<p>Some quick background:</p>
<p>I only have a high school education. I’m 19 years old. I am in a management position at a branch firm of a national market research agency. If you’re wondering, I did not get this gig by parent/friend connections. I started as a recruiter (someone who works calling people for focus groups from our database) and was quickly promoted.</p>
<p>Throughout the week, I have about twenty people who work directly under me as recruiters, all part-time (~20-30 hours). </p>
<p>About a third of them have college degrees and work as recruiters in order to have some work experience in the the marketing industry since they weren’t bright enough to actually go to work while in college (Rich, entitled kids). Everyone in my company, all the way up to the branch President, started out as recruiters. It is the default entry-level job, which they do for about 6 months to a year and then go somewhere else. </p>
<p>A third are current college students who were smart enough to get some entry-level work experience in the field while in school.</p>
<p>And the remaining third of the whole lot are people with high school educations who have been working here for awhile and have several part time jobs, or they are house wives who want some extra money.</p>
<p>Now, the college graduates are all jokes. Every single one of them. It is sad how entitled they feel despite having no work experience and hardly any time with the company. Some things they are usually prone to do:</p>
<p>1) Explain, repeatedly, that they have a degree in something, so they would understand (implying that they don’t need my guidance or instruction). They then mess up horribly doing some task that usually requires even more time to fix and act stupid and try to pass off the mistake as totally casual when they are wasting my time and the company’s money.</p>
<p>1A) Explain, for example, that their pre-law degree means they are better suited to work complex legal studies over recruiters who have far more experience in dealing with such studies, as we often have the same clients. My favorite example of this is explaining to me that they majored in Spanish so they want to placed on Spanish studies in place of my Hispanic recruiters. When speaking to those recruiters in Spanish, the dumbass college graduate says that they use “too much slang”. </p>
<p>2) Despite having scheduled (mandatory) hours, they think that showing up to work is like showing up to a lecture in college (optional, at your own pace). My “uneducated” recruiters show up on time. They also always leave me dumb messages with the silliest excuses on why they couldn’t show up for a Saturday shift. </p>
<p>3) Feel the need to go straight to the President of the whole company with whatever is on their mind instead of me, any of the supervisors, or even our boss. I think this is that entitlement “I’m a special little snowflake” nonsense at work. They always end up coming back to me followed by an annoyed page from my boss because they don’t realize or consider the possibility that I am the only person who is capable of solving their issues 99% of the time (I do scheduling, study reports, client updates, give out pay, etc) even though they know otherwise. </p>
<p>4) Get offended extremely easily. If you tell them to do something without saying “please”, they get offended and let you know it. They can’t just do their work or take an assignment; everything is a personal affront to their intelligence, apparently.</p>
<p>5) We have a strict no cell phone policy in the phone room. They all think they’re freaking James Bond or something and can sneak texting like our tiny phone room is a five-hundred seat lecture hall. When I tell them to put their phone away, they are shocked and say “I was only checking the time” (we have clocks in our company’s phones…) even when you can watch them text away instead of doing their work that we PAY THEM TO DO. I swear, it is like these people are addicted to their phones. So unproductive and disruptive (when they ring in a room full of people who are on phones… not professional to hear that if you are a respondent or God forbid a client testing out our recruiting process). </p>
<p>6) Whine. I don’t get this one. You would think that someone who worked on their super intense undergraduate major from Colgate/Cornell/Binghamton/NYU/Columbia would not have any problems doing very easy work. Whenever they get a study they don’t like, they whine about it. All of time. Make dumb excuses on why they can’t do well in it and need to be switched.</p>
<p>My “uneducated” employees literally have none of the issues above and are far more productive and successful recruiters. The ones in college are somewhere in the middle because the ones who get jobs in college are more realistic and generally less spoiled than the rotten morons who wait until after college.</p>
<p>So my whole point with this thread would be that recent college graduates make absolutely ****ty employees. Even “uneducated” employees the same age or younger with the same amount of time with the company tend to have far better work ethic and realistic view of the world.</p>
<p>What is totally ironic about college is that people say college prepares you for your career when, in reality, this seems to be false. College kids are disconcertingly naive about how the world works. They are so unbelievably unrealistic, feel so super entitled for everything with absolutely no work, and feel that they are somehow superior to everyone they meet and at least somehow equal to the highest ups in my company. They want all of the success but none of the work.</p>
<p>I feel that most kids are brainwashed going into and throughout college that their life will just be gravy after they graduate and not have to work ever again, and if they do work, they will get a job they absolutely love at hours they love with tons of money and free time - all at an entry level position.</p>
<p>It is just so unbelievable how clueless, immature, and into-themselves these people are. A lot of people blame the economy, but maybe employers are onto something. If you know a job can be done by someone without a college degree (they all pretty much can) and they won’t have all of the emotional/mental baggage of college graduates and you can pay them less, you should probably hire the high school graduate. Or, if you prefer a job to be done better, hire someone who is out of work instead of the recent graduate. They understand what it is like to work and won’t be a pain in the ass.</p>
<p>So that’s my rant.</p>
<p>Advice to college students: Take a long, thoughtful smell of the coffee. There is a world out there after college that does not revolve around you.</p>