Allow me to be the first one not to congratulate you. Through exertions that—let's be honest—were probably less than heroic, most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree. Now you're entering a lousy economy, courtesy of the very president whom you, as freshmen, voted for with such enthusiasm. Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents. They're the ones who spent a fortune on your education only to get you back— return-to-sender, forwarding address unknown.You voted for him, I didn't. Are you so unwilling to admit you made a mistake that you'll double down on that mistake this November? I hope not. I want you to get a job.
No doubt some of you have overcome real hardships or taken real degrees. A couple of years ago I hired a summer intern from West Point. She came to the office directly from weeks of field exercises in which she kept a bulletproof vest on at all times, even while sleeping. She writes brilliantly and is as self-effacing as she is accomplished. Now she's in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.
If you're like that intern, please feel free to feel sorry for yourself. Just remember she doesn't.
(OK, this post is a little cynical--but not much!)
if i do recall correctly, there were many articles about college graduates not being able to find job in 2007-2008. i remember cause i was taking a couple senior level classes my freshman year at sac state, and the seniors i kept in contact with were having difficulty finding jobs for a while afterwards.
ReplyDeleteThe older I get, the more I notice recycled new "themes."
ReplyDeleteI graduated college in mid-1989 and there was a (mild) recession forming up (1990 - 1991). Hiring for new college grads was bad in 1989 compared to what it had been a few years earlier and there were articles bemoaning the poor hiring climate for new college grads.
My sister graduated two years later, just as the recession was ending. It was still tough until about 1994 for the new grads to find work.
Then in 2001 the dot-com bubble burst and we got articles about the techies having a hard time finding jobs (and they were ... the articles were spot on ... 2001 to 2003 was a dreadful time to be graduating with a STEM degree [though you'd still probably be better off economically than graduating with a lit. degree]).
Since 2008 things have been rough, too, and once again we see these articles.
I bet that we saw these articles in 1980-1982.
And I expect to see these articles again in the future.
It does suck for the recently graduated kids looking for their first job, but this is a *REGULAR* occurrence! Has happened before and will happen again. You can hope that you don't graduate in the middle of one of these things, but there isn't much you can do about it.
It would be nice to see one of these articles providing some historical context. Maybe along the lines of, "yep, things aren't good right now, but we've been here before ..." I don't expect it. Partially because I don't know if the folks *writing* these articles *have* any historical context.
-Mark Roulo
Double thumbs up! Right on!
ReplyDeleteVote ABO in November
Mark Roulo, you've now provided a valuable historical context. As they'd say at the beginning of Battlestar Galactica: All this has happened before, and it will happen again.
ReplyDelete