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1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed
Yahoo! News / The Associated Press ^ | Hope Yen

Posted on 04/22/2012 12:31:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans....

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: college; economy; obama; unemployment
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To: meadsjn
Technically speaking picking a career path back in 2001 and studying for it, you could not have foreseen the predicament we are in today.

Today even accounting is contracting.

101 posted on 04/22/2012 5:34:44 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: bigoil
You missed the news ~ the price of gas is dropping like a rock. They are pulling the gear out of the new wells.
102 posted on 04/22/2012 5:36:49 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Black_Shark
I know you fella's imagine there's some sort of 'management track' ~ but there isn't.

And you don't need to be ON IT by the time you are 30.

Over my career I watched middle-managment DISAPPEAR. There were so many baby-boomers around with 'raw management talent" you could hire half a dozen of them as "project managers" and avoid hiring on the VP who'd cost you much more and was not as easy to outsource later on.

What you see today in terms of management structure is an echo of what there used to be! Technology has taken down those jobs first ~ much to the surprise of folks who thought they could move up into them.

You want to be a boss get your own company ~ and BTW, don't hire too many managers ~

103 posted on 04/22/2012 5:42:03 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Black_Shark

Mathematics is part of Liberal Arts. So ~ what was it you said?


104 posted on 04/22/2012 5:43:56 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Black_Shark

>What programming languages are most in demand? As I stated, I know some SAS but otherwise haven’t had the time nor inclination to learn computer programming.
>
>Any suggestions?

While not in-demand*, I would suggest learning Ada first.
This in order to impress upon you good programming skills / habits / ideas. An Ada compiler is very ‘picky’ about rejecting programs with detectable errors, and so when you get it to compile correctly you can be very confident that any bugs are logical: the exact sort that you need to be concentrated on the problem at-hand, rather than language-traps like pointers in C/C++.

After that, I’d go with a .NET language (C#, likely) for the “marketability” attribute.


* To say it’s not in-demand is a lie; it is in demand in the Aerospace, real-time system, and the high-integrity systems. The hard thing is finding the “entry level” jobs (most I’ve seen) they are looking for 5+/10+ years of experience [and maybe a security-clearance].


105 posted on 04/22/2012 5:44:14 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: central_va; Black_Shark
Folks unable to learn advanced software applications, and that includes modern programming methods/techniques/languages, are probably in the wrong field.

Intriguingly the folks who deride "art" are probably totally unaware of how that field is flipping over to computer based pixelation faster than you can shake a stick. There you really do need to learn to use 3D animation just to talk to the big boys.

No guarantees on employment but that stuff starts at the top for talent.

In Leonardo DaVinci's day the best engineers were first and foremost "artists" because that's where the big bucks were ~ same thing today.

106 posted on 04/22/2012 5:48:55 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: grey_whiskers

>Just curious — is Eclipse free? — and is it based on Windows or UNIX?

Yes. ;)
(You can get builds for Windows and for Linux; it is also free.)


107 posted on 04/22/2012 5:49:24 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: central_va

>>I’ve been asked questions like “what is the general structure of an if-statement.”
>
>I have a degree in EE and was asked what is Ohm’s Law? I got up and left, I was totally rude but I was pissed off. I just stormed out of the place without saying a word. For all I know the dufus thought I was a fraud and knew nothing about EE. But clearly my resume said BSEE on it so it is all retarded in the end....
>
>For Freepers who can’t understand this it would be like interviewing a Physician an asking him/her “So do you know what blood is?”

You know EXACTLY what I’m talking about then.


108 posted on 04/22/2012 5:58:31 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Darth Hillary
Used to be a federal government title that was quite common, and impressive sounding enough to some ~ "Executive Assistant to the Associate Deputy Director" ~ you'd find out most of those guys were GS14s, which ain't all that bad, but it meant you'd do anything to get a title, and that meant "anything".

There's always plenty of "anything" going around! Lots of competition for it too.

109 posted on 04/22/2012 5:59:19 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: central_va
With virtually any large institutional employer your FIRST interview will be with a doufous.

That's a test to see if you have any idea what you are getting into. If you don't you'll storm off in a huff having instantaneously deselected yourself for that particular environment.

110 posted on 04/22/2012 6:09:32 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

>”Executive Assistant to the Associate Deputy Director”

So, basically “secretary,” no?


111 posted on 04/22/2012 6:11:20 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Black_Shark
I started in IT 20 years ago, worked for quite a few companies including banks, and now I run my own IT company.

