Young Americans Face Job Market Disconnect as Parents Offer Outdated Career Advice (axios.com) 189
Nearly half of young Americans feel unprepared for future jobs as AI reshapes the workforce faster than career guidance can adapt, according to a new study from the Schultz Family Foundation and HarrisX. The survey of thousands of workers aged 16-24, along with parents, counselors and employers, revealed differences between generations about job availability and requirements. While 71% of employers say sufficient opportunities exist, only 43% of young people agree.
Parents rely on outdated personal experiences when advising children, with 79% drawing from their own career paths despite 66% believing their children should pursue different directions. Employers require at least one year of experience for 77% of entry-level positions while offering internships for just 38% of roles.
Parents rely on outdated personal experiences when advising children, with 79% drawing from their own career paths despite 66% believing their children should pursue different directions. Employers require at least one year of experience for 77% of entry-level positions while offering internships for just 38% of roles.
I am getting real tired of the AI doom and gloom.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
This is what they're being paid to show.
Re:I am getting real tired of the AI doom and gloo (Score:5, Insightful)
I am getting real tired of the AI doom and gloom articles, even if its true could Slashdot please branch out and diversify?
Cmdr Taco and Cowboy Neal cashed out, they're long gone. What's replaced them seeks to influence you. Hence at least three "Ahhhh!!!! AI is taking all the jobs" and three "Ahhhh!!!! Climate Change!" stories a day, interspersed a few stories you actually might care about.
T
Re: (Score:2)
They're better than the cryptocurrency cheerleading articles, anyway, which seems to be Slashdot's other favorite topic.
Re: (Score:2)
I briefly was a history major before I realized it wasn't for me, so I took a few more history courses and read more books than most folks.
There was absolutely widespread technological unemployment during the two industrial revolutions. We don't like to talk about it. And it didn't just go away it lasted right up until the early 1900s where coincidentally we started two world wars.
Re:I am getting real tired of the AI doom and gloo (Score:4, Funny)
In case you haven't noticed, there's not a lot of hope or optimism to be found anywhere at the moment. We're staring down a global recession, possible nuclear war, and watching the leader of the free world build concentration camps. If that wasn't enough, isolationist policies are creating a power vacuum that the most dangerous actors are best positioned to fill. Oh, and fascism and authoritarianism are making a comeback.
Maybe you can find a story about a police officer not shooting a puppy when responding to a welfare check, but I doubt it.
Re:I am getting real tired of the AI doom and gloo (Score:5, Interesting)
In case you haven't noticed, there's not a lot of hope or optimism to be found anywhere at the moment. We're staring down a global recession, possible nuclear war, and watching the leader of the free world build concentration camps. If that wasn't enough, isolationist policies are creating a power vacuum that the most dangerous actors are best positioned to fill. Oh, and fascism and authoritarianism are making a comeback.
Maybe you can find a story about a police officer not shooting a puppy when responding to a welfare check, but I doubt it.
How do you even keep on living? There has never ever been a worse time than this.
It's so damn funny except that if you believe it you are 100 percent correct. There is no hope for you. There is no need tor humanity to not just end itself.
That's an alternative wording of your post.
And yet, I raised my son in opposition to what I saw was going to happen. I refused to let them drug him into compliance. I raised him with the knowledge that he had a lot of potential, and that the self esteem they taught in school was a ticking time bomb, people who think they are the center of the universe, and think very highly of themselves with no actual accomplishments, fall hard when they get into the real world. He participated in sports at the competitive level and learned teamwork, the pricelessness of a shared task.
He's rising in management while many others his age are failing.
So while I agree that children need to be raised differently, many think that is doubling down on what got us here.
While many young men died in WW1, and WW2 fighting against a fascist enemy - You have it worse. NO doubt.
While the threat of nuclear war was really prominent during the 1950's - You have it worse.
