American Millennials are among the world's least skilled

[Svnla]

http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/american-millennials-are-among-the-worlds-least-skilled/


Yike. The future of America?


Bonus question (finance related) = http://time.com/money/3740542/ameri.../3740542/american-millennials-job-skills-ets/

 

[Vdubchaos]

Is this some kind of news flash?

Forget about "millennials" this applies to other generations as well.

Go ahead and take me up on it.

Go out to any mall/store and just sit down on a bench and people watch. Take a closer look at the people around you.

😉

WW2 Generation was probably the greatest and last "good". After that it was all bunch of spoiled brats having kids and spoiling them as well. It makes sense, those that grew up during great deperssion didn't have anything, so they wanted their kids to have EVERYTHING...which has a HUGE backfire effect.

What you end up with my friend, is bunch of selfish, entitled, arrogant idiots.

Not all of course. But based on what I've seen when I arrived to this country, MANY.

There is NOTHING worst a parent can do than spoil their kids or give them everything on a silver platter.

Just me though.

 

[Slew Foot]

but they can post to facebook better than anyone

 

[videogames101]

Countries don't mean much anymore. The brightest minds continue to be recruited by the largest corporations, regardless of background or nationality. You can already see the effects, most countries are at the mercy of corporations.

Hardly a finance question, but fairly simple to compute ((12*103) - 1000)/1000 = 23.6% but it's hardly a clear question when they describe the loan term as "Payable in 12 equal monthly payments". Who writes out a loan term like that? Makes me question the test a little too.

 

[Newell Steamer]

If anyone else said this, they would be labeled a crabby bitter old shit by me.

I do have a disdain for people picking on youth. It was done to me (generation X) and I would not want to do it to the next youth wave.

When I see the millennials act like fools, I reserved my final judgement. I thought "well, they'll figure it out" and no point in bashing them, since it was done to my gen and we're OK.

But, looks like they really are dumb asses.

:-/

 

[vi edit]

I'm torn on some of this stuff. I'm 37. I could have done the math on that 15 years ago. But I couldn't do it free hand today. Besides, there's an app for that 😛

Reality is so many of us are taught how to do things, and then taught the "easy" way. Once you have shortcuts you forget the hard way to do things. I've got so much other "stuff" to know and remember somethings just get shoved out of the way. I'm sure an accountant, actuary or somebody that has to work with numbers on a daily basis can solve that interest problem. But I don't work with it daily. Haven't worked with it in a couple decades and frankly, can google the answer faster than doing it myself.

In it's place I now have 300 different server names and their functions, can ramble off HL7 interface specs, can navigate without directions around multiple major US cities, and break down a DICOM conformance statement. You just tend to purge the shit you aren't using any more.

 

[purbeast0]

this is all a result of mommy and daddy telling their little jimmy that he is special. it's a result of kids getting participation ribbons for coming in last place. it's a result of schools dumbing down curriculum so that the dumb kids don't feel dumb.

 

[dullard]

Hardly a finance question, but fairly simple to compute ((12*103) - 1000)/1000 = 23.6% but it's hardly a clear question when they describe the loan term as "Payable in 12 equal monthly payments". Who writes out a loan term like that? Makes me question the test a little too.

I am not sure where your problem lies. Most loans that I see are in similar terms. For example the standard 30 year mortgage has you pay 360 equal monthly payments*. That is fairly typical for car loans, student loans, etc. Credit card loans are different, but credit cards are a whole different type of loan.


* With possible small changes if your bank pays your property tax and your propertly tax changes.

 

[Anubis]

Dullard, you are correct however ive never seen a loan that said "pay only XX for each XXX borrowed" they simply state borrow up to X at y% rate per year

 

[Newell Steamer]

I'm torn on some of this stuff. I'm 37. I could have done the math on that 15 years ago. But I couldn't do it free hand today. Besides, there's an app for that 😛

Doing the math is mechanical.

Understanding the permutations and what you have to enter into the app requires a brain to figure out what actually gets entered.

There is no short cut for analytical thinking.

It's like driving a car. Yes, you can get to point B much quicker in a car (use an app instead of a pen & paper), but if you suck as a driver (have no idea how to find the % of Y in Z,... where Z = Y + X), you'll end up screwing up traffic or worse, cause an accident.

 

[child of wonder]

If anyone else said this, they would be labeled a crabby bitter old shit by me.

I do have a disdain for people picking on youth. It was done to me (generation X) and I would not want to do it to the next youth wave.

When I see the millennials act like fools, I reserved my final judgement. I thought "well, they'll figure it out" and no point in bashing them, since it was done to my gen and we're OK.

