My husband and I got master’s degrees in structural engineering in 1986. We both had excellent grades and experience. We sent out 273 resumes with cover letters. We got just a handful of responses. Long story short, after months of searching, we accepted jobs 2,500 miles away. You do what you have to do. At least our story had a happy ending - we love Maine and are glad we were forced to move here!
Any message at this point should be short and to the point.
Don’t expect a call back immediately. You try them again, to see if a human picks up. Maybe they were in a meeting.
Sorry about this but its psych 101: a quick informative message is best. People can’t follow “long and detailed.” They react to the complexity, may shy away
Start with only what they can digest.
As for the job hunt, right, they need to expand their sights.
They need to see the possibilities. We need to be careful to guide, IF we can. Not just view this as failure so far. Glass half full.
It didn’t help that I went to them crying one day how it seems it was all a waste.
Yeah sorry… just being honest… one son struggled with CHemical Engineering and his grades were NOT good enough to even get an Internship… that is the son who moved up on a recent job within weeks and he’s working 6 miles from home on an Industrial machine … one of the higher positions in the company.
The other son (the roofer who took Electric) had all A’s and B’s… but he also said he just couldn’t get an INternship… he wasn’t alone… many of those in their college just didn’t … It’s too late now.
My husband went for Computer schooling, never got anything from it either, ended up on the RR… so in our experience, it’s just not exactly been something that helps… Yet I feel if our kids don’t go… they will be completely hopeless… so we pay out the butt and they go to college… just hoping it may help them in life.
I make more money than the son who has as Psychology degree as a TSS… he has no benefits, and his hours are often being cut. THough he make $6 more an hour over me .
I often send my Roofter son Job links … he says he is applying, doing the cover letters, what else can I do?? This son is not lazy… he works very hard… gets up 4:30 am many times and doesn’t get home till 6:30 at night… and works in 90 degree weather… the company loves him and his 1st year working there , they even gave him a scholarship to Geneva and hired 3 of his brothers one summer… just cause they appreciate my son… he will move into a Foreman position there if he stays … though again. this is not Electrical Engineering.
So… I called yesterday , talked to a Financial Rep at Geneva… there is nothing that can be done for this college year (2020-21) which is Ok… we have it covered…
All they can do is… I do the FAFSA this OCT/ NOV using 2019 (our highest income ever)… then hurry and do our 2020 taxes (probably can’t be done till mid Feb though)… and Geneva will use the 2020 taxes … honestly his getting laid off this late (and still having 3 weeks paid vacation coming)… our income will probably be approx $15,000 less… (not sure)… yet next year we may only be living on about $53,000 (I make $39,000ish and he’ll get $1,560 a month in Unemployment for 6 months) - not $95,000ish (2020 year)…
He spoke about calling PHEAA about the PA Grant to take in 2020 tax year instead also I guess…
Thats about it
Ask the financial aid officer if there can be some professional judgment made for your situation in that your husband is a displaced worker. Look up what you can in the Internet about the possibilities so you can run them by the FAO at the school.
As for your sons, …sigh. I have many kids and none living near me because the optimal jobs are not. I still cry some nights about my youngest. Oh, how I wish he lived nearer. My oldest will be getting married, and they don’t live near. My nephew, my cousin’s son all part of my family as kids now over 3000 miles away. But they are flourishing and happy. They took the opportunities when and where they arise and did not put geographics as a limitation.
My youngest was not happy with his first job out of college which was his only offer. Barely a living wage and not close to family, but it was the only college grad type job offer. It was that or back to his summer job haunts. So he took it , and yeah, we Supplementes. He was looking for better and it came out of the blue just when he’d decided that the Corona virus had shut down too jobs for him to be searching at the time. He was going to spend time with us since he was getting unemployment benefits, but he was hardly here, before he was up and gone. I miss him, I miss them all. Somehow went from a house full to empty nest in 10 years. This last bit hurt the most.
But I’m all OT now. For all the issues and problems of being afar(and trust me, we have some serious things going on), sometimes to make that step into some sort of independence means looking outside of home. Your part of the country may simply not have the type of jobs that best benefit your sons.
Also, look at your local public college options for your kids in school. It might be a better way to go. The FAI there might be more helpful in getting you eligible for more state and federal monies, with this unemployment having happened. Not to mention cheaper tuition. My oldest went back to school after a hiatus and being unemployed at that time(independent student) got maximum PELL.
Have the electrical engineer check this out https://afciviliancareers.com/students-and-graduates/. Positions are at several locations across the country.
Does their college offer job placement assistance?
https://www.geneva.edu/academics/majors/engineering
It looks like their school has a general B.S. Engineering degree with various concentrations to choose from while stating that graduates have 100% job placement.