Blogs and Stories
Is This the Worst Year to Graduate College Ever?
)
Trinette Reed / Getty Images
With laid-off investment bankers snapping up jobs in retail and MBAs barely worth the paper they’re printed on, college seniors are approaching graduation day with a mixture of dread and resignation.
As a recent graduate from a university rated “Most Selective” by US News & World Report, Tyler was understandably disappointed when he landed in a cubicle-drone job that barely pays minimum wage—that is, until he was laid off and ended up substitute teaching for even less.
With a double-major in Spanish and psychology and a strong GPA, he thought for sure he was on the fast track to a career in event planning, a field he'd secured a summer internship in, palling around with the stars of CNBC. But with corporations scaling back their parties and conventions (lest they be associated with seamy AIG-style taxpayer-funded beach junkets), Tyler found himself working in loss-prevention for Brookstone for $10.50 an hour. Then he was laid off. Now he’s substitute teaching for $10 an hour.
"I'm applying for jobs now that I wouldn't have even considered when I started this thing," he says.
Layoffs have flooded the job market with grizzled veterans more motivated than your average 22 year old with nothing but a beer-and-Bisquick habit to support.
Stories like this are permeating college campuses like a bad smell. Today, ulcers caused by downsizing aren’t reserved for middle-aged corporate suits two decades into their careers. The sudden collapse of the financial sector has devalued MBAs that were still prized only six months ago, and Ivy League grads with heaps of student loans are fighting over jeans-folding gigs at Forever 21. On campus, my fellow students and I absorb these stories with dread. And those of us closest to graduation – the ones who would normally be enjoying the doldrums of senioritis—are sitting on pins as graduation day approaches and the job market shrivels before our eyes.
The race for internships has grown more competitive as sophomores, and even freshmen, realize that they’ll need every possible leg up in a job market that most college students don't believe will be much better by the time they graduate. For upperclassmen, the "seek out the shelter of grad school" option also seems poised to be less popular than it has been in past recessions, as soaring debt loads create a desire to get to work – any work – and start digging out of the hole as soon as possible.
Still, college students aren't hunkering down too much: As I write this on a Saturday, my dorm room is vibrating with techno music from next door, and the maintenance people will still have steady work hauling out beer cans on Monday morning. Keystone Light, of course, but college students have always opted for the most affordable path to inebriation. College is still a good time, but the job market is making life miserable for students once they face the realities of a post-graduation world.
Layoffs near the top have flooded the job market with stiff competition for recent grads: grizzled veterans with decades of experience and connections—not to mention families to feed and mortgages to pay—are understandably more motivated than your average 22 year old with nothing but a beer-and-Bisquick habit to support. And it’s not just Wall Street swimming with the accomplished unemployed. In February, 651,000 jobs disappeared, bringing the national unemployment total to around 12.5 million. Many of these unemployed are now competing with younger people for jobs that both would have thought beneath them not so long ago.
First-time claims for unemployment benefits recently rose 5.7 percent to 667,000—the highest such figure since 1982. But many recent college graduates who can't find jobs don't qualify because they weren't employed to begin with. This can leave them far worse off than the laid-off, with no safety to fall into.
For their part, colleges and their career counseling offices are trying to ramp up their job placement efforts. But if people aren’t hiring, it all amounts to not much more than a pep talk. New York University offered a seminar called "Recession-Proof Your Job Search” that included tips like—not even kidding—try to work in a recession-proof industry like alcohol. The University of Nebraska gives students information on jobs working for the federal government, which continues to grow at a torrid pace.
Lindsey Pollak, the author of Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, says that many companies are taking advantage of a desperate workforce, making "temporary to permanent" job offers and then eliminating people a few hours before they would have become full-time.
Pollak says that most college students aren't aware of just how hard the job market is right now. "If you go out looking for a job saying, 'I only want to work at one of the top-five investment banks,’ that might not happen. It doesn’t mean you won't end up at a company like Goldman Sachs, but you might have to start somewhere else and not unnecessarily limit yourself."