While the late 60's and early 70's boys were conscripted to fight a weird wart in Vietnam, so many coming back with PTSD, but your girlfriend broke up with you and despite 10 years of therapy and antidepressants - you obviously had it much worse. While children spent their lives in iron lugs form polio, and in the summers they had to be kept at home to try to sleep them from it, there is not doubt, you had it so much worse. It is so sad that the recent generations are the people who have it so bad, they will probably welcome death as a proper way out of the hell they are in. Much happier than life in the worst country on earth, at the worst time in human history. /s
Sarcasm aside, way back in the day, in the late 60's early 70's, I heard the same whining and moaning how they had it worse than any other generation.
I decided it was the rhetoric of failure, and ignored the people who are embracing failure like a security blanket. Like they always have. But hey - How's that workin out for ya?
Can I get a OK Boomer? I'll be sitting at -1 soon - that is sometimes where the truth on Slashdot sits
Re: (Score:3)
You must be a white guy.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
These are concentration camps. That you felt the need to post AC tells me you know that already. You're on the wrong side of history.
Go into the trades (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Go into the trades (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone pile into the trades just in time for the next cyclic construction industry bust.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, to be fair...we're in the process of throwing those folks here illegally out of the US and making it harder for them to work here.
These jobs should and would go to US citizens if the artificial lowering of wages you describe did not exist.
Re: Go into the trades (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
And now there'll be a glut of workers in trade, who now have to find work, etc.
Yes, trade work is guaranteed to exist, but it also doesn't support the entire population trying to enter that field, in the same way everyone shouldn't become a doctor or some other field that could collapse due to too many workers.
This requires either full time work, and jobs will dry up, or making one's own business which requires paperwork and keeping track of money. This paperwork is handled by a "wort
Re: (Score:2)
Not absolutely true. There's going to be a lot of work for electricians (especially ones trained to handle large network installations) due to the boom in datacentre expansion. Aluminum welding is a specialized skill in hot demand. There are others.
Re: (Score:2)
What happens when the datacenter rush ends? Either becaue we have enough capacity or because the AI bubble bursts?
"Look at all the jobs building this one thing will create! Surely, those will last forever and just vanish at the end of the project!"
Think.
Re: Go into the trades (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Name a trade that pays $80k with two years experience. I suppose oil rig workers or underwater welding is in the trade category but those jobs pay a lot for a reason.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, "getting worthless degrees" is indeed stupid. But there are degrees that are really not "worthless". Yes, I understand that you would not be able to get one of those...
Re:Go into the trades (Score:5, Insightful)
You joke, but one thing AI is allowing is automating a lot of tasks that used to be performed by skilled tradespeople. For example, robots already do much of the welding work in manufacturing. AI will potentially allow robots to weld even for highly paid welding field work (such as oil and gas pipelines).
Residential plumbers, electricians, and HVAC people are still in-demand, but residential services businesses are increasingly getting rolled up by private equity and making it hard for individual tradespeople to compete. Obviously, you still need tradespeople to perform the tasks, but private equity "efficiency" will make sure they pay bottom dollar to most of the workers, with maybe a handful of certified people who are better paid to sign off on the work after it is done.
"Learn a trade" is just as empty headed as telling laid off coal miners to "learn to code."
Re: (Score:2)
A great example is medicine. Corporations have gobbled up the market such that it is absolutely impossible in many places for an individual doctor to have a practice. Hospitals are largely owned by huge holding corporations like Tenet. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is basically a guild system that extorts money from doctors to the tune of thousands of dollars a year per person. The AMA sends out fake bills to people's practices hoping that a secretary who is clueless will just pay it. Mal
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The only rational extension of this, then, is to get into that business.
Get experience welding/fabricating/cement work/construction, and figure out where that tech is going. Build a small nestegg as you rent and be intentionally poor.
Start a business doing what you now know, but automated - and ask your parents to help with collateral. Get investments and funding. Buy into a franchise making future-looking technology that can do the trade you now know.
The 3d printed structure equipment is one such vertical
Re: (Score:2)
Established tradesmen are the worst enemy of new tradesmen. No one with options signs up to be abused.
