A friend's son graduates college next week and has a $65K job waiting

[Stinky The Clown]

Not sure exactly what his degree is, but it combines IT and marketing. He will be working for an aerospace company.

I'm not sure what to make of this. The company does government work and private sector work.




On edit and to clarify: Many snarked "what's to 'make' of it?"

1. Crap economy with poor prospects for lots of grads.
2. The industry that's hiring.
3. The size of the salary.


I've known the kid for a while. He's a good, decent kid. Hardworking. I'm glad for him. When his Dad told me this, Dad sounded less than enthusiastic. I didn't question. I know Dad (a former Marine) is one of the most anti-war people I ever met.

[rockymountaindem]

1. What should you make of it?

The young man majored in a lucrative field and is getting a really solid starting salary in a good industry. Isn't that what we want for everybody?

[Luciferous]

2. Good for him

he's lucky that he can find such a good job in this economy.

[armyowalgreens]

3. I'm majoring in Poli Sci and Philosophy. I'm going to be homeless

I guess it's my fault though.

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. Hey. Go into politics. Lotsa good money there.

You're well-written, which a lot of times translates into well-spoken, and put your thoughts together in a cogent fashion. You have the world at your feet, because those two qualities put you head and shoulders above about 90 percent of the populace.

Worry not. I'm a high-school grad with three semesters under my belt at CSULB. I'll probably never attend another day of school though, but hey, I'm pretty much retired and living in a moutain paradise. At 48.

Life is what you choose to make of it. I'm confident that you'll do well.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. You can start by sending jokes to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

You never know when they'll take on a new writer.

[armyowalgreens]

30. That would be epic.

At least for a little while. My goal is to get into foreign aid of some kind.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Poly Sci and Econ here, don't really know what I'm going to do either

Going to get a PhD in poly sci eventually, but I want to work for a year or two before grad school.

[rug]

23. It'll give you time to think.

[DatManFromNawlins]

57. I know a guy who has a poly sci degree from Cornell

And another guy who has an econ degree from Texas A&M.

They both work for a high school dropout who happens to have great phone skills.

[Hepburn]

60. Yep....

....poli sci/history major here.

Taught high school and then went to law school. Am retired today and seems to me I am not homeless!

:hi:

BTW: I majored in what I liked...and I am happy today ~~ nearly 38 years after getting my undergrad degree ~~ that I took what I liked.

Best of luck to you ~~ from one Politics Junkie to another!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. Sounds like a hard working young man, that's what you should make of it.

[Occam Bandage]

5. What's "to make of it?" Looks like he worked hard, picked a good field, and had a bit of luck..

Good for him.

[Feron]

6. Good for him.

I'm glad he was able to find employment so quickly. I hope he likes his new job. :)

[SeattleGirl]

7. There's nothing TO make of it. Kid went to college, is getting a

degree, and has a job to start right away.

I say, good for him!

[WilliamPitt]

8. ?

[smalll]

9. Yes! Who are YOU to make something of it? I'm sure a lot of DUers started at 65K out of school -

working in the God Almighty "IT" and today make hundreds of thousands lording it over us laymen out of their corporate offices festooned with obscure sci/fi and/or comic book "action figures." Who are we to question our betters?

[Canuckistanian]

11. Bitter? Party of one?

Your table is ready!

[jgraz]

15. Still on your anti-sci-fi kick, I see.

That was classic.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5631355&mesg_id=5631355

[Occam Bandage]

19. You sound bitter.

What's wrong with people doing any of the following?

1. Finding a job they like in a field they like that is in high demand.
2. Enjoying fiction that includes speculative projections of future society.
3. Enjoying fiction that is written in a graphic/text and not text-only form.

I don't understand begrudging other people enjoyment. It's not their fault you're not happy.

[MindPilot]

31. See, now this a perfect example of why I would sooner put a gun to my head

than work in IT again.

Can't wait to hear what you think of auto mechanics.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

39. Did an IT employee attack you with a kung-fu grip?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

67. Nah, us nerds are nonviolent. More likely, one banged his girlfriend. -nt

[Raskolnik]

40. Did a computer science major beat you up and steal your girlfriend in college?

I can't quite figure out the (rather comical) bitterness you seem to have regarding people that (1) understand how computers work and/or (2) enjoy any aspect of science fiction.

Is there something you want to get off your chest?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

47. NERRRRRRDDDDS!!!!!!

This guy's gimmick is the best.

[Raskolnik]

49. Right you are, Lamar. n/t

[NeedleCast]

53. Quiet down or I'll turn off your internet

I'll do it, I'm an IT guy!

[snooper2]

59. no, you quiet down or I'll turn off YOUR Internet

Telecommunications guy here :)

[glowing]

12. aerospace is code for war machine.

[Hippo_Tron]

24. Well they make civilian aircraft as well

But the vast majority of it is military.