The most important point that Pollak makes is if the best job a graduate can find right now is working as a barista or office clerk, it’s not a disaster. "I've spoken to many recruiters and no one is going to fault you for what you need to do to get through this," she says.
For other students, the sinking economy is increasing interest in jobs whose low-pay, high-karma profile used to make them less sexy than higher-paying jobs in fields like investment banking. Apparently it’s easy to be altruistic when no one else is offering you a job, and nonprofits are reporting large increases in applications. Teach for America has seen its applicant pool rise by 50 percent over 2007 and the Peace Corps is up 16 percent.
Is this a new wave of Obama-inspired community service, or just would-be investment bankers looking to take a few years to build their resumes, earn a small but steady paycheck and continue with their more lucrative plans once the Dow is back over 10000? Probably a combination of both.
Joy, a University of Massachusetts sophomore, came to college with a passion for English but opted to major in marketing instead, mindful of the weak job market for English majors. Now marketing majors aren't in demand either, and she's wondering whether her career-minded major choice will backfire. Graduating business majors polled by BusinessWeek magazine universally expressed no regrets about their choice of a major and some said that their backgrounds in finance gave them an ability to understand the current crisis that others don't. (Though if that's true, I’m not clear on why business backgrounds didn’t save us from this recession.)
There’s one potential upside: If college grads seize this opportunity to hone their survival skills, they could develop a sense of resourcefulness that they wouldn't have acquired coming of age in a bull market. Skills such as how to scheme overtime hours from a tight schedule, how to network, and how to pluck gigs from a picked-over job market can only help them once things get better.
For now, though, enrollment at bartending schools is up, as college students gravitate toward one skill they’ve always been able to rely on: knowing how to make a stiff drink.
Zac Bissonnette is an editor with AOL Money & Finance and its new personal finance site WalletPOP.com. He is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Stars Celebrate the Super Bowl
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
If Only Wal-Mart Ran My College
Zac Bissonnette is an editor with AOL Money & Finance and its new personal finance site WalletPOP.com. He is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Why Colleges Are Just Not That Into You
Zac Bissonnette is an editor with AOL Money & Finance and its new personal finance site WalletPOP.com. He is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Dropout Epidemic
Zac Bissonnette is an editor with AOL Money & Finance and its new personal finance site WalletPOP.com. He is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
citivas
I welcome a generation of workers that has to start in a recession. That's what I had to do. It wasn't easy. But I also wasn't ruined by it - I have never held the expectation that anyone "owes" me raises, promotions, "interesting" work, etc., which has been the attitude for the vast majority of young worked I have encountered in the last decade. It's not that I don't get frustrated if I don't have those things. But I have no concept that work is supposed to be any more "fair" than the rest of the world (which is to say not at all) nor do I believe you get points just for attendance. I grew up professionally understanding that connections made a huge difference (didn't start with any), that perception was as important as reality and that many people had to scrape and claw and work their ass off just to maintain status quo and others had an easier path. This was just the way it was. Whether it should be or not was immaterial - work didn't owe me anything more than the promised paycheck. I presumed no loyalty from work and no certainty of promotion or stimulating work. What I got I would have to smooze, claw or leverage to get, so be it. It is survival of the fittest. The most aggressive or privileged get the work, and at each level of the pyramid the combination of those two things knock 90 percent of the people off the ladder.
I'm not trying to be cruel, just realistic. The expectations of Generation Entitlement are just not sustainable for everyone long term. Something had to give. Generation Depression II will have a much better shot long term in the world...
KateTheGreat
This is exactly the kind of attitude that got us where we are now: "scrape, bully, leverage, claw" your way to the top? I've met hundreds like you, and you certainly aren't the mentors/innovators at the office. If anything is going to change for the better in the US, it's going to be by getting rid of the traditional pyramid structure found at companies that encourage squabbling and no accountability. Sounds like you have it in for younger workers, are gloating over the idea that tens of thousands of young people are graduating with 50-100K in loan debt with very little chance of securing work during the next 2-3 years. While I might agree that many recent grads are spoiled brats, many aren't and are tireless workers. So get off your "back in my day" high-horse and have heart.
citivas
Wow, they must have recycled this little jewel - there's over two months between my post and your reply. Your adding words I didn't write, like "bully" "leverage" and "to get to the top" to make a completely different point. I wasn't saying anything remotely about stepping over other people or even aspiring for "the top." And actually, you and I have the same goal - accountability.