Re: (Score:2)
Established tradesmen are the worst enemy of new tradesmen. No one with options signs up to be abused.
Sounds like you don't like being told what to do. I don't know your age, but I've seen a lot of that in young people. They bristle if someone tells them they are turning the screwdriver the wrong way. Same way in other fields.
Re: Go into the trades (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have seen many people's bodies wrecked by doing a trade. I have never really seen anyone make a lot of money. Just long days, often outdoors.
I've seen ads for finish carpenters at 50 dollars per hour. And possibly you've never seen a master machinist's pay. Ours were well over 100 k. You don't work on million dollar plus pieces of metal that can be reduced to scrap if you make one tiny mistake and get paid minimum wage for it.
Once upon a time people didn't expect to start at the top. And they didn't think that tradespeople were Low-IQ dullards that couldn't get a college degree.
Temp work FTW (Score:2)
I have had three jobs in my career in tech start as a temp worker, and then I ended up getting hired full time. I was at my last job for ten years, after having started initially as a temp worker for three weeks. There's lots of good reasons to choose temp work rather than struggle doing the crazy interview process in the current environment.
As far as I know, that is still quite possible, and I would give that advice to my son if he were of working age. He's not, but in 15 years when he is, I'd probably
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen some temp jobs work out well, but I've seen others where it was not so good.
Temp-to-hire where the employer actually really does intend to hire-on, and uses the temp-process to get to know candidates before making offers is fine. It's actually not a bad idea if basically everyone is on the same page. Temp agency needs to be ready to move people around if various employers do or don't like candidates, and temp-employees need to understand that there could be periods of downtime, and might themsel
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but the thing about these situations is the temp worker can just leave. The key to being a good temp is getting hired by multiple temp agencies. You call in EVERY DAY to EACH AGENCY until you get a job. If you end up at one that is not working out for you, complete your assignment and move on to the next one. If it is a long term assignment, and you are being treated like shit, let your temp agent know that, and let them know you plan on moving on to the next one at the next opportunity. I was a
Re: (Score:2)
You see a similar complaint all over the Internet (Score:2)
As a 50-something parent myself? I'm thinking:
1. You can't really expect to ask parents for "career advice" and then get upset they aren't giving you information you think is relevant to the current job market/hiring situation. All they really know is how it worked for them. If nothing else, that's useful information in and of itself, because it gives you a historical sense of how things were before they got to what you're dealing with today.
2. If you're trying to figure out how to get hired, you need to as
Re: You see a similar complaint all over the Inter (Score:2)
A lot of the advice is unsolicited. The parents are acting like the kids have something wrong with them because what worked for them isn't working for their kids.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not a 20-somethings job to have the wisdom to understand their parents don't have accurate information about the job market, especially if the parents themselves are employed and have been through more interviews / hiring processes than the kids. Or rather, it's not reasonable to expect they will understand this. It takes a lot for a 20-something looking for work to have the insight to understand that their professional parents, who have raised them, and who are successful (presumably) and make a goo
Parents offering out-dated advice? (Score:2)
That's not exactly a recent phenomenon...
(and I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well)
So the problem is some people (Score:2)
In a competitive society where we all have to constantly justify our right to live this means we are going to have tens of millions of people who do not have the right to live.
We could of course convert from a competitive society to a cooperative one... I'll wait for the laughter to die down.
So eventually what's go
Re: (Score:3)
In a competitive society where we all have to constantly justify our right to live this means we are going to have tens of millions of people who do not have the right to live.
We could of course convert from a competitive society to a cooperative one... I'll wait for the laughter to die down.
I'm not interested in being a slave for people too lazy or disinterested in even trying to support themselves. The notion that everyone can have a job that they personally find fulfilling and life-affirming is naive idiocy. Find something to pay the bills and take up hobbies if work is not satisfying your personal desires.
No one is stopping you and other commie fools from starting your very own cooperative society. The rest of us only ask that you leave us out of it. We have no desire to subsidize your e
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not interested in being a slave for people too lazy or disinterested in even trying to support themselves.
