jobs are very hard to find for recent grads.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Going through the same thing here. The current job market is terrible for new grads. Hundreds of applicants for positions everywhere, many of them "ghost" jobs anyway. Entry level positions require years of experience. Career center and connections only advise to keep trying. Depressing and demoralizing.


I understand, but they need to get a job waiting tables at night and otherwise hustling to support themselves until something comes through. I'm watching my friend's retirement plans start to erode. She stretched to send her kid to an Ivy, and now the kid is several months post-grad with no job and asking my friend to cover living expenses. Instead of applying for jobs a senior year, the kid was off-traveling in a study abroad program. She vents to me, and I am getting angry on her behalf, suggesting she give the kid another month and then cut the cord.


Agree. I graduated early 90s, took 15 motto get a “real job “, but I waitressed and worked retail in the meantime. Made bank at the restaurant!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:In order to make 84K/year (post-tax money), you have to be a GS-13 step 4. That will take about four years to get there. Therefore, you run a deficit in the first four years. Let say you attend CMU on student loan of 300K, it is not a wise idea to take that government job. Just saying.


DP. I started out of school as a GS-9 and ended up as a 15 after 8 years before leaving and now make $260k. Plus government has student loan repayment programs. GS-7 is not beneath a new grad, even one that went to an expensive school.


GS-7 is NOT beneath for a new grad but it is also not a good idea to get that GS-7 job if you have 300K in student loan from CMU.

As of August 2024, federal student loan interest rates range from 6.53% to 9.08%. For example, if you had $300,000 in federal student loans and paid them off over 10 years at a 6.22% interest rate, your monthly payment would be $3,364.


Except, again, there are programs for this. Income-based repayment, public sector loan forgiveness, and agency-specific student loan repayment programs. A new grad with debt looking for a job should not exclude these options.


Those don't exist for private loans and you can't take 300k in federal loans as an undergrad
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I dunno. Im hiring stem grads and cant find many qualified. 3.5 and up GPA, good class experience and willing to work in person every day. And this is for $80k and up.


We also are hiring STEM, want 3.0 GPA, US citizenship, work in the building daily.

Several promising candidates say they will only work fully remote - and their resume address is 20-25 minutes away (so it is not someone applying from Kansas).


My 20 something kid loves going into the office. Loves access to senior management and gets pulled into high profile projects.

He can’t understand others’ attitudes…though he also lives less than a mile from the office in SF.


I think it’s not good socially for new grads to work remotely. Good for your kid!
Anonymous
CS is mentioned often in this thread.

Any insight into how the market has been for new grads in accounting, finance and the like?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:In order to make 84K/year (post-tax money), you have to be a GS-13 step 4. That will take about four years to get there. Therefore, you run a deficit in the first four years. Let say you attend CMU on student loan of 300K, it is not a wise idea to take that government job. Just saying.


DP. I started out of school as a GS-9 and ended up as a 15 after 8 years before leaving and now make $260k. Plus government has student loan repayment programs. GS-7 is not beneath a new grad, even one that went to an expensive school.


GS-7 is NOT beneath for a new grad but it is also not a good idea to get that GS-7 job if you have 300K in student loan from CMU.

As of August 2024, federal student loan interest rates range from 6.53% to 9.08%. For example, if you had $300,000 in federal student loans and paid them off over 10 years at a 6.22% interest rate, your monthly payment would be $3,364.


Except, again, there are programs for this. Income-based repayment, public sector loan forgiveness, and agency-specific student loan repayment programs. A new grad with debt looking for a job should not exclude these options.


Those don't exist for private loans and you can't take 300k in federal loans as an undergrad


Missing the point. The 300k is some made up scenario from some other commenter. The point is that someone with student loans with no job yet shouldn’t exclude government jobs just because the starting pay is lower.
Anonymous
I don't understand the notion of graduating and then looking for a job. Are these kids really just applying to random jobs with no specific plan??

I spent all four years of undergrad networking, interning, volunteering and strategizing so I'd have a job post-graduation. I knew I couldn't live at home again (mentally unstable parents) so I got off my tush and worked it. I did something to build my career options every summer and every semester of college. I had plans A, B, C and D, with sub options in the wings. My resume was highly tuned and demonstrated specialization in several highly desirable skills and I had recommendations from several folks who were well respected in their industries. I received several job offers by January of senior year. Waiting until graduation or close to graduation to find a job is stupid IMO.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No idea what CMU tuition costs, but the Federal government will usually hire a CS new grad with at least a 3.0 GPA at around GS-7 pay plus the computer science plus-up (worth about 3 steps, I think).

Local places STEM majors should apply include contractors like MItre and Aerospace and IDA and CNA or government (NIST, NIH, ARL, NSWC, NRL, USPTO, NAVSEA). NSA also reportedly hires tons and tons of CS graduates at Ft Meade.

I have to believe that if a recent CS grad applied to all of those that at least some would want to interview the student.


This is NOT a wise decision or investment. CMU costs 84K/year (post-tax money) to attend and GS-7 step 1 is around 56K/year (pre-tax money) in the DMV. People do not attends CMU for a GS-7 government job.

Jeez Louise. It doesn’t stay a GS-7 job forever.


You must be from a rich family. Unfortunately, most people do NOT.

In order to make 84K/year (post-tax money), you have to be a GS-13 step 4. That will take about four years to get there. Therefore, you run a deficit in the first four years. Let say you attend CMU on student loan of 300K, it is not a wise idea to take that government job. Just saying.


