aggie93 said:Stone Choir said:aggie93 said:agsalaska said:cmag said:
I can't imagine coming out of college into the workforce today. All these kids are going to be competing against AI. I'm glad I'm on the back hill slide of my career, and trying to figure out wtf to steer my kids towards before they hit college age. Terrified for them.
No way.
There is more money to be made than ever before. You just have to make an expectations adjustment. We used to go to college and work our way up the ranks. Hell my degree is in POLS and I have spent most of my career in retail management. You could get a degree in anything and just enter the workforce one step ahead. That's over. But tradesmen make a LOT more money today than ever before. I have a buddy that is an electrician. He has about 15 guys working for him and he has made millions. He makes more money than our CEO and shaves maybe once a week.
Plumber or electrician is where it's at. More specifically, blue collar with leadership skills.
The key is adjusting that is for sure. My eldest graduates from A&M Galveston next month and he did Maritime Transportation. He had to give up his Summers to do Sea Terms and his career will mean he's gone half the time. He's got multiple 6 figure offers he is deciding between and tremendous job security for the forseeable future. Unless AI gets to the point where ships are completely unmanned with no humans aboard he's going to do very well for a very long time. While he was in HS he also got welding certified and he has a lot of skills. He worked part time on charter fishing vessels as well on the weekends.
Other son graduated from HS and has a full ride to study Biomedical Engineering. He worked 2 Summers as an Auto Mechanic (started off sweeping the shop and doing any grunt job they could dream up). He learned how to operate just about any shop tool in robotics and landed an internship this Summer working for a Med Device company working on their CNC mill, routers, and laser cutters. He also makes some side money using his drone for construction companies helping them to survey sites.
There are tons of small business endeavors kids can get into (and I'm not even talking about all the easy money from social media and influencers). You just have to hustle and work. There is so much information out there that's easily available to people now as well about how to do just about anything. It's not on a sliver platter but the opportunities are there.
Problem is that the natural tendency of people is to look for easy buttons. They want to be able to study what they want, work when and where they want, not bother saving or investing, not take risks, and yet they want all the benefits of those who do those things. That's not new to this generation btw, the difference is the information age has made it easier to succeed and also easier to be lazy more than ever. If you follow the herd and don't take responsibility for your choices though it's not likely going to turn out well for you though. You can be a sheep or a wolf, it's just most people make that choice by default.
The issue is not the jobs, it's obtaining a job. HR job systems for online applications are utterly broken and every job is inundated with 200 AI applications in 5 minutes after it is posted. It's a black hole nowadays. These kids aren't working not because they don't want to work but because they literally cannot find a job, at all. There are thousands of stories of people sending out 500+ applications and receiving zero responses.
It's about adjustments. If you just apply for jobs and expect to get results it is tough if you are experienced much less being one of the volumes of new college grads that look so similar. You have to network and use tools like LinkedIn to connect directly with hiring managers. Get out of your comfort zone. Think creatively. Smaller companies are also much more likely to give you a shot, especially if you reach out directly to the hiring manager or owner and show initiative. If you are relying on recruiters and HR to see how you are special among hundred of applicants while they are working on a dozen jobs don't be surprised when you get lost in the shuffle.
If you just want to sit back and send resumes to Fortune 500 companies when you don't have experience you might as well play the lottery. Both my boys got internships and jobs with a little hustle and creativity. My youngest has an internship out of HS that most college juniors would kill for and he never sent a resume to apply for a job in a traditional fashion, he actually had multiple great jobs to choose from. He spent time on his resume. He spent time on his LinkedIn profile. He spent time making connections. He spent time reaching out to anyone he thought might be helpful.
I talk to so many college kids I try and help and new grads who just won't do that. They start to but they won't follow through. It's just so much easier to apply and pray and then say they can't get a job. Then if you tell them to actually call on a business directly they are terrified. The reality is that if they are willing to put themselves out there and show they can handle a bit of rejection it is likely to pay off. It's not easy but it's there. Instead I hear about whining that companies don't get back to them on their applications as if that is going to help things, take ownership and try different paths or follow up don't sit around being upset that a company you spent 3 minutes sending a resume to isn't getting back to you with an auto reject email.
In their defense, most kids aren't taught any of this and instead get doom and gloom from social media or bad advice on how to look for a job with unrealistic expectations and no understanding of how the business world works.
It's fashionable these days to post "don't just apply to jobs, go network! Don't just expect to get offers by sitting around, connect with managers!" on LinkedIn without given any idea how to go about doing it. People don't like some stranger trying to "network" with them.
My son completed his 3rd of B.S in Computer Science. He is doing not 1 but two internships, both at name brand companies everyone has heard of. One is onsite, one is remote. He is managing them both, he is constantly working. He is working even right now, Sunday afternoon to complete stuff. He had an offer from last year's internship employer but he declined it. He did two internships last year as well, both name brand companies - one onsite, one remote.
How did he get those jobs? Simply by applying on LinkedIn and corporate website.
No contacts, no "networking", no cold calls. He just applied on the company sites, many companies called, some ghosted, he interviewed with many companies, got many rejects, got some offers, picked 2 and rejected the others.
Networking is overrated. People like to say it to seem intellectual.This is another lie to gaslight Americans while they ship jobs to India. Many just repeat the lie hoping to sound smart and sagely. When the tide turns and there are plenty of jobs, the same companies will come to you begging to accept.