<p>My soon to be 25 yr old daughter graduated magna cum laude from her college 2.5 years ago and struggled to find a job in her field. Long story short, after moving from LA back home and living here for close to two years , working back for our family business and substitute teaching, she decided to take the plunge and move back to the city where she attended college. She saved enough money to last her about 4-6 months and is sharing an apt with her cousin and another young lady.
For the last few months, she has been working temp jobs and getting by. The job that she has spent the most time at really loves her and her supervisor has pulled strings to keep her there longer than she was hired to do in the hopes of a permanent position opening up, but it hasn’t happened and she will have only a couple of weeks left until the person she subbed for comes back.
In addition that job, she also went back to her former college days, retail job to make a few extra bucks.
Word is they want to hire her for a management position ( though there was talk about that when she worked for them in LA while trying to find a job in her field and it never materialized )
I can’t help but feel let down and disappointed if this were to happen. The reasons why are because she could have just worked at this place right out of high school and still been where she is now…
I didn’t finish college and worked retail before marrying my husband and joining him in the business he built.
I feel retail is so dead end…always will have to work crappy hours and holidays and her resume will be so …retail.
That probably comes off as sounding snobby , but I really had hopes for her and her potential…she was a much , much better student than I ever was and could have done anything. I hate the idea of her being in the same place in her career as someone who didn’t go to college at all.</p>
<p>That being said, I know that I should be happy if she has any job , but I can’t help but feel totally let down and worried about her future</p>
<p>I don’t ever think it’s wrong to have an emotion, it’s how you act on it that counts.</p>
<p>Good point , but I won’t act at all…this is why it is good to come here and vent and not unload on my dear daughter ;)</p>
<p>And bethievt, I agree and can rationalize that , but still feel like it will be a trap that she won’t be able climb out of if the economy ever improves</p>
<p>She can easily work retail and continue to look for jobs, and probably even continue to work retail once she finds a job. I completely relate to your sense of disappointment, but please applaud her for being willing to take A JOB and WORK at something instead of sitting on YOUR sofa until a job that’s not “beneath her” comes along, like so many kids seem to be doing today.</p>
<p>I can’t really offer words of encouragement but as a recent college grad, I can say definitively that your D is not alone. Not in the slightest. I have had many qualified friends coming out of school, maybe without the most applicable degrees, and they’re working places like Petsmart and Kohl’s (and part-time, min wage too). The only thing that’s keeping me out of the same predicament is graduate school. I’ve often considered that monetarily, probably in the long run, I would’ve been a lot better off going to my local CC and getting an associates in dental hygiene.</p>
<p>You are not wrong to be upset. Just not at your daughter, who is working her hardest in a difficult economy. She’s been doing her part, the economy is just working against her.<br>
Be proud that she is self-supporting and not, as others have said, stuck at home waiting for something that matches her expectations.
