Maybe thngs are improving?

[MikeRC]

My 23 yo son graduated 11 months ago from the University of British Columbia with a BSc in Computer Science and Statistics. Initially starting in Commerce he switched to Statistics. Things looked pretty good for him until the financial meltdown in 2007. Previous to that Statistics majors were been given job offers as they entered their 4th year by Insurance companies, financial institutions and pretty well anyone with a risk management or budget division.

 

Since jobs for Stats grads were looking pretty scarce he thought he could improve his job prospects by turning his Computer Science minor into a major and added a year of University sponsored by The Bank of Dad.

 

Due to the recession, fewer then 20% of his graduating class of 2009 had any firm job offer. Those that did get jobs had been in co-op programs. In September last year, the UBC Department of Computer Science hired a consultant to try to find openings for this mass of unemployed grads. Not to find them jobs, but to use her contacts in recruiting offices and industry to find openings or companies that were hiring (or thinking of hiring) anywhere in Canada. That consultant emailed my son about a position she thought he was uniquely qualified for here in Calgary. His attempts to find open job competitions had failed to find this one.

 

To make a long story short, from 200 applicants that went through a process of 4 “weeding” interviews he finally has a job offer in something related to his field of study. Basically risk management for a utility company. Reasonable salary and benefits.

 

Thank goodness that a University felt some obligation to its grads and hired a consultant with some industry knowledge and contacts.

 

The biggest benefit, of course, is a young man who feels maybe he might have some value in the world. And a side benefit is a very relieved dad.

 

Mike Cassidy

 

[Woodie]

Yay!

[azkaisr]

That put a HUGE smile on my face!!!

 

Very Worthy

[Selden]

Kudos to your son, and I understand your relief.

 

I'm hoping we are at the turning point. My daughter has not been fully employed (thus w/o healthcare benefits, since she's not Canadian)) since May 2008. She had the highest score in the room last week for a census worker job, and was invited back for a supervisor test/interview tonight -- permanent position, not temp. Fingers, toes, legs, eyes -- we have everything crossed.

[Ken H.]

That IS great news Mike. So far you’ve had a banner year, eh?

 

I don’t know if you saw it, but yesterday’s Globe and Mail had a big article about Canada in 2010 and basically said, "smooth sailing." The article talked about how, surprisingly, Canada has done a respectable job of diverging itself from the US economy. Now IMHO that may be a bit 'looking through rose colored glasses', it is the G & M after all. My amateur crystal ball says 2010 will be a year of moderate growth for Canada and basically neutral for the USA. 2011 though is a whole 'nother story as there is a second wave of crashes/recession in the USA coming that will make the last/current one look positively rosy. What impact will that have on us? Who knows? It depends a lot on how well Canada continues to look elsewhere in the world for other opportunities.

 

[Chris K]

Congratulations to your son, that first job is the hardest. I feel your pain and relief. My youngest graduated with a Computer Science degree from GA Tech in Dec 2008 and it took him 11 months to find full time employment.

[Tank]

Wonderful news Mike, as there is a large number of young and bright people looking for a rung on the ladder

[Selden]

I don’t know if you saw it, but yesterday’s Globe and Mail had a big article about Canada in 2010 and basically said, "smooth sailing." The article talked about how, surprisingly, Canada has done a respectable job of diverging itself from the US economy. Now IMHO that may be a bit 'looking through rose colored glasses', it is the G & M after all. My amateur crystal ball says 2010 will be a year of moderate growth for Canada and basically neutral for the USA. 2011 though is a whole 'nother story as there is a second wave of crashes/recession in the USA coming that will make the last/current one look positively rosy. What impact will that have on us? Who knows? It depends a lot on how well Canada continues to look elsewhere in the world for other opportunities.

Not to be cynical, but Canada is now a petro state (also hydro, which I believe will be the precious resource of the 21st century). Like Norway,Canada seems to be one of the few petro states that imposes significant taxes on petroleum-based fuels, in anticipation of the day they become scarcer.

[upflying]

My daughter is in her senior year in a health services major. I think her job prospects is pretty good mainly because she is doing some volunteer work, interning and attending industry work shops. This results in something called networking and face recognition. IMO, the best way to get employment duriing the recession.

The jury is still out on how the recently passed health care package will help her job prospects.

[hANNAbONE]

aWESOME nEWS, Mike...congrat's

[tallman]

What are the odds of that happening?

Good news.

