The First Post-College Job: How Picky Should Your Kid Be?

Parent Cafe
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<p>^Not all of us are lucky enough to have jobs that continue past graduation. I worked retail my sophomore year, then quit my junior year when I became a student leader (which gave income and housing and cut my student debt by a minimum of $20k.)</p>

<p>But once you’re not a student anymore, you obviously can’t continue working for the school. And I’m from a town which houses 40k college students, and it’s a commuter school. So it’s not exactly easy to come home and find a job doing ANYTHING. Trust me, I’ve tried in years past.</p>

<p>And you have no idea what this person’s circumstances are. Not everyone has your circumstances, your opportunities, etc. That’s a very egotistical and unforgiving way to look at it.</p>

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<p>My son’s current job ends automatically with his graduation - it’s a a paid internship with a public agency-- very good opportunity for him, but only available for full-time students. My d. had a bunch of part-time jobs her last semester of college, but several were college jobs that didn’t continue post-graduation either. </p>

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<p>Ds boyfriend was doing some great research for which he was getting paid, but that ended when he graduated last year
Because he wanted to stay in town ( D still had another year), he took two jobs that weren’t really related to his major at all, but he isn’t the kind of kid to be idle.</p>

<p>I </p>

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<p>Same with Kiddo’s jobs during college four states away from home, i.e., the jobs were finite time periods for students. They were not ‘starter’ jobs that were hers to keep until she moved on. </p>

<p>She has moved to the city where a good concentration for her job search is. There is nothing in our home city for her and the travel for call backs would be ridiculous, several hundred dollars at a pop. I doubt seriously she would be able to even make many of those in-person interviews on a Starbuck’s (or similar) schedule or paycheck. </p>

<p>Harsh and sanctimonious, I’d say, if that’s your opinion of a graduate one month removed from college. Six months or a year, I could see, but 30 days and in the depths of interviewing?? Harsh, sanctimonious, and not in touch with job market logistics. </p>

<p>I, as an employer, would get very tired of training barristas, retail clerks, waitresses, etc if they were out the door as soon as they were trained or before. </p>

<p>What jobs are you hiring?</p>

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<p>I think you should let your kids trust their instincts. I also pulled the trump card as I’m not supporting you once you are out of college and was urging my daughter to apply to any job. She didn’t really want to, only took a part-time job while starting her company. In her Junior year, she did a lot of reading for her major and found a distaste to working in television. From what she read the writers have the most power, they can kill any cast member they want. She wants to be more hands own and control her destiny. So she formed her own production company.But these business takes time, it’s not instantaneous to get a business going. So for the first 6 months, every time she had to write one of these “Dear Mom” emails to ask me for money to help with her rent shortfall, she felt really bad.
Eventually, she did manage to devote full time to her company and business started to take off. She lives in a nice town house near a tony beach town, she is able to pay herself and self-supporting, except for cell phone and health insurance, she has not asked for any money. She is very happy with her choice and I’m happy that she is doing what she loves. I think some kids know what they want and forcing them to take any job, may not be good for them in the long term.</p>

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I don’t think I’d hire them in the first place - I’d probably be very wary of hiring recent college grads. </p>

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<p>Often whether or not a new graduate is able to find a job within a month of graduation, even “any job”, reflects more on the strength of their network, their school’s network,or a relative’s network, and on economic factors not under their control, than on their skill set, their work ethic, or their persistence in looking for employment.</p>

<p>In our case, the question becomes one of whether or when we will ask our new graduate to take an unskilled job gotten through our network that would leave her with little time, energy, money, or room for advancement without further education, rather than continue to chase a dream through short-term paid or unpaid internships and further coursework.</p>

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<p>It sounds like what I notice with lots of kids applying for jobs. The ‘Dream’ gets in the way of reality. If you look down on the rural schools, you will not get jobs there. Your ‘heart’ is not in it, so you will come across as disinterested. Boise is hardly rural, despite the big-city east coast bias. Over 200K people live in Boise. Average US city is just over 100K. Rural is like 20K or less. The average US town is about 6K. Before you enter the ‘dream’ job in a field like that, you need to put in your ‘time’ at a small, academically unknown college somewhere that you may hate. Or, you may actually interact with humans that are different than you yet still manage to bring something valuable to the human tapestry. If your real attitude is anything like what comes across in your posts, I would not want you to be an influence on anyone’s kids. You will be much better at that type of job if you learn to humble yourself and seek where the jobs are located. Otherwise, you will either end up living on someone else’s largess or working a job you hate in a place you love.</p>

