I was too anxious to read this thread. S also graduated with a degree in CS. He’s getting his offer tomorrow from the place he interned last year. It’s a ginormous company, about 20,000 employees. I’ve been researching a little about what to expect, he was asking me yesterday how low would be too low and it reminded me of this thread. I don’t think a major defense contractor will low ball a new grad, it’s got to be regulated to an extent. In the interview/conversation with his boss he told S he had nothing to do with offers, it came through HR. His boss also joked with him he’d get a bonus for bringing someone in. S already has his security clearance, they started working on it last spring and it took a year. He loved the internship, learned tons and thought the people who worked there were super smart and liked them. The downside - his small branch is mostly people in their 40’s and 50’s though they told him there were events and gatherings for the younger ones in the company to meet.
I feel like I may get a raise too if we can get him off our insurance.
Defense contractors will pay whatever the market is paying (I was a PM for a very large defense company). Having the security clearance will make him much more attractive as the company will not have to pay him to sit around until his clearance comes through. Defense companies pay is usually OK, but not great. He should keep his network going and keep looking around for other offers as he gains more experience.
S got his job offer. Salary way higher than any of us expected. Lots of good benefits as well. In looking at the insurance, if he were just your typical young guy, it would be fine. However, I think we will keep him on our plan, he takes some pretty expensive medicine for his migraines. Our rx copays are very small, on this plan he’d have to pay 30 - 50% - which could end up being very expensive for him.
Onto apartment hunting! He now has a lot more flexibility.
Just wanted to add our job hunting experience. D just graduated and had a job offer before graduating!!! Which is very rare in her industry. However, it is not a guaranteed thing. Part of her degree requirements is that she has to have minimum 120 hrs internship. She never quite squeezed the internship in and she still has to do an internship to get her degree. She applied to over 50 internships and basically heard nothing.
She works in the administration office and one of her jobs is to post flyers around campus. While posting flyers, a group of men came into the Admin building to ‘informally’ recruit for a local start up company. She showed them around and got herself invited for an interview. When she went in for the interview she got the job! They are going to carve out an unpaid internship for college credit and use the internship as her ‘probation’ period. Hopefully she will make herself indispensable and continue onto full time employment.
And, she’s excited because it is local to her university and she gets to stay in her apartment.
But, typical for a young first timer… when I asked her what the salary and benefits were for the full time job, she had no idea. I think she was so excited about the opportunity she never asked.
I sent her the link to the article above. We will see what happens after the probation period.
I’m leaving my son on my insurance as long as possible, because I know it’s good insurance and will cover everything. I don’t know about done if those other plans.
Update on ds2: Today he got the second job offer. Unhappy with the money. They know about the low-ball money on the first job, and ds thinks they are making an offer based on that and not what is the going rate for the position. The problem is that he really doesn’t know the going rate. He told them that he wanted $10k more. I doubt that he’ll get it so who knows what he’ll do. The good news is he loves the current job despite the low pay.
Yes, that is the problem with taking a low offer - most companies ask current salary on applications and it is sometimes hard to get out of the low salary hole.
His current employer makes no bones about the pay. It’s on Glass Door. He knew exactly what he would get going in. There are lots of perks, including lots of free food, and the company helps someone starting out make connections to get to the next step. Thats why there is no shortage of people willing to work there.
FSIL just got a job in DD’s city. However temporary it will be with them living there, it is great that he will be expanding his job experiences and helping pay bills. Is not FT but may end up being soon. He is probably some months away from either civil service job or return to Army officer.
Hi all, I just thought I would check in here and see if we have any updates. Hope our grads are finding jobs. Has summer been more or less successful than Spring?
D2 is on the job hunt after graduating in mid June then going on vacation for a few weeks. She had two job offers working in the industry she would like, but the salaries were low for living in LA. She has decided to expand her search to some other industries which have starting salaries that will be livable.
D ended up not getting the job she wanted at the rare animal breeding facility. She went to my folks’ house in CA to volunteer at a private zoo animal rescue and rehab place and was let go after a month. The reason was not really credible but we guess that she got on the nerves of one of the long-time volunteers. Really smart people tend to love her for her enthusiasm and genuineness; normal people either find her weird or annoying with her endless stream of obscure facts and seemingly random segues.
Silver lining, if there is one, is she realizes now that scraping up animal poop is an unfulfilling job. With one semester left, she is talking to some other wildlife people about career options outside of direct animal care. She has been a lively addition to the mainly retirement neighborhood and a welcome helper at my parents’ house.
I’ll update on ds2. The second place came back with a counter that split the difference. His new salary will be almost $20k more than the low-ball job (though the first job was hourly and he had the opportunity to work lots of OT, increasing his take-home). He starts in about 10 days. He hated to leave the other place, but this new job is a rare kind of opportunity.
Kiddo really likes the job! And her cheap subleased digs in Fremont turned out to be just fine. Nice roomies, a bus stop is next door, a grocery store a block away, and a ton of eateries around.