I worry about my kid and my kid’s SOs who are in retail and restaurant jobs after good grades in a 4year good college. I worry that some of them are getting discouraged and will give up on trying to move out of that type of job. $13/hour at 26 is not what they saw their older sibs getting from the same degrees and grades.</p>
Maybe it’s not the way you meant it but those words are concerning - why should YOU feel ‘let down’ as a result of HER job choice? It’s her life and her path. </p>
<p>Regardless, you can’t predict where she’ll end up down the road. Maybe she’ll stick to retail but end up in senior management and do really well - partly because of having the basic qualification of the college degree backing her. Or maybe she’ll work in retail for a couple of years, or a couple of months, and move on to a different position in a different industry. Maybe having both the college degree and management (in retail) experience on her resume will help land her that better job. </p>
<p>One thing’s for sure, she’s better off working there and seeking experience, contacts, resume building, and opportunities than doing something other than what she wants to do.</p>
<p>If she can manage to support herself and build her resume and experience different areas, perhaps learning to exclude areas (maybe she’ll hate retail after a few weeks), then at least she’s progressing. Also, maybe as the economy improves she’ll eventually find more opportunities in whatever field she wants at that moment in time.</p>
<p>We’re in the same boat. After finishing college in May, my daughter has ended up in retail. Her options were somewhat limited in the small town where her husband is a grad student. She was considering grad school herself but was just burned out with school. Not what we or she expected, but she absolutely *loves *her job - happiest I’ve seen her in a long time. To her surprise, she is already about to be promoted to a manager level. I confess to a little concern about her financial future, but am happy to see her happily employed and able to pay the bills.</p>
<p>The same thought did cross my mind that she could have done this right out of HS. But I am sure having a degree will help her in the future, possibly within retail or if she chooses to go elsewhere. There are a surprising number of jobs where they don’t necessarily care what degree you have, just that you have a degree. I know a few graduates that are working in fields completely unrelated to their degrees.</p>
<p>My D graduated eight years ago. Better economy, but she could not find something in her field, and ended up canvassing for the environment. Left that after a year, took her savings to NYC to take a stab at the whole live in NYC thing, but couldn’t find anything (but retail), so moved back to NJ and canvassing. Been doing it ever since. Has a field managing position, but college is not necessary for this. However, she loves it, works with bright, interesting people, and she and her BF who’s in similar work have bought a house and started planning their marriage.</p>
<p>But to me, the central, more important thing, is that her education wasn’t only about career–it’s part of who she is. She developed as a person in so many ways–what she knows, how she thinks, what she cares about. I can’t fault that she may not have a career commensurate with where her education might suggest she could be, as long as she is self-sufficient and happy.</p>
<p>This really isn’t uncommon and I don’t understand why YOU feel let down-if your D is happy and working towards what she wants to do, then it’s all good. There are no guarantees that a college degree makes life perfect.</p>
<p>My niece (now) 5 years out of school worked at her high school retail job while doing contract work in her major. That led to a FT job in her field, where she’s a star. But she still goes back to the retail job on occasional weekends to make a little extra, and it’s helped-she’s signing on her house, without help from anyone, this week.</p>
<p>My S worked as a laborer for a construction company when his industry hit a slowdown. He quickly progressed, and that leadership helped him get the position he’s had for the last couple of years. </p>
<p>People in this economy do what they have to do. People also change their career paths over time. I know very few people working in the same area that they chose at 18.</p>
<p>I know exactly how you feel lje62. I graduated college, worked for 2 years, then went to business school and couldn’t find a job. I had worked part time in retail during graduate school just to make some money, and after I graduated, it was the only job I could find so I worked there full time. I remember feeling so low, working in a mall with an MBA. What was wrong with me that I couldn’t get a better job? I saw a fellow MBA graduate breeze through our store, shopping for suits since she’d just gotten a job at Citibank.</p>
<p>2 years later, I answered an ad for a sales job with this header: $$$$$$. It was a job selling mortgages. I told them I knew how to sell. I got the job.</p>
<p>I believe retail or more specifically, one-on-one selling is the model that all internet sales are based on (following the customer, making suggestions as to what they might like, notifying them when sales on their favorite items come up). </p>
<p>Any job can be a terrific start to a wonderful career.</p>
<p>I am not disappointed IN her, I am disappointed FOR her. I came to terms with the fact that she will not find a job in her field quite some time ago , which is fine. And regarding her happiness, I will say that I am happy that she is happy to be back in the city , but I also know that she was adamantly opposed to going back into retail.
She does have management on her resume from working in our business…and it wasn’t a title alone, she really DID manage a division of the company. </p>
<p>I feel that if she does get this offer ( and it is still just talk at this point ) she will be stuck in the retail rut…she works with agencies now and they place a lot of emphasis on what she already has done…and she is capable of much more than that.</p>
<p>I am well aware of how difficult it is out there for everyone and not just college grads.
