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.

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.

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.

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.

Not really kosher for a Fed to pressure a contractor to hire someone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Define underemployed.
English major here but I graduated before the publishing industry was decimated which helped me. Always worked in tech-related writing, initially for technology trade publications and later in competitive intelligence for the tech industry.
Great field but not easy.
I would not recommend the major today unless the student wants to write or teach. Or pick a second major (e.g. something business-related).

40 years ago I majored in Psychology but minored in Business, because I knew I would face to parlay my degree into a paycheck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. No. We paid $55k (total, not per year) for my daughter's degree and she's had no issue finding well paying, full time employment. But we also thought about job prospects and that kind of thing BEFORE, y'know, signing the check and her picking a major. People who don't do the tiniest bit of legwork upfront on majors, job outlook, etc. and then act all "surprised Pikachu" face when they find out that, surprise surprise, their/their kid's expensive English degree doesn't just automatically result in offers for $70k jobs get no sympathy from me.

OP here. So grateful for all of the helpful suggestions and wisdom offered in this thread. In response to the poster I'm quoting here...There is another wrinkle to my kid's story. The kid is TUTORING online & in-person and making $60/$70 per hour and $70-$80K/year as a "temporary" gig. Kid is highly rated and really good at it. So this English major earns the money without having a boss and a commute...BUT...

TUTORING isn't a "real" job/career asset in the traditional sense that will be an investment for the long term, is it? That's the problem. It's not like building a career as a professor or an employee working for an institution. The kid makes as much or more than some full-time teachers or professors, reporters, CBS production assistants, etc! It's unexpected and a bit confusing. But kid gets tired of the prospecting/rainmaking of tutoring, sees it as temporary, and is having a challenging time getting a regular job with an institution for half the pay. Doesn't make sense does it?! It's a stumper. But isn't getting a real job best for the long term? What am I missing here? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Well entry level jobs for writers are notoriously low paying. That is something your child should have anticipated.

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.

Anonymous wrote:
Bottom line: social skills is what gets you jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. No. We paid $55k (total, not per year) for my daughter's degree and she's had no issue finding well paying, full time employment. But we also thought about job prospects and that kind of thing BEFORE, y'know, signing the check and her picking a major. People who don't do the tiniest bit of legwork upfront on majors, job outlook, etc. and then act all "surprised Pikachu" face when they find out that, surprise surprise, their/their kid's expensive English degree doesn't just automatically result in offers for $70k jobs get no sympathy from me.

OP here. So grateful for all of the helpful suggestions and wisdom offered in this thread. In response to the poster I'm quoting here...There is another wrinkle to my kid's story. The kid is TUTORING online & in-person and making $60/$70 per hour and $70-$80K/year as a "temporary" gig. Kid is highly rated and really good at it. So this English major earns the money without having a boss and a commute...BUT...

TUTORING isn't a "real" job/career asset in the traditional sense that will be an investment for the long term, is it? That's the problem. It's not like building a career as a professor or an employee working for an institution. The kid makes as much or more than some full-time teachers or professors, reporters, CBS production assistants, etc! It's unexpected and a bit confusing. But kid gets tired of the prospecting/rainmaking of tutoring, sees it as temporary, and is having a challenging time getting a regular job with an institution for half the pay. Doesn't make sense does it?! It's a stumper. But isn't getting a real job best for the long term? What am I missing here? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Reading comprehension fail. OP's wife and mom were strangers when they met. OP's wife got her job through networking!

Sorry not OP, PP. But you know what I meant.

What did you mean?

Networking is how people get jobs throughout their careers. It’s how everyone I know has moved up.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

Maybe that’s the problem? What does underemployed mean for the holder of an English degree?

Working at a restaurant like my nephew did after graduating from a top 25 school with a communications degree.

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.