Posted on 07/06/2009 9:17:34 AM PDT by Decombobulator
ERIN McAULIFFE had a vision for this summer. A 20-year-old junior at Bowdoin College, she had lined up an internship at a New York publishing house and imagined stimulating days leafing through manuscripts, and evenings of sparkling conversation with friends at downtown cafes.
She ended up starring in a real-life version of the movie “Adventureland” instead. In that recent comedy, a recent college graduate is forced by economic hardship to work at a suburban amusement park.
Life is imitating art for Ms. McAuliffe. With her parents unable to help bankroll three months of unpaid work in Manhattan, she gave up the internship offer and moved home to Andover, Mass., where she took the one job she could find: working 12-hour days at an amusement park. For $7.80 an hour, she tends bumper cars and the big swing, and endures the many carny jokes of her friends.
School’s out for summer 2009, and instead of getting a jump on the boundless futures that parents and colleges always promised them, students this year are receiving a reality check.
The well-paying summer jobs that in previous years seemed like a birthright have grown scarce, and pre-professional internships are disappearing as companies cut back across the board. Recession-strapped parents don’t always have the means or will to bankroll starter apartments or art tours of Tuscany.
So many college students and recent graduates are heading to where they least expected: back home, and facing an unfamiliar prospect: downtime, maybe too much of it. To a high-achieving generation whose schedules were once crammed with extracurricular activities meant to propel them into college, it feels like an empty summer — eerie, and a bit scary.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
HOPE and CHANGE!
Welcome to Obammyland.
This is good news.
I never want to hear the phrase “doing jobs Americans won’t do” ever again.
You are correct. Reality is always good news.
It's "Change we can Believe In". My daughter graduated with a 2 year degree in a lucrative field only to find they only want to hire "Experienced" folks. Nobody wants to train folks at the workplace anymore. Just having certificates is not cutting it.
Brave new World Mr. O, and this generation is feeling what you are doing.
She can always join the Army. One of my tenants has decided to break her lease to do just that. I was surprised the Army would take a tattooed gal. Wait until she goes to boot camp; what a shock that will be for the former night owl!
“I was surprised the Army would take a tattooed gal”
Are you kidding? It is what they want.
This always been the case except in the last couple of years. I worked as roofer for 10 months before I landed an engineering job.
Internships are resume builders for the rich.
Never been to NYC, have you.
Unpaid internships are nothing new at all. The idea is that they get the free labor in exchange possible college credit and real-world work experience that can be put on a resume when you graduate college. Some places have been known to hire back the same people two summers in a row and that makes it more likely that they'll offer the person a position at some point after graduation (if one is available).
In college, I was a paid messenger at a law firm on Wall Street. There were plenty of "summer associates". Granted, they were in law school, not college, but it was the same principle.
I was a typist for $5 an hour, in my summers off college in the 1980s. Doesn't this chick know how to type?
Did I miss this perq? My parents never told me this. Damn them!
Bowdins a good school.
She, however is a dolt.
She could of Craiglists a couch, worked at night, and interned. Instead Mommy and Daddy didn’t want to finance her getting off hangovers at work and texting for that nights parties.
I’ve been there over two dozen times.
I’m talking about PERSONALLY seeing such a thing.
I’ve heard about them, and even know a few silly souls misguided enough to take them, but have never inquired about wasting my time and letting somebody else reap the benefits.
You can get resume experience and actual MONEY at the same time, but kids just want to party in NYC.
I worked EVERY SUMMER during my undergraduate and graduate years, and every one of those PAID jobs, even the ditch-digging ones, looked a hell of a lot better than unpaid gopher. Especially the summer where The Army paid me to jump out of airplanes.
And don’t use the word “hire” if there isn’t a paycheck involved ;)
Oh, boo frickin’ hoo. She couldn’t sit around for three months, on her parents dime, and learn to be an elitist. Sparkling conversation?
typist have gone the way of the buggy whip manufactures.
Life is never easy, but we have been floating in an artificial bubble of prosperity, created by easy credit. We have hit the "seven lean years", kids. You want a job? Get out there and sell you.
My daughter had an Internship, but no luck with a paying job.
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