DP. I started out of school as a GS-9 and ended up as a 15 after 8 years before leaving and now make $260k. Plus government has student loan repayment programs. GS-7 is not beneath a new grad, even one that went to an expensive school.


Yes I do and you are correct. PA is a great option for instate students. My son did 3 internships while he completed his EE degree and I believe that was what helped him.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:It's hard to be competitive in BME without a master's. It's such a specialized field.


Agree.

OP: Your daughter should also consider earning a master's degree in her field. This is a common path during difficult times.
Anonymous
Why is America obsessed with graduating from a "brand" name college?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's hard to be competitive in BME without a master's. It's such a specialized field.


Agree.

OP: Your daughter should also consider earning a master's degree in her field. This is a common path during difficult times.


A lot of BME majors end up applying to medical school. The issue with BME is that electrical engineers with specialization in vision or digital signal processing have more jobs available to them. BMW majors are like a Swiss knife but none of the knives are sharp.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Networking is critical in the job search.


That’s called “corruption”.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:In order to make 84K/year (post-tax money), you have to be a GS-13 step 4. That will take about four years to get there. Therefore, you run a deficit in the first four years. Let say you attend CMU on student loan of 300K, it is not a wise idea to take that government job. Just saying.


DP. I started out of school as a GS-9 and ended up as a 15 after 8 years before leaving and now make $260k. Plus government has student loan repayment programs. GS-7 is not beneath a new grad, even one that went to an expensive school.


GS-7 is NOT beneath for a new grad but it is also not a good idea to get that GS-7 job if you have 300K in student loan from CMU.

As of August 2024, federal student loan interest rates range from 6.53% to 9.08%. For example, if you had $300,000 in federal student loans and paid them off over 10 years at a 6.22% interest rate, your monthly payment would be $3,364.


Except, again, there are programs for this. Income-based repayment, public sector loan forgiveness, and agency-specific student loan repayment programs. A new grad with debt looking for a job should not exclude these options.


This is definitely a consideration. My friend's agency paid off all her law school loans and now she's using an agency program that will pay a chunk of loans for her DD's college.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Going through the same thing here. The current job market is terrible for new grads. Hundreds of applicants for positions everywhere, many of them "ghost" jobs anyway. Entry level positions require years of experience. Career center and connections only advise to keep trying. Depressing and demoralizing.


I understand, but they need to get a job waiting tables at night and otherwise hustling to support themselves until something comes through. I'm watching my friend's retirement plans start to erode. She stretched to send her kid to an Ivy, and now the kid is several months post-grad with no job and asking my friend to cover living expenses. Instead of applying for jobs a senior year, the kid was off-traveling in a study abroad program. She vents to me, and I am getting angry on her behalf, suggesting she give the kid another month and then cut the cord.


Agree. I graduated early 90s, took 15 motto get a “real job “, but I waitressed and worked retail in the meantime. Made bank at the restaurant!


I agree you have to take any job you can. I did not get an offer immediately out of law school. I tempes and took a position in communications and until I got hired in an attorney position. It definitely made a difference at my interviews that I was out there working and had something productive to show for my time. Anything you can do to show hustle and initiative helps.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the notion of graduating and then looking for a job. Are these kids really just applying to random jobs with no specific plan??

I spent all four years of undergrad networking, interning, volunteering and strategizing so I'd have a job post-graduation. I knew I couldn't live at home again (mentally unstable parents) so I got off my tush and worked it. I did something to build my career options every summer and every semester of college. I had plans A, B, C and D, with sub options in the wings. My resume was highly tuned and demonstrated specialization in several highly desirable skills and I had recommendations from several folks who were well respected in their industries. I received several job offers by January of senior year. Waiting until graduation or close to graduation to find a job is stupid IMO.


Same! After several internships, I had my job lined up early in my senior year. I felt pressure to leave school with a job. My parents sacrificed for my education, and there was no way I was going to ask them for more financial support after paying for four years of an expensive private education. I have no empathy for the kids who start looking for employment after graduation. It screems of codependency.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My sister, the Wharton grad, was selling bikes at a bike shop in center city Philly as she could not get a job. Most Wharton grads move to NYC to work and my sister did not want to do that. My Dad got disgusted and made her talk to the military recruiters.

She went into OCS. She was not planning on joining the military. She did have a good career.

The academy grads are fast tracked but Ivy grads in the military do well. She worked throughout Europe and spent a lot of time in countries that were former Soviet bloc countries that want to join NATO.


Who goes to Wharton and works in a bike shop because you don’t want to go to NYC?

As a parent, I guess I might make my kid join the military too. This is like my kid wanting to work in politics but refusing to move to DC.


Family friend’s son graduated Yale a few years back and going into military as an officer. I think his mom wants him to be a senator one day and I think he might be.


Again, a decent number of Ivy grads purposely go into the military. A decent number of 18-year-olds with few career prospects and few $$$s for college, join the military because that's a job available to them.

Very few Ivy grads join the military (who had absolutely no interest in joining the military) because they can't get a job. That's the point.


I think *you* are missing the point entirely. You’re claiming something as fact for which you have no data point - other than you’ve never heard of it.

Sure, they could get A job. No one has claimed they can’t find any job. But why are you so against the idea that maybe it is the best option they have wt the time? That they accepted it was better than waiting tables because it’s a job in their field? Many people on this thread are claiming their kids cannot find a job in their field at all, so maybe it was that binary of a choice.

Does it threaten your sense of superiority that an Ivy grad could, as a last resort, go into the same military as “18 year olds with few career prospects”? I have literally no dog in this fight; I just think it’s odd you are so adamant this cannot be possible.
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