Graduated in 2014 from university of Arizona (bio/chem double major): my first job paid me 9$/hour to which I negotiated 10$/hour. Stayed with them 3 months before being fired for making mistakes (I did make small mistakes, nothing crazy though). Started as a cowboy giving horse rides and pony cart rides instantly at 10/hour + tips. A year later started teaching at the university for 10/hour. Worked there 7 years maxing out at 15.80$. The job market is utter garbage for graduates.
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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I graduated about the same time. Studied philosophy. I started waiting tables and bartending in California for about $200 per night in tips plus minimum wage.
Then learned to to code and I became a software engineer. Started at 60k as intern level, now making 180k while permanent remote.
I'm going to do my best to give some real advice here. Maybe you'll take offense or maybe not. The reality is that most people are going to put a value on you for how you value yourself. Academia is overwhelmed with a negative culture of seniority and elitistism. What this results in is a lot of unhappy people that believe working for little to even no pay is a acceptable. They get so caught up in the system thinking that it is normal to have people acting superior to them and putting them down and they even start to idealize one day being the elitist that values their own self worth on how much they can put others down. It messes you up big time.
Next, if you're desperate for work then you can't let it show too much or people won't respect you and the less you're likely to get a good paying job. There is nothing wrong with being a go getter, but you have to be organized and confident. If you let a person or company influence your ability to make smart and rational decisions just because they have money, it ends up hurting you in the long run.
The world is full of yesmen who just wait for commands. They are dispensable and a dime a dozen. Although it isn't fair, you also can't realistically expect that people won't basically test to see how moldable you are and use that to their advantage. If you bend whenever they ask they'll make you bend until you break.
Saying all that I can reasonably say the job market isn't utter garbage for graduates or even non graduates. It is utter garbage for people that have let the world beat them down and that operate in the confounds of others have money and they respect that more than they respect themselves.
Once you build some confidence in a skill and know what you're good, what you want to do and believe in your own value, what you're worth and capable of accomplishing then it changes the dynamics. People respect that and you also become a much more valuable asset.
So to summarize, stop playing by the rules that you have set for yourself and others have led you up believe. I know it isn't always immediately feasible. Sometimes you really can't survive and need something to at least provide food and shelter, but don't stop there and don't be afraid to take some risk. Thst can involve telling people no and explaining why, being authentic even if it makes you vulnerable, and treating a boss or CEO like a peer.
You can be the leader, the consultant who they need more than you need them, adaptable and diverse ready to do hard work but has a strong grasp on managing the entire project or an entire company yourself for that mstter. If you like teaching then demand the let you record the lessons and work with an online program snd platform to earn other income. If they ask that they you sign an employment agreement you don't feel comfortable with, then don't. Like I said... The more you don't immediately agree to things just cause others have money, the more they'll respect you and the more you'll end up getting paid.
Basically everything you’ve said I agree with and have put to practice. I look at employment that way now, especially now that I no longer teach. I’m doing much better now, but only really because I’m married and his income solves my problems. It feels really bad that I have to depend on my spouse, but at least I paid for his graduate degree with QTR so I did help somewhat.
Well yeah. Your college GPA doesn't matter unless you're trying to get into grad school.
It did matter for GE. Jerks wanted 3.8 or higher to consider you. They did interviews as a formality. Didn't matter if you went to community or ivy league. Never felt so annoyed at my life choices. Hindsight glad I didn't get the job.
Of course my current company, my coworkers went to a local cheap party school. Like wtf was the struggle for?
Same with Google
The struggle is for nothing? If you went to a school with grade deflation to 'maintain the integrity of education'? Get fucked, party schools will pass kids or allow kids to grade grub to a higher GPA.
Academia is such a fucking game.
Yeah I felt like I got wrecked with high debt and high stress for years. Meanwhile I got coworkes who said school was chill and literally on a beach.
I went to just one interview were someone cared about college and that's only because they went there.
Fair, but that's very rare. Most companies require a degree and then don't even ask for proof of one.
I must have hit the bads one often,
Another company literally tore through my transcript and grilled me on why I had a terrible semester. Such dbags. I should've gone to party school.
