Life after college

Parents Forum
1

Most parents here in CC are college graduates. I am not. I had some college units but not able to finish it.

I just would like to ask what happened after college. Did you find a job related to your degree? Are you happy with the choice of your degree and your career? Does the ‘name’ and ‘prestige’ of the university mattered in your career i.e. you got higher pay, promotion, etc. compared to co-workers with the same degree but who are from less known university, or vice-versa?

What are the things/decisions that you would done differently in choosing a career that now you are working or have your own career or business? Are you still paying student loans?

I cannot contribute much but I wish I finished my bachelors and my life would have been different. Answers to these questions will help my family decide for my children’s future choice of career, and also for my self because I am still considering to go back to school.

Thank you in advance.

2

Your family is going to decide your children’s future careers? Please let your children decide their own careers.

ETA…how is this question different than the one on this thread?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1885149-should-parents-decide-influence-on-what-major-their-child-must-take-in-college.html#latest

3

@thumper1

This thread is different in a sense that I am trying to learn from other peoples’ experiences. Those who have been through the ropes may share their experiences. I understand that some people may not share their experiences for so many reasons. That’s fine. Learning from the experiences of others helps me understand how college is like, how choices in the past dictates their current career/life, and many other things.

Don’t get me wrong. I am letting my children decide on their own career but an advice from me wouldn’t hurt. My eldest is 18 year old. His experience is limited and he hasn’t seen the real workplace at all. He can afford to make little mistake but a big one could be disastrous. I can see in his eyes that he needs guidance.

When you advised me to let my children make their own career choice, was that because you witnessed first hand that it was proven to be a good strategy?

Thanks again for replying to this thread.

4

Your son needs to experience his college first before thinking about after college. You do not own or control your children. Many or most will change the major/plans they enter college. It will take a couple of years to figure out likes/dislikes based on courses taken for a proposed major and breadth requirements.

There is NO WAY you can choose your children’s adult paths for them. You can offer advice and suggestions but they have no obligation to follow your advice. If you have done your job as a parent your children will be independent of you. All you can/should do is listen and be supportive.

I chose my major, chemistry, then chose medical school and my specialty. H is also a physician ( from India- likewise you can’t control your children’s religious beliefs). We used to say our son was too smart to become a physician. He chose his major and to work instead of grad school. No way could we make him do anything.

5

@wis75 Thank you for those answers. When he changes major or career path, will it not cost money? As a parent, I have limited resources. I cannot support up to 5 years of college. I can only support 4 years so if changing major extends my son’s years in college, should I tell him he needs to figure out how to fund the 5th or 6th year?

While it is not my choice, I am not sure if it will not affect me at all. The good thing though is that he’s starting at community college and I hope he will be properly equipped with right knowledge to make a career decision when he choose his major before transferring.

6

My two oldest took totally non-CC traditional career paths that I could never, ever have predicted when they were in high school. They entered college undecided, found their niches, graduated, found jobs in their “career passions” and are on their own. I shake my head sometimes and my H and I chuckle when we tell people what they are doing, but I’m totally happy they are happy and thriving in the real world. #3 is in engineering school in civil something he’s wanted since he was quite young and is just pointed in that direction with no surprises. He’s a junior so i think the die is cast although when he was very little he said he was going to be a banker builder (how he understood real estate developers i think) so he could still exit engineering and become a banker builder :slight_smile: I often made suggestions along the way, but for young adults to succeed they really need to do things their way.

7

The parents who are here graduated into a much, much different economy than graduates nowadays. Honestly, I don’t think their path in life is going to be at all helpful for your sons.

JMO as a young college grad (whose parents didn’t go to college either).

If you can support 4 years of college then tell them that they have 4 years of college. The truth is that the vast majority of full-time, “traditional” students can graduate in 4 years (barring obvious things like illness).

It’s also worth noting that the VAST majority of people will not work in something that is degree-specific. For example, an anthropology major is almost certainly not going to do any work related to anthropology (unless s/he pursues a PhD).

8

@momofthreeboys @romanigypsyeyes Thank you for your contribution. I guess I am getting re-assurances from you guys that I am in the right track.

