The electronic media major should not be having problems, social media coordinator and manager positions are fairly plentiful here in NC, and we were hit hard and still have higher unemployment than TX. Of course, he should have been taking those unpaid internships during summers while still in school, that is if he couldn’t find even a menial paid position with an employer in his field to gain some exposure and make valuable contacts, referrals and at least a few genuine references. It doesn’t sound as if he did this. Is there no longer such a thing as a placement office? All this was common practice, at least up to my college years.
The psych major needs to be interviewing with HR departments and security firms, possibly police forces, anywhere the ability to assess and screen applicants or individuals granted access would be needed. There is a level of intuition to this, however, and no experience will again rise up and bite a job hunter, just as in the previous example. His school failed him if he wasn’t counseled to pursue every avenue of exposure in his chosen profession prior to graduation.
The history major, well, I hope her passion translates into working her butt off in order to find something other than a tour guide position at an historic attraction. There is interest in history as far as salable products, apparel, collectibles, even peculiar things like jigsaw puzzles (thinking of the local Heritage Puzzle Co., a division of Heritage Publishing, very nice stuff if you’re into historic lighthouses and such), so over time she could build her way into a viable business but would need to acquire a great deal of other knowledge in order to capitalize upon a love and knowledge of history. The university that popped her out naive and unprepared is negligent. It’s not as if the job market hasn’t been pretty bad for four years going on five or anything.
These educrats take much for granted and have failed all three of these recent grads, imho.
Good post. But there is time and certainly discussions with others about jobs available in their chosen field. A LOT of kids take the cue that they're barking up the wrong tree and switch out of dead end majors. Some just are biding their time in college 'till they have to go out and work (that loan money is just some far-away problem -- if they were working to pay for these classes they might just think twice about what their major is).
Earlier this year my company was hiring for a social media coordinator. We figured it would be a piece of cake to find someone, as social media is so popular with recent grads. As we expected, we got SLAMMED with applications. Strangely, very few of them even maintained a Facebook or Twitter page (that they were willing to show us), and even fewer could string together a 140 character tweet that made sense. We actually had to pay to relocate someone from out of state. We were pretty stunned....didn’t think that would be the case at all.