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<p>In my own snowflake’s case, the “dream” involves working at a job that utilizes specialized skills that, tuition money aside, have taken years of hard work and delayed gratification to acquire and that could atrophy without continued practice or the type of training or experience available in an entry level job. She could continue to hone these skills through coursework and the types of internships generally available to students, but this would not leave time or energy for a minimum wage job.</p>

<p>I do not think my D would balk at relocation to an affordable area, or a long commute.</p>

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<p>If the graduate is turning his nose at decent job offers, it usually means he’s not hungry enough. Things change quickly when he’s suddenly made to fend for himself.</p>

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<p>I don’t know why it’s “sanctimonious” to prefer to hire those who have worked. None of you have described new grads without work experience. Not one. Lol. But it’s not sanctimonious to not hire a barista, or to tire of hiring new grads? I want to hire people who have held a job or continuous internship because work is different than school. By 21 or 22, you should have worked at something other than school. If that’s sanctimonious? Fine </p>

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<p>Exactly, Calmom! So even those type jobs are not ‘there for the taking’ for those newly graduated. </p>

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<p>Poetgrl, you said that you would not hire a new graduate who has not had a job within 30 days of graduation. That is quite different than what you now are saying, i. e., you would not hire a graduate who has never held a job in their life. </p>

<p>I don’t know about your work ethic, but my father (an employer ) instilled in me early on that employees that worked only a few weeks after being hired and trained were did not demonstrate good work ethic and were not in line for good recommendations. It’s one thing to realize rather quickly that a schedule or environment or duties are totally wrong fit, but to accept a job knowing/hoping you will only be there a few weeks?? That’s inappropriate work ethic and disrespectful to the employer who took the time to train you. </p>

<p>That is why Kiddo is submitting applications to temp agencies while she continues to hunt for her ‘real’ job. At least any jobs through the temp agencies are, by definition, temporary coverage for the employer. </p>

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<p>Yes. But I clearly clarified that with my last post. By the time someone is out of school they should have worked or be working. There are actual resumes of kids who think a degree is enough alone. </p>

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<p>Unless we’re talking about 2 or 3 year olds who don’t really have a concept of value or commerce yet, I’d think that most kids would eat it out of “Hey, I can get a whole bag of marshmallows for $1.50. What do I care about this single marshmallow?” At least I know that’s what my parents taught me. I think the result would have to be more related to how much parents teach their kids about money and commerce when they’re young than anything else, and my guess is there’s gonna be a very big difference in how a 4 year old and a 3 year old would respond because it’s hard for a 3 year old to understand value, but much easier for a 4 year old. And if we’re talking about 22 year olds, they should have the sense to make the right decisions. </p>

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<p>I can say I don’t know anyone personally who did this. Some looked for jobs all over and gave consideration to which place was their most preferred location, but no one I know simply excluded jobs outside the area they want to live. </p>

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<p>I know a lot of graduates who did this. Rural area – check. Few jobs – check. So they moved to NYC or Boston or DC with no job, lived 4-5 to an apartment, and got temp jobs or worked retail or waitressing. NYC is the biggest draw for this group. Some of them eventually got great jobs. Some are still underemployed, working retail. Some were hired by the firm they were tempting for, and got promoted. </p>

<p>For graduates who are not STEM majors, employers don’t pay to fly you out and lodge you in a hotel for an interview. Many employers will only look at resumes from local people.</p>

<p>To demonstrate this point – my daughter was looking for a job two years into her first job post-graduation. She was living on the West Coast and wanted to move back East. Some NYC and DC employers responded to her resume, but not one single Boston employer contacted her until she changed her address on her resume to an East Coast one within 45 minutes of Boston. Suddenly she was getting interviews.</p>

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<p>*can say I don’t know anyone personally who did this. Some looked for jobs all over and gave consideration to which place was their most preferred location, but no one I know simply excluded jobs outside the area they want to live.
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I only mentioned it because thats what my anecedotal experience tells me.
My oldest still lives where she attended college because she loves the city. She commuted for grad school and she commutes to a neighboring state for work. She has a great job, in a state that has no state income tax and she lives in a state that doesn’t have sales tax! Pretty smart. Her husband is graduating with his masters this weekend though, so he will need to find work, but I don’t think that will be a problem.</p>

