Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone is in the same boat as my DD? History major from UVA without any jobs offered so far.

I think I see the problem.

don't be an asshole

My DD graduated last year without a job. She worked in a restaurant for a few months while applying. She had a very nice professional job by August. She majored in psychology. She went to a T100 college, nothing special, but she did well, and she had some great internships at "name" organizations, which I'm sure helped her get a job. She didn't look for a job while in college. She assumed she'd find one and she did. She's already been promoted, less than a year after graduating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious internships were not "cancelled" en masse. They were made remote. Covid-19 shut down didn't happen until March 2020, long after your teen should have already had a summer 2020 internship locked up. And summer 2021 was basically back to normal with plenty of full remote options. Making all of these excuses for your adult kids just sound like you're in serious denial.

Not true.
All the internships in our private lab were cancelled as they could not be performed remotely.

My kid’s internship on Capitol Hill was cancelled.

My child’s internship was moved to remote. Good internships at good companies found a way to adapt. Crappy government internships apparently did not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious internships were not "cancelled" en masse. They were made remote. Covid-19 shut down didn't happen until March 2020, long after your teen should have already had a summer 2020 internship locked up. And summer 2021 was basically back to normal with plenty of full remote options. Making all of these excuses for your adult kids just sound like you're in serious denial.

Not true.
All the internships in our private lab were cancelled as they could not be performed remotely.

My kid’s internship on Capitol Hill was cancelled.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been what two weeks?

It's very, VERY sketchy to not have a job locked up by graduation. Most college seniors had full-time offers in their pocket by July or August from their summer internship last year (2021). Worst-case you're doing on campus recruiting and have something locked up by Sept.-Oct. December at the very latest. OP's kid has issues.

As others have said this poster is out of her mind. Anyone adult who uses the word “sketchy” in such a context should not be listened to. To OP: UVA has an excellent career counseling office. Your child should make contact now.

Career counselors weeks after graduating? Ma’am, if the kid didn’t call, zoom or visit that office one darn time in 4 years they aren’t going to now. They are who they are: lazy and unfocused. The only people defending OP’s kid are those with lazy kids of their own. OP and/or the generous financial aid office at UVA just wasted $120,000 educating this young man. And he’s a workshy child.

Are you a SAH parent who has never worked? You don’t seem to understand how college career offices work.

You also don’t seem to have a real grasp of how real people’s careers work.

I graduated with zero office job experience. I tended bar for a year, then got an MBA at a top ranked school. Graduated with a job and have worked in multiple fields/jobs. Not a linear path, but it’s been fun and very lucrative.

Your notion that all is lost if a kid doesn’t have a job at graduation is just silly.

If what you said is true you’d realize how abnormal that “path” is.

LOL. I’m trying to imagine how mediocre a candidate you must have been to have been worried about missing the boat if you didn’t have internships and offers by graduation.

Almost everyone I know has had similar paths to mine - one guy ran a video store for years after quitting college, then finished 3 degrees and ended up a politician. Another graduated in 7 years, took a sales job and now makes high six/low 7 figures leading a national sales organization. Another dropped out of college, waited tables for a few years, finished undergrad, got an Ivy PhD and now is an academic. Another did peace corp on the spur of the moment, got a PhD and is now a nationally renowned researcher. I graduated with no experience or ideas about jobs, got and MBA, sold enterprise software for a few years while I learned tech, then started a tech services company. Another friend graduated with no experience, took a tech support job, got in with a Silicon Valley start and is now a VP at a pre-IPO company. This will be the third company he’s been with that IPOed, and he’s made a killing from each. Another quit college and waited tables, became a restaurant manager, then got recruited to open new high end restaurant franchises, each of which he gets a piece of, so he’s now part of the ownership group of 20 large, high end restaurants.

I can’t imagine being so fearful that you think your only option in life is to grind away with the aspiration to become a salaried worker.

But that’s DC. It’s full of straight A students who checked all the boxes to take the “guaranteed” path to the MC/UMC. They’re unlikely to ever be broke, but they are going to be tied to a desk and a salary the rest of their life. It’s why people on this board are so obsessed with “prestige” schools. They value security above all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been what two weeks?

It's very, VERY sketchy to not have a job locked up by graduation. Most college seniors had full-time offers in their pocket by July or August from their summer internship last year (2021). Worst-case you're doing on campus recruiting and have something locked up by Sept.-Oct. December at the very latest. OP's kid has issues.