[truth2power]

32. Bingo! I see you're the only one who gets it. n/t

[chatnoir]

34. That was what I immediately thought as well

[Dreamer Tatum]

35. "War machine" is code for jealous nt

[arcadian]

36. For what shall it profit a man,

if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

[Dreamer Tatum]

38. $65K is not the World, and

I'll be goddamned if I'm going to spit on a new college grad going to work for a company that
sells stuff to the military.

Must be nice to sniff at jobs in this economy...not everyone is quite so loaded.

[arcadian]

41. Damn you are quick on the reflexes there.

Hey maybe after he's worked for military contractors he can get a job making more efficient gas chambers or figure out a better method for ease dropping on cellular communications, it is after all, "just a job".

[Raskolnik]

43. Really? Working for an unspecified aerospace company in some unspecified capacity

is comparable to working on gas chambers? Really?

[redqueen]

46. It's amusing, at least.

:)

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

72. So working on the website of a company with any connection to the military will cost him his soul?

[tammywammy]

37. My dad works in aerospace

He makes the black poly-carbon-carbon that goes on the space shuttle tiles and also has done work on the ISS.

It's not a code word for "war machine."

[arcadian]

42. Uh, yes it is.

Jus 'cuz your daddy does it doesn't exonerate him.

[Raskolnik]

44. If you consider the ISS and/or the space shuttle part of the "war machine"

you may not be using reasonable definitions.

[arcadian]

58. You think NASA is purely a civilian endeavor?

Come on. Crack a book. You are the one being unreasonable. You think NASA or the ISS could function with out the military? That's a laugh.

[Raskolnik]

61. Of course there is a relationship between the military and NASA.

But labeling the space shuttle and the ISS as part of the "war machine" is just silly.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the "I" in ISS stands for "International" and the space shuttle just finished a mission repairing and updating the Hubble telescope.

[tammywammy]

45. So the shuttle and ISS are part of the "war machine"? n/t

[arcadian]

56. Your disconnect is astounding.

Who mans most of the shuttle flights? Air Force and Navy officers. What are their payloads? Mostly communications and reconnaissances satellites for the U.S. military, namely the NRO and the NSA.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

62. What do you do for a living?

I'm sure we could play a six-degrees game with your profession and find something objectionable.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

71. So someone who works at a Kroger that any military personnel shop at are also culpable?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

48. What about the janitor working at Blackwater?

Is he at fault, too?

[NeedleCast]

54. No, it's not

[sledgehammer]

55. How many totally honest professions are there out there?

You can argue that working in the auto industry means you are contributing to gas guzzling SUVs that are destroying our environment.

Working as a doctor means you are complicit in excessive healthcare costs, and are part of the problem.

You can stretch any profession into a negative.

Aerospace is definitely not limited to military (satellites, space, commercial aviation, etc).

And what's wrong with working on the military side of Aerospace? Or on Military projects in general? Lots of technology we have today is because of military research and development (GPS is a perfect example).

Also, the US needs a strong military. Do we the insane budget to fund pointless wars and ineffective equipment? Absolutely not. But do we need a strong military that can protect this country and fight when absolutely necessary? Yes we do.

We didn't liberate Europe with bows and arrows.

[ThomCat]

13. I'm glad someone will have a job right out of college these days

:)

Those are becoming scarce. Especially ones that start out with high salaries like that one.

There is a huge amount of IT support work that goes on in the marketing world, and a huge amount of marketing is done online now so they employ a lot of people with IT expertise.

[rwheeler31]

17. It is so sad to see kids contribute their skills to yuck.

[Maru Kitteh]

22. And you are certain about this, how?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. Today, a job is a job,

and I once brought a failing marriage to its even faster end when my then-husband took a job with Lawrence Livermore Labs - and he wasn't even a scientist. (They were in the process of making a much better neutron bomb.)

For this kid, it's a place to start. Let's hope he gets lots of good experience and finds a way to make a good living while working on something like alternative energy sources or how to feed more people or something to which his many gifts might lead him.

Still, I can understand the Dad's less-than-thrilled feeling.

Imagine. We're having such a discussion. Isn't that unbelievable?

[DatManFromNawlins]

27. Heh, I once turned down an offer to study at Livermore Labs...

... right after high school graduation. They were going to set me up and everything.

I couldn't do it.

Why?

Not because of any political inclination (I was a hardcore conservative back then), but because I had a fishing trip scheduled with my grandparents, and I did NOT miss fishing trips with my grandparents. There isn't much I would give up today to have another opportunity to go out there with them and fish the surf, if they were physically still able to handle the pounding of the waves.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. In every way,

I believe you made the right decision.

And welcome to DU.............

:toast:

[Thothmes]

70. Right decision

Jobs can come and go. Time with grandparents is finite and irreplacable.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. I don't get the point of this.

1. Crap economy w/poor prospects for many grads - What is this kid supposed to do? Should he not take the job because he not only worked hard but chose well and grads who chose less difficult degrees are now a dime a dozen?