I was hired to a job a year ago that required to see my transcript and GPA for a college degree I got 15 years ago. Apparently grades matter longer than you'd expect.
That's extremely rare. That's also extremely obnoxious because if you don't still have those on hand, after 15 years, your university might not either.
I remember needing to get my high school transcripts in order to get a public trust clearance when I was almost 30. The school didn't even have them anymore.
If it was federal or state gov job or they had federal contracts then yeah.
And most students today can't even write an essay.
Honestly think we're as a country on the decline like the Romans were, doesn't matter which party was in charge.
We need real, people focused movement.
GPA's mean jack shit these days anyway. Super smart kids who nolifed through college or were so heavily funded by rich parents that they had personal tutors and zero life stress to focus on a 4.0 are now common, but aren't enough for the limited number of poorly paying entry level positions. The bar has moved up to graduating experience; if you didn't get one, ideally two summer or 6-month internships during your bachelor's you might as well just go jump off a bridge now.
I managed to squeeze myself into a full time job directly from an intership because it was with a locally based company that I was able to intern for while going to school, but maybe 50% of my graduating class still has OpenToWork on their linkedin's a full year down now...
Most people don't understand what college is actually for. Most people think college is to learn something and then you make a career out of it. Well, it's not, unless you want to go into academia.
College is a way to socialize and meet other people. This means you need to get into the right crowds and meet the right people. You use this time to do things like internships. What you learn and what your GPA is does not matter to any employer. Who you know, does.
To be fair, your degree and GPA can be helpful in landing your very first job. After that though you’re right, nobody cares about anything but your work experience.
Not just work experience but connections as well. I graduated back in the 90’s to a slow market. It took me months and sending out 100 or so resumes for a whopping 5 interviews, and eventually one job offer. Luckily for me I made a number of good connections at that place. After 2 years there I quit to join a startup where 4 of the 5 people there were all former coworkers. Over the past 25+ years I’ve worked at close to 10 companies, most of which came from connections from those first two companies.
When I started my current job, the CTO and cofounder was somebody I first met back at my very first job, and (including mergers) this is the sixth company where we’ve worked together.
Sage advice! I’ve also never applied for a job beyond my first one - always just followed a friend and former coworker into a new company. Connections really do open doors.
Business major posting
I’m so happy to see that others read that as well.
This, but also internships are HUGE.
I was greedy. I never did any of the internships because the money I made as a delivery driver was orders of magnitude higher than what they were offering. I almost couldn't afford to stop making that kind of money. But I got hella lucky to be in my current position. I often wonder what life would be like had I interned at Cisco or IBM.
Your take would make sense if internships weren't completely swamped
My cs internship took about 300 or so applications to get one (after about 5 months of looking). It's even worse now, and knowing people doesn't mean much in this industry unless it's a small local company or you somehow know the vp of a company.
This is where having a good GPA matters and going to a good school. If you want to go to school to learn, that's cool, but don't think it's going to get you a good job.
If you were in the same Greek house as the hiring manager, your chances go up. If you went to the same school or went to a prestigious school like Yale, your chances go up. No one is looking at your GPA at this point though.
You really have to go out and socialize. It's not enough to just have a degree anymore. You need to do projects. Contribute to open source projects. Go to meetups.
If you have Google on your resume, you're good. It doesn't matter how good you did there. Employers look at this. If you start your career off on the wrong foot, it will follow you around for the rest of your career and it may be difficult to get out of it.
Nobody ever cares about anyone’s GPA except to get into grad school.
Any employer hiring based on who you know is an employer you don't want to work for.
And I mean sure, if you're in fashion or politics, it matters who you know. But if not, you're at the mercy of recruiters and overworked people from your field who have seen literally hundreds of others who can do better.
Why would college students not be getting jobs? It means people with more experience are applying for those same jobs and getting them. And why are people with more experience doing that? Most simple answer is because they're coming off a layoff from their previous job, and their industry isn't hiring as much.
As more and more business outright fail because they're not competitive enough, or downsize to reduce costs, you'll see more and more unemployment in experienced workers. Their availability on the market will mean less jobs for students and college graduates. It doesn't have to be a complicated answer - college grads are just in too much supply and not enough demand these days.