As others have said this poster is out of her mind. Anyone adult who uses the word “sketchy” in such a context should not be listened to. To OP: UVA has an excellent career counseling office. Your child should make contact now.

Career counselors weeks after graduating? Ma’am, if the kid didn’t call, zoom or visit that office one darn time in 4 years they aren’t going to now. They are who they are: lazy and unfocused. The only people defending OP’s kid are those with lazy kids of their own. OP and/or the generous financial aid office at UVA just wasted $120,000 educating this young man. And he’s a workshy child.

Are you a SAH parent who has never worked? You don’t seem to understand how college career offices work.

You also don’t seem to have a real grasp of how real people’s careers work.

I graduated with zero office job experience. I tended bar for a year, then got an MBA at a top ranked school. Graduated with a job and have worked in multiple fields/jobs. Not a linear path, but it’s been fun and very lucrative.

Your notion that all is lost if a kid doesn’t have a job at graduation is just silly.

If what you said is true you’d realize how abnormal that “path” is.

LOL. I’m trying to imagine how mediocre a candidate you must have been to have been worried about missing the boat if you didn’t have internships and offers by graduation.

Almost everyone I know has had similar paths to mine - one guy ran a video store for years after quitting college, then finished 3 degrees and ended up a politician. Another graduated in 7 years, took a sales job and now makes high six/low 7 figures leading a national sales organization. Another dropped out of college, waited tables for a few years, finished undergrad, got an Ivy PhD and now is an academic. Another did peace corp on the spur of the moment, got a PhD and is now a nationally renowned researcher. I graduated with no experience or ideas about jobs, got and MBA, sold enterprise software for a few years while I learned tech, then started a tech services company. Another friend graduated with no experience, took a tech support job, got in with a Silicon Valley start and is now a VP at a pre-IPO company. This will be the third company he’s been with that IPOed, and he’s made a killing from each. Another quit college and waited tables, became a restaurant manager, then got recruited to open new high end restaurant franchises, each of which he gets a piece of, so he’s now part of the ownership group of 20 large, high end restaurants.

I can’t imagine being so fearful that you think your only option in life is to grind away with the aspiration to become a salaried worker.

I think it's great not having a job lined up at graduation worked out for some. But this is a skewed sample. You likely only know these people because they succeeded.

I went to a big state school, and the majority of the people who graduated with no internships under their belt or job offers ended up doing poorly (unemployed or still at low-paying service/hospitality jobs). Granted, they're only in their mid-30s so there's a possibility they can still turn things around...who knows.

Actually, these are childhood friends and relatives, not people I met later in life.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone is in the same boat as my DD? History major from UVA without any jobs offered so far.

I think the issue is that there’s an uneven, unpredictable job market.

It’s easy to get an entry-level job and not starve, and it’s easy for workers with certain types of skills or experience to get work, but the unpredictable nature of COVID and the volatility in the stock market mean that some people might have a terrible time getting suitable work.

Another thought is that it’s good to have grad school applications in the works, and for recent grads who haven’t applied to 2022-23 grad school to think of this more as a gap year than a life launch. If the economy is good and hiding in grad school is unnecessary, great, but who knows what the economy will do.

Still another critical thing is for kids not on a cookie-cutter career path to think of all honest, paying jobs as real jobs.

Bright, well-educated kids without fabulous student job resumes should understand that a supermarket clerk job can be a gateway to running Whole Foods. Working as a bank clerk may start the path to running Bank of America. Running a rental car counter may be the start of the journey to being a millionaire rental car franchise owner.

Certainly, there are plugged-in kids with fashionable majors who can skip those entry-level jobs and sneer at them. But even a lot of those kids actually started out with low-level jobs working for their parents or parents’ friends when they were in middle school or high school. So, they actually did go through a hidden scutwork stage.

And the need for a humble scutwork stage is especially critical for humanities majors without a significant work or internship history, because the reality is that they have important intellectual tools but no work skills. They may have no idea of what working in a shop or office is like. Getting some kind of paying work is how they start to see what’s out there.

