“I’ve applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back,” says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Engineering instead of English?”
Just in defense of the guy, not all of us understand that stuff. You would not imagine how much effort I put into understanding it and I just did not get it. I barely got through college algebra. There is no way I would have gotten through calculus or any other thing like that. For all you know the guy made a 4.0 in his field.
Maybe. Or maybe the Indian hiring manager at Intel would politely say, "oh my goodness no, we have no jobs here"...and then think to himself, "...unless of course you went to IIT Madras"
Lotsa that in the Silicon Slum
Maybe, but times are tough. I have a kid who graduated from there with a degree in meteorology recently, and he's still looking. And, I can tell you from experience, the demand for entry-level engineers is quite sensitive to the state of the economy.
I’ve been told that there are over 400 graduate students in aerospace engineering at Purdue, and under 100 research projects. This because there are so few aerospace engineering jobs.
What has damaged “our young people” is their government “educations”. Dan, with his really swell grasp of postmodern literary analysis, is suited for a job stocking shelves, except for the fact that he probably lacks the character to do even that job.
There are going to be a lot of dissappointed, pampered “youths” with what passes for a college education today.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. If he had a degree in Chemical Engineering...someone would call.
Even though I myself have an engineering degree, I do feel that an English major is better suited to teach High School level English, Literature, and writing classes than the current crop of Education majors.
“I’ll bet that Dan had a really good time in college. Maybe he would have a harder time, but a good paying job if he had majored in, say, Engineering instead of English?”
Agree - and removing the ring from his lip might help a bit too.
“I’ll bet that Dan had a really good time in college. Maybe he would have a harder time, but a good paying job if he had majored in, say, Engineering instead of English?”
I’ve pointed this out before and I’ll do it again. I have no information on Dan but why assume that he has the abilities to master the advanced mathematical courses required in engineering studies?
Who knows what Dan had in mind. Maybe he wanted to go on and get an advanced degree to be an English professor but ran out of money. I seem to recall that many stockbrokers have degrees in the liberal arts; could be this is what he had in mind.
The point is that contrary to what some Freepers believe, not every study can master all the curricula in a university.
My son graduated engineering in 2007 and has just been spinning his wheels, my daughter graduated in 2005 with math and economics and after a year and a half found a job in Canada. That door was only open to her because my wife was born in Montreal and maintained dual citizenship just for the hell of it.
Over the last year my son has obliterated our frequent flyer miles traveling to interviews anywhere he can get them. He too is now looking in Canada.
My children are economic refugees,
My sis-in-law graduated with a BS in engineering, magna cum laude.
She’s had one interview since April. And she has work experience. It is tough out there.