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Blaming the victim, favorite American pastime.

• ye 13y ago
  In this case the victim is often responsible for making poor career choices. The whole "I graduated, I'm entitled to a job" sentiment must go away, or we will end up with an army of hungry homeless history, women-study, art, philosophy graduates.
  • ffrryuu 13y ago
    So what do you recommend they do? We can't all be programmers.
    • ye 13y ago
      There are only a few options I see for them 1) Give up and work for a shitty job, until it gets automated, then go homeless and hope the government keeps them alive 2) Learn new marketable skills and get a job. You're right, we can't all be programmers, but we can be nurses, car mechanics, accountants, pilots, welders, plumbers, farmers, etc. 3) Start a small business. Many successful small businesses are literally as stupid as "buy wholesale, sell retail". Many have very low barriers to entry, like making ice cream.
      • dinkumthinkum 13y ago
        Your number 2 is silly and it makes it hard for me to take you seriously. If those are the jobs you think students should go towards, which exactly are the dead end jobs you speak of?
        • ye 13y ago
          All the jobs I listed, apart from nursing, are well paid. Nursing is more for people who like to help/save other people, and it's a noble profession in my mind.
          • hmsimha 13y ago
            IIRC farming is notoriously underpaid, but I believe you are right about the rest.
            • ye 13y ago
              Well, there is "working on a farm", which is not paid well. And then there's growing things and selling them, which is usually very profitable, and lands you all kinds of government subsidies, depending on where you are and what you're growing.
              • dinkumthinkum 13y ago
                Really? This is your plan for grads? I'm somewhat underwhelmed by this grand solution, just saying ...
                • ye 13y ago
                  It's not a plan, it's an option, one of many. I have two degrees in IT-related fields, and I'm fascinated by modern farming. If you're not familiar, I recommend checking it out.
  • btian 13y ago
    They should learn skills that are desirable in the current economy. Not just programming, but also nursing, chemical engineering etc.
    • ffrryuu 13y ago
      Nursing has topped, the industry lost jobs last year.
    • ijk 13y ago
      According to the BLS, the outlook for chemical engineers is only 4%, way below the average [1]. Other STEM fields, such as electrical engineering, are also in decline [2]. Software developers only increased by 19,000 jobs total. Students are graduating with the skills you list as desirable, but those skills aren't actually in demand. [1] http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical-engineers.htm http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical... [2] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245494/What_STEM_shortage_Electrical_engineering_lost_35_000_jobs_last_year http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245494/What_STEM_sho...
      • ye 13y ago
        Under your own link "Software developers, systems software" has THE best combination of the salary, projected number of jobs, and projected growth rate. Software developers are indeed in demand.
      • ijk 13y ago
        Yes, I was referring to the second link there, based on the more recent data: "The number of employed software developers, the largest IT occupation segment, increased by only 1.75%, to 1.1 million, a gain of 19,000. The unemployment rate for developers last year was 2.7%, which is still elevated, according to Hira." Software developers are doing well, especially compared with some other STEM professions, it's just not huge in absolute terms because there's only about 1.1 million software developer jobs overall. Good for us programmers, but not for STEM careers in general.
  • Pxtl 13y ago
    But it used to work that way. A generation or two ago you had a bunch of guys with degrees in literature and art-history managing plants full guys with highschool diplomas. And they all were middle-class or higher.
    • bcbrown 13y ago
      The difference is now most job-seekers have a college degree, so just the mere fact of having a degree is no longer a differentiator.
• thatthatis 13y ago
  Look, I'm trying to understand what's happening and why. If you re-read what I wrote, I think you'll have a hard time finding any normative statements or any statements ascribing fault. I did use the term "dead end jobs" which is pejorative, but that's a term copied from the original article used as a reference not as a personal evaluation. The only people I'm blaming for anything are the people writing these articles that leave out what I believe to be crucial and potentially explanatory information. Any victim blaming you found into my comment was put there by you. Another way of parsing the data, which is fully coherent with my prior point: society is making great progress, we're approaching the point where even our janitors are afforded the luxury of a college education.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• im3w1l 13y ago
  You are using this phrase as if it would automatically mean that the people you refer to are not to blame, just because they are in a bad position. I disagree. I think that people need to take responsibility for their careers, and that frankly, if they end up in a dead-end job, it IS their fault. Now, by saying this, I don't mean that we should settle for the status quo and that all is well. Just like with interfaces we should make systems that make it easy to choose right and hard to choose wrong.