That's what you are now. They are called CEOs and politicians.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm not interested in being a slave for people too lazy or disinterested in even trying to support themselves. The notion that everyone can have a job that they personally find fulfilling and life-affirming is naive idiocy. Find something to pay the bills and take up hobbies if work is not satisfying your personal desires.
Pick up hobbies, when? 50-60 + hour work week (because that includes commute, if you're lucky), cooking, cleaning, shopping, have a family. Tell me when to do hobby? At 3 hours/week y
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not necessarily worried about unemployment. Humans will always find something to do, even if it's not "productive" by current standards. Pre-industrial people would be puzzled by the work most 21st century people perform and most probably wouldn't call what we do "work."
Many people may not have any purpose in terms of physical production, but there is a lot of room for care work that doesn't require any real skills other than some basic human compassion. For example, daycares and nursing homes never hav
Re: (Score:2)
Life is a competition.
Modern life as we know it is completely impossible without cooperation. Even the most trivial of finished goods require the input of hundreds or thousands of people. It is also be competitive, but it is inherently cooperative, and there's no reason not to make it moreso just to make the bootstrap pulling, boot licking crowd satisfied.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: So the problem is some people (Score:2)
Lick harder, I see some leather left on the wealthy's collective boots. Surely they will reward you richly!
Re: So the problem is some people (Score:2)
The notion that able-bodied people should be able to just do whatever the fuck they want while being supported by everyone else is ridiculous.
You scream that at them while they are driving away with your stuff. Yes life is competitive but the people who win the competition say fuck laws and help themselves to your stuff by force. Unless that is the life you want to live, you want cooperation.
Self fulfilling prophecy (Score:5, Insightful)
I had this discussion with my nephew. He was ranting about the way the whole world is skewed against his generation, and how there are no opportunities. I said, "I don't think you know that to be true."
After some discussion it was clear that he had been radicalized to this viewpoint not because he had really did his best and failed, but by the endless feedback loop online that told him he didn't need to try because he was doomed to fail.
I didn't have to go far for a counter example. His older brother is an electrical engineer and doing well.
My point was that letting the online community convince you it's hopeless makes the failure real, and it's not useful.
Re: (Score:3)
If you tell me everybody in a whole generation is going to fail, I'll call you a liar. And if some are going to succeed, announcing failure in advance of trying should earn somebody no sympathy.
Easy mode? Hardly. Not going to sit here and compare life stories, but that's just not true. Every generation had its challenges.
Re: (Score:2)
You've got to consider broad trends for topics like this. You'll never be able to describe "everybody in a whole generation" as succeeding or failing and you'll always be able to find individual cases of success and failure.
So compared to the past, are more young people struggling with their careers or are more comfortable in them?
And while a pessimistic attitude doesn't help, I don't think it's the driving factor as much as a response.
Re:Ok boomer (Score:5, Insightful)
Mistakes were made.
They call them baby boomers for a reason - they are the biggest generation, by cohort size. A lot of the policies that benefited them were made on the assumption that the next generation would be even bigger, and that the economy would keep growing proportionally, and the workers would share in that wealth.
None of that turned out to be true. There were fewer gen X, even fewer Millennials, and far fewer gen Z. Wages didn't keep up with GDP growth.
In the UK, there were about 14 people per retiree to cover pensions and healthcare costs, back in the 1950s. There are about 5 today. It's not just state pensions either, boomers had access to defined benefit pensions that turned out to be unaffordable, so the schemes were closed to new applicants but workers today still have to pay the boomers who got them.
The massive increase in property value relative to wages was a one off too. If Gen Z manage to buy a house, they aren't going to see it go up in value by hundreds of percent over their lifetimes.
And then you have climate change. Too little, too late, with massive costs coming.
So sure, individually boomers may have had hard lives, may have worked hard to get what they have, no disputing that. But mistakes were made at policy level and now nobody has the balls to even try to really fix them. Younger generations are actually screwed. They can't expect the same opportunities that their parents and grandparents had.
