Lots of friend's kids aren't getting jobs post college. Is this common?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very few places are willing to rent to groups of young professionals anymore.

So you're out of luck if your parents can't pay you rent and you're only making $30,000 , have to pay $1000 in rent/utilities as well as $500 a month in student loans. It makes more financial sense to stay with mom or dad for a few years.

That's a violation of fair housing laws. If they have the financial ability, they cant' deny their application.

Usually 3-4 young people all with full-time jobs more than meet the income requirement combined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel that this is a consequence of helping our kids with everything, teachers who are afraid of the fallout if they fail a kid, kids always being given extra credit opportunities if they failed at something. That just isn’t real life. When you get so used to having things given to you, or laid out in such a way that it’s impossible for you to fail, you lose out on sharpening the tools of competing, working for something, earning your place. Many kids today just haven’t had to really EARN anything. I coached a collegiate sport and even in college, sure, the kids have a difficult test or something, but the professors and the school hold 17 review sessions and give them all the answers in advance. That’s not teaching any kind of skill other than memorization. It’s not working to help this generation.

As a teacher, I agree with you. A lot of parents just don't understand this, however. Then they get in administration's ear when they believe their child has been slighted in the slightest way and admin challenges our decisions because they don't want to have to hear about it. It's a vicious cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel that this is a consequence of helping our kids with everything, teachers who are afraid of the fallout if they fail a kid, kids always being given extra credit opportunities if they failed at something. That just isn’t real life. When you get so used to having things given to you, or laid out in such a way that it’s impossible for you to fail, you lose out on sharpening the tools of competing, working for something, earning your place. Many kids today just haven’t had to really EARN anything. I coached a collegiate sport and even in college, sure, the kids have a difficult test or something, but the professors and the school hold 17 review sessions and give them all the answers in advance. That’s not teaching any kind of skill other than memorization. It’s not working to help this generation.

As a teacher, I agree with you. A lot of parents just don't understand this, however. Then they get in administration's ear when they believe their child has been slighted in the slightest way and admin challenges our decisions because they don't want to have to hear about it. It's a vicious cycle.

As a parent of a 21, 17, and 14 year old, I also agree. One other thing I've noticed is that parents don't do anything to help manage their kids' expectations about what it means to get started as an adult. We made our oldest live at college, although he could have commuted, because he didn't want to have to live somewhere that wasn't as nice as his room at home. Parents have to be willing to let their kids know and experience the life of a young, "poorer" person rather than helping them expect that they're entitled to at 22 what it took their parents a lifetime to achieve.

My oldest graduates in December and will start a professional job in his field in January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet we are hiring computer science majors straight out of undergrad at $70k a year and can't find good candidates. Gpa of 3.5 and above and certain languages and some experience: college class project counts if they did a significant portion themselves and can talk about it. Oh and take and pass a programming test we give.

Increase the pay and lower expectations, that's what we had to do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet we are hiring computer science majors straight out of undergrad at $70k a year and can't find good candidates. Gpa of 3.5 and above and certain languages and some experience: college class project counts if they did a significant portion themselves and can talk about it. Oh and take and pass a programming test we give.

Increase the pay and lower expectations, that's what we had to do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did these kids have internships? I graduated the class the spring after 9/11 and everyone I knew got jobs because they already had internship experience. If you just messed around every summer, no you are not going to get a job easily after graduation.

Good point but please remember that not everyone can afford to do an internship. Internships are often unpaid & some students have to earn money for their college expenses during the summer. Plus, even if the internships are paid, they are often located someplace that would require the students to spend a good deal of money on rent over the summer.

Your second point (rent) is accurate. Not sure about the pay point. My DCs internship paid more than his previous summer jobs. Some of his friends had internships where the pay was based on an $80k salary equivalent. One friend had a high paying internship in Silicon Valley that also provided housing. And these are kids at a state flagship university not fancy Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience the real issue is that they're not willing to take jobs "beneath" them. They come out of college expecting to earn at least $50K without any prior work experience and then want to be rewarded/promoted for doing the basics of their job. Their outrageous expectations and entitlement have led them to believe that no job at all is better than a lower paying job.

This. My brother who’s in his late 20swas like this. So frustrating

+1 and some of them are not willing to reallly "pound the pavement". I have a nephew like this.

However, I have a niece who has a masters in a LA field, working for $35K/yr. So, she took a job waitressing on the weekend. At one point, she was working three jobs while in college. But, even with that, her mom was helping her out by paying her cell phone bill. I think helping out a little bit is ok, but if they are still living at home and the parent is paying for travel expenses and car insurance? That's too much. At the minimum, I'd make them pay a bit of rent if they were living at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All depends on a college degree. If you have any kind of tech, science or anything dealing with numbers degree you are in good shape. Sociology or Art History, well not so much.