9

@dad3sons, you might take a look at this thread – http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1888163-parents-how-many-changes-of-major-how-many-career-changes-p1.html

Changing one’s major in college does not automatically destine one to spending more than 4 years to complete a degree. In many schools, there is enough “room” in most major programs for “late-comers” to still be able to finish in a timely way. The key is to make sure that the student gets appropriate academic advising, and that they don’t wait too long before making a desired or necessary change, so that they don’t find themselves stuck down a dead-end alleyway…

Regarding your question about the “name” or “prestige” of one’s university and it’s impact on one’s career – I graduated from what arguably might be the university with the highest name-recognition and prestige in the whole world. The name certainly helps open doors, and maybe gets my resume a second look, but in the end, getting hired, promoted, and career success generally, comes down to the individual and their performance independent of what the names are on their diploma(s).

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@momofthreeboys – civil engineering is a really great background for a “banker builder.” Really.

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@dad3sons

Most folks switch careers multiple times in their lives. They just do. Many folks work in fields unrelated to,their college majors. Some work in fields related to their college majors, but not doing the jobs they thought they would,do.

Once more…my DD majored in engineering. She got her degree in engineering, with a double major in biology. She says she will NEVER work in the field of engineering. She completed the degree requirements because she started them…but realized engineering is not her thing. So…her major, which many parents hope their kids will take because of high salaries, etc…really…doesn’t matter at all. She never plans to work in that field.

12

I’ll take a shot at it.

My husband, our 30-year-old son, our 26-year-old daughter, and I are all college graduates. Three of us have graduate degrees, and the fourth will be finishing a graduate degree next month. Each of us is in a different career field.

All of us went to college immediately after high school. Three went to graduate school immediately after college. The fourth worked for several years after college before going to graduate school.

Two of us changed our majors during college. Two didn’t.

Three of us completed the graduate degrees we started. The fourth person started in one type of graduate program and later switched into another.

Two of us pursued graduate study in the same field as our undergraduate majors. The other two pursued graduate study in fields different from our undergraduate majors.

All of us found jobs related to our degrees. Two have since moved into other areas.

Three out of four seem mostly pleased with our choices of degree and career. One person is not.

For two people, prestige mattered a great deal. For the other two, probably not.

For three of us, getting a graduate degree made an important difference in terms of future opportunities. For the fourth person, probably not.

I don’t think any of us would have done anything differently.

Only one of us has loans, and it’s one of the young people.

Do you see any patterns here? I find it difficult to see any. Each of us has had different experiences, and the two young people are still developing their careers. Many things happen along the way, and they are not necessarily predictable.

Most important, each of us chose our own college majors and career paths. My husband and I didn’t make these key life decisions for our grown children, and our parents didn’t make these decisions for us. This wasn’t a matter of “good strategy.” It was simply the way things were done in our families. At a certain point, parents stop controlling their children’s long-term life decisions. In the family we raised – as well as the families we grew up in – that point came at around the beginning of college.

13

Freshman year in college most students already know if humanities or sciences are most likely their interests and strengths. They will usually have a mix of science, social science, math and humanities that may be useful for their eventual major or meet breadth requirements. There are many introductory-intermediate classes the first two years with many of those in the major the final two years. There is enough room in a college schedule to meet requirements for a different major while also having a fair number of credits for the major initially thought of. Remember, college is an education, not just job training. Graduates are eligible for many jobs outside their major field of study. They will have learned critical thinking skills as well as a knowledge base in a subject.

So, relax and trust your child to be successful. Knowing a subject in greater depth does not hurt, even if like for my son who decided on math not physics after several courses in both (and added comp sci), the engineering grad above or my chemistry eons ago we do not work in the field.

14

There is no need for your son to know what career he wants or even what he wants to major in entering college. That is part of the purpose of Gen Ed requirements. They get the opportunity through those courses to hopefully find something which sparks their interest and pursue more in depth. Plenty of time after those requirements are fulfilled to complete a major’s requirement.

My S majored In Politics and minored in history and got a job in a completely unrelated field to either.

He thought about law school at one time but now, if he ever goes back, it will be for an MBA.

15

For kids who are wildly undecided about what sort of major they are interested in pursuing in college, I always recommend taking a Myers Briggs personality test. This, coupled with some knowledge of the HS subjects they like, can help them choose a major. Of course, these things can evolve once in college, but some things tend not to change (i.e., introverted vs extroverted, multi-tasker vs a one-task-at-a-time type, etc.)

16

As a practical matter, a student within a year of graduation will start planning post-graduation activity. This is usually one of the following:

A. Apply to jobs.
B. Apply to graduate or professional school.

Under A, there may be:

  1. Major-specific jobs (e.g. chemical engineer job for a chemical engineering major).
  2. Non-major-specific jobs where one's major or course work has some relevance (e.g. some "business" jobs for someone with a major or course work in the social studies).
  3. Other jobs that ask for a bachelor's degree but are major and course work agnostic.
  4. Other jobs where a bachelor's degree is not needed.