Motte and bailey fallacy (Score:2)
What I said is that older generations had it easier than younger generations because of the world older generations created.
You wanna tried disputing literally any of the points I made? You're going to find they're all quite true. And I didn't even bring up climate change. The droughts caused from that have caused the price of beef t
Re: (Score:2)
I did not retreat. I restated. What you see as a retreat is me refusing to own what you read into my post.
Re: (Score:2)
"You wanna tried disputing literally any of the points I made?"
No. Because none of them contradict my post. Go back and reread the initial post. I did not offer an opinion on whether that was right or wrong. How badly do you read?
Re:Ok boomer (Score:5, Insightful)
#1 - Did you somehow entirely miss the part that the nephews older brother - in the same generation with the exact same upbringing - is doing fine?
#2 - Your statement is outright false. If you think the government paid 70% of your tuition 30 years ago - I have a bridge to sell you. It simply didn't work that way, ever. In fact, most people in the 90's and 00's worked their way through school.
Re: (Score:2)
#1 - Did you somehow entirely miss the part that the nephews older brother - in the same generation with the exact same upbringing - is doing fine?
They don't have the exact same upbringing, in particular first and second siblings are typically treated differently in a number of ways. They also are not the same person, and different people are able to take advantage of different opportunities for multiple reasons — not all people have the preparation to take the same opportunities, and not all people will have the same opportunities handed to them. So no, you are factually incorrect, they did not have the exact same upbringing, and even if they d
You are falling for his trap (Score:2)
When it comes to old farts with bad ideas they can never actually argue their points so they try to change the subject. It's all they can do.
Re: (Score:2)
Look, you're the one going out of the way to muddy the waters over what was a very simple premise. In your post summing me up you got everything wrong. I am not a boomer, I did not go to university, I bought my first property in 2008.
In your rush to contradict you read a mountain into the molehill. Good lord. At least own up to it.
Re: (Score:2)
In fact, most people in the 90's and 00's worked their way through school.
most people in the 90's and 00's worked their way through school.
One thing to note here is huge increase in the cost of higher education [usinflatio...ulator.com] relative to inflation starting late 70's and finally getting close to matching by 2015. So while government wasn't really subsidizing 70% as the OP claims, Baby boomers and Gen X did have a much easier time working to pay for their schooling than Millennials and Gen Z.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think the government paid 70% of your tuition 30 years ago - I have a bridge to sell you. It simply didn't work that way, ever. In fact, most people in the 90's and 00's worked their way through school.
I got my BS in CompSci late 80's-early 90's, paid for mostly with Pell grants (there are advantages to having poor farmers for parents). The only loans I had was for the year I spent at the college dorms. The rest of the time I lived on the farm, so you could say that I was working my way through. I think I ended up with about $8K in loans.
My son got his BS working his way through college. He had 14K in loans at the end of that. He's going to grad school which is blowing his loan debt up big, but at the
Re: Ok boomer (Score:2)
So what are you going to do about the problem?
Or are you just going to sit on your butt, whine and complain, using idiotic phrases like "OK boomer" to refer to Millenials and GenX?
Seconded (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So, they're getting money from somewhere.
Yes, unsustainable student loans. People have been telling us this, and some of us haven't been listening.
Re: (Score:2)
That's why I didn't say it like that. :) I didn't even bring up his brother to him. I mentioned it here, but not there.
Walk right in and ask for an application (Score:2)
Go straight to their reception desk and ask for a job application. Employers will respect that you're serious about getting a job. Make sure you firmly shake hands, to show that you are excited about the opportunity.
That Boomer advice never actually worked for me. Not even 30 years ago.
I also never bothered to create a different cover letter on my résumé, despite numerous people telling me that's critical. I just listed all the programming languages I knew, and then filled 4 or 5 pages with descri
Re: (Score:2)
Funny, I got a good job in the late nineties doing just that. I was cold-calling and I got hired onto the quality assurance team for a specialized software product. Unfortunately despite the company not being a dotcom they were in investment-building mode and the investor got cold feet so they went under anyway, but it was a good job and the people who hired me did so based on or technical conversations when I cold-called.