Finally, all kinds of people buy lattes, hire babysitters and use dog walkers. Doing that kind of customer-facing work can be as much a part of self-marketing for a new grad as sending out resumes. I think new grads just have to get the best bill-paying jobs they can find and try to apply the same intelligence and energy to the bill-paying job that they would apply to the real job, and hope for the best, and not get bogged down in negativity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with taking the summer to recover, relax, travel, and socialize while looking for work. My DD is a bit burned out after college (which was significantly impacted by Covid restrictions) and will not be starting her job until the fall. My understanding is that career services will still work with graduates over the summer. Agree to cast a wide net.

+1. If she can do this, why not? She has the rest of her life to work. If she were going to grad school, she'd basically have the summer off.

Most serious hiring companies have staggered start dates into the fall. Logically a graduate would have a much better break if they knew they had a job locked in after their break. But rationalize all you’d like.

Anonymous wrote:Serious internships were not "cancelled" en masse. They were made remote. Covid-19 shut down didn't happen until March 2020, long after your teen should have already had a summer 2020 internship locked up. And summer 2021 was basically back to normal with plenty of full remote options. Making all of these excuses for your adult kids just sound like you're in serious denial.

Not true.
All the internships in our private lab were cancelled as they could not be performed remotely.

OP, I am in a history related field. There is a window after graduation where your child can still apply for internships, and there are tons of history related internships in the DC area, both paid and unpaid. It's a bit late to try for this summer, but advise her to try for the fall - she needs to start applying now. In the meantime she could spend her summer doing volunteer work that is relevant to her degree, such as with a historical society or as a museum docent, etc. These steps should help guide her towards full-time employment in her field of study, if that is her goal. Good luck to her.

Serious internships were not "cancelled" en masse. They were made remote. Covid-19 shut down didn't happen until March 2020, long after your teen should have already had a summer 2020 internship locked up. And summer 2021 was basically back to normal with plenty of full remote options. Making all of these excuses for your adult kids just sound like you're in serious denial.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been what two weeks?

I think most kids have a job nailed down by now.

I-banks wrapped up interviewing and offers back in September. All formal recruiting is long over. DC had five offers in consulting….it was a very good year to be a graduate with pent up demand from top employers and very strong compensation packages.

I don’t think this is true for everyone.
DC just graduated with honors in biochemistry with a high gpa.
The office of careers has been no help.
LinkIn, Handshake, Glassdoor has not resulted to any leads except in teaching.
DC had a summer internship during Freshman year, but not since Covid started ( Summer 2020 internship was canceled).
DC wants to work a few years before going to med school.
4 months of looking for jobs hasn’t resulted into anything viable.
DC is fully trilingual (born and raised in the US) with above average looks, working part time as a hotel receptionist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been what two weeks?

It's very, VERY sketchy to not have a job locked up by graduation. Most college seniors had full-time offers in their pocket by July or August from their summer internship last year (2021). Worst-case you're doing on campus recruiting and have something locked up by Sept.-Oct. December at the very latest. OP's kid has issues.

As others have said this poster is out of her mind. Anyone adult who uses the word “sketchy” in such a context should not be listened to. To OP: UVA has an excellent career counseling office. Your child should make contact now.

Career counselors weeks after graduating? Ma’am, if the kid didn’t call, zoom or visit that office one darn time in 4 years they aren’t going to now. They are who they are: lazy and unfocused. The only people defending OP’s kid are those with lazy kids of their own. OP and/or the generous financial aid office at UVA just wasted $120,000 educating this young man. And he’s a workshy child.

Are you a SAH parent who has never worked? You don’t seem to understand how college career offices work.

You also don’t seem to have a real grasp of how real people’s careers work.

I graduated with zero office job experience. I tended bar for a year, then got an MBA at a top ranked school. Graduated with a job and have worked in multiple fields/jobs. Not a linear path, but it’s been fun and very lucrative.

Your notion that all is lost if a kid doesn’t have a job at graduation is just silly.

If what you said is true you’d realize how abnormal that “path” is.

LOL. I’m trying to imagine how mediocre a candidate you must have been to have been worried about missing the boat if you didn’t have internships and offers by graduation.

