A lot of Poly Sci/Econ/History majors start out at consulting firms like Deloitte, KPMG etc. a lot of these companies are hired for special government projects. My H, who is in state government, has hired a number of consulting firms over his 30 years in gov’t service. The newest employees are usually the ones sent out into the field to work on these projects.
IMO, I think a lot of people don’t really understand what kind of jobs both businesses and government offer. I think people think if you work for a retail company that means you are a salesperson/shirt folder or manage a store. Or if a food service company you are ringing up fries and making shakes. Or if a gov’t workers you shuffle papers and twiddle your thumbs all day.
My father owned a large fast food chain (approx 250 restaurants and a chain of movie theaters.) At corporate headquarters there were accounting department, IT dept, payroll dept., real estate division, marketing dept, purchasing dept, HR, lawyers, along with district managers, regional managers, operations managers, warehouse managers, transportation logistics specialists (my Bil does that at GE) and likely more that I can’t think of off the top of my head at the moment.
I wouldn’t sneeze at anyone who got a job at Starbucks corporate, for example. They don’t only employ baristas and they aren’t living in their parent’s basements, either.
“but they make enough money to disqualify themselves for most need-based aid. If your household income is in the $55K range, and you have a 30 ACT, you’re pretty much financially screwed in the American college financial realm, at least in my state.”
A 30 ACT and our income in the $120-$130k range got my son up to $30k/merit at a LAC (slightly lesser at other LACs) and $40k a year at need based only top 25 LAC - making the cost to us exactly what it would have cost us to send him to a SUNY. People making $55k/yr would hardly pay anything at need based only selective colleges/universities.
Jobs and Salaries for Political Science/Government at University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Occupation Starting Salary
Human Resources Workers $40,200
Office Clerks, General $34,300
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers $37,500
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants $41,800
Customer Service Representatives $41,100
Elementary and Middle School Teachers $42,600
Management Analysts $56,500
Retail Salespersons $28,400
Paralegals and Legal Assistants $42,500
Miscellaneous Legal Support Workers $38,300
Major Total $40,000
RE post #93 … I have a friend who is a senator. He has many staffers who sleep on couches and inflatable mattresses in their offices because they can’t afford housing. And, if your senator does not get re-elected, you will definitely be out of a job (not that you may not find another one, but there is definitely not job security).
I’m curious as to how far $40K goes in Seattle. I’ve heard that city has a very high cost of living, and $40K doesn’t even go far in my low-cost-of-living city.
Olympia is cheaper than Seattle from the tables I’ve seen.
Tutu- are you suggesting that a new college grad can’t live on 40K per year?
And two of my kids worked in DC as new college grads. Neither slept in their office. They did have roommates, and neither of them were drinking $12 cocktails after work every night. But they had health insurance, a steady job (not working for a Senator-- but given that the Senate only turns over every 6 years this is less of a concern than you make it out to be) and best of all- very rapid mobility.
If fresh out of college isn’t the time to take a job that provides an interesting experience and a spring board to greater things, but doesn’t pay a ton, when is?
Frankly I really wish I hadn’t walked right in to a boring, well paying 8-5 job right out of college. I envy my friends who wandered a bit.
“Tutu- are you suggesting that a new college grad can’t live on 40K per year?”
Do people really believe their student is going to get a job straight out of college where they will be rolling in dough?
$40k right out of school is a good salary. My S started in low 50’s and is now in mid 50’s after one year and he lives in Boston - not a cheap city by any means. He makes enough to afford to share an apt with one other person, a $400/car payment, all his other bills and a modest entertainment/eating out budget, while putting money in his 401k and an emergency saving account with thousands in it - after putting $5k down on his car. I think that’s great for a 23 yr old. We do pay his car insurance because we can afford it and would rather he max out his 401k contribution - but he could pay it if he had to.
I think people’s expectations are very unrealistic about starting salaries for new grads…
“I’m guessing that few people, very, very few…could pass the CPA exam with one accounting class, having learned the rest “on the job”. I can guarantee you the change to the 150 credit hour rule was not made to encourage “mediocrity” in the profession.”
My experience with a colleague was that he took the classes he needed to take. Classes in the plural. Just the accounting classes, not a major, but he never said, and I wouldn’t have believed, that he accomplished it taking one course.
Jeepers! I didn’t say I could pass the CPA exam based on my (really good grade in) 4-hour Introduction to Financial Accounting course! I said I could have gotten a job offer from a Big 8 accounting firm on that basis (and on the basis of the rest of my academic record, which was pretty shiny, and my interest in the job). I said that because they told me so. But, sure, I would have had to have spent real time preparing for the CPA exam, most of it in their elaborate (and probably accredited) internal training program.
From what I’ve heard from older accountants who entered the profession with lower prereq educational requirements to sit for the CPA, a part of the higher pass rate on the first attempt or two among accountants in the last few decades IS DUE to the very hiking of those requirements…whether it’s a bachelors degree after they started or after 1998, the 150 hour credit requirement.
Not only are examinees have more education on a credit hour basis, the higher level of motivation required to take on the additional 22-30 credits after the first bachelor’s act to further discourage the less motivated/academically capable students who are most likely to require multiple retakes to pass or to flunk the exam on every attempt as was more common when the older accountant friends entered the profession decades ago.
"RE post #93 … I have a friend who is a senator. He has many staffers who sleep on couches and inflatable mattresses in their offices because they can’t afford housing. And, if your senator does not get re-elected, you will definitely be out of a job (not that you may not find another one, but there is definitely not job security).
I’m curious as to how far $40K goes in Seattle. I’ve heard that city has a very high cost of living, and $40K doesn’t even go far in my low-cost-of-living city."
@tutumom2001 , yours is precisely the point of view from the pragmatic education crowd that really mucks things up.
My response to your whole post is, so what? Job security? For a first job out of college?
People need to recognize that your degree doesn’t set you up for life. Kids need to pay their dues. Working for a senator is not a job security thing … it’s an “I did it” thing.
I clerked for a federal circuit court judge, and I knew I didn’t want to be a litigator. I was paid a federal employee wage for a year, lived with some other clerks in DC, and moved on to my next job in a law firm.
But I think that your post captures nicely the narrow point of view that is a chief cause of this relentless parental anxiety of whether or not your kid just absolutely needs to hit the ground running right after undergrad. They really don’t. Sure, too much in the way of loans will compromise that freedom to a degree, but come on.
No matter what they do in school and right after school, they are going to have to pay some dues to get anywhere. If your kid is still in his or her first job 10 years after college, something probably went wrong.