College graduates are increasingly likely to work in low quality jobs

[Street Knowledge]

While the type of degree is important, the bigger issue is work ethic and spending time to master something. Not everyone is cut out to be a doctor(or any other high paid "path") and not everyone wants to be one. If suddenly everyone became computer programmers, the pay would fall for that as well. Then suddenly becoming a programmer would be looked down at. It's almost getting that way becoming a Lawyer. Unless you're graduating form a top tier law school, you're aren't seeing 100k a year. There are simply too many graduates and too few jobs.

Mastering a craft that's in demand and that you enjoy is key. The rarer the skill, the more you will be paid.

Maybe most important of all is networking. Network now before you need the job or clients so you will have people to call once you're ready.

It's not so much high paying fields as it is ones that have job openings. You have people who major in things like film and journalism and are shocked when they don't get jobs

For example teaching isn't "high paying" at all but almost everyone I know who went into education whether it be elementary/middle/High got jobs right off the bat.

 

[DEAD7]

Wait you mean the more you have of something the less it is worth? and by wanting to make higher education even more accessible we will further reduce its value?

So why are we s shocked and disgusted by this? It seem like the direction we are headed, everyone will have a degree, even the guy working at 7-eleven.

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

Wait you mean the more you have of something the less it is worth? and by wanting to make higher education even more accessible we will further reduce its value?

So why are we s shocked and disgusted by this? It seem like the direction we are headed, everyone will have a degree, even the guy working at 7-eleven.

So wait, basically, we want as little people as possible to have a degree (as long as I have one too) so we can be in some "elite" class of educated people?

 

[DEAD7]

So wait, basically, we want as little people as possible to have a degree (as long as I have one too) so we can be in some "elite" class of educated people?

I want trade schools and apprenticeships to play a much bigger part, and high school to be worth a lot more. I don't think a 4 year degree is required for 80% of the jobs in this country.





That said, there is no great trade off. Either you give it to everyone making it meaningless, or you reserve it for the few, rewarding those that make the climb.

 

[Scientific]

The Job market is like any other market; supply and demand. In the past 30, and especially the last 10, going to college was being pushed down everyone's throats, as the only way to succeed in a weak labor market. So now its flooded with people who have degrees.

Also, those for-profit diploma mills who don't answer to the same standards by other schools, get lumped into this too.

 

[RiffRaff]

I can believe it. I just graduated with a B.S. in Economics 3.6 GPA and two internships on my resume. Out of roughly 30 job applications sent out thus far I've had one interview. This is in Houston too where the economy is supposed to be favorable for most. Can you imagine an average student majoring in Communication? This shyt is set up for very few to win.

 

[Scientific]

I can believe it. I just graduated with a B.S. in Economics 3.6 GPA and two internships on my resume. Out of roughly 30 job applications sent out thus far I've had one interview. This is in Houston too where the economy is supposed to be favorable for most. Can you imagine an average student majoring in Communication? This shyt is set up for very few to win.

If you live in Gulf Coast, and especially Houston, if you major in anything Engineering, you're going to get recruited by your junior year. Its crazy how many people I know who went for mechanical, Petroleum, or Chemical engineering, got jobs. Everyone else struggled. Just getting a degree and expecting a job to come to you isn't the way to go now. My biggest regret was not networking early on, I struggled to get a nice gig after i graduated.

Highly sought after degrees will always get jobs, and will have the pickings. Everyone else sort of has to find their own way.

 

[RiffRaff]

If you live in Gulf Coast, and especially Houston, if you major in anything Engineering, you're going to get recruited by your junior year. Its crazy how many people I know who went for mechanical, Petroleum, or Chemical engineering, got jobs. Everyone else struggled. Just getting a degree and expecting a job to come o you isnt the way to go now. My biggest regret was not networking early on, I struggled to get a nice gig after i graduated.

Highly sought after degrees will get jobs, and will have the pickings. Everyone else sort of has to find their own way.

True, and I'm learning the hard way. Finance/Economic entry level jobs have their regions in the country where they are hot tickets ; Bay Area and North Carolina come to mind, but it's difficult to come right out of undergrad be able to relocate

 

[Bomberman]

The type of degree you get should be able to market you better though.

My brother finished with a degree in Physics last year, marketed himself as a "problem solver," and got a job within a month at some airplane manufacturer place working with engineers. Eventually he left his company and is now doing research, which is usually left for people who have at least a graduate degree (he only has a B.S).

 

[DEAD7]

The type of degree you get should be able to market you better though.

My brother finished with a degree in Physics last year, marketed himself as a "problem solver," and got a job within a month at some airplane manufacturer place working with engineers. Eventually he left his company and is now doing research, which is usually left for people who have at least a graduate degree (he only has a B.S).

 

[superunknown23]

I can believe it. I just graduated with a B.S. in Economics 3.6 GPA and two internships on my resume. Out of roughly 30 job applications sent out thus far I've had one interview. This is in Houston too where the economy is supposed to be favorable for most. Can you imagine an average student majoring in Communication? This shyt is set up for very few to win.

