Everyone wants to work wearing a suit and or high hills/nylons.
They’ll rather be poor in a suit than have a full wallet driving a semi.
My son graduated a few years ago from a small university in Florida with his BS in electrical engineering. He had a job offer from Blue Origin out in Seattle BEFORE he graduated. They moved him and his partner from Tampa to Seattle and he walked in the door making 125k.
I will be graduating next Spring with my BSBA in Business Management and already have an unofficial job offer from DHL. The reason it is unofficial is because they don’t make official offers until August the summer of your senior year. I did an internship with them last summer, was asked to come back this summer and in my final eval my mgr wrote “looking forward to having Ray with DHL in the future”.
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Here’s what a liberal arts degree gets most people:
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How did we get to the point where it’s harder to get a decent paying job than in the 70s and 80s?
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That sucking sound of the NAFTA treaty
I don’t pretend to be anywhere near an expert in this. But back between 1989 and 1996 I made between 37-43k at an entry level position at New Jersey Bell (Now Verizon).
I got in right out of high school. This wasn’t some special job. I’m assuming unions had a big part in the pay. Many other entry level jobs were competitive. How do we go from that to struggling to make 40k a year 30 years later with a degree?
The business model changed when there was a plethora of MBA business colleges appeared on the scene.
Its very predatory because the bottom line and business equity acquisitions were more valuable than the employee to the shareholders and investors.
Different business ethics.
Is it working?
Even more concerning is how only 39% of male high school grads enroll in colleges. This number is down from 47% in the 2010s.
“Concerning”
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What would someone get for that same entry level job at Verizon now?
PS: In the real world, some degrees are worth nothing more than a high school diploma. The thread is full of discussion about that. People graduating with STEM degrees aren’t struggling to find a 40K job. Many are starting at 75K or better.
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As of 2016 they made a little over 70k at top pay. I know that because my wife was supervisor there. We met at Verizon. She had a degree, so she was able to get promoted. She retired in 2016 at the old age of 46.
As to what you were saying, a close friend of the family’s daughter got an engineering job in NYC that started at 75k. That was 5-10 years ago. She was 23 years old. But she had successful parents that guided her. I had little ambition. I was just happy with a good paying job. But now they don’t seem to exist. It’s either feast or famine.
We need to move away from this cultural obsession with college as a natural extension of high school.
Yes it should be considered but its only one of many options. Return on investment seems to be a concept that is ignored. Tried to get that across to one of my sons but his biological dad persuaded him to go to a private college. Luckily I got him to see sense and after the first year he transferred but that one year has cosr him a ■■■■ ton of money.
My youngest son was not college inclined and is now an EMT about to start paramedic school.
My eldest daughter has got a masters in I think literature and then did a 180 and is now in nursing school. She wishes she had done thid years ago.
For me this proves parents (and high school) need to start considering alternatives to the traditional college route.
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You’ll get no argument from me. I totally agree.
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As an example, my son graduated a few years ago with a BS in electrical engineering, he had a job with Blue Origin BEFORE he graduated. They moved him and his partner from Tampa to Seattle and paid him 125k to start as a RF Engineer. Hell, I graduate next spring with a BS in Business Admin with a major of Business Management and I already have an unofficial offer with DHL. I did an internship last summer, asked to come back this summer and in my final eval last summer my Mgr wrote “we look forward to having “my name” with a full time role with DHL”. It all depends on the degree, and in my case my 10ish years experience in warehousing before I got my AAS in IT and worked in IT for 15 years.
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Whenever someone says, you make your own bed, I have to agree with them. In most cases you go as far as your ambition. I’ve never been ambitious. My goal was a good paying job that did not require much responsibility. That’s what I got. No regrets. Me marrying well helped too. My free time is more valuable to me than money. Which is why I don’t work OT. I’ll stop with my somewhat off topic rant.
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You sound like my best mate. His situation is very similar to yours.
I regret spending so many hours at work in my younger years at the expense of quality and personal time. These days I work hard during the week but weekends are mine. Plus the days of me working every night till 11pm are over.
I am fortunate that my employer has evolved over the years and now what they say about work life balance is more than just words. We get plenty of PTO, paid holidays and additional paid wellness days.
I tell my kids dont make the same mistakes as me.
I am usually hard right politically. But not when it comes to labor or abortion. That’s where I part ways.
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That’s why I titled the OP why I did. OutsIde of STEM, on a purely practical level, most of what students do in High School and college is a waste of time and money.
Sadly, that’s true.
A college degree (of any sort) used to show that a person was educable.
Not so much any more.