But, looks like they really are dumb asses.

:-/

Purely anecdotal, but I have a cousin who graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology last summer. She moved back in with her parents, got a PT waitressing job at Applebee's and began looking for a job. She was eventually offered a job in her field but it required her to move about 40 miles away and "only" paid about $35k.

Her parents supported her decision not to take the job because "she could barely afford a one bedroom apartment on that! She has medical problems too like gluten intolerance and the medical insurance premium is too high! It would be too hard!!!"

So almost a year later she still lives at home, works part time as a waitress, with a microbiology degree collecting dust that she likely went $30k+ into debt for.

Had I been her father I would have said "honey, you need a job in your field so you can start using your degree and establishing a career for yourself. If that means you take this job and work part time as a waitress on top of that, so be it. You're welcome to come home on the weekends and do some laundry, eat a few meals, etc. to save money but you have a chance to get your career started and you have to take it."

As much as we like to pick on the millennials themselves, it really is the parents who are failing them.

 

[dullard]

Dullard, you are correct however ive never seen a loan that said "pay only XX for each XXX borrowed" they simply state borrow up to X at y% rate per year

I get a few loan offers with the "pay only XX for each XXX borrowed" terms in the mail each year. You are correct that it is not as common language, but it does exist. I personally think it is a bit easier to understand. If I borrow $1000, then I will pay $103 per month until I pay it off. That is a lot easier for the mathmatically challenged who see 24% interest and have no clue what interest is or what their monthly payment will be.

For example, assuming you are mathematically challenged, which is easier to compare:

a) Borrow $1000 and pay $103/month vs Borrow $1000 and pay $98/month.

or

b) Borrow $1000 and pay 23.6% interest vs Borrow $1000 and pay 17.6% interest.

Those who don't know math may have their eye's gloss over in option (b). Or they may say that 23.6% is way, way more than 17.6%, while in reality, it is just a few bucks per month and the two loans actually are not that different.

 

[Vdubchaos]

this is all a result of mommy and daddy telling their little jimmy that he is special. it's a result of kids getting participation ribbons for coming in last place. it's a result of schools dumbing down curriculum so that the dumb kids don't feel dumb.

38k posts and it's the 1st one I agree with.

😎

 

[madoka]

Purely anecdotal, but I have a cousin who graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology last summer. She moved back in with her parents, got a PT waitressing job at Applebee's and began looking for a job. She was eventually offered a job in her field but it required her to move about 40 miles away and "only" paid about $35k.

No way should she have taken that job without finding out if the lindy scene there was legit or not.

 

[xeemzor]

As much as we like to pick on the millennials themselves, it really is the parents who are failing them.

This is very much the problem.

Anecdotally my sister majored in Art History and got nothing but praise from my family. "Embrace your dreams" they said. "You can do anything if you try hard enough". What a load of bullshit. After spending $80k on the degree she works in sales earning $50k/year in the bay area. Everyone in my family gets mad at me when I point out that she was the cause of all her own problems by choosing a shitty degree.

Her story is not unique by any means. I can't tell you how many people in my rich high school got stupid degrees like psychology and history. The ones that succeeded came from rich families that had rich families that could buy them into a job. Most others are now working menial jobs and making excuses about how they got screwed in life.

Thankfully I ignored the advice of my parents, peers, and advisers and built a very successful career on my own. It took a lot of hard work and I got a ton of flak for not following the "normal" path.

Fuck what anyone else thinks about your sacrifices. Figure out your own way and be the best at whatever you do. Don't be a sheeple.

 

[Anubis]

Xeemzor - if they are happy they didn't screw up in life

 

[DrPizza]

I'm torn on some of this stuff. I'm 37. I could have done the math on that 15 years ago. But I couldn't do it free hand today. Besides, there's an app for that 😛

Reality is so many of us are taught how to do things, and then taught the "easy" way. Once you have shortcuts you forget the hard way to do things. I've got so much other "stuff" to know and remember somethings just get shoved out of the way. I'm sure an accountant, actuary or somebody that has to work with numbers on a daily basis can solve that interest problem. But I don't work with it daily. Haven't worked with it in a couple decades and frankly, can google the answer faster than doing it myself.

In it's place I now have 300 different server names and their functions, can ramble off HL7 interface specs, can navigate without directions around multiple major US cities, and break down a DICOM conformance statement. You just tend to purge the shit you aren't using any more.