Job boards are black holes. Barely 10 percent of resumes reach Human Resources.
It's unfair but people get jobs thru networking, by knowing people connected to companies (family, friends, acquaintances). Qualifications are almost secondary.
This system hurts minorities the most since it overwhelmingly favors white folks... Unless you have connected white friends willing to help out (see below)

In Hiring, a Friend in Need Is a Prospect, Indeed

Riju Parakh wasn’t even looking for a new job.
But when a friend at Ernst & Young recommended her, Ms. Parakh’s résumé was quickly separated from the thousands the firm receives every week because she was referred by a current employee, and within three weeks she was hired. “You know how long this usually takes,” she said. “It was miraculous.”

While whom you know has always counted in hiring, Ms. Parakh’s experience underscores a fundamental shift in the job market. Big companies like Ernst & Young are increasingly using their own workers to find new hires, saving time and money but lengthening the odds for job seekers without connections, especially among the long-term unemployed.

The trend, experts say, has been amplified since the end of the recession by a tight job market and by employee networks on LinkedIn and Facebook, which can help employers find candidates more quickly and bypass reams of applications from job search sites likeMonster.com.

Some, like Ernst & Young, the accounting firm, have set ambitious internal goals to increase the proportion of hirings that come from internal referrals. As a result, employee recommendations now account for 45 percent of nonentry-level placements at the firm, up from 28 percent in 2010.
The company’s goal is 50 percent. Others, such as Deloitte and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, have begun offering prizes like iPads and large-screen TVs in addition to traditional cash incentives for employees who refer new hires.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/b...gly-rely-on-internal-referrals-in-hiring.html

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap

Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.

“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”

Similarly, Barry Jabbar Sykes, 37, who has a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, now uses Barry J. Sykes in his continuing search for an information technology position, even though he has gone by Jabbar his whole life.

“Barry sounds like I could be from Ireland,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html

 

[RJY33]

I can believe it. I just graduated with a B.S. in Economics 3.6 GPA and two internships on my resume. Out of roughly 30 job applications sent out thus far I've had one interview. This is in Houston too where the economy is supposed to be favorable for most. Can you imagine an average student majoring in Communication? This shyt is set up for very few to win.

college was the best and most fun years of my life, but my Communication degree is . they told me going in I could "get almost any job" with it

 

[acri1]

Job boards are black holes. Barely 10 percent of resumes reach Human Resources.
It's unfair but people get jobs thru networking, by knowing people connected to companies (family, friends, acquaintances). Qualifications are almost secondary.
This system hurts minorities the most since it overwhelmingly favors white folks... Unless you have connected white friends willing to help out (see below)

I've always said this...when it comes to race and the jobs gap, people always bring up educational attainment, GPA, and major, but even when you control for these things there's still a gap. The factors most people overlook are -

1. Hookups - White people are much more likely to have friends/family in positions of power that can help them find jobs after graduating. They say it's not what you know, it's who you know, but unfortunately if you're a minority you probably don't know as many people.

2. Location - Minorities tend to live in urban areas with few jobs. And it can be hard to just up and relocate if you don't have a guaranteed job somewhere.

 

[superunknown23]

I've always said this...when it comes to race and the jobs gap, people always bring up educational attainment, GPA, and major, but even when you control for these things there's still a gap. The factors most people overlook are -

1. Hookups - White people are much more likely to have friends/family in positions of power that can help them find jobs after graduating. They say it's not what you know, it's who you know, but unfortunately if you're a minority you probably don't know as many people.

2. Location - Minorities tend to live in urban areas with few jobs. And it can be hard to just up and relocate if you don't have a guaranteed job somewhere.

Location is more influenced by the types of jobs you're looking for.
Most people still live in cities and that's where most jobs are. Suburbia is actually losing population and businesses now.

The networking thing was an eye-opener for me. That shyt is so prevalent in my company, it's disgusting. Some white dude just got hired mainly because he was a roommate of a colleague. He didn't even go to college but he's gonna learn on the job (lab tech)
I got lucky since I found my job the hard way (I had no connections but my Aerospace Engineering degree was a nice asset).

 

[Bomberman]

Job boards are black holes. Barely 10 percent of resumes reach Human Resources.
It's unfair but people get jobs thru networking, by knowing people connected to companies (family, friends, acquaintances). Qualifications are almost secondary.
This system hurts minorities the most since it overwhelmingly favors white folks... Unless you have connected white friends willing to help out (see below)

This one mutual friend I know runs a hospital (or maybe it was nursing home) said right out of his mouth he doesn't care about "qualifications" as much as he does about the person knowing one of the employees. By his logic, he believes he gets two hard workers for the price of one.

The person who recommended the hire is under pressure to make sure his/her friend doesn't make them look bad.

The person who got hired off a recommendation doesn't want to make their friend look bad either. Which means those two can be supervised less and you have something like a self-sustaining system.

Dude has turned down some great applicants from prestigious schools, but has had results thus far. However, I wonder if he were to drop that mentality and hire those high achieving students if he'd be in a much better place as a whole. I doubt he'll find out though because he seems close-minded to that idea.