My current job I got by having experience with this team when I was at a different e
Re: (Score:2)
Grandpa, its 2025. That was three decades ago.
Re: (Score:3)
All my best jobs I got because I knew someone.
Re: (Score:2)
Same here. First tech job I got was because one of the bosses was good friends with one of Dad's neighbors. Second (and current) job was due to having worked with a current employee (at the time).
Re: (Score:2)
I got an internship in college (as a geology major) this way:
1). went in to the state geological survey office building with my resume. Asked if any student jobs were available.
2). Talked to the chief of the engineering geology section (#2 guy in the building). He said no, but we chatted a bit and he took my resume.
3). About a year later, he called me and said he had an opening if I was still interested.
It was an awesome opportunity. I had a job there for over 2 years, and it directly led to me having a job
Re: Walk right in and ask for an application (Score:3)
I told my kids all along to ignore career advice (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The college degree loan thing was already becoming a problem when I was an undergrad over 20 years ago. It was fine when one might be borrowing $5000 per year as even entry-level college grad jobs that actually used degrees paid enough to make repayment of those loans doable, but the trouble was that far too many truly entry-level jobs started preferring college degrees when they didn't really contribute, so more and more demand for college degrees among people drove up prices for the limited seats. Which
Re: (Score:2)
I think part of this is garbage advice.
If you don't have a degree, in many areas you will simply be passed over, regardless of how qualified you are otherwise.
AI is now actively used by corporations to weed out people who don't have those keywords on their resume. "B.A." and "M.A." are still selling points, and there's tons of statistics that show that people with degrees earn more, on average over time, than people who don't. That is still true today, and it is still true REGARDLESS of the cost of the deg
As a 50-something parent of a recent grad (Score:3)
Of course people just starting their careers shouldn't ask their parents for career advice — it's very unlikely they have relevant, current knowledge and much more likely they'll draw from 20+ year old info that worked for them.
That said, parents are great for doing a "smell test" on an email, a resume, on an outfit, or on anything really. Hiring managers are likely to be closer to parents' age, so it's good to get feedback. Parents are also going to have much stronger professional networks that can help even if you're in an entirely different field — colleagues' spouses might work in the right industry, or someone else might have a good connection. Just a small example that happened to me recently — my daughter was on a group trip that was getting screwed by their hotel, and one of the parent chaperones happened to be an ex-VP of a credit card company, and could make a call to the right person to get the problem resolved.
In short, think carefully about how people can help you and have an open mind about things they might know or connections they might have — you might be surprised.
Just one word: Plastics (Score:2)
Somewhat regional issue (Score:4, Funny)
Working in the DC region, Boomers don't give out that advice.
Mainly because it's a good way to get your kid arrested or killed in a hail of gunfire depending on the security level of the building.
Re: (Score:2)
It's bullshit advice in general anyway. My dad thought he was friends with some guy who was an exec who worked for Diversey-Lever (initials J.L.) and he gave me "his" number to call to allegedly get an interview. So I called up about it and got a receptionist who I couldn't get past, and never got a call back. People like that don't have friends, just people they can use, and they have people in between to protect them from people who think they are their friends.
Re: Somewhat regional issue (Score:2)
If he wanted to help me with that he could have made the phone call, which either also would not have helped or would have done. He also didn't offer to call when I told him what happened, he acted like it was my fault.
Yeah I'm aware he was a shit father but there's lots of those
Statistically Infuriating. (Score:5, Insightful)
Employers require at least one year of experience for 77% of entry-level positions while offering internships for just 38% of roles.
This strikes me as almost as infuriating as the old, "We require twenty years experience in this field that has only existed for three years," thing we used to run into.
Of course it's out of date... (Score:2)
Nobody should be shocked that parents are advising their children based on what worked (or didn't for them). All you can do as a parent is try to provide the benefit of experience.
