Let’s talk the reality of career resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mentioned talking with professors earlier (I think). It was not my intention to suggest professors find students employment. The onus is on the student. I wonder if an unintended consequence to viewing education using a consumer perspective contributes to learned passivity.

College costs $90k/year now and many are creeping towards $100k. It simply is reasonable that students expect some sort of job by the end. Fun and pure education with no emphasis on career placement is at odds with institutional goals of championing diversity and supporting underprivileged students. I think this is an obvious failure by many top schools, who previously relied on their students’ parents to get them jobs and an easier economy.
Education is great, but students will have to go out into the real world, and academia does not pay well enough nor does it intend on hiring more than it already does.

It is baffling to me that anyone would argue a $400k education should not have a decent roadmap to a career.

Not all colleges cost that much. You think because you paid more, your kid should be handed a job? Get over yourself and let your kid figure out how the actual real world works for the first time in their life.

DP, but we subsidize the cost of low income students at these schools because they’re elite and they’re supposed to open doors for students of all backgrounds. If they’re failing to do that, they should drop their costs and cut the crap about social equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have students at two different ivies, both in the top 10, a junior and a sophomore. Junior's longterm BF is a senior at Duke. All three schools have career services that all three have used to varying degrees for internships and career advice. One of these students is prelaw so the law advising professors as well as individual professors have been the go-to. One of the students got their internships through professor connections and also got a different internship experience through the school for the early part of one summer: that was through the school. One of these students has attended multiple CV workshops, where professors attend and advise for summer internship applications.
All three of these students ask older students at their school for advice, meet with grad students, have lunch or coffee with profs, students, etc to gather ideas and advice. Two of the three have done on campus research with professors and that has led to publication for one and a likely publication soon for the other. These connections have proved to be jumping off points for building connections that have led to summer intern/jobs. All three investigate non- school sponsored internships on their own and apply widely. One of the three is starting the Rhodes process: faculty made the suggestion and there is a full Rhodes team. All three schools have on campus recruiting that their friends have used for summer jobs, but it does not really apply at the moment to the one targeting phd nor the one targeting law school. Friends at the schools have used them and seniors do get jobs from them based on data published. All three schools have career center data that show the average starting salaries, the companies that hire, the law school matriculation data, phD placement programs, on and on. So far, all three schools have lived up to the hype, especially the willingness of professors to help, but the students go after every opportunity: they do not expect to be handed an internship or job or acceptance to grad school.

Pre law and preparing for a PhD are just radically different processes. It is so much easier to do half-decent in a professors class and get research. Your advising is done by professors around you. That’s the easiest path. A pre-professional student has to work a lot harder to set themselves up for success.

[Anonymous]

OP, you messed up by not documenting every single career move and coffee chat your child has attended; everyone is just going to accuse you of not working hard enough because this is DCUM.

The truth is that most career centers are simply lacking. The rise of Consulting clubs and IB clubs came from this reality. Upperclassmen are unironically the best resource on campus and most knowledgeable. LinkedIn is a borderline cheatcode to finding opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t agree with most of the parents here. DH and I know nothing about recruiting for tech, nor would we be of any help for our son. MIT has given him many career opportunities and basically thrown internships at his feet. His education hasn’t suffered one bit from also having career-advancing resources. That’s sort of the point of college for non academics.

I agree. It is frankly baffling that kids especially at top 10s are saying they do not have opportunities. The opportunities for summer and semester resume building experiences are extensive: these students are not doing any leg work and also must be ignoring emails: the ivy sends department emails about on and off campus paid summer (tech)internships. Some of these are not the more popular ones but there they are.

[Anonymous]

My DD is at Brown too and she gets bombarded with emails from department heads and other areas about research opportunities, internships, and even job opportunities. Your kid must not be responding to these. Handshake is widely used at Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t agree with most of the parents here. DH and I know nothing about recruiting for tech, nor would we be of any help for our son. MIT has given him many career opportunities and basically thrown internships at his feet. His education hasn’t suffered one bit from also having career-advancing resources. That’s sort of the point of college for non academics.

I agree. It is frankly baffling that kids especially at top 10s are saying they do not have opportunities. The opportunities for summer and semester resume building experiences are extensive: these students are not doing any leg work and also must be ignoring emails: the ivy sends department emails about on and off campus paid summer (tech)internships. Some of these are not the more popular ones but there they are.

+1, DS is at Pomona and everyone jokingly hates the math department coordinator, because he sends so many research and job opportunity emails, often more than 10-20 per day sometimes! I refuse to believe that OP’s son has been checking his emails, talking to professors, and going to networking events.

[Anonymous]

When I was at an Ivy, TAs were a great source of info on potential summer or entry level jobs, research assistantships etc.

[Anonymous]

I do want people to take notice that everyone combatting op hadn’t mentioned their career centers once. It actually might be a reasonable to assert that they are functionally useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read through this entire thread, but I understand OP's complaint. Seems the higher ranked the school, the more contempt it has for kids that actually want jobs after graduation vs. continuing on in Academia or other graduate school programs.

I recall I think on a Clemson tour that a student was commenting on some classes they offer where you actually work with companies to solve their actual problems (under the guidance of the professor).

The tour guide mentioned that the professor told the kids the reason the class exists is that they hope/expect participating companies to hire kids for jobs/internships which they often do.

Just a difference in the attitude of the school and what it thinks its mission is.

My son's capstone class at VT was a project with a company that also interviewed all the team members for a job and DS got a job offer that way ( also had a competing offer that he took instead). They recruit a variety of companies to provide capstone projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that every kid that I know that had a good internship either (a) started way early and applied to hundreds of jobs or (b) got it through their parents’ connections.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do want people to take notice that everyone combatting op hadn’t mentioned their career centers once. It actually might be a reasonable to assert that they are functionally useless.

I think it depends on what a student is expecting of them. If you are expecting them to do all the work and get you a job, you are the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is at Brown too and she gets bombarded with emails from department heads and other areas about research opportunities, internships, and even job opportunities. Your kid must not be responding to these. Handshake is widely used at Brown.

Kid at Penn, same. No way OP ‘s kid is dialed in

[Anonymous]

It’s easier to get research than an internship. There’s a ton of research that uses important tools- ML, Python, R, SQL, and Qubit were all needed for my DS who’s a Junior in physics. He’s already accepted an internship at Google this summer, and getting a job has been easy. Start with research, then expand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do want people to take notice that everyone combatting op hadn’t mentioned their career centers once. It actually might be a reasonable to assert that they are functionally useless.

they are useless. As always.
And extremely understaffed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s easier to get research than an internship. There’s a ton of research that uses important tools- ML, Python, R, SQL, and Qubit were all needed for my DS who’s a Junior in physics. He’s already accepted an internship at Google this summer, and getting a job has been easy. Start with research, then expand out.

+1