My point was many of the younger people I have worked with (but far from all) don't have professional accountability - they expect rewards regardless of performance; and they don't understand the concept of "ownership" for one's results. I had an asst about five years ago who was smart and ambitious, but she under-performed even on basic tasks like setting up meetings. When I would ask what happened to the meeting she would shrug and say she had sent out an email and one of the people never responded so she couldn't set it up. When I asked if she had followed-up with the person and tried to track them down, she would say, "isn't it their responsibility to response to my email?" That's a lack of ownership; a lack of accountability for results. After less than 6 months in this role one of my departments had an opening for an event planner and she applied. I did nothing to discourage the hiring manager but didn't recommend her either, and told her so. I said I couldn't recommend her for the position which required substantially more ownership of results when she still hasn't demonstrated that ability in the asst role. I'll never forget her response. She said she agreed she wasn't trying very hard in the asst role but that's because it didn't keep her interest, but she would try harder if she got the promotion because she was more interested in it. In other words, she felt she only needed to perform up to her interest level in the position (i.e. make the job more interesting and I'll put in more effort) and was entitled to a promotion for her 6 months of service regardless of her performance level. She didn't get the new job and left a couple months later. She's jumped from job to job (at new companies) every year or so since.
She may be the textbook example, but I encounter the gist of my experience with her again and again and it's generational. In a strong majority of the cases where a person makes a case for an out-of-cycle early raise or promotion or is unhappy with the level of their raise/promotion (even if it exceeds the company average), they are twenty-something. Sometimes these people are solid performers, though no more so on average than their older peers. In other cases they aren't strong performers. The point is, performance often has no linear relationship with their expectations.
I do have sympathy for those who are graduating now in tough times, who have significant student debt and face not only fewer job prospects but the statistical fact that their lower starting salaries now will impact their earning potential for years. I went through much of the same, graduating in a recession and having to find unappealing work despite being summa cum laude from a top twenty school, then taking years to get to the same salary level they were offering fresh graduates during the boom later. I have been working non-stop since I was 12. I spent summer's behind a grill at McDonald's saving money for school, and nights during school selling door-to-door as a second job to pay my way. I was one of them.
Ultimately my point is one borne from sympathy. That is, I don't believe people who enter the workforce with a high sense of entitlement can be sustained long-term and a majority of them are bound to be disappointed, disaffected and eventually bitter. My hope is that the silver-lining, the glass half-full of starting a career in a recession is more realistic expectations about what the workplace will do for you versus what you have to do in the workplace. And there are always exceptions. That's great for those who find them. But the fundamentals haven't changed in a very long time and aren't likely to experience a fundamental paradigm shift now. Work, like the world, is not always "fair" and doesn't start with the assumption that it "owes you." The best way to succeed is still to stand out by working very hard in any capacity you are given and making yourself essential rather than expecting tenure and service to result in opportunities being handed to you. I strongly suspect, after all the pain of the current economy, those starting out during it will appreciate this more easily than those who started in the boom.
citivas
Correction. On a re-read I see I did use "the word leverage." By this, I meant the leverage of making yourself important to your work by developing a skill, knowledge base or contact set that they don't want to lose.
citivas
BTW, a public high school in tiny little Ceres, CA (central CA) recently had an opening for a janitor. 450 people applied. That is reality. That is part of the ranks of the "underemployed" that make up a huge percentage of our workforce right now - even the 14.8% un/under-employment rate doesn't include full-time work at lower salaries than the capacities of the job holders, the true rate is much higher...