However, there is one thing that I doubt will ever change: who you know matters quite a bit. Humans are fundamentally social animals, and someone who known to the organization doing the hiring and is perceived as "one of us" is always going to have a leg up over an anonymous resume. This tends to benefit the children of those who
Not Axios again (Score:2)
Why not interview Emily Bender and review "The AI Con"?
Provide value (Score:2)
I let my kid decide on his own (Score:2)
All I mentioned was to study an area that would provide job opportunities. I advised against getting a useless "fluff degrees".
He went into Mechanical Engineering and is doing just fine. It was his choice.
So (Score:2)
"Get off your ass and get a job" is no longer useful advice? /s
Learned helplessness (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I think what we're seeing is called "learned helplessness".
Sure, but WHY did they learn that? I recall back in 2003 skilled people having a very hard time finding jobs. So much so that many people were out of work for more than a year. The environment is even worse now.
Timing is critical (Score:3)
Timing is important, and not just across generations but even across a few years. Someone who graduates during a recession or a period of scarce job openings will have to utilize different strategies than someone who graduates during boom times. Unfortunately sometimes those disadvantages carry across an entire lifetime.
I know people who graduated in 1993 (two years after the recession officially ended) who struggled to find a job. Meanwhile, two to three years later, graduates had multiple job offers during the tech bubble buildup. Then four years later with the dotcom bust, Harvard MBAs struggled to find jobs. Two years ago, jobs were plentiful. Now they are not. It's very likely that the job situation will be different two years from now.
There's a huge element of luck in all this, but that's true for most things in life.
This just in (Score:2)
Kids are all different (Score:3)
As a child of the 80s (Score:3)
As a child of the 80s (I attended college in the 80s), I didn't look to my parents for career advice, instead I followed my interests, took some unappealing jobs (mainframe computer operator, mainframe programmer, technical support) but I got insight into the places I wanted to work and was fairly successful.
When my son started looking for work, my advice was simple - figure out what you want to do by taking jobs in industries you think you want to be in. You'll figure out if the field is right for you, you'll learn about the industry, and don't worry if it's not your dream job, once you get experience/insights/skills you can move on to the job/career you want.
It worked for him.
I think the basics still apply, the bullshit advice people used to give never made sense, people just did it - like "go to college!" Getting a degree isn't for everyone, and if you aren't cut out for it, you could wind up owing tens of thousands of dollars for a few semesters at college with nothing to show for it.
The real issue is parents have raised a generation of entitled, arrogant little kids I'll-prepared to, you know, actually do work, to actually get up, go to work, and accomplish things. They want to stay home, work remotely, and show you how well they memorized the DEI platitudes and memes they memorized to win the favor of their teachers.
I recently took a new job, and as an applicant if a certain age it was hard to find a position, but then I got lucky and found a company that has stopped chasing recent college graduates and embraces the idea of hiring experienced workers that will show up and want to do the damn job!
Re: (Score:2)
That's all well and good to say, but that neither addresses what actually changes, versus how some changes have proven harmful and should be avoided if possible even if they're common.
Re: (Score:2)
what's changed is largely irrelevent to the context because guess what, if/when today's kids have kids, things will have changed again.
Re: (Score:2)
My parents were completely incompetent, drunk assholes.
So I wouldn't follow their example under any circumstances.
Re: (Score:2)
But props to you for knowing this.
This is a systemic problem (Score:3)
Don't get me wrong I am all for not raising your kids the way you were raised. My parents were useless and insane respectively. And I was careful not to impart generational trauma as best I could, although I'm still pretty sure I ended up with a little bit passed over whether I liked it or not.
But we have solid studies it shows 70% of the middle class jobs in the la
Re:Most parents don't understand this but.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I went through higher ed in a family who had never got out of high school, so I had little guidance or useful experiences to draw on. I remember discussing studying Electrical Engineering with dad, who kept asking, "wouldn't you rather work with numbers?". As an example.
There are now families with more education but similar disconnect.
Re: Most parents don't understand this but.. (Score:2)
Thatâ(TM)s something your parents would say! /s