17,000,000 College-Educated Americans Are Wasting Their Degree On Menial Jobs

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Dissipate

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2004
6,815
0
0
Nope. 30% employment walking out the door Spring '10 from Georgia Tech.
My friend has $100k in loans for his EE degree and still no job, only a worthless offer for $45k-- poor guy, he believed the lies that education was the path to success. Too bad there aren't enough things to invent anymore for engineers to have jobs!

The whole motivation behind it (capitalism) is broken. Greed-- it works for a while, and a lot better than other economies, until it fails.
We have to replace it with corporations run for the sake of benefiting the employee, as opposed to benefiting the shareholders.

$45K is all your friend can get? He must have gotten bad grades or something. My friend recently got his master's in EE and just landed a job for $75K. His classmates with a B.S. are starting off around $60K.
 
Dec 30, 2004
12,553
2
76
Nope. 30% employment walking out the door Spring '10 from Georgia Tech.
My friend has $100k in loans for his EE degree and still no job, only a worthless offer for $45k-- poor guy, he believed the lies that education was the path to success. Too bad there aren't enough things to invent anymore for engineers to have jobs!

The whole motivation behind it (capitalism) is broken. Greed-- it works for a while, and a lot better than other economies, until it fails.
We have to replace it with corporations run for the sake of benefiting the employee, as opposed to benefiting the shareholders.
A starting offer puts him in the top 27% of income earners in the nation (with no experience I'm assuming) and it's worthless???

REALLY????????????????????????

What kind of entitled crybaby piece of shit is he anyway? I mean, OBVIOUSLY he's an idiot for taking out 100k in loans, but beyond that you'd expect him to have some sort of clue.

Really? Georgia Tech is #4 for Electrical Engineering. Clearly he is an idiot.

Also, yes, taking an offer for 25% below what you should be making is idiotic. Starting salary determines what your future offers are. He would spend 10 years just getting up to $60k, barely being able to afford the minimum payments on the loans. That's no way to live.

Personally, I hope the government defaults while the banks do too, so that he doesn't have to live a life of indentured servitude simply because he followed the popular advice at the time.
 
May 16, 2000
13,522
0
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Really? Georgia Tech is #4 for Electrical Engineering. Clearly he is an idiot.

Also, yes, taking an offer for 25% below what you should be making is idiotic. Starting salary determines what your future offers are. He would spend 10 years just getting up to $60k, barely being able to afford the minimum payments on the loans. That's no way to live.

Personally, I hope the government defaults while the banks do too, so that he doesn't have to live a life of indentured servitude simply because he followed the popular advice at the time.

Oh NO!!!! 10 years to get to be in the top 16% of income earners in the most prosperous nation on the Earth! Oh the humanity. *tiny little violin* What with being born and all you'd think God would just hand him a billion dollars and three super-models. I'm sure he deserves it, having to do all that breathing.

Being STUPID enough to follow popular opinion instead of logic and reason pretty much earns you what he's now faced with. Don't want to get taken advantage of, get smarter and stop accepting ANY form of advertisement or marketing...even the ones from the government and ESPECIALLY ANYTHING from a business (whose ONLY purpose is to fuck you so they can get rich themselves).
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,080
10,883
136
Really? Georgia Tech is #4 for Electrical Engineering. Clearly he is an idiot.

Also, yes, taking an offer for 25% below what you should be making is idiotic. Starting salary determines what your future offers are. He would spend 10 years just getting up to $60k, barely being able to afford the minimum payments on the loans. That's no way to live.

Personally, I hope the government defaults while the banks do too, so that he doesn't have to live a life of indentured servitude simply because he followed the popular advice at the time.

how large of an area is your friend searching? if he has no obligations, he should more or less look nationwide.

and if he isn't able to find much, start out at the $45k job and either move up the ranks (if there is good room for growth) or end up moving elsewhere. my brother started at $45k with a BS in aerospace. he is does extremely well now.
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Really? Georgia Tech is #4 for Electrical Engineering. Clearly he is an idiot.

Also, yes, taking an offer for 25% below what you should be making is idiotic. Starting salary determines what your future offers are. He would spend 10 years just getting up to $60k, barely being able to afford the minimum payments on the loans. That's no way to live.

Personally, I hope the government defaults while the banks do too, so that he doesn't have to live a life of indentured servitude simply because he followed the popular advice at the time.

Uh no. In my little corner of the Engineering world it wouldn't take close to 10 years to make that kind of money. I started 10 years ago at my job with no degree as a part time CAD guy. Worked my way into an Engineering position. I make more than you state and I'm in the midwest in the low end of the Engineering world(SIs in general aren't the glory Engineering careers). Keep in mind that I have ZERO degree, started at around $10/hr and now have 10 years experience and make good money. Sure, I'd be making more if I had a degree or atleast made it sooner but I also didn't have 6 figures of debt. I figure I'm in about the same spot I'd be in if I had gotten the piece of paper - except with 4 less years experience.

