Michael Rogers' Star Talk Weblog
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 Friday, May 03, 2002


News: The Detroit News reports that "hot job market cools for grads". According to an April survey of employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, hiring of new college graduates is down 36.4 percent from last year, the biggest drop since the survey started in 1994 -- http://www.detnews.com/2002/careers/0205/03/a01-480703.htm

Comment: Once again, the media has a somewhat deceptive presentation of statistics. Hiring is down over a third from last year -- but last year was a really hot year. In fact, the '90s saw one of the biggest job booms since WWII, especially for tech fields. So maybe we're getting back to more of a normal job market. Actually, I'm convinced that a year from now, as the economy continues to speed up, we'll start hearing employers griping about a lack of qualified workers.

The article has sob-stories from liberal arts grads griping about how they can't find the jobs they want. But hey, I'm a liberal arts grad and it's reality that, at least starting out, you're not going to command the kind of starting salary they give to people in high-demand, high-tech science and engineering fields (although demand for science and engineering grads is down, too.)

I'm glad my daughter graduated a year-and-a-half ago when the job market was still pretty hot. But, with her skills and engineering degree, I'm sure she would have gotten a good position even if she had graduated this year.

I think the lesson that I try to drive home to my son, who is about half-way to a computer science degree, is that you can't just show up at school for four years, graduate and expect employers to hand you a job on a silver platter. He's done a really good job snaring job-related internships that will look good on a resume when he graduates. I hope it gives him an edge over other students who only have academic experience.

News: Cnet has an updated list of DVDs to test your home theater system -- http://makeashorterlink.com/?F24E53DC

Comment: I love these kinds of lists. I got "Pearl Harbor" from the library and can't wait to play the attack scenes through our system.

Josh Hartnet is lame is this movie, but I think he's actually a very good actor. He did a terrific job in Black Hawk Down.

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11:34:20 AM    



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