivy while he was there. He has a degree that doesn't lead directly to jobs it seems (non-stem), so he needs to just start working anywhere while he searches for something better. Wondering how he got into the IVY in the first place? Did he just think he had to do nothing in college, that gpa doesn't matter and he'd be handed a job in 4 years? Gpa still matters for first job, no matter where you go to college. You have to be motivated and find internships, research, unpaid internships, something to show you are a motivated person they would want to hire.
You don't just "make a lot of money" without putting in the work. While he may not have family connections, he just spent 4 years at an Ivy League school with kids who have connections, with a school that has tons of connections with alumni/professors/etc. He could have used the connections of friends/classmates but he didn't. What was the point of paying $80K/year to not excel, not find internships and utilize those connections?

[Anonymous]

Have him work beach jobs this summer and get roommates. He should easily make $30,000 - $40,000 for 3-4 months of work with a little hustle. Then he can reevaluate.

Workers at Seacrets make bank.

[Anonymous]

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.

Agree that there is no reason to panic. Especially with this year's grads, companies are being conservative with earlier hiring.

[Anonymous]

I would have helped him to get an internship like 2-3 years ago

[Anonymous]

Try:
--Teaching fellow jobs. There are other apart from TFA. TFA may still have openings though. I believe NYC has one, Baltimore
--On campus recruiting. There may still be some resume drops open. Also, go directly to the career center and work with them on the resume, employers to target, etc.
--The school itself. They probably employ students at the career center, fundraising office, office of investments, hospital system, etc.
--Paralegal jobs
--Nonprofits like Human Rights Watch/significantly smaller ones. They all have entry level jobs
--Tech companies/other company which use streamlined application systems like Greenhouse, etc. You can mass apply to at least 50-100 jobs
Network with alums to push your resume forward/ask them to provide referrals for job openings to increase your chances.
--Internships. There are a bunch of paid ones out there. Can potentially convert this to something full time
--Summer camp counselor/supervisor jobs. Something temporary to bring in some income and gain more experience. After work/on the weekends you can apply to full time jobs and network.