A fresh college grad isn't worth more than 45K in the controls (SI) world - just too much to teach yet as college is theory and we deal with the real world. I have no doubt that someone with an EE degree can find something that pays more(a freind's brother did) but they have to be willing to move and be the low man. The attitude I've seen from some of our interns and some of the fresh hires is that they know everything since they have a shiny new piece of paper - only to find out they don't know jack shit. Can't troubleshoot code, can't trace wires, just plain get lost in the complexity of systems. College can't teach that stuff- nor can it teach common sense.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
Uh no. In my little corner of the Engineering world it wouldn't take close to 10 years to make that kind of money. I started 10 years ago at my job with no degree as a part time CAD guy. Worked my way into an Engineering position. I make more than you state and I'm in the midwest in the low end of the Engineering world(SIs in general aren't the glory Engineering careers). Keep in mind that I have ZERO degree, started at around $10/hr and now have 10 years experience and make good money. Sure, I'd be making more if I had a degree or atleast made it sooner but I also didn't have 6 figures of debt. I figure I'm in about the same spot I'd be in if I had gotten the piece of paper - except with 4 less years experience.

A fresh college grad isn't worth more than 45K in the controls (SI) world - just too much to teach yet as college is theory and we deal with the real world. I have no doubt that someone with an EE degree can find something that pays more(a freind's brother did) but they have to be willing to move and be the low man. The attitude I've seen from some of our interns and some of the fresh hires is that they know everything since they have a shiny new piece of paper - only to find out they don't know jack shit. Can't troubleshoot code, can't trace wires, just plain get lost in the complexity of systems. College can't teach that stuff- nor can it teach common sense.

And as someone with a degree, I can back what you say 100%! :thumbsup:
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,080
10,883
136
Uh no. In my little corner of the Engineering world it wouldn't take close to 10 years to make that kind of money. I started 10 years ago at my job with no degree as a part time CAD guy. Worked my way into an Engineering position. I make more than you state and I'm in the midwest in the low end of the Engineering world(SIs in general aren't the glory Engineering careers). Keep in mind that I have ZERO degree, started at around $10/hr and now have 10 years experience and make good money. Sure, I'd be making more if I had a degree or atleast made it sooner but I also didn't have 6 figures of debt. I figure I'm in about the same spot I'd be in if I had gotten the piece of paper - except with 4 less years experience.

A fresh college grad isn't worth more than 45K in the controls (SI) world - just too much to teach yet as college is theory and we deal with the real world. I have no doubt that someone with an EE degree can find something that pays more(a freind's brother did) but they have to be willing to move and be the low man. The attitude I've seen from some of our interns and some of the fresh hires is that they know everything since they have a shiny new piece of paper - only to find out they don't know jack shit. Can't troubleshoot code, can't trace wires, just plain get lost in the complexity of systems. College can't teach that stuff- nor can it teach common sense.

yep, the real world is entirely different.
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
Occupation? Gladiator.
Did you kill today? No.
Did you try and kill today? Yes.

-John {History of the World, Part 2}
 
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Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
How could someone "waste their degree?"

Is this like Government sending artists, thinkers, doctors, to Siberia? Is that wasting a degree?

-John
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
Or is it that you think a degree is some "pass to wealth."

Or that degree holders are somewhat special?

They are not, and they need to work just like all of us.

Your problem lies with the Government.

-John
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
It's not finding work doing what you're trained for because we have off-shored that production. Granted every degree does not have marketability even in the best of times but when 70% of new college grads are not finding work we have a problem with home grown industry. Trade deficit already proved that, we consume more than we produce and have for years. Not working is just a materialization of it as predicted by non bribed shill economists such as Paul Craig Roberts 20 years ago.
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
So let's have Government get honest and say, we can either abolish spending and abolish minimum wage, or you will be lucky to be better than a Chinese Junker.

-John
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Or is it that you think a degree is some "pass to wealth."

Or that degree holders are somewhat special?

They are not, and they need to work just like all of us.

Your problem lies with the Government.

-John

Many trades used to be internships/ on the job training. Engineers, pharmacists, nurses, law and many more. No I don't think it makes you special but it can teach deeper understanding to apply for a relevant job and then employer only has to tweak you to tasks at hand and apply theory. Course many degrees and control thereof are about protecting market position as well. Health care is famous for that.
 

Zorkorist

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2007
6,861
3
76
Government is famous for trying to save jobs too, and look where we are now.

All the jobs are gone.

-John
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
Uh no. In my little corner of the Engineering world it wouldn't take close to 10 years to make that kind of money. I started 10 years ago at my job with no degree as a part time CAD guy. Worked my way into an Engineering position. I make more than you state and I'm in the midwest in the low end of the Engineering world(SIs in general aren't the glory Engineering careers). Keep in mind that I have ZERO degree, started at around $10/hr and now have 10 years experience and make good money. Sure, I'd be making more if I had a degree or atleast made it sooner but I also didn't have 6 figures of debt. I figure I'm in about the same spot I'd be in if I had gotten the piece of paper - except with 4 less years experience.
tru dat

My brother started his engineering career about 5 years ago. His starting wage was only about $17/h. He's still at the same company and he's making about double that. It's unrealistic to think you'll start at 60-70k when you have no experience.
 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
19,441
86
91
Wonder who is going to repay those student loans? Another bubble? I think so. Hard to pay off 100K on $10 an hour.

My only opinion.... if you have $100,000 in student loan debt.. you better have an M.D. next to your name.