I would imagine that your engineering-oriented sons will focus on A1 if they stay with engineering and like it, and do not plan on graduate or professional school. However, if an industry downturn hits as they graduate, they may have to look for other types of jobs, at least until the industry that would hire that type of engineer recovers. For A2 and A3, strong knowledge and skills in varied subject areas can increase the chance of having the knowledge and skills desired by a given employer (so STEM majors should not ignore H/SS subjects, and H/SS majors should not ignore STEM subjects).

For summers, students try to seek employment (sometimes called internships) relating to their major or type of work desired after graduation; such experience can help when seeking post-graduation jobs. Getting such relevant employment is more likely in later summers. Some students take a longer period of a summer plus a semester or quarter off school for a co-op job; this means later graduation, but no extra semesters or quarters of school to pay tuition for.

Under B, there may be:

  1. PhD program, typically requiring or favoring specific undergraduate major or course work, as well as undergraduate research.
  2. Professional school (e.g. medical or law), typically major-agnostic, but may require specific course work.

B1 is for students who are really into the subject and want to go into research. B2 is for students whose specific professional goals require such professional school (e.g. law school to become a lawyer).

17

"I just would like to ask what happened after college. Did you find a job related to your degree? "

  • After college, I was working in engineering and hated it with all my heart. This job lasted for 11 years and I never felt positive about it. So, I went back to school, graduated with CS degree from CC, got the job in the IT / IS or whatever the name was I do not know as they keep changing it and absolutely loved computer programming from the day 1. Since many of my employers paid for education, I graduated later with BS while few employers paid for it and since they paid even for Masters, I decided, why not? So, later I graduated with MBA, again all paid by several employers. I was working full time my entire life since 19 with the exception of 2 years when I went to CC for my CS degree. I had family…and I went to school until I turned 40. School was also fun and very entertaining, memories of studying by the pool during summers are precious.
    As a summary, I had one engineering job and 9 CS jobs and I am at my best job ever, which makes it very hard to retire. I am well past retirement age and planning to work for at least 2.5 years. I will retire only because we are planning to move to a better climate after certain age. If we did not decide to move, I would never retire from my current job, it is way too entertaining. I would simply wait until I am kicked out.
18

I just wanted to draw particular attention to this quote from the very informative post by @ucbalumnus.

In this context, “within a year of graduation” means within the year BEFORE graduation.

It’s probably obvious to all that a student who wants to go to graduate school immediately after graduating from college must apply to graduate programs fairly early in senior year.

What’s less obvious to many who are going through the process for the first time is that students whose immediate plans involve employment also start applying during the early part of the senior year of college.

Out in the real world, in most lines of work, people apply for jobs only if they’re ready to be hired within a few weeks. But on-campus job recruiting works on a different time schedule. There’s some variation from one industry to another, but it all happens astonishingly early. One of my kids had a job lined up before Thanksgiving – even though the job didn’t start until the following July.

Sometime around junior year, your son needs to be aware of this.

My kid wouldn’t have gotten that job if she didn’t understand how the system works. She needed to realize in advance that she had to start applying for jobs during the first couple of weeks of her final year of college.

19

@dad3sons

Your kids should be aware of the career placement office at their college. That is where they can get listings & counseling on internships and fulltime jobs.

20

I think it’s a worthwhile post with insightful questions posed. I think it’s great that you want to help advise your children and share what others have experienced or learned. I knew exactly what I wanted to major in (having chosen my career path from some opportunities in high school to job shadow various professions). I loved my major and went on to immediately earn the required Master’s degree for my field, and I have loved what I do (speech therapy) with a passion each and every day 20 years later. I’ve only changed settings 3 times. I often share with my own children that I found that school and reputation really had no bearing on my employment (whether or not that is different for different fields, I don’t know). I actually interviewed and took my first job across the country, one potential employer knew nothing about the schools I went to (for undergrad and grad) and one was a graduate of a nearby school in that state. Both offered me a job I think based more on the experiences I gained from my college education and practicums than the schools listed on my resume. At a later interview, I was offered the job in part because I was buying a house around the corner from the director, lol!
My H only earned partial college course credit and did not complete a degree and I know he has regrets about that. However, he has been employed with the same company for 20 years and values the job security he has.

Our twins will start their college careers this Fall and I am confident that they have chosen excellent schools with great career paths. Whether or not those paths change, time will tell, but I am happy they have a solid start. Good luck to you and your family!