I think what they're referring to are general skills rather than specific skills you've been trained to do. The arithmetic involved in that problem should be trivial - it is trivial. But, it's not to the generations of people brought up with technology. Mentally, it should take about 10 seconds. At $100 per month, you've paid the loan back in 10 months. So, the other 2 months are $200 in interest, plus 12 months times that extra 3 dollars = $236 dollars in interest. 236 is what percent of 1000? If I asked that last step today, of even my best students, I'd see virtually every one of them reach for a calculator.

 

[xeemzor]

Xeemzor - if they are happy they didn't screw up in life

You are right about money and a career not being everything. What I take exception to is the inability to plan ahead and taking ownership of your life by blaming others for mistakes.

In my case my sister is always mooching off others, complaining how she doesn't have money, and has a terrible work ethic. She then complains how she isn't earning what she is worth and is envious of my life style. Her story and attitude is fairly typical of my generation because, in general, we want payoff without work.

 

[manimal]

I see some of this as a failure of the rote system of learning.


When I lived in Brazil and Italy as a kid I had to do ALL my mathmatical work in my head and was only responsible for the right answer on the page. When I got to the US I was told I failed the entrance exam to a private school because I didnt write out any work. I asked the teacher to ask me any question from the test and I explained the work.

The entire system here is based on learning something small and remembering it for a test and NEVER using it again. In italy I spent more time in applications of said work and how it impacted the work I had previously learned.

This is the reason that so many kids fail at college when they are all of a sudden required to think independently-in some majors- and they are completely unable to do so.


Business and technical writing should be required as should game theory and statistics. IN GRADE SCHOOL.


Programming should be part of the math curriculum as should robitics and emergent technologies and their applications.


My BIL is a engineer in italy and he surprised the shit out of my neice last year when he did all of her trig work in his head and taught her some things in calculus that she was having a hard time getting. It had been 30 years since he was in uni and he had better recall than I did of those classes just 5 years before.


If the system doesnt have a recall component then its inherently flawed.

 

[madoka]

236 is what percent of 1000? If I asked that last step today, of even my best students, I'd see virtually every one of them reach for a calculator.

Hahaha. That's nothing.

I teach upper tier college graduates. These are the ones with the high GPAs and honors from elite schools.

If I were to ask, A,B, and C each have $10 out of $30; percentage-wise, how much does each have?

Most common answer? 10%

I also get 30%, the oddball 50% or 60%, and the unfathomable 85%.

 

[kranky]

In my case my sister is always mooching off others, complaining how she doesn't have money, and has a terrible work ethic. She then complains how she isn't earning what she is worth and is envious of my life style. Her story and attitude is fairly typical of my generation because, in general, we want payoff without work.

That reminded me of a Jack Handey quote I like:

It's easy to sit there and say you'd like to have more money. And I guess that's what I like about it. It's easy. Just sitting there, rocking back and forth, wanting that money.

 

[Naeeldar]

236 is what percent of 1000? If I asked that last step today, of even my best students, I'd see virtually every one of them reach for a calculator.

Good example of why so many people use a tip calculator app these days. I hit 31 next month so I am at the beginning of the Millennial generation and I just have to laugh some days. So many can't even do basic simple math tricks like calculating a 20% tip which anybody should be able to do in several seconds on any bill - so many try and do that math on 20% (which isn't difficult either although besides the point) and can't figure out how to take grab 10% and double the number. It's a simple trick but beyond so many these days,

Oh well, at least it leaves more high paying positions open for me to grab.

 

[Baasha]

This is sad and should be a huge wake up call to America.

The parents who told their kids, "Do what your heart tells you to...." should be dragged out, shot, and then hanged for good measure.

Without a solid foundation in mathematics and grammar (English), becoming employed is difficult.

As Salman Khan of Khan Academy said, most jobs today don't require more than Algebra I skills. Even many so-called 'tech' jobs.

Kids should be told to earn a STEM degree as a minimum and then they can get another degree or a minor in another field that they may be truly 'passionate' about (Art History, Philosophy etc.).

'Murica, dumb as a door knob.

 

[Hugo Drax]

No shit. They are spoon fed everything. Symbolic graphing calculators for math that do all the work in school. Google, they just google the answer for everything and paste it. etc.. "There is an App for that"

And schools have become exam cram centers.

I also think all the psychotropic drugs do not help either/I never understood why these drugs are so rampant.

The brain is like a muscle, if you do not work it out it becomes flabby and weak.

 

[KeithP]

We have taught several generations that they are owed things, that rich people are evil doers that got their money by ripping people off and breaking laws and not by doing work.

What else would you expect from a population that has this beaten into their heads by nearly every school and media outlet 24/7?

-KeithP