Yeah, I can relate to this on a personal level especially considering I graduated right when the recession hit. Shyt was rough.
My first job out of college wasn't bad, job paid like 38k with good benefits and a travel stipend...but I got laid off after like six months. The job I got after that barely paid $30k (with crappy/expensive benefits) and I was stuck there for a couple years, didn't really get what I'd consider my break until I was 27. And I only recently hit the $50k mark and I'm almost 30.
We can complain about what majors people pick or whatever, but to be honest I think the bigger factor is just that white college grads tend to have an inherent advantage due to having social connections that black people just don't have in most cases. For example a white chick I graduated with (who was a massive airhead) had a granddad that was a VP of an IT company, so she was pretty much set from the jump. Not only did I not have anybody like that in my family, but I didn't even have anybody that had finished university. So in a case like that she's just in a better position off GP, regardless of major or grades.
What's really underrated, the powers that be don't value education as much as we think they do.
I use to tutor some white boys/gals that were really arrogant about the fact they had a cushy job waiting for them when they graduate and were pissed that they had to take college requirements like intermediate algebra and biology.
I'm sure we came across a lot of them in college. Why didn't we befriend them?
I remember a dude who worked at Motorola who was studying to become an Electrical Engineer, he said he was making decent money already, he tried to befriend me but I was short sighted at the time. I didn't really understand the value of networking.
I came across a dude who worked for a mechanical company, he did a lot of diagnostics/simulations and worked on manuals, he wanted to become a Mechanical Engineer, and he said he wouldn't make much more than he would be making now.
Another thing a lot of college grads have to understand, unless you are applying for a job at a big corporation, you'll be working with medium sized companies with less than 50 employees & $10 to $20 million in yearly revenue. On the outside looking in, they might look like big companies, but they operate like small businesses.
During the job hunt dudes are not even researching the company to know if its even worth their while to apply. They assuming its a huge company because they hire full time employees and give full benefits. I have a better grasp of a company culture because I've been around, but dudes are really overrating companies because they put job postings on monster.com
The guy in the article has a media studies degree, unless he works in Sensormatic or Walmart PR department, he is going to have to work for a small/medium firm that will be much more particular. This is part of the job hunt that becomes tricky when. you. have. no. experience.
Keep your eyes open, get some experience (interships & part time work), and network.
