I used to work in tech at a Fortune 100, and occasionally the HR team would have us tech leads do some recruiting at a fairly prestigious local STEM school.
I grew up relatively poor with two working parents struggling to make ends meet. I got my first job at 14 and worked continuously multiple jobs through college in order to pay my own tuition 100% myself. I got good grades and went to a good state university which was still within top 40 in the country. I could never have any internships because I had to earn money in the summers. I graduated and moved on to get a postgraduate degree at another state school (payed for by being a TA) before getting hired into this Fortune 100 and getting promoted into management within 3 years.
Fast forward to recruiting. You’d be amazed by how many of these entitled, bratty, egotistical little college seniors have literally never had a real job before. No paper routes, no fast food job, nothing. A few had unpaid internships that seemed more like school than actual work.
I was so struck by their arrogance and their pushiness. The interviewees were selected by HR beforehand and the lists were handled by staff at the college. These kids would lie and try to get on the list or try to tell me to interview them off the record. They’d accost me and treat me like as if I clearly didn’t know what I was doing if they weren’t on my list. News flash, I’m the tech manager and I didn’t make the list, and by treating me like this you just got black listed. It was something else.
None of them, bar maybe one or two exceptions (whom I recommended for hire), had had to “scrap.” It was so eye-opening how entitled and privileged some of these kids are. I now look for evidence for being hard working, being able to deal with adversity, treating people equally, and being self-sufficient whenever I’m involved in the hiring process.
I hear ya, brother. I grew up very poor, too. If I wanted a new Matchbox car or fishing lure when I was a young'un, I went out and collected Coke bottles on the sides of the roads to take to the grocery store when my mother went so I could cash in those refundable, glass bottles. Finding a 32 oz bottle was like finding gold. Those were worth 25 cents.
I mowed a few yards during the summers (thank goodness summer was from April through October in south Alabama) starting about age 9 for some money. I carried the groceries in and garbage out for a quarter for a few old ladies. Rake pinestraw in the winter. Swept up the showroom and cleaned the bathrooms when I was 11-12 years old at a nearby boat dealer/service center. Worked at a farmer's market during the summer when I was 15 and saved up enough money to get contact lenses because I didn't want to wear glasses anymore. I've been wearing contacts now for 37 years.
I've never been unemployed a single day since I started working a W-2 job at the age of 17 in a grocery store. For many of those years from 17 up through my late 20's, some early 30's, I had two jobs. I have been employed at a full-time position since I was 20 years old, still going to a technical college. I don't have a 4-year degree and I am proud of where I'm at today.
I don't know what to think to see what I consider middle-middle class families spending $4-8k on freshman dorm-room decorations for their 18 year old kid. Now I hear the big thing is RENTING clothing for their kids to go to a college football game. There's evidently several new businesses that rent formal attire (on a subscription basis) to these
kids parents where they can be dressed to the nines for a 3-1/2 hour football game. This is in addition to the cost of college, which is a minimum of $100k today when you combine tuition, living expenses, vehicle costs, insurance, spending money, food, etc. Many of these college kids will spend $500-600 each weekend on stuff (beer/alcohol/drugs, food, clothing, etc.).
These kids have never worked a day in their life and let's be honest, their parent's can't really afford this lifestyle for their kids, either.
When these kids finally graduate, it's more than likely in some field that isn't going to pay for their lifestyle they were living in college, much less what it would take for them to live on their own, they have zero work experience and really no life skills. This is multiplied by the hundreds of thousands across the country each year.
Never happen, EXCEPT like anything in life, roll of the dice, some will win but it's nothing more than speculation.