2. The industry that's hiring. - It's called supply and demand. We continue to fall further and further and further behind in this country in math and science. We continue to produce fewer and fewer engineers, physicians, physicists, and other scientists in our universities because our public schools have not improved and we are raising generations of kids who think that everything they do and every class they take has to be fun and entertaining. This has created a giant suck-hole between the number of highly educated, competent people needed in this country, and the number of graduates available to fill that need. Supply and demand.

3. The size of the salary. - WTF is wrong with a 65k for a good, hardworking, decent kid who has put in the discipline and effort required to attain and finish the education that landed him that job? Whatever his situation is, many, if not most kids owe almost that much in student loans the moment they are handed their diploma. When I finish, I expect to pull down around 90. Is that OK, or should I go through 6 years of education for McMoney?

[Mind_your_head]

21. ONE nice story......but there are tens of thousands of graduates THIS YEAR

and the year or two before, who have an ENTIRELY different story to tell.

Congrats for your friend's son, but that's an anomoly these days....not the norm, unfortunately :-(.

[Mind_your_head]

69. Figure out how to be a CEO of a bank/financial firm and your "reward" will be truly remarkable. eom

[DatManFromNawlins]

25. It happens

When I was a recruiter, I used to talk to a guy who had an associate's degree in IT, but managed to get onto a city project as an intern during his first year of school. He learned the system, acquitted himself well, got experience in the Oracle ERP system, and when he graduated, he was immediately scooped up by the consulting firm that was working for the city at the time. His pay went from $15 an hour to $85K a year overnight, and within 3 years of THAT job, went independent and was consistently billing himself out at $90 an hour. He paid off a $200k home within 5 years.

I don't know why people would think it's uncommon for a recent grad to make $65K a year in an IT sales job. IT salespeople make big money to begin with. The average salary for an IT grad is near $55K a year. $10K on top of that isn't that big of a deal.

My second job out of school, after getting picked up by an IT firm and then laid off when we were replaced by H1s, was that recruiter job. I made $25K in base salary, and about $30K in bonuses. My consultants combined for a billable rate of about $350K a year, of which they got paid $200K, meaning that the company basically made twice as much money as I was making to keep me employed. Had I remained there, i probably would be making well over $50k a year in salary, and another $80-100K a year in bonuses. All for picking up a phone, dialing a number, and networking consultants whose resumes I either picked up off the net or got by networking their coworkers.

My manager was a high school dropout who got his life together after a pretty shady young adulthood and made fabulous money.

So why'd I leave? I hate bullshitting people and working them over for leads. For every person you place, there's about 50 you never do.

[hyphenate]

26. Sounds like one kid won't have to work

for McDonald's upon graduation. The only hesitation I can see if he's making $65K a year now, how far up can he go? If we're talking the value of $65K in today's market, that looks like probably $45K from about thirty years ago. My niece is making a small fortune in sales--she knows how to play the game, and she takes most of it home. Her hubby is a fireman getting about $60K a year, and she is surpassing him in pay. So it's not like $65K from a few decades ago, it's just $65K from an inflated economy. :)

[Jimbo S]

29. I'm not seeing anything wrong

Nothing unusual about the salary.

Nothing wrong with the industry he's heading to.

I wish him well.

[JCMach1]

33. Job Churning... probably let the old guy who was making 6figures go

[deoxyribonuclease]

50. There are still science and engineering jobs for new grads

My younger brother just finished his computer science degree and landed a job for a large e-commerce company making a very nice salary. The job market for software engineers and scientists in the metropolitan areas I'm familiar with has definitely been adversely affected by the economic downturn, but not to the degree of many other fields.

[Midlodemocrat]

51. LOL. Ha. I pay $75 K.

Series. We do. RIght person for the job is worth every penny.

[madinmaryland]

52. I took a job out of college 26 years ago with a defense contractor also.

They were hiring like crazy, even during the Reagan recession when unemployment was over 10%. They were looking for ANYONE with an engineering degree.

I lasted two years before I had to get the hell out of there.

[seahorse19]

63. I still am not receiving...Are you saying that the salary is low?

If so, I would love to have that kind of money! I'd feel like I won the lottery!

[moondust]

64. "It's who ya know, not what ya know?"

Engaged to the boss's daughter?

Uncle Joe is an Executive VP?

Best friend Dave's dad is the CEO?

Goes to the same church as the marketing director?

...

[Raskolnik]

66. Or, maybe he's a smart young man that worked really hard, and is about to be rewarded? n/t

[taught_me_patience]

65. That's good pay.

I hope he moves out of the house!

[librechik]

68. Feh--Liberal Arts grads get squat compared to that.

He's lucky!

I've got three degrees, a ton experience, and I'm making 35 thousand. After 10 years on the job.

My mother likes to taunt me that her favored daughter-in-law makes 65 --at the sheet metal store.

Am I really going to have to go to work at a sheet metal store to make a decent salary?

Umm, yes. Working in the non-profit-helping-others-and-tell-the-truth sector is not a paying job.

[proteus_lives]

73. Lucky Dog!

I know recent graduates who would challenge him to Thunderdome for 65K a year!