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Engineering is by far the safest undergraduate degree to get. It has, by far, the largest cumulative income of any undergraduate major.</p>
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<p>People should major and do well in their talents, not what is ‘safest.’</p>
<p>I second the suggestion that he contact (AND JOIN!) the CPA society in your state. He can most likely join as a student member at little or no cost.</p>
<p>There are plenty of jobs in CPA firms, and if your son is willing to relocate, all the better! There are not enough CPAs to fill them! He needs to broaden his search well beyone the big 4.</p>
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If that leaves them making $8/hour in a warehouse, I have no sympathy.</p>
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<p>And if people are miserable because they think money begets happiness, then I have no sympathy.</p>
<p>Speaking as an employer with fifteen employees working in a warehouse, I would suggest that such a job can be enjoyable. First, you can leave it behind and relax and enjoy your weekends; second, supervisors make more than minimum wage (which is more than $8/hour here in the Pacific NW; third, it’s an opportunity to learn a lot about what people really want to buy. </p>
<p>I would suggest that looking for the perfect job is not such a great idea. A fresh college graduate with a good idea might be happy to have a part-time job that pays the rent while s/he works on starting a business, developing a web site, writing a play, volunteering in his field of interest. New graduates may think they “need” a car, a nice apartment, fancy clothes, restaurant meals. It is possible to manage quite nicely without those things: my daughter chooses to live car-free and shares a house with three roommates, cooking vegetarian food for herself. I’m stunned by how little money she spends.</p>
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Sounds good.</p>
<p>Get her a paid internship.</p>
<p>FYI-average starting salaries for CPA candidates or new CPAs at public accounting firms range from $40,000 to $47,500, depending upon geographic region and the size of the firm.</p>
<p>The OP’s son doesn’t need to take an $8/hour job in a warehouse since his field is one that is growing, not shrinking! He needs job-seeking assistance.</p>
<p>Money begets a roof over your head, food on your plate, and resources to afford clothes, car, etc. so you can be gainfully employed.</p>
<p>I have a relative who graduated college in 1981. In the news today, they just compared the decline in the economy to the situation in that timeframe. Hope they don’t start comparing it to 1929!</p>
<p>Anyway, this guy always regrets what he did at the time. He was a grad of a large U with mediocre career services – basically they had rooms for on-campus recruiting and subscriptions to the usual college magazines about careers, but nobody ever met with students and gave them advice). Almost nobody was recruiting liberal-arts majors that spring, and his parents saw their job as over and were pressing him to get out of the house. About the only people hiring were the big military contractors since Reagan was busy building the military. He got a low-paying job at one that let him move out, and his employer paid for college classes he took at nite to get an engineering degree. Since he already had a 4-year degree he only had to take engineering courses, so in about 3 years he had a 2nd degree and got a job in engineering.</p>
<p>He says he never really liked engineering but did it out of desperation since he didn’t see prospects for any other jobs looking for college grads at the time. He’s worked unahppily as an engineer ever since. I asked him why he didn’t leave after he knew he didn’t like it, he says that by the time he had been in engineering 2 or 3 years he was 28 and it seemed too late to switch to something brand new and have to compete for jobs against the new 22 year old grads. </p>
<p>His big gripe is that nobody (parents, college, etc) told him that times were bad but they’d get better, to ride out the recession in a grad program somewhere. He figured out for himself what Payne is advising today (go into engineering, it has jobs), and has regretted it since.</p>
<p>The warehouse girl is applying to grad school. She was reluctant to tell me what her job was–she said “I took whatever I could find.” She is actually glad to have ANY job at this point, so not feeling sorry for herself-- just wondering what her next step should be.</p>
<p>A job in a warehouse is a great place to learn some job skills that will be used at any future job–how to get along with people, paying attention to detail, listening to instructions, going the extra mile, having a positive mental attitude, etc. </p>
<p>No reason to be sheepish about doing a good job, no matter what it is.</p>
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That story doesn’t even make sense. He had a liberal arts degree. He could always compete directly for those other jobs! His age reason is pretty weak. I surmise it’s more monetarily related. </p>
<p>Engineering is extremely valuable to the American economy. If this core piece of value production goes away then living standards for <em>everyone</em> will decrease. That’s why engineering, above virtually any other career (accessible with an undergraduate degree) has the best career safety, imo. Even other “job tracks” like accounting are massively overproduced relative to engineering (this is recognized within the job market through wages).</p>
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<p>I am in a job that fits my interests, and I make more than $8/hour. It’s not even engineering-related! No one has to work in a warehouse if they don’t want to be there.</p>
<p>There are accounting temp jobs that pay more than $10/hour. He should get one of those if he doesn’t have any other options.</p>
<p>OP here - thanks for the advice, all. Job hunting concerns were pushed to the bottom of the list today by some discouraging news. It will be a few weeks before we know what action ds’s doctors will want to take since more tests are needed. The next month is going to be rough. I’ll check back when he returns to the hunt.</p>
<p>I graduated Dec 2007 also with 150 hrs and an accounting degree. I went 5 months before a found a job. During that time it was really depressing b/c after you graduate college you kind of feel like you should be able to get a job cuz otherwise you wasted your time at college. After 2-3 months I was ready to take anything. Luckily, I got a good job from Craigslist and I love working there. My suggestion when your son is job searching again is to really job search. I applied to literally everything and anything. I found out that Monster and Careerbuilder are pretty bad…I applied to 100 jobs, only 2 seemed to be legitimate. I applied to 10 on craigslist and 7 companies CALLED me back…also, if your son can, study and take the CPA while you’re unemployed. I’m studying for it now and I must say it really sucks working full time and studying too. One thing you didn’t mention were your son’s stats. Internships, good grades, leadership skills? If he has these it should help…if he doesn’t then it could be harder right now b/c it’s really competitive.</p>
<p>I was just talking to a friend of mine last night and remembering what it was like graduating in the mid - 1970s during that gas crisis, when the other baby boomers were also graduating and the economy was also doing badly. The only job I could get was in a warehouse, it was an extension of a part time job I had in school. It took me 2 years to get a “real” job that used my degree. My friend worked as a secretary for 2 years and then ended up getting hired into an advertising agency (when they had a job freeze on and she somehow got hired anyway). We both ended up in market research. I remember the engineers were getting hired right out of school then, for good money but they did top out in money. I went on to get an MBA at night and make a very good living.</p>
<p>Probably the best thing your S has going for him is YOU. Young graduates don’t have much of a network going, but parents do. I would talk to every friend you’ve got about your S’s position (new graduate looking for a job in accounting). They might not have an opening in their company, but they might know someone, who knows someone who would be willing to talk with your S. The more people who are keeping their eyes open, the better.</p>
<p>Parents and friends can’t get a kid a job–it’s up to the kid to do that with interviews, etc. But finding openings in this tough time might have to be more of a family endeavor.</p>
<p>And before everyone goes crazy on me, these are desperate times that take desperate measures.</p>
<p>To Brink, the OP</p>
<p>We’ll be praying for your son.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about job, school, right now. Just take care of him and yourself and the rest of your family.</p>