Alumna sues college because she hasn't found a job

[The_vagabond7]

HappySqurriel said:

It took me 8 months to get my first "real" job after graduation, and even though my university was really helpful the reason I got the job was one of my oldest brother's friends submitted my resume for me and ensured that I got an interview. Personally, if I was to give new grads one peice of advice on finding a job it would be to ask their family, and their friends' families, if they knew of anyone who was working at a company who might be looking for a new grad.

Most new grad positions are not advertized, and very few use the university's career services because they get flooded with unqualified applicants and even the qualified applicants have very little to seperate them on their resume. While people may think that their high GPA makes them more qualified for a position, there are a wide variety of skills (like social skills) which are not demonstrated in a person's grades that matter far more than the information they gained in school; for example, it is often better to hire the B student with exceptional social skills rather than the A studen with decent social skills, and it is always better to hire the C student with exceptional social skills than the A student with "acceptable" social skills.

Finally, one thing I have been seeing more and more of lately is "kids" who don't realize the damage they're doing to their potential chances based on what they're posting on the internet. A couple of years ago a girl I knew was talking about how her sister graduated from university and it had taken over a year for her to find a job. The first thing I asked her to do was to google her sister's name and what popped up was her sister's myspace page ... Needless to say, I don't think many companies really wanted to hire a girl who had so little sense that she posted a picture of herself in her panties and bra while smoking a joint.

These are all very good points of advice.

The last one I find especially important simply because so many young people don't really think of the implications of the google culture that we live in now. The internet is not your house, the things you do on the internet are visible to everyone. It boggles my mind seeing 17 and 18 year olds (and younger, especially younger) being shocked that people can see their extremely public acts and pictures on the internet and can be held accountable for them. Teachers, bosses, parents, police, they all have access to youtube, myspace, facebook, and google and do know how to use them. If I had a nickel for every time a friend or a friend's kid did something incredibly stupid or illegal and posted it for everyone to see, I would have enough money to bail at least a couple of them out.

But also yes, the first points to. You just can't expect to get a diploma and somebody gives you a job with an office and a window. Real life doesn't work like that.