The reality is, those with still reasonably prosperous (i.e. middle-class and above) parents who can't get the work they want will try and ride it out by going back to school for extra degrees. This happens every recession. Those that can't will have to fight it out for "under employed work." Those that can afford to sit it out will be able to get more degree marketability and defer entering until a better time and those that can't will be branded by their under employment and be at a disadvantage. Totally, utterly unfair, but the way of the world...
roger37
Just think if you're graduating from Harvard B-school---the worst year to graduate, and from the school that gave us the MBA President.
camfield
Expectations are always high among college grads, many of whom romp their way to a diploma and graduate with a feeling of automatic entitlement. It has to be a real shock, in this time of extreme reality, to find no one clamoring for their services. The lucky ones right now are those who have had work experience along the way--in various down-to-earth jobs at which they ordinarily would turn up their noses with a sheep-skin in their pocket.
And the truth (in my mind) is that young single college grads are not the most-urgent concern on the job-market side of our society right now. There are many millions of older adults out there who had jobs and have lost them---and consequently have had homes and lost or are in danger of losing them . . . have spouses and 3 or 4 kids depending on them for support.
themightycrocs
Yeah that's what career mobility and achievement is all about those that have more obligations (family, mortgages, etc.) should get the job and those that do not have these should all just go pound sand when the economy gets bad. It would be wise then for those who wish to maintain consistently employed to buy a house and start a family so that I then could push that burden on my employer to "provide" for me even if I am not the best option remaining facing a layoff. That type of attitude has led this country to where it is today in many cases subsidizing those that made the choice of marriage and family even if they do not have the dependability, drive, and, acumen to actually succeed in todays cannabalistic economic environment. Eventually, everyone has to justify their economic position in this society ON THEIR OWN MERITS regardless of their encumberances outside the workplace.
carlau
I entered the job market in the middle of a recession in 1990, and I had to work for minimum wage for several years. I have a music degree, but not a teaching certificate (that allows you to teach in public schools). Eventually, I started teaching private lessons in my own home and made far better money per hour. Then, I landed a gig at a prestigious summer camp. Then I wrote a music book and got it published. Then I got jobs teaching as an adjunct professor at 2 colleges.
So, in my expereince, working for minimum wage is not something you can never dig yourself back out of, as long as you are willing to keep learning, and I don't necessarily mean grad school, and keep looking for opportunities.
Meanwhile I learned how to live on $4 an hour (in 1990, that went a little further, but not much. I rented a room in a run-down house and a night out was going to Taco Bell.) For the most part I was happy and life was simple without having tons of expensive material possesions to care for, store and concern myself with.
Lowering your expectations is painful, but it it not the worst thing that can happen to you. You can survive, and some day financially thrive. We can learn a lot from tough times.
finderj
I returned to university as an adult, a third-semester sophomore. I now have a PhD and am employed for less that $35K a year. I am grateful to have a job! I will give my employers my very best, and hopefully as the economy turns around, they will promote me and pay me more. But if they can't, I will continue to do my job to the best of my abilities. Being uneremployed is no excuse for whining, complaining or slacking off.
Derida
I am not impressed by the work ethic of many of these Ivy Leaguers. Drinking seems to be a priority on most of the campuses. Hiring a dilettante is the last thing I need right now as I am forced to layoff hardworking adults. Just this weekend at Princeton University one of the students was wandering around with a gun causing the great expense and stress of a lockdown on campus for hours. BTW many were too drunk to notice. I'd rather hire someone who has been layed off or a student from a more serious school than a snotty brat who feels entitled. These are tough times. Who needs the BS? These schools simply don't prepare their students for a depression- they don't get it the party is OVER!
Veronicaxy
I came out of college to face a recession too, the one the unemployment numbers are just beginning to touch.
You'll see an upswing where your hard work will get easier and pay off more and your future kids will think you're a bore for talking about how hard it was. Be smart with that up cycle because inevitably there will be another downturn.
Romance, hobbies and friends are inexpensive and will be the best gold of these years anyway.
Spasticula
Sorry kids, while you were studying the government and ay-hole CEOS were warping capitalism into something more like cash-holder birthrights. The demented values of the right aren't capitalism, and the markrt is making some long-denied correctives. Should be fixed in ten years or so.
