Tell him to look at www.askamanager.org. She's got soooo much good information about writing resumes and preparing for interviews.

I think your approach is a solid parenting one, charging rent allows him to accept adult responsibilities, grades and degrees aren't everything. He then becomes a contributing member of the household, as befits his age. I think things will move along from there, maybe not as quickly as you would like, but he has never been an adult with responsibilities so this is brand new to him.

OP - I thought of a couple of more things last night:

- The focus should not be on "emptying your house," but rather seeing how you can reasonably assist both of your children in becoming responsible, fully-functioning young adults with a career path and independent life. O
- Have you gone over your son's list of references to make sure he has notified them of his present job search, has their current contact information and can be sure that they will give him a good recommendation? An email to one or two teaches in classes he did well in updating them on the job search would be good. My husband is recently retired, but till more than willing to give references for former students and to point them to jobs when he hears of openings.

- If your son can continue to use the career center from his college, then I would have him go there if local to see if they could help with any of the topics I raised above. If out of the area, he still might call and talk to someone to see if there is any access to alumni networks or alumni events that he might use as a way of networking.

- It is also important for him to keep reading up in his field in appropriate sources so he can be aware of any trends etc. If he was in the STEM field, does he have good solid computer skills as in Excel, Visual Basic Applications or other related languages? If not, taking a class at the community college might be an option.

- Again, unless he did a specific volunteer work stint or started a masters or PhD degree, I see there is a 3-year break that he has got to be able to find a way to present or a way to describe why undergrad took him six or seven years.

OP - A couple of things do strike me - what did he exactly do during the years age 18 - 25 as just listing being in an undergraduate program in engineering is not enough on a resume. Any employer is going to want to know more details. If he does have even just the graduate credits, but not completed masters degree that is another issue and more explainable. If he had a health issue, it might just be easily referenced with the correct wording in a cover letter.

I would suggest paying for him to see a career counselor who could review his resume with him, help him develop a two or more kinds of resumes for various jobs as well as a suitable cover letter. The career counselor might also chat with him about what he wants to be doing, what his skills are and what his interests are. And perhaps one-on-one with him information will be shared which you may not know about in terms of how is feeling about his job search and why?

There is some reason why a 25 year old, engineering grad is not getting off of "dead center" in looking for a job so my next suggestion would be for him to have a full physical including at least a screening for depression, anxiety which might not be so evident to you living with him.

He is doing himself no favors by just working at a menial,low level job. For whatever reason could he have lost his confidence being turned down by a number of job applications? For whatever reason, an employer needs to see that he is following up on his undergraduate career interest - and perhaps taking a course as an Adult Learner at Maryland or GWU for example which could be applied to a masters degree would serve the basis of (1) renewing his self-esteem as being able to do the work in his field and (2) more importantly give him "something active" to list on a resume with EDUCATION at the top under Continuing Education and/or in a cover letter.

It is important for him to be treated as a full adult in your home with home responsibilities and a timeline on his progress on finding a job or finding out the reason for lack there of is key to helping him have a future. STEM education can be a real slog and some schools as where my husband just retired from do not have an easy option if someone finds it is not for him/her. So a final word if your son really does not want to pursue it, let that also be an option, but again menial jobs will not serve him well then either. He would need with the job counselor advice on networking, how to build upon his engineering background in looking at other fields from teaching to business to law for example and see how best to find that first job.

Finally, if you really would like an empty nest, you might let him know what you feel you and DH could afford if he did find a job new area in terms of helping him move and set up a first apartment.

Remember you may need your son to take care of you one day. Under these circumstances I think kicking him out would be horrible.

I see nothing wrong with your son living with you. Lazy people usually skip college or don't finish, and certainly don't finish with decent GPA's. The fact that he completed his degree says a lot about his personal motivation. The fact that he's working a minimum wage job with a degree tells me that he's at least trying. I know many people who would not work that kind of job simply because they have a degree. He will figure things out and get a job. The job market is tough out here and I think it would be unreasonable for you to kick him out. If you do charge rent, you should put it in an account for him and save it up, so that when he does get a job and moves out, he will already have his security deposit. The longer he works that minimum wage job, the less attractive he will be to potential employers. He should go back to school and get an advanced degree or offer to volunteer his time in his field to give his resume a boost. Finally, he should contact a head hunter and be open to moving to a different state, if necessary. I personally would not kick my child out under these circumstances.