I see it everyday.</p>
<p>Also, I am fine with her not working in her field. Her friends who DID get work in the field are making little money and not a lot of job security. Most of them rely still on their parents support.</p>
<p>This really isn’t about her job choice or me being upset about that choice…it’s about being stuck in the same industry that she could have done and not gone to college at all. Having worked in retail, I know what limits there are and how that impacts holidays …</p>
<p>And you glossed over the fact that at every job she’s had, they like her, want her to stay, and even want to promote her. It’s early in her life. Things will take off.</p>
<p>Agencies don’t see anything creatively. Agencies just want to take what you’ve done and have you do it over and over again. 80% of all jobs are found through networking. Not agencies.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your D studied in college or what she is interested in. Retail is a big industry, no different than hotel, banking, or manufacturing. Retail is more than selling or merchandising. It has finance, operations, HR, advertising. Once your D is in a company, it will be easier for her to apply for another job within the company. </p>
<p>I was friendly with my kid’s college alumni relation rep. She was a young woman working there for 5+ years. I am sure not making a lot of money. Last year she told me that she got a new job working for a social media company in their college relations division.</p>
<p>If your kid is interested in environment, renewable energy…did you know that almost every large company has a Sustainability Department. They find ways to save energy (from data center to corporate office). They come up with policies on how to dispose waste. They educate employees about climate change and what they can do to help. The bank I was with had such a department after there was a lot of protest against who they were lending money to (chopping down rain forest). IBM won’t do business with any vendor without a sustainability program.</p>
<p>If your kid likes to teach and interact with people, they could become a trainer for a tech company (or any company), they could do internal training. Good trainers are hard to come by.</p>
<p>H went into retail training for a large store chain right out of college. He was there for few years until he became a buyer. He had his own P&L then he went to work for a supplier.</p>
<p>It is good your D is working, even if it’s in retail. Tell her not to become complacent, to keep her eyes open for different opportunities (internal and external), try to network . If she is smart and a go getter, I think there’ll be opportunities no matter where she is.</p>
Thanks for saying this, garland. I was thinking along these lines as I read the thread. I’ve thought the same thing reading several of the other threads out there about whether a kid really needs to be college-educated to earn an acceptable living. Since college is so expensive these days, we expect it to provide an ever-upward career path, and it often doesn’t. But it’s still an enriching experience, emotionally and intellectually, for kids who decide to make the most of it.</p>
<p>About retail: One of my kids, a college grad with a less-marketable major, established herself in a well-paying career in medical sales after two years assistant-managing and then managing retail stores. It wasn’t an easy period just out of school, and we worried for her many times. But she took every opportunity, worked like mad at it, and it truly did pay off. OP, your d has impressed everyone she’s worked for. This is important. Everything she’s done, including college, has made her who she is.</p>
<p>Well, I do feel a little better since reading the responses. I was hopeful for her to get into a different industry where there are opportunities for growth. She has been working various admin type jobs in pretty diverse companies , thus meeting a lot of different people . She has contemplated going back to grad school , but is cautious because the economy is so rocky and she is reluctant to take on debt . She is seeing a lot of her friends doing this and STILL not find decent jobs.</p>
<p>lje62–my daughter feels the same way. The kind of grad school she’d be interested in, probably something in public policy, would not be the funded kind. She has no debt right now (except for mortgage, of course) and is very leery of taking it on.</p>
<p>Our neighbor’s S got a degree in knesiology from a nice private U and is now working as a management trainee at a clothing store where he used to work summers. It’s not his ideal job by any means, but it pays pretty well according to his folks and is a start.</p>
<p>It sounds like your D is well-liked at all her jobs and they are looking to hire her for management jobs when they can make an opening. Keep the faith and have her perservere. </p>
<p>The economy is very tough–I have no idea whether our D will have any job offers in the near future when she finishes her degree this May–we hope but have NO idea. For her, retail and food service aren’t options as she doesn’t have the physical stamina to stand for the prolonged periods that these positions entail.</p>
Tell her not to become complacent, to keep her eyes open for different opportunities (internal and external), try to network . If she is smart and a go getter, I think there’ll be opportunities no matter where she is.</p>