KateTheGreat
You can complain all you want about "snot-nosed brats" but how many of you (Boomers) graduated 50-100 K in school debt only to have no work available? This has been the case for the last 8 years or so. Granted, many grads are spoiled and expect 6-figure salaries with no effort, but they are YOUNG and it's experience/getting knocked down that will build that character that everyone seems to think should be inborn...give 'em a break. Oh, and don't think a nation of unemployed youth is a problem? Look at Germany in the 1930s and tell me it was unemployed 50-year-olds that shaped that nation.
citivas
KateTheGreat, sorta raising my hand to your challenge. First, I would qualify as Gen X not a boomer. And I didn't leave with that much debt, but that's only because I: 1) Turned down going to a top private school because I couldn't afford it and settled for a top public school instead; 2) Worked-part-time and every summer since I was 12 saving up for school; 3) Spend at least 6 hours a week on top of everything else my last two years in high school applying for just about every merit-based scholarship a guy who was not a member of any protected class could get -- we're not just talking the name brand stuff, but things one's you'd never heard of (there are thousands out there any many schockingly are un-applied for because not enough kids today even bother); 4) I worked my ass off all through school, holding down two jobs at many points while carrying a full load and extracurricular activities to pay for stuff; 5) Lived in crappy conditions, barely spent a dime on clothes or food and never once bought anything fun or went on "spring break" or out to a club or a bar where I would have to spend money; 6) Spend all my summers in school so I could graduate in 4 years and not linger into a 5th like many of my peers.
The point is I was not unusual. Stanford (and its like) was already expensive by the time I was going to college and not everyone got to live off their parents goodwill or means...
SalamaSeed
citivas: Don't lecture us newby grads about sacrifice and dedication. I went to a state public school, worked the entire 4 years (and summers waitressing) and now I am almost done with graduate school (which I worked fulltime through). I am still 75K in the hole. I used to think of student loans as an investment; now, it's just debt. And I know I am not the only one with this story.
We are not the generation that was living beyond our means. We are not the generation that lived by the givings of AMEX, Visa, and Mastercard. That is my mother's generation (the end of the baby boomers.) I am almost thankful that this mirror was put in our face to show us how wrong life on credit is. I am now part of a new generation that will live within our means and know what it means to earn something.
citivas
SalamaSeed, good for you (really, not sacrastic). It is always danger to generalize as there are always exceptions to the rule. You're one of them and there are probably a million more.
But you're example is not reflective of the majority recent grads I have encountered in the workplace this decade. A majority had those same over-extended parents paying for their education and the results showed. They thought work owed them and not the other way around. Many just couldn't understand why they weren't supposed to get promoted just for showing up long enough (which was usually about 6 months in their minds).
By the same token, I am probably the in the minority in my generation too. Possibly because I had to work just for the privilege of going to college, I took it seriously and I have never lived beyond my means since...
We reached the same conclusion in the end, though, both optimistic that this crisis/correction can lead to a different attitude for the future...
Pseudothyrum
Where is the outrage amongst today's young people (or ANY American citizens, for that matter) for being sold down the river by these ultra-greedy globalist plutocrats who care nothing for the American people but only about further fattening their already overflowing coffers located in some offshore tax haven?
We need a new youth movement NOW to help stem the flood of debt/wage slavery which threatens to overwhelm everything which makes America great.
Why have we become a nation of cowards, passive sheep, ostriches (hiding our heads in the sand), and shut-ins?
Something is horribly wrong in modern America, and the resistance against these wrongs must begin with the youth - if America's youth doesn't have the courage, heart, and idealism left in them to resist the pseudo-slavestate which is being set up, then no one does and we are through as a country.
Fondue
I just thought I would point out that Zac (the author) doesn't even know what minimum wage is in America. He first states:
"a cubicle-drone job that barely pays minimum wage-that is, until he was laid off and ended up substitute teaching for even less."
And in the very next paragraph says:
"Tyler found himself working in loss-prevention for Brookstone for $10.50 an hour. Then he was laid off. Now he's substitute teaching for $10 an hour."
I know it's nit-picking, but I'm sure the rest of you have nit-picked the rest of the article, as well as each other.
And I'm sure for Tyler making 10.50/hr is less than his allowance mommy and daddy gave him, and 10 was just a slap in the face. Shut up and grow up already.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.