I totally relate to your frustration and I remember feeling the same way right out of school. It was very hard even getting an interview at the entry level. BUT - You just have to keep on making calls and talking to people. Stay on friendly terms with all the recruiters and managers you can and when things break open hopefully they will call you before posting ads for job openings. The market has been tight for a while now, longer than normal and I expect it to open up before too much longer. You just need to stay on top of your game, and have a certain amount of flexibility in jumping over whatever stepping stones you need to jump over while continuously re-evaluating what steps you need to take to reach your goal. Smile & keep a positive can do attitude, that impresses managers. Your situation is not unique and many of your peers are in the same boat.

Also - I don't think your goal in unrealistic at all, and I suspect you will achieve it, or something close to it as long as you keep fighting the good fight. But what might surprise you is 5 years down the road you might get sick of all the politics and BS you will have to put up with at a major financial. But regardless, it will still enhance your career having seen what they are like from the inside. BTW: You really are more valuable with the degree, even if it doesn't feel that way right this minute.

112 posted on 04/22/2012 6:16:27 PM PDT by Darth Hillary
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To: muawiyah

Not in todays Universities it isn’t. Liberal Arts majors don’t have to take ANY math. I know because before I was Econ I spent 2 years as Poli-sci with plans on Law School. Even in a math school, no math was required for the arts.


113 posted on 04/22/2012 6:16:41 PM PDT by Black_Shark
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To: OneWingedShark
No, that would be a "Senior Secretary" ~ in the federal government an "Executive Assistant" has a real job with some degree of responsibility ~ might even be the go-to guy for the department's multi-billion dollar budget BUT it's the LENGTH of the title, not the job duties that sets those guys off.

Remember, the federal government hasn't done any serious expanding since 1960 ~ so there was no growth commensurate with an ever greater population ~ and simultaneously electronics displaced most traditional government work. That made having a long title a highly desirable ambition for a certain type of person.

The fellow you want to stand up and salute in any federal agency is the one who can sign "final agency decision". All those other people are just supernumeraries.

114 posted on 04/22/2012 6:20:30 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Black_Shark
The discipline of Mathematics is IN Liberal Arts ~ Engineering is in Engineering ~ English is IN Liberal Arts ~ Medicine is IN Liberal Arts ~ Architecture is in Architecture (from which Engineering was taken) ~ Planning is in Architecture ~ Law is IN Liberal Arts ~ Agronomy is ....... well, wherever you find REAL bulls ~ that's where that's at.

There's a structure to all academic disciplines dating back to the Middle Ages. Stick with it.

I know you want to deride "the Arts" as consisting of little more than Art History and Wymyn's studies, but they are actually in a new creation called - Education.

Even Art ~ the real thing ~ is in Liberal Arts, but some aspects of Art show up in Architecture, and Design is one of those aborning studies that is managed out of several different disciplines.

The primary characteristic of a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences is that you met a foreign language requirement ~ either through study, or by testing. If you didn't take a foreign language, or pass a test, you don't have a degree in the Liberal Arts ~ you have something from the School of Business, or the School of Education, or maybe Engineering. My degree is in Latin ~ 'cause I can read it even if others can't!

115 posted on 04/22/2012 6:28:20 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: keats5

I got out and started my own business (retail). That didn’t work out so I got a gig as a prison warden. Now I’m working in radiation effects testing.

With a Phil degree, you can pretty much BS your way into anyting.


116 posted on 04/22/2012 6:48:26 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Older graduates can’t find work either - my wife went back to school ad got her early childhood ed degree in December but cannot find a job.


117 posted on 04/22/2012 8:13:02 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Hope springs eternal - maybe the Bucs will break .500 this year)
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To: muawiyah

The formal and I’d say outdated definition is what you state. However, my University specifically lists those courses under “Liberal Arts”.

I agree with your definition however that isn’t how Universities are run anymore. Stupid, really.


118 posted on 04/22/2012 8:39:33 PM PDT by Black_Shark
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To: Some Fat Guy in L.A.

I’m a former career counselor and recruiter. FReepmail me her resume and I’ll see what I can do.


119 posted on 04/22/2012 8:41:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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To: Black_Shark

I’m sorry Black_Shark

I wish you the best!


120 posted on 04/22/2012 9:02:05 PM PDT by jcsjcm (This country was built on exceptionalism and individualism. In God we Trust - Laus Deo)
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