[MikeRC]

It's a tough world out there for the people at the bottom of the pecking order. I have a neice who has a Chemistry BSc with Honors from the University of New Hampshire circa 2007. Recruited in her last year (via related summer University lab work) by Pfizer in Cambridge, Mass. She was in the first group of layoffs in 2008. She has been through a series of jobs in the Boston area since - some contract, some short term employment but nothing with long term potential. She doesn't want to go on to Grad school yet because she isn't sure what the next "big thing" will be.

 

Computer Science degrees are not all equal. In Canada, if it comes from Waterloo (the headquarters of RIM) then it was a more "practical" degree and your employment prospects are better. If it from UBC or UofT then everyone assumes you are headed into research or on to a Masters program. What "practical" use are undergrad courses in Computer Vision and Robotics? They even program in languages not usually used in industry. He has spent the last 10 months learning a lot more about .NET architecture and C# programming which certainly helped him in his interviews.

 

We're still crossing our fingers.

 

Mike Cassidy

[motoguy128]

The drop in the values of the retirements savings of many has had the consequence of making a tight job market even tighter as those who would have been retiring, have decided to keep working a few more years.

 

Glad your son found a position. I graduated in 2001. I heard that those graduating only 6 months later in the Fall of '01 and spring of '02 after 9/11 were having a hard time. I can't imagine how bad it is now.

 

For myself, the biggest advantage I had was several semesters of co-op and internships at major corporations. I had to take a few summer classes here and there and it took 5 years to graduate, but it got my foot in the door and paid dividends.

[Francois_Dumas]

Congrats Mike. We too were very happy when our son-in-law found a good job after all this studying. Would be even nicer if daughter got a job too, but hey, can't win them all.

 

Wishing him a great career in whatever.....

[Bullett]

That's great news, Mike!

 

I graduated from university in the 1980 recession and never found more than a seasonal job in my field of study, environmental science. I finally gave it up and went to law school.

[russell_bynum]

That's great news Mike!!

 

Things aren't looking so nice here. Our neighbors on one side lost their jobs and subsequently their house. The house was bought from the bank by a couple...I talked to the guy as they were moving in...he's been continuously employed for 32 years...and lost his job right after the house closed. They moved out last weekend and the house is for lease...hopefully they'll find some good renters so they can keep the house. Our neighbors on the other side ran a very successful small Mexican restaurant. They picked the worst possible time to try to scale up, move into a bigger nicer facility, etc. Of course...that sort of thing takes years of planning and when the bottom fell out, they were basically already committed. The restaurant folded a month ago and they lost their house as well.

 

The talking heads are all saying everything's fine and we're on a rebound, but it certainly doesn't look that way from where I'm sitting.

[John Ranalletta]

I have a neice who has a Chemistry BSc with Honors from the University of New Hampshire circa 2007. Recruited in her last year (via related summer University lab work) by Pfizer in Cambridge, Mass.

The entire eastern seaboard is flooded with furloughed big pharma researchers, especially chemists. Big pharma embarked on a chemistry-based search for new compounds and that didn't yield as much as hoped. Today, the emphasis is on biologics.

 

That worm will turn again, but, having a daughter-in-law phd at Merck, I'm not hopeful that job market will recover. Lots of basic research is being shifted overseas as well.

 

If I were advising your niece, I wouldn't advise another stint in grad school unless she has an angel, cash to blow or a definitive job prospect in mind.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

The talking heads are all saying everything's fine and we're on a rebound, but it certainly doesn't look that way from where I'm sitting.

 

I haven't heard folks saying everything's fine, but I have been hearing that things have stopped getting worse and are beginning to get "better." We still have a long ways to go before things are "better"; employment rate is, unfortunately, one of the last things to recover at the end of a recession.

[upflying]

Got to agree with Russell. California is very business unfriendly with high taxes and lots of government meddling in how a business should be run. Employers are running away or not investing in California. High foreclosure rates are evident all around me. 10 year old vacant houses are abundant. Jobs are disappearing and not rebounding. State and local government services can't adjust/comprehend/make cuts due to the loss of tax revenue. All this is occurring as the entitlement trough continues to grow.

With recent developments in Washington, it ain't going to get any cheaper to live either.

If I was a young graduate from college, a federal government position would seem to be the only bright light in the employment picture.

IMO, our future now lies within China. It is a very depressing time we live in. I will be holding on to my assets and not spending or adding to the economy. I will need those assets to pay for my future.

[Selden]

Since there is so much talk of California, I can't resist throwing in that Emory University's commencement speaker this year will be the Gubernator himself, Ahnold Schwarznegger. I promise, we won't keep him...

 

Actually, even though he sounds like a goober, Georgia's current governor, "Sonny" Perdue, has down a pretty good job, and I would probably vote for him if he weren't term limited. His administration has bee amazingly pander-free.