So this kid, fresh out of college with no job experience, turns down a $40k a year job in a shitty economy because he doesn’t want to “waste his early years in dead-end work.”
I can’t believe they’re wasting valuable newsprint on this entitled asshole.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html
What do you expect from a toothpaste major?
Actually, I kinda like the story…at least the first page of it, didn’t read the rest of it. Sums up many of the problems of today’s youth. The real world can be a harsh place. They don’t seem to get that, because today’s helicopter parents rush to smooth over all the problems the kids had growing up. These kids really expect a happy ending (the storybook kind, not a handjob).
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go chase those damn kids off my lawn again.
…what. the. shit. An associate position in an insurance company is nothing to sneeze at, even in a good economy! Insurance companies will always be in business, and it’s a generic enough corporate position he could transition to something else later. I don’t get how he thinks it won’t help him. He could go to any random corporate position with that.
What does he want, Junior CEO?
Too funny. Is there a Crest college?
So the job is still open?
Yeah, the kid’s getting massive shit on Fark for this too. But hell, I wasn’t there at the job interview. Maybe the job truly, deeply sucked. I’ve had interviews where I’ve gotten bad feelings about the work, the environment, the people involved, or the future potential. And we’ve all had to decide whether to take that imperfect opportunity that’s * here * or hold on just a bit longer hoping for better. I get it, times are tough and we all need to suck it up and latch onto whatever corporate teat will have us. But I think I’ll reserve my righteous indignation for someone who really deserves it.
To compound his idiocy, any prospective hiring manager at his dream job gets to read what a weenie he is in the New York Times, with just a simple Google search.
I too have been in a position where I wondered whether or not I really wanted to take a certain job. But I wasn’t living with my parents at the time. And it wasn’t in the middle of a recession, so I had other possibilities in case I decided not to take it.
As they say beggars can’t be choosers. If he doesn’t like the job, he doesn’t have to stay there forever. Work there for a year or so to get the experience, make some contacts and just to have something to put on your resume, and then start putting feelers out for other jobs.
I’m not sure I understand the vitriol. Refusing to take a low paying job in the hope or expectation that a higher paying, more satisfactory, job will be available in the future seems like it can be a reasonable approach. Whether his parents are prepared to fund his unemployment in the meantime is a matter of agreement between him and his parents. I think in his particular case and with my particular parents this would not be acceptable for me nor my parents, so I would take what I could get. But these people are perfectly free to come to their own arrangement.
Assuming his parents are fine with it it seems the real question is one of strategy: Is this a wise decision? Personally I think it isn’t - he’d be better off starting at the insurance company - if he really is as good as he thinks he is further opportunity should come his way, and he can always quit the job if that opportunity isn’t at the same company.
Colgate university is named after the guy who founded the toothpaste company, and it produces quite a few talented folks in many disciplines. among them, Charles Addams, who based his characteristic Addams Family house on one of the university buildings, now used for the President’s office, IIRC.
I spent a weekend there many years ago., Interesting place, but the town of Hamilton is dead outside the college.A guy i know who was studying archaeology had a T-shirt that had Mayan glyphs, but if you looked close you could see tubes of toothpaste worked in there.
Don’t know about a Crest University.
$40K a year (plus full benefits I’m sure) for a new graduate is LOW PAYING???
I don’t see how. I think it may sum up the problems of a class that basically expects good things to be all but handed to them. Here’s his grandfather:
But you know what? Most of “today’s youth” don’t know “somebody who knows someone” “who can get [them] to the head of the line,” nor do they even have relatives that have any illusions about that prospect.
Hell, that’s the nature of a line: most people in it aren’t at the head of it, so there’s only so many people who can be boosted to the head of the line by their connections.
This kid obviously has an inflated sense of how much of a boost his family connections might get him, right off the bat. I don’t think he’s at all representative of “today’s youth.”
Median annual HOUSEHOLD income is about $45,000. That for supporting a household. And that’s not entry level either. $40,000 per year as an entry level income, in a recession, for supporting one person is AMPLE.
Are people maligning that wonderful old institution, Aquafresh U.?!
Seems to be “Why is this in the Times?”
That’s the problem.
$40K is too much. Let’s hope this guy gets what he wants - a position at the bottom of a career ladder.
There’s a Crest University in London, but google seems to indicate it’s a scam of some type.
There’s a Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania.
My opinion exactly. Either he can get the position he wants - in which case this decision is really a good one - or he can’t, in which case his decision was bad. In neither case do I see any reason why this decision reveals he’s some sort of asshole.
And, for those who haven’t read the article, if his “college training” is referring to what his degree is in, it’s going to be next to impossible to find a corporate job that really draws on his bachelor of arts in political science (and his history minor) without also having any other kind of graduate degree or special experience. As someone who also got a poli sci degree (which as an undergrad degree is as useful job-wise as a philosophy or English degree), so long as he is interested in history and puts in at least a minimum amount of time studying, it’s not particularly difficult to get good grades in this area.
He also did not seem to be using his multi-year long job hunting time to volunteer or intern at any organizations that would provide him with the kind of potentially useful experience or contacts to get him a job that would be appealing. It’s tough to really get an accurate picture based on one article, but it just looks like he’s been spending the entire time lounging at his parents’ house and then, more recently, his brother’s apartment.
Also, it should be added that his grandparents paid for all of his expenses in college, so he doesn’t have any student loan debt that might otherwise necessitate him getting a job that pays more than $40,000 a year.