Any parents out there who paid $200K+ for college, kid did great, and now can't find job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like internships are what lead to jobs either at that company or another one.
I do have a friend who paid $75-80k/year for a prestigious private NE college for a psychology degree and for the first 2 years afterward the kid has been making $40-50k, initially at a sales/customer service type job.

Because it is well known that a BA in Psychology does not lead to high paying/meaninful job in the field. You need a PHD or at minimum a masters to actually not do grunt work.
Or you simply search for jobs that only require a BA/BS and don't care your major and work from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - major was English -- a beautiful major. The world needs more English majors.... especially from schools well known for their English & humanities departments. That should translate into many jobs in media, publishing, etc. And yes, with what we paid, no guarantees, but I would expect better assistance from the career center. The kid has worked so hard looking for a job and is not willing to be underemployed.

I appreciate the tecchies, but not everyone is made to do that work. The world needs some fuzzies, too. More than ever actually.

BTW - middle class burb family that has worked hard for it.

Troll confirmed on page 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - major was English -- a beautiful major. The world needs more English majors.... especially from schools well known for their English & humanities departments. That should translate into many jobs in media, publishing, etc. And yes, with what we paid, no guarantees, but I would expect better assistance from the career center. The kid has worked so hard looking for a job and is not willing to be underemployed.

I appreciate the tecchies, but not everyone is made to do that work. The world needs some fuzzies, too. More than ever actually.

BTW - middle class burb family that has worked hard for it.

I always tell English majors to look for jobs as Business Analyst or Technical Writer. Hope that helps.

(This is more for me than for them. I am so tired of scope documents written in poor English)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I was an English major. Thinking that an English major = jobs on media/publishing is a fantasy, unless there are family connections/trust funds.
Your daughter is competing with students who majored in media/communications, and were hustling for internships and coops since freshman year. Many did communications internships for their university during the school year, possibly even for credit (so while taking fewer classes). They are graduating with meaningful experience in their resumes.

Just because your daughter rocks at dissecting metaphors doesn’t mean she’s bound to snag a job at Condé Nast. I don’t love how pre-professional college has become, BUT students need to work on resume building during college. This what what the successful job applicants are doing, and they are her competition.

College as a safe space to mature and dissect the classics in that process is a concept that worked 'back in the day' when it was meant for the gentry. College today is a means to an end. Looking at it any other way is just plain stupidity. Choose your 'end' wisely. If you go to college to study English, you are not making six figures for a very long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

OP—

This is the post you should share with your child.

—DP

You mean to tell her that she can get a job through nepotism? What if nepotism does not work out?

Read the story...he got his wife through nepotism, but she got the job on her own.

College students need to learn how to "network" when they first step onto college campuses. In the working world, connections and who you know matter a whole lot more than your GPA and the college you attend. It is very unfortunate that many students don't realize this until it is too late.

[Anonymous]

OP your daughter needs to get a job in HR or Sales and marry a professional. English degree is Mrs degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an English major at Yale. I did work all through high school and college at crappy lifeguarding/food service/office jobs, so a had a work history. My first job out of Yale paid $30K a year. My second paid 25K but came with housing. I did grad school part time during that job since they paid for part of it.

It’s many years later and I am doing fine in an interesting non-profit job. I would probably be doing better professionally but I married a Yale classmate and he ended up in a really high paying but demanding job and I am the default parent. This was my choice and I knew the career consequences. I haven’t taken as many professional chances as I might have if I was on my own, but I really like my life.

Your daughter needs to take a job, any job and get her feet wet. Your twenties is when you job hop and figure out what you want to do. There is no such thing as underemployment if it’s a step to the next thing.

Bingo. Mrs. degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - major was English -- a beautiful major. The world needs more English majors.... especially from schools well known for their English & humanities departments. That should translate into many jobs in media, publishing, etc. And yes, with what we paid, no guarantees, but I would expect better assistance from the career center. The kid has worked so hard looking for a job and is not willing to be underemployed.

I appreciate the tecchies, but not everyone is made to do that work. The world needs some fuzzies, too. More than ever actually.

