On the Job: Employers struggle with unprepared college grads

salt lake tribune ^ | 09/04/2009 | Anita Bruzzese

[george76]

Within the past year Sarah Schupp has hired five new employees with freshly minted college degrees. She fired one on his first day for inappropriate sexual comments to a co-worker. Another lasted a week before getting a pink slip.

..." you can't call in sick at 7:45 a.m. just because you don't want to come to work at 8 a.m."

Jeanne Achille also was disappointed with the hiring of a recent college hire, promoted by a university professor as a "superstar" and fired after three weeks when it was discovered she spent hours online at work visiting a dating site. She also tweeted about a night of partying -- then e-mailed in sick the next day.

"Just who is supposed to be preparing these kids for the workplace?"

"Employers have always complained about a lack of hard and soft skills. The problem is that now employers don't have the luxury of letting employees learn on the job."

With only 15 employees, Achille says that "we don't go into a hiring decision lightly in this economy," and says no company can afford to put money into training new workers -- those dollars are reserved for "top talent," she says.

"We've decided to just not offer this position to an entry-level person anymore," Achille says. "We've had some good college students come and work here in the past, but we just can't afford to lose the productivity. It costs us money."

[steve8714]

She like all employers needs to use a professional for hiring newbies. We’re less impressed by the sheepskin, more by evidence of the virtues of modern work. Can you read and write? Could you get to work on time everyday? Can you work in the group without causing upset? Chances are the jobs she’s hiring for don’t really require a degree, but someone has told her that grads are better people. They are not.

[codercpc]

My advice to my son when he was 16 and first looking for a job. Walk into every single establishment that you apply for, dressed ready for the interview!

You never know if someplace is desperate for an employee that can start right away, but if you walk in dressed in shabby jeans, a T Shirt, and flip flops, you will not be considered for that job.

Also treat every single employee that you meet during that first encounter with sincerity and respect. They probably will be asked by the boss for their first impressions. First impressions are the KEY to any eventual employment.

[wombtotomb]

All advice I gave my 3 boys, all but my youngest (15) are currently employed. The other piece of advice I passed along was, in this world there are 2 kinds of people, doers and talkers. Talkers talk because they can’t or won’t do, doer don’t need to talk because they do. Don’t be a talker, be a doer, and you will never lack for a job opportunity. They listened and I have a teenager working in an almost 26% unemployment rate for teens, and a 20 something at the top of his field as a personal trainer in this slow economy. The youngest is having a bit of trouble finding a way to get in the door during this down economy, but he will also prevail after his birthday I have no doubt-(easier at 16 than 15 to find work)

[snarkpup]

This is nothing new. Back in the late '70s, the telecommunications company I worked for was having problems with new hires fresh out of college with master's degrees in electrical engineering who could pick ICs out of catalogs but didn't know basic circuit theory. In the early '80s, we interviewed about 15 recent grads with PhDs in computer science; and only two had any marketable skills.

[aegiscg47]

I run a series of university computer labs that offer research and technology assistance(about 1000 systems over several buildings) and have a large staff who are mostly college students. Several are really sharp and should do well(mostly engineering and science students), but I'm not so sure about the rest. With open book tests being the norm, plagiarism everywhere you look, and the writing skills of many college students being abysmal, I can see why they don't succeed in the "real" world. I recently had to fire a student because he didn't think I was serious when I warned him about blowing off his shifts!

[John Will]

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they allow disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants,not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when eleders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
-Plato

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words… When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of
elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and
impatient of restraint” (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

[wastedyears]

What I’m doing doesn’t require a degree, and it’s a quite important job.

[wastedyears]

Children learn their work ethic from their parents.

So that explains why I am the way I am...

[george76]

Many kids can not make change in a grocery store, fast food joint...only using their brain.

[george76]

We see many art history majors and such hitting their career high at Starbucks serving coffee.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Thank you for posting this. 95% of the posters on this thread don’t realize how foolish they sound. Their generation was just as unprepared and foolish as the current one.

[wastedyears]

So a Socialist made the Dewey Decimal System?

To think they mostly taught about that when we went to the school library.

No, lady, we don’t need hours to learn about a placement system for books in libraries.

[Grampa Dave]

Years ago, our 40 something oldest son labeled the grads who couldn’t find jobs as those with “Instant Unemployment Degrees or IUDs”.

Those with IUDs went on to graduate school and still couldn’t find jobs, so they got their PhDs. If they are lucky they are teaching the same worthless bs at some university pushing these worthless degrees on to those seeking their IUD. The parents and kids are paying probably well over $100,000 for each worthless IUD, and the annual cost increase makes health costs increases pale in comparison.

[Grampa Dave]

You nailed it:

“Garbage In - Garbage Out
Too many American College Campuses are infested with liberal buffoon professors. You teach garbage, you graduate garbage..”

[radiohead]

<Children learn their work ethic from their parents.

My thoughts as well. I’m a college prof, but with grad students who generally have some life experience or are just harder workers.

On the message boards for college profs, I see the same complaining about poor student work ethic. You’d be surprised at the number of students, when told they aren’t working up to snuff, will have their parents call or even visit the professor - change my child’s grade! don’t give so much homework! why are you making my child turn off his phone in class, what if I have to call? It’s amazing.

People have their own personalities, and sometimes it takes a while for young people to find their bearings in the world, but I’m going to lay a lot of this behavior right at the feet of the parents.

[Thunder90]

When the parents pay for the kids college and the professors coddle them, this is what you get.

[Mrs.Z]

***Would the last honest, hard-working American please turn out the light?***

Hire HOMESCHOOLERS.

Of course mine is running his own business-—can’t wait to make the Fortune 500 list on his own. 8^)

[Drew68]

I think a big problem is that many of today's college grads have never held a job prior to finishing college. They've never flipped a burger, punched a time clock or had a supervisor tell them what to do.

Jobs that were formerly held by teenagers are now held by immigrants with many of today's college-bound teens too busy with extracurricular activities, college prep and socializing to try and find work and many employers preferring to hire hard-working immigrants over slacker teenagers. This means teens are graduating high school and eventually college with absolutely no experience whatsoever in the workforce.

[dfwgator]

This is precisely why I have always advocated a minimum wage for people 21 and younger that is lower than the minimum wage for older people. With one universal minimum wage, there is no incentive to hire teenagers to give them their first experience at a job.

[Glenn]

Their generation was just as unprepared and foolish as the current one.

I disagree. College wasn't an entitlement in my generation. There were no "student loans". If you made it out of college, you'd accomplished something.