<p>Youngests bf as I mentioned, found work in their college town so he didn’t have to move after graduation while D finished up her senior year. They wanted to stay together, and I am not sure of the details of their job search, but they found jobs at the same year round rural community where our family spent two decades of holidays. It was a both or none deal, my D said. It will also give them connections to what they do next.
:wink:
My niece moved back home after graduation, and is a program manager at Microsoft. Actually all my nieces and nephews still live in Western Washington. I know very few people who grew up here who don’t return within 10 or so years after college. Even a high school friend who was a investigative reporter for one of the big three stations on the east coast for years, returned a few years ago.</p>

<p>Outside of a few high school and work friends, H & I are rare among our friends & neighbors in that we were born and raised here. We would consider moving within our state, but have turned down jobs that required moving out of it.
My father even turned down a promotion to move to San Francisco & my brother moved back to the Seattle area after living in Indiana, when his company was relocating to NYC, but he declined to go along. However, he spent decades in the military, so he was inclined to choose where to live when he had the opportunity.</p>

<p>Many of my current close friends attended grad school here after attending undergrad in other states & countries, and didn’t want to leave, others were self employed so that they didn’t have to move, but they all decided where they wanted to live and fit their work within those parameters, rather than take their " dream job", but it was in Stockton, Ca., or Canton, Oh. ( although a few of my friends didn’t move here till they were 30 or 40)</p>

<p>My youngest has several high school friends who attended school on the east coast and are now working in NYC, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they return eventually. ( They also moved to NYC and *then * found work. Naturally it depends on the field however, several of older Ds friends are living in the DC area, and they are pretty well settled in, they may be moving to Dubai or Azerbaijan, but not to the Puget Sound area for a while.</p>

<p>Many people feel strongly about Seattle, supposedly, its the fastest growing big city in the country, however in size it still lags behind really big cities like Chicago & NYC.
Raising minimum wage to $15 hr, isn’t going to slow down growth, Im afraid.
<a href=“Seattle raises minimum wage to $15 an hour, highest in U.S.”>http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-minimum-wage-20140602-story.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>But it is really overrated. The winters are dour, no one knows how to drive in the snow, you will never find pizza as good as where you came from, women don’t shave their legs/pits & men don’t shave their faces. The streets are always torn up for construction and the traffic is horrible.

<a href=“Study: Seattle traffic fourth worst in nation - MyNorthwest.com”>http://mynorthwest.com/11/2537219/Study-Seattle-traffic-fourth-worst-in-nation&lt;/a&gt;
And we just refused to pay to keep the same level of public transportation, so there will be even more reductions.
We dont have a basketball team and we NEVER have gone to the World Series. Also no hockey.
Albeit, we DID win the Super Bowl, but that was practically a year ago.
;)</p>

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<p>I don’t know if every major’s-job will fly them out, but it’s certainly more than just STEM jobs. But yes, they’re probably not flying people out for retail or waitressing. </p>

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<p>Detroit once had some of the highest wages in the country. See what happened there? </p>

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<p>D2 started temping between the end of her classes and the actual college graduation. After a few one-or two week assignments, she got placed in a 4+ mo position, while she considers what’s next… The actual job work will go on her resume first; it’s good enough, responsible enough- project work for a large pubic entity. The fact that she’s paid by the temp agency will be there, but secondary. She’s in Boston, so living with friends, paying her small share of rent, taking public transp to the work. I’m satisfied, for now (except the fact I noted elsewhere that I’d like her to be saving more.)</p>

<p>The idea is to come across as industrious. I don’t disagree with poetgrl, in that respect.</p>

<p>But I also don’t think we need to jump on HGFM, in particular. I worked with Housing folks (some brand new, some already in the cycle of changing jobs every few years, which is standard for those folks, until they reach the top positions.) Their take was that the size and location of the schools you work for can set your “expertise.” There are different dynamics, depending on the schools’ environments, sizes, sorts of students, etc. So, I can see HGFM waiting. But nothing’s to stop him/her from doing student-related vol work, in the meantime, to show that energy and motivation that employers do like.</p>

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<p>Detroit had high wages because of manufacturing overtime. And their industry didn’t adapt to new ideas.
Manufacturing has relocated overseas or to lower cost of living areas of the country.
Raising minimum wage is at the other end of the scale.
Minimum wage was originally designed to be an entry but liveable wage for adults.
<a href=“http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/reich/reports/pay.htm”>http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/reich/reports/pay.htm&lt;/a&gt;
We have many companies that pay ok and they are doing fine, you might have heard of them?
Starbucks, Rei, microsoft, Nordstroms, Costco?
I wont put Amazon in there because they are the debil.</p>