Almost everyone I know has had similar paths to mine - one guy ran a video store for years after quitting college, then finished 3 degrees and ended up a politician. Another graduated in 7 years, took a sales job and now makes high six/low 7 figures leading a national sales organization. Another dropped out of college, waited tables for a few years, finished undergrad, got an Ivy PhD and now is an academic. Another did peace corp on the spur of the moment, got a PhD and is now a nationally renowned researcher. I graduated with no experience or ideas about jobs, got and MBA, sold enterprise software for a few years while I learned tech, then started a tech services company. Another friend graduated with no experience, took a tech support job, got in with a Silicon Valley start and is now a VP at a pre-IPO company. This will be the third company he’s been with that IPOed, and he’s made a killing from each. Another quit college and waited tables, became a restaurant manager, then got recruited to open new high end restaurant franchises, each of which he gets a piece of, so he’s now part of the ownership group of 20 large, high end restaurants.

I can’t imagine being so fearful that you think your only option in life is to grind away with the aspiration to become a salaried worker.

I think it's great not having a job lined up at graduation worked out for some. But this is a skewed sample. You likely only know these people because they succeeded.

I went to a big state school, and the majority of the people who graduated with no internships under their belt or job offers ended up doing poorly (unemployed or still at low-paying service/hospitality jobs). Granted, they're only in their mid-30s so there's a possibility they can still turn things around...who knows.

Anonymous wrote:Reminds me of Gilmore Girls and how frustrated I was by Rory having no (backup) plans besides that one NYT fellowship. OP's DC should secure an internship in a relevant field right away if he hasn't had one in previous summers, and hopefully that will parlay into a job in a few months.

This is a joke, right? Were you really frustrated by Rory Gilmore? Anyway, people here should stop being so mean. Life is long. My DS had no job at graduation last year and scoured Glassdoor and other job sites every day and put in a lot of applications and found something in a few months. Yes, it would have been great if he had had something lined up before graduation, but he didn’t and he took a restaurant job while he looked, and everything worked out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been what two weeks?

It's very, VERY sketchy to not have a job locked up by graduation. Most college seniors had full-time offers in their pocket by July or August from their summer internship last year (2021). Worst-case you're doing on campus recruiting and have something locked up by Sept.-Oct. December at the very latest. OP's kid has issues.

As others have said this poster is out of her mind. Anyone adult who uses the word “sketchy” in such a context should not be listened to. To OP: UVA has an excellent career counseling office. Your child should make contact now.

Career counselors weeks after graduating? Ma’am, if the kid didn’t call, zoom or visit that office one darn time in 4 years they aren’t going to now. They are who they are: lazy and unfocused. The only people defending OP’s kid are those with lazy kids of their own. OP and/or the generous financial aid office at UVA just wasted $120,000 educating this young man. And he’s a workshy child.

Are you a SAH parent who has never worked? You don’t seem to understand how college career offices work.

You also don’t seem to have a real grasp of how real people’s careers work.

I graduated with zero office job experience. I tended bar for a year, then got an MBA at a top ranked school. Graduated with a job and have worked in multiple fields/jobs. Not a linear path, but it’s been fun and very lucrative.

Your notion that all is lost if a kid doesn’t have a job at graduation is just silly.

If what you said is true you’d realize how abnormal that “path” is.

LOL. I’m trying to imagine how mediocre a candidate you must have been to have been worried about missing the boat if you didn’t have internships and offers by graduation.

Almost everyone I know has had similar paths to mine - one guy ran a video store for years after quitting college, then finished 3 degrees and ended up a politician. Another graduated in 7 years, took a sales job and now makes high six/low 7 figures leading a national sales organization. Another dropped out of college, waited tables for a few years, finished undergrad, got an Ivy PhD and now is an academic. Another did peace corp on the spur of the moment, got a PhD and is now a nationally renowned researcher. I graduated with no experience or ideas about jobs, got and MBA, sold enterprise software for a few years while I learned tech, then started a tech services company. Another friend graduated with no experience, took a tech support job, got in with a Silicon Valley start and is now a VP at a pre-IPO company. This will be the third company he’s been with that IPOed, and he’s made a killing from each. Another quit college and waited tables, became a restaurant manager, then got recruited to open new high end restaurant franchises, each of which he gets a piece of, so he’s now part of the ownership group of 20 large, high end restaurants.

I can’t imagine being so fearful that you think your only option in life is to grind away with the aspiration to become a salaried worker.

Reminds me of Gilmore Girls and how frustrated I was by Rory having no (backup) plans besides that one NYT fellowship. OP's DC should secure an internship in a relevant field right away if he hasn't had one in previous summers, and hopefully that will parlay into a job in a few months.