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<p>A bit harsh, don’t you think? As an employer, how quick are you in getting back to the applicants? the interviewees? the ones who’ve traveled 5 hours having to leave at 5 am ( on their own scarce dime) to meet with you for 15 minutes and told to expect to hear about the next round of interviews in ‘a couple weeks or a month’. </p>
<p>Kiddo graduated a few weeks ago. She has been sending applications, most of which result in phone interviews, many travel interviews, several 'you’re on the short list responses, contacting alumnae, working all networks she can tap into, cold-calling professors and consulting firms, haunting and using her school’s career center, job boards, friends, friends of friends, associates, etc since way last Fall. She is still waiting to receive an offer for employment. And continues to send resumes, applications, make contacts, interview, follow up, and call professors with research labs. </p>
<p>Today she filled out an application with a temp agency and Monday will start work unpaid in a professor’s lab on his research projects she is really interested in. She will continue to follow up on the various interviews that are still ‘in the works’—those telling her 'you have the skills we are looking for, great lab experience, just what we need, but we’ll get back to you (at some indefinite time) in the next few weeks or months. </p>
<p>So, the professor whose lab she’s volunteering does know that she may have to bail when she (finally) gets a paying job, so is it more flaky for her to do that or to not start with him at all? Should she look for some hostessing/barrista/waitress job while she waits for these potential employers to get back to her and bail in a few weeks after they spend the time training her, if she’s lucky enough to finally get her real starting job? How long does she let all this play out before it’s time to take whatever retail clerk job she can find ----just so some employer doesn’t think she’s lazy and has no hustle??? </p>
<p>Kiddo graduated with BS Cognitive Neuroscience with 3.7 from top tier school, worked in research labs three of four years, worked in as many as 3 labs at a time, in addition to part-time work on campus, carrying more credits than most each semester, varsity athlete, and interned her last year of school in a non-profit consulting group along with working in a lab. She’s no slacker. </p>
<p>But jobs are hard to come by, employers are not particularly time-sensitive, and it’s an employer’s market. </p>
<p>So really? A new graduate still unemployed ‘at some job’ after a month post graduation is in danger of being seen as having a suspect work ethic??? Harsh. </p>