BTW - middle class burb family that has worked hard for it.

The bolded sounds like the reason he can't find a job.
Also, Bachelor's in English? No wonder he can't find a "well-paid" job. That's basically the lowest rung on the ladder, and yes, the positions available will be the lowest. All the people living in my expensive neighborhood, OP, have graduate degrees.

I do not understand why you can't see this reality. And stop whining about how you are all hard-working. Those who work hard don't whine.

[Anonymous]

Why would you spend $250k for an English major if your kid isn’t planning on going to law school? Such a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

Even putting aside the nepotism, that is an extremely low population, low probability path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any parents out there who paid $200K+ for college, kid did great, and now can't find job?
Kid graduated from top 20/30 school with honors and career center was completely worthless.

Can't find a job?
Make one. That's what the expensive education was for.

Write something and sell it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - major was English -- a beautiful major. The world needs more English majors.... especially from schools well known for their English & humanities departments. That should translate into many jobs in media, publishing, etc.

And yet your experience (as well as many others) is that the world does NOT need more English majors, and there are NOT many jobs out there for them even if they attend good schools.

Lesson there for other kids who are choosing majors…

There are jobs. However, English majors have to work a bit harder to find their "dream jobs". There are not a ton of jobs requesting "English majors only apply". You might need to take unpaid internships along the way, you might not be directly using English/writing, instead might be using critical thinking in your job. You have to be creative and willing to take jobs that are not ideal to get experience and keep working towards what you really want to do. Some get there, some don't and work in other areas.

Shocking that your kid went to a T30 school and did NOT understand this when they entered college as an English major. It's not a hidden issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

Even putting aside the nepotism, that is an extremely low population, low probability path.

Do you have a reading comprehension issue?  There was no nepotism at the beginning when she met her future MIL, they were just two strangers at a random conference.  

Just because it is a low probability path does not mean an English major should not try.  You will be amazed at the number of strangers at conferences that are willing to give you opportunities.  You increase your chance of getting a job by going to as many conferences as possible, especially technology conferences.  You only need one person to give you that opportunity.  I've attended technology conferences such as Cisco Systems, Palo Alto network, RSA, Oracle, etc.... and there are so many people there.  You will get your opportunities there.  Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

OP—

This is the post you should share with your child.

—DP

hm.. I work for a FAANG, and the people who manage tech people are not English majors. YMMV.

The facts in the story weren't about managing tech people. That was a zinger at the end. The facts were about socializing/networking/self-promoting to get jobs and climb the corporate ladder into an SVP role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from University of Virginia with ZERO experience and never had a job in her life. She took off one semester in her senior year and attended as many technology conferences as she could even though she knew nothing about technologies other than powering on/off her Apple macbook. Many of the conferences let her in free of charge, I guess because of her good look, and she made her "networking" there. At one of those conferences, she met my mother, who was an SES in the federal government at the time, over lunch and they quickly became friends. My now wife told my mother that she was looking for a job so my mother picked up the phone and called one of the government contractors that reported to her and asked them if they were willing to hire someone with an English major for technical writing documentation. They of course said yes and paid her a salary of 80K per year. When my mother left the government for the private sector, she took my now wife with her and promoted her to Technical Project Manager (TPM) and her salary went from 90K to 150K. I met my wife at my mother's Christmas party and the rest is history. My wife is now a SVP at a F500 company through one of my mother's friends. It is about connections. YMMV.

The point here is that technology companies need English majors too, not just Engineering and CS. OP's kid needs to go to technology conferences and meet people and it will definitely help. He/she only needs one person to say yes and go from there. Most of the time, it is the English major people that do well in technology companies. Someone needs to manage those tech people.

OP—

This is the post you should share with your child.

—DP

You mean to tell her that she can get a job through nepotism? What if nepotism does not work out?

That wasn't nepotism. It's called networking. Something everyone needs to learn, but especially English/non-stem LA/humanities majors need to learn. You take whatever job you can get, then work your way up. Have to network more than a CS/Eng major will have to do the first 5 years to advance. But you should know this when you pick those majors. There are jobs out there, but there are not job postings screaming "English majors apply here".