Posted on 06/12/2010 2:01:06 PM PDT by nwrep
Liberals discuss non-existent job prospects for irrelevant majors
Many from the Class of 2009 are living with their parents and working part-time retail jobs they could have landed without a degree. Others are taking more college classes to put off paying back student loans, which average more than $20,000. Many say theyve lost self-confidence. Still, none of the 18 students from the Classes of 2009 and 2010 interviewed by The Oregonian expressed regret about going to college.
After a yearlong search, Jackie Mroz, 22, of Oregon City, is about to get some experience, but at a cost.
She put everything she had into her studies at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2009 with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies. She studied abroad in Senegal, took challenging courses, earned a 3.8 grade point average and raced through college in three years.
It has gotten me pretty much nowhere, she said.
Audra Armen-Van Horn, 23, Portland, worked for Victorias Secret while earning her psychology degree from the University of Oregon. Now, a year after graduating in 2009 and applying for more than 100 jobs, shes still working part time for the store while hoping to get a job with the American Cancer Society.
Malcolm Staudinger, 22, a 2009 graduate in environmental science from Portland State University, lives at home with his parents in Vancouver, Wash., and is now looking to Montana and Alaska for a job related to geographic information systems.
Matt Petryni, 24, a 2009 UO graduate, said the seminar has helped him regain hope after a discouraging year of rejections from the world of urban planning where he hopes to work.
Of course some graduates are landing jobs, particularly those with specific technical skills such as John Yeier, 24, who graduated from the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls on Saturday. Hes the sole member of his class with a degree in embedded engineering , which integrates computer software and hardware in cell phones, cars and other machines. He will work on small plane navigation system software for Garmin AT in Salem.
“As you can see from the whiteboard, it’s all about ME.”
Not a great attitude for a jobseeker with a fluff degree.
Friend of mine is working at BestBuy (geek squad) with a masters in computer science. He was a systems analyst before the recession hit. He hates it.
Bull. Not in those fields.
Challenging=calculus. I'm bettin' that wasn't anywhere to be found on her transcript.
Couldn’t they find any queer studies majors to speak about their experience?
I’ve often wondered what one does with a degree in African Studies.
Yea that's a high demand eduction... (/s)
These liberals probably think they deserve to have a job created just to fit their "education".
Schools are money making businesses of course, so they don’t warn people that these degrees are worthless. The only thing they can possibly be used for is to teach other suckers the same stuff.
Maybe they should have a warning like cigarettes ‘these degrees may be hazardous to your future’.
From what I have seen of my local Geek Squad types, I can see why.
Eventually he’ll find something...there is no hope for those who double majored in Queer Studies and Anger Management.
From someone in Oregon:
“Let me pass along some advice that was given to me when I graduated in 1980 - LEAVE the State of Oregon - unless you want to work in government. Every one of my class mates who left, and have now returned, have done better financially, with less effort, and less interference from the bureaucracy. I was under the impression that I would do my part contributing to the economic growth of Oregon, and its citizens - what a stupid position. In Oregon it is unacceptable for individuals in the private sector to do that, unless they are in a preferred industry or business. Retail, Restaurants, low paying service jobs like landscaping, or construction now “Green” are perfectibility acceptable, but anything else - especially if it involves cars, or trucks to deliver your goods, or service is just plain bad, and the bureaucracy will go out of their way to inhibit, and publicly condemn your ability to earn, at any cost. Crumbling Streets, and infrastructure can’t interfere with the City of Portland painting Bicycle lanes, and icons on the streets, while potholes inhibit the safety of those of us who need maintained roadways to thrive.”
Not all Intl studies are that easy. I took one as a second major. Four classes in economics and three years of a foreign language.
Exactly! How many job ads have you ever seen for African Studiers, requiring a degree in African Studies?
How many job as have you seen for Women Studiers, requiring a degree in Women’s Studies?
There are some fields, which while they appeal to some people based on their interests, are completely useless in the job market.
If you are interested in Women’s Studies, go study women on your own time, not in a college course. Same with African studies and all the rest of those types of fields.
And don’t have the unrealistic expectation that employers are eager to hire graduates with such degrees. That’s a real downer for this generation, I’m sure.
Urban planning and geographic information systems aren’t exactly “fluff” fields, even if environmental sciences sounds like a garbage degree.
International business is a class I’ll have to take. That’s certainly something that has value I think. I hate language classes, so I’m glad I’m done with that. I also have Linear Algebra left, and I’ve taken about 8 years off heh...
One of them wants a job with the American Cancer Society. One wants a GIS job in only two states (the ones that don’t have cities and don’t have many GIS jobs).
Once upon a time, we graduated from college and took any entry-level job we could find to start building up EXPERIENCE so we could land our dream job later. How naive of us.
Oh, yeah. That plan actually worked! LOL.
a liberal arts education isn’t what it used to be. Time was when it might have taught one how to think and communicate, to use logic and reason, to express a point in writing or speech. No longer. Now it’s just a bunch of Marxist crap.
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