+1. If one of my kids comes home from college announcing the intended major is Women's Studies, or something equally inane, that will be the last day they see a penny for tuition. After I stop laughing at them, of course.

bingo. My kids all had job offers by winter break of their senior year. But they majored in ...wait for it...marketable subjects! Accounting, chemical engineering, and HR management.

I have a degree in philosophy. I graduated 10 years ago. I make around $250k. Obviously some of my friends who went into finance or big law are doing better financially but I feel pretty good about my situation.

You understand that you are an outlier, right? People are hedging their chances. It's like saying you are going to rely on becoming a pro-athlete or movie star. Do some people make it? Sure, but it's a tiny percentage.

You have a much better chance of getting a job in fields like accounting and CS without a master's degree than in philosophy.

[Anonymous]

The cell phone bill thing isn’t really “helping out”. We have a family plan. My kids phones add I think $25/month, so maybe $30 something with taxes. One will start paying her portion soon but it doesn’t make sense for her to get her own plan. It’s really more about the oddities of cell phone pricing than parents subsidizing their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cell phone bill thing isn’t really “helping out”. We have a family plan. My kids phones add I think $25/month, so maybe $30 something with taxes. One will start paying her portion soon but it doesn’t make sense for her to get her own plan. It’s really more about the oddities of cell phone pricing than parents subsidizing their kids.

I was on my parents' family plan until after I got married...at age 33. I owned my own home with my fiance and we were completely financially independent. It was just one of those things that my luddite parents considered too much of a hassle to change. My dad joked that it was my dowry. When we upgraded to new iphones I finally dropped from my family plan and got on a new family plan with my new family.

[Anonymous]

I completely call BS on the posters who are blaming the grads.

The issue is that entry level white-collar jobs are being replaced with unpaid internships and HB-1 workers (who also take mid-level jobs). People have to spend years working for free before getting a toe in the door. The government isn't hiring entry level workers. Consulting and accounting firms demand graduate degrees so you have students who are taking a gap and preparing for grad school that are living at home. Unless the job requires a license, I think it's barrier to entry requires unpaid labor in the form of internships, etc.

I even see it with my kids. One kid wanted to work in PR. Well, it required two years of unpaid internships while she bar tended and lived at home before she finally got a job making 45K a year with benefits. She's plugged away and now ten years later makes about 80K at a trade association and has saved enough to move out and buy her own place.

My other kid is a PA. He was in a BA-PA program so he didn't get a break. He started at 80K and makes 120K now. He has loans from grad school, but didn't need to live at home because he made enough to support himself from the jump.

[Anonymous]

Ugh this is all so depressing. I hate what the world is turning into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely call BS on the posters who are blaming the grads.

The issue is that entry level white-collar jobs are being replaced with unpaid internships and HB-1 workers (who also take mid-level jobs). People have to spend years working for free before getting a toe in the door. The government isn't hiring entry level workers. Consulting and accounting firms demand graduate degrees so you have students who are taking a gap and preparing for grad school that are living at home. Unless the job requires a license, I think it's barrier to entry requires unpaid labor in the form of internships, etc.

I even see it with my kids. One kid wanted to work in PR. Well, it required two years of unpaid internships while she bar tended and lived at home before she finally got a job making 45K a year with benefits. She's plugged away and now ten years later makes about 80K at a trade association and has saved enough to move out and buy her own place.

My other kid is a PA. He was in a BA-PA program so he didn't get a break. He started at 80K and makes 120K now. He has loans from grad school, but didn't need to live at home because he made enough to support himself from the jump.

Nope, not true. There are tons of entry level jobs available, but I'm sure your kids just felt like those jobs weren't suitable or worth their time so they held out for something more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I completely call BS on the posters who are blaming the grads.

The issue is that entry level white-collar jobs are being replaced with unpaid internships and HB-1 workers (who also take mid-level jobs). People have to spend years working for free before getting a toe in the door. The government isn't hiring entry level workers. Consulting and accounting firms demand graduate degrees so you have students who are taking a gap and preparing for grad school that are living at home. Unless the job requires a license, I think it's barrier to entry requires unpaid labor in the form of internships, etc.

I even see it with my kids. One kid wanted to work in PR. Well, it required two years of unpaid internships while she bar tended and lived at home before she finally got a job making 45K a year with benefits. She's plugged away and now ten years later makes about 80K at a trade association and has saved enough to move out and buy her own place.

My other kid is a PA. He was in a BA-PA program so he didn't get a break. He started at 80K and makes 120K now. He has loans from grad school, but didn't need to live at home because he made enough to support himself from the jump.

I think this is really great. IMO many students don't know these options exist, or consider themselves too smart to become a PA instead of a doctor.

[Anonymous]

We have five children. Three through college. One in college. One high school senior. My college grads all live independently and make enough to be comfortable. None even live in the same town that we do. (We move a lot with my DH’s career.) My oldest is 27, married with a child, and his wife SAH.

When I read this board and see post after post discussing helping kids with homework, getting into AAP, helping with college essays, etc. I can 100% understand why your adult kids are living in your basement.