<p>calmom-10% unemployment is the average rate. The rate for those in their early 20s is much higher. The reality is, it’s very hard for liberal arts grads to get jobs. In my D’s field unpaid internships are rampant and very much abused.</p>
<p>calmom - I know that anthropology majors dont necessarily become anthropologists (and in fact without a grad degree they usually can’t. My mention of anthro vs poli sci is due to my general impression that for the kind of generic policy/think tank/NGO/lobby job that is relatively common in DC where I live, Poli Sci is going to give a leg up over anthro (not for the ones that are really culture/development focused, but those are fewer, and probably lower paying). Its not black or white, but I that does not mean there are differences.</p>
<p>10% unemployment. Yes, its lower the less education you have. Its higher though for new graduates. Do they offset? Is it higher for new college grads, or lower? In the absence of data, I will have to say I do not know. I am glad your kid from CSU got a job. Not everyone clicks with their internship, or the company they interned at goes belly up, or whatever. </p>
<p>These are serious issues. About two years ago, on the drive from Morningside Heights (Columbia and Barnard) to grandma’s house (my MIL, not my mom who passed away years ago) DD asked "well what CAN one do with say, an Anthro degree. I discussed grad school to be an Anthropologist. I discussed Law school (“any major works”) I discussed medical school (“a good combo, IMO”) and social work (‘also a good combo’) and I mentioned NGO’s, development work. And corporate work, HR, sales, marketing, administration. Not easy to explain to a 16 YO on a short car trip, as brownstone Brooklyn flashed by. And I (and DW) talked about personality traits, not so much to get a job, but to succeed in those areas. To our DD, who is ADHD, has improved in social skills but is still far from “hail fellow, well met”). Who is nerdy, quirky, etc. And who has quantitative and visual spatial skills that it would be a shame, quite frankly, to waste. </p>
<p>We never said don’t do liberal arts. We did try to provide facts as well as we knew them, including people we knew with liberal arts degrees and the kinds of things they did. </p>
<p>As it happens DD decided to focus more on engineering and architecture. And then decided on architecture. and will be going to RPI. We made sure that they had SOME liberal arts (they do, as it happens one of the few they have a major in is Anthro, and DD may minor in that). Arch is of course not lucrative, but the career is one where design and analysis will be at the core, and any administrative/entrepreneurial skills she develops will be gravy, and not the core of her career. Arch will still have lots of “liberal artsy” stuff to think about. And we are sending her for a gap year in Israel, where she will learn Judaics (which is an area of interest that RPI does not offer). </p>
<p>I think know thyself is essential</p>
<p>I welcome your success stories for liberal arts grads, with HOW they found a job tips being helpful.</p>
<p>another example</p>
<p>I know one young woman currently attending a big city private univ, USNWR ranking around 80 or so among national U’s. The young lady was coding HTML in, IIRC, 6th grade. Java not long after that. Somewhere along the way she got turned off to math. </p>
<p>She is now planning on majoring in theater. I think also music (at first it was musical theater, but I think she changed). I doubt she will much of a living doing theater. She is not likely to do well in any field requiring communications and interpersonal skills. She has severe issues reading social cues, and may be NVLD. One of the recent times we saw her, and I suggested taking at least SOME more Comp sci, as a back up. She didn’t. Now shes talking law school, though I don’t think she knows too much about what that involves.</p>
<p>Happy to report that S#1, a 2010 grad with an unmarketable liberal arts degree, just started working.
He was offered a teaching job that he didn’t apply for–based only on the recommendation
of a friend and his ability to relocate in 6 days. The director of the school called and offered him the job over the phone, sent an email with his schedule, and “P.S. Please forward a copy of your resume. . .” The darndest thing. (S has been sitting around playing video games most of the summer.)</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>wow, fun story. Is it very far away? Had he ever thought about teaching?</p>
<p>congrats to atomom’s son. hoping it works out ok</p>
<p>D1 is home for a week before she starts school. She said she has a lot of friends who graduated this year still without jobs. On the other hand, almost all of her friends from her year who interned this summer all received a permanent job offer for next year. Her firm is asking interns to recommend people from their schools for fall recruiting.</p>
<p>Congrats to atomom. You must feel relieved. Next, son will ask you to subsidize his rent, as D1 is already pitching for that for next year. I told her to get a roommate. We had a good talk yesterday over lunch about budgeting for next year - rent, food, health insurance, 401k, savings (how much is necessary for a good safety net in this environment)…</p>
<p>My son just vacated his job in his college city (a good job) to move to his “real” job. He was able to “place” one of his college friends who didn’t have a job in the job he was leaving, even though the guy did not have a GPA as high as many of the other applicants. Connections…</p>
<p>S had reluctantly thought of teaching, but he is more of a computer geek. If anything, he’d like to teach math (which is not what he is teaching). This job is at a private school, which would be easy to identify if I said where it is. I’ll just say it is VERY far away 
I talked to him after the first day, and he said it went better than he thought it would.</p>
<p>I have a nephew who also graduated in May who has been doing all the right things to find a job, has a more marketable degree, graduated with honors, etc. I think he’s applied for at least 60 jobs, had 4 interviews and no offers yet. His sister took 9 mo.–with similar effort–to find a 18-mo low-paying contract job last year. She also got her job through connections: her dad was talking to someone at a party, who asked about his kids, he mentioned D was looking for a job in a certain field, the guy said, “Well, my wife works for so and so, and they are looking for someone to . . .” She didn’t get THAT job, but it led to another position with that company.</p>
<p>S makes no effort (he did apply for one teaching job overseas). . .and is very suddenly, “accidentally employed.” Just dumb luck. I hate to have the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” confirmed, but that seems to work for a lot of people.
