A Lost Generation of Job Seekers?

E-Commerce Times ^ | October 28, 2002 | Peter Coy, Michelle Conlin & Emily Thornton

[Trajan88]

I worked for a telecom equipment manufacturer and was recently laid off (after 9.5 years of dedicated hard work).

Luckily I have about 8 months of back-up cash + my severance package.

Word to the wise: high tech/telecom is the pits.

Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88; Law Hall (may it R.I.P.) Ramp 9 Mule; f.u.p.

[SwordofTruth]

The days of young americans earning $100,000 are gone forever.

This is Free Republic not the Democratic Underground. Many young Americans are earning much more than $100,000 a year and will continue to do so long after your gone.

[martin gibson]

Now, we are awarding PhD's in (Hahaha) "Urban Studies".

Howsabout 'Ethno Urbanology'...(and, as Dave Barry would say, I am NOT making this up).

[fogarty]

Sorry to hear about your job losses. And you are right - it hasn't been this bad in a long, long time. My brother was laid off last week from a semiconductor equipment manufacturer - and he's got a master's degree and 8 years experience under his belt. I wish him the best and pray for him, but I am realistic when I say he probably won't find a job until spring time next year. He was fortunately able to pay off most of his student debt, but he's going to be eating his retirement funds soon enough.

My wife and I are relatively young, so kids are still in the future. No car payments - both our cars are 8-10 years old and we will drive them until they die. We are making extra payments on the mortgage so we can pay the debt off early.

Regardless of how 'unpatriotic' some people make us out to be, we are clamping down on any and all unnecessary spending. God has given us this time to save and be good stewards. We are being frugal because we are not fools.

[USMMA_83]

The good ones will rise stronger for it, the bad ones will be doing what they should have been in the first place.

I once told my dad (after I was benched on our high-school basket-ball team), that the cream always rises to the top (the cream being me)...my dad looked at me and said, "So does scum!"

[TomSmedley]

I'm now paying off almost 60K in student loans for the MBA I got two years ago.

A recent study compared folks with MBAs to folks who got an intensive 1-3 week indoctrination session into the company culture. No difference in productivity. Still, I have to believe you have enriched your own inner life to some extent!

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

Once upon a time, so they say, there was a travelling Wise Man who came to a village. He had a little cannister of magical pills. He promised that eating these little pills would instantly make one more intelligent. So, up comes this bumkin to him: "How much for the smart pills, O wise one?"

"Well, young man, that will cost you a gold coin."

So the bumpkin gives the Wise Man his life savings in exchange for the magic pills, which he promptly gobbles down. He chokes, and spits out the pills: "Pardon me, O wise one, but it appears I have given you a gold coin in return for rabbit sh_t."

"See, you're smarter already!" and the Wise Man walked away to the next village, richer by a gold coin.

Yeah, I learned LOTS in business school. One of them is the concept of ROI -- Return On Investment. In the case of an MBA, there ain't none.

Thus endeth the lesson.

[Gorzaloon]

I once told my dad (after I was benched on our high-school basket-ball team), that the cream always rises to the top (the cream being me)...my dad looked at me and said, "So does scum!"

Wow, he is a hard marker.

Actually, that is the Rule of Middle Management...haha!

[dljordan]

I was making about $30 an hour as a systems guy at a hospital company with 11 years in. We got gobbled up and I had to leave. I went back to school and learned to be an Aircraft Mechanic and loved it, although I only made about $10 an hour. You have to make a mental shift that's hard for some people to make. I'm back in the computer business and although I'm making an excellent salary I miss the airplanes.

[Gorzaloon]

Howsabout 'Ethno Urbanology'...(and, as Dave Barry would say, I am NOT making this up).

Most of us could not make up these things. Schools will dream up any easy five credits for a quick sale.

One that infuriated me when I was tutoring was something like "Chemistry for Divinity Students"...the tiniest smattering.

So these scam victims are graduated out into the Corporate World and baffled when they are unemployed. It is not the student's fault, really. They are actually conned into thinking they are learning something. After the damage from the public schools, how can they have the critical skills to even know any better? If it sounds like a long word, it must be a real subject.

[Gorzaloon]

My wife and I are relatively young, so kids are still in the future. No car payments - both our cars are 8-10 years old and we will drive them until they die. We are making extra payments on the mortgage so we can pay the debt off early.

We were in the same place in the '70's. Paying down debt turned into the smartest thing we ever did.

If you make $100,000, and owe $500,000, you can live the same way with a lot less stress and fear by making less and owing still less, and are a lot more flexible in adjusting to setbacks. And if the career gets back on track in the future, you are way ahead.

[manfromlamancha]

I don't know where he received his MBA, mine only cost 18,000 grand. 60 G for a business degree, bad business if you ask me. I work in total 24 hours a week, I don't make much cash but the money I earn goes into my home so I can sell it in a year, buy a boat and not work at all for one to two years...you have to know what to do with the education you buy; cheap cars, affordable food, good investments, and health insurance...

[Gorzaloon]

Problem is that the retirement money is now gone and companies DO NOT HIRE people over 50 (except MAYBE McDonalds). I have to face the fact that I am in my last good paying job and make to best of it.

If you have talents, don't lose faith.

I was 56 when, after 23 years with the company, the division closed. I was offered a transfer to a place I politically hate,(CA) and turned it down.

But I had worked hard and had a good reputation, and because of it, got a better job before I even touched my severance!

This, despite my being certain I had lost the last job I would ever have.

So you never know...someone you did a good job for years before, or someone who had heard of you may come through if you develeloped a good network!

[null and void]

You are missing the big picture. There are plenty of jobs, but they are being shipped offshore to foreign countries. How does this effect the economy? It's not just unemployment. It's thousands of workers who make good money that is longer going into our economy. It's going into the economies of India, Pakistan, China, and Russia to name a few.

That and H1-B visas being granted TODAY because American companies "can't find" American engineers and scientists to fill jobs.

I'm looking for an engineering postion in processing for MEMS (Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems) or Nanotech. FReep mail me for a resume...

[tm22721]

One word for you : deflation

And if it continues much longer, The Grapes of Wrath may again hit the bestseller list after 70 years.

BUMP

[Keith in Iowa]

I have a friend who was a $70,000 a year "Technology Consultant" who recently took a job as a help-desk worker for $12 an hour

I'd be damn happy for that $12/hr job right now...unemployment sucks. Big time.

[null and void]

Those under the age of 50 are far more likely to see all of the dead aliens and crashed flying saucers out in Area 51 than a Social Security check that won't bounce.

I disagree. We will get EVERY PENNY we have put in Social Security. (A hamburger will cost $399.99, but we'll get every penny)...

[null and void]

In today's economy, you are a fool not to save.

Yup! My savings are saving me right now...

[null and void]

In 25 years of engineering .... I have NEVER seen it anywhere near as bad as now. That means since the late 70's thru the 80's and the 90's.

30 years for me.

Problem is that the retirement money is now gone and companies DO NOT HIRE people over 50

Well, you're just one big frickin' ray of sunshine, aren't you? ;^)

[TomSmedley]

. Schools will dream up any easy five credits for a quick sale.

My MS thesis made a contribution to the home schooling movement. Having done my bit to replace the public elementary school paradigm, I now dream of helping to devise cost-effective substitutes for university education! (think I can find a dissertation in that notion somewhere?)