While this is not a high paying job, it does include insurance and other benefits. He has a roommate, subsidized housing and transportation–all worked out on the phone in 1/2 hour. He’ll have few expenses other than food and cell phone, so hoping he can save $. I (I was charging him rent at home.) I am so happy to have S “move on,” I can hardly stand it.</p>
<p>Haven’t read the whole thread. D1 is a '10 graduate from a very small LAC. She was offered several jobs in her career field before graduation. She is happily employed in the business side of a sports team. She believes her succcess in getting offers was due to her paid and unpaid internships(NHL, baseball, and soccer) in her desired field during the summer. The experience she gained and the networking paid off big for her. She is launched and on her way! Yay!</p>
<h1>208
Why? I can understand why a newly employed kid might need help from a parent in terms of co-signing a lease or helping with initial apartment acquisition costs (paying last months’ rent and the deposit) … but neither of my kids ever asked for rent money from me while living on their own outside of school. It seems to me that lesson #1 is to live within their means, and that includes finding a place where they can manage the rent on their paycheck. (And my kids have managed quite well living on their own in high rent areas like San Francisco & New York)</h1>
<p>ETA: I noticed that Atomom says in a subsequent post that she was charging S. rent while he was living at home … for all we know, maybe he’s getting a better deal at his new job! (She didn’t say where he’s working, but I’ll bet its a school in a more rural location — perhaps they provide or arrange housing for their faculty – that would explain why the school might have a hard enough time filling positions that they are going to be making calls to people who haven’t applied. Though I also think that, despite Atomom’s perception, her son wouldn’t have been recommended for the position unless he has made an impression on others as being smart and capable. And S. may have been doing a little more “job hunting” than his Mom was aware of – at least to the extent of using email and social networking to let his college friends know that he was still looking for work. I’ll bet the kid had his resume posted online in some strategic places – when my son was “between jobs” a few years back, he used to get a surprising number of calls just from a resume that was posted on Craigslist).</p>
<p>Calmon, good for you and your kids. You should be proud.
As for oldfort’s D, many of my friends, including me, have also subsidized their kids’ rent if needed so they can live in a safer neighborhood especially many of them had to work late into the night. In my case, it is a bit self-serving because my D lives in a city where I like to visit several times a year and will cost me much more if I have to stay in a hotel. I regard this as my rent to her when I come to visit and I won’t have to inconvenient any roommates.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota - Congrats to your daughter. I have heard that jobs in the sports industry are incredibly hard to get, so she must be a shining star. I’m sure you must be very proud of her.</p>
<p>I’m going to give my kid some money each month just to help him get started. I don’t have a problem with that. I’m also going to pay his car insurance (car is in our name) for another year or so. We take his sister and her husband out to eat frequently, so I don’t feel like it’s out of line to send my son some $$$. We can do it, and he is managing his finances and figuring all this out. We feel quite wealthy right now since we aren’t paying for his very expensive college and housing there! I could buy him everything in Bed Bath and Beyond and it would feel like a bargain!</p>
<p>Re post #213 … I don’t have any problem with oldfort’s daughter asking for money – I was asking why oldfort assumed that Atomom’s newlly employed son would be asking for parental help. </p>
<p>If other CC parents want to send money to their employed kids… I have no reason whatsoever to question that. But if they are doing so under the impression that all newly employed recent grads are getting such help … then that simply isn’t true. My kids earn enough to pay basic living expenses … it seems to me that’s the whole point of having a full time job.</p>
<p>Northwestern engineering school reported the following:</p>
<p>60% had jobs
31% had grad scools lined up
4% would be going to med schools
5% looking for job/no plan</p>
<p>Of those that had jobs, 37% are in finance/consulting and 22% in manufacturing.</p>
<p>[Most</a> of McCormick Class of 2010 Had Jobs at Graduation: McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern](<a href=“http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/article_745.html]Most”>http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/article_745.html)</p>
<p>Sam Lee: Do you have data for the entire Northwestern? It is my recollection that in 09 almost 25% of Princeton Graduates did not have jobs.</p>
<p>Your data indicates what many posters such as BCEagle has been saying - If you have marketable degree jobs are there. If you took 4 years of vacation and got degree in dance history or musicology or urban planning tough luck.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned student loan debt after graduating college. My first son an MIT grad graduated with about $35,000 in debt. He moved back home after graduating in May and he will finish paying off his loans by this December. Another son, has worked full time this past year while attending school and he will have his loans paid off by the time he graduates Cornell in May. My other third son has managed to keep his loans in check and plans on paying them off before he begins med school. </p>
<p>Many people are student loan adverse but when the loans are necessary and the prospects are good they are not the worst thing. I don’t think loans are the way to go for everyone and If possible they should be kept at a maximum of nothing more than $50,000 for someone who really understands debt and what it will take to pay that off.</p>
<p>In the case of my two sons. One was lucky in that he was able to live at home while paying off his loans. If his job was out of state it would not have been as easy to do. My second son was very fortunate in that he was hired for a job as a full time student which is paying him a great salary. Again, not every student could or should do this, but I am pointing out that in some cases it is possible to make things work.</p>
<p>When DD graduates, I will look at the (family) return to early loan repayment vs other things DW and I can do financially with our money. IF it looks like repaying loans early has a better ROI than anything else, I will strongly consider giving DD money to do just that. </p>
<p>I cannot see giving her money for living expenses though, even though she is archie. If she gets a job in NYC, I will give her advice on neighborhoods, and DW can give her advice on living with roommates. We wont give her $$ so she can live in some hipster nabe. </p>
<p>Thats what I am thinking now.</p>