it's not surprising that some are not quite happy doing what they do in some cases.
I've noticed there are some academic departments that occasionally lead undergraduate students to believe that a high paying job awaits them when they walk out of the colleseum diploma in hand. These students graduate with the sincere belief that they will begin their career high on the food chain. Upon graduation the students learn that is not going to happen. Maybe this is why some low wage employees are discontent. They may be college graduates who discover the job market in their field is not as rosy as they were led to believe, or that they must start at the bottom and try to work their way up, or that the title of the job they must take does not match the name of their academic major. Their expectations and reality do not match.
We have a good friend who moved here from a large city and is an asst. manager at a nice retail store. She has commented numerous times about how rude the CUSTOMERS are in H'burg. This is only one person's perception in one store, but it's an interesting contrast to the previous comments. The worst offenders, she says, are middle to upper income women. Her previous experience was in several retail stores in a city with many tourists, including international tourists.
We have a good friend who moved here from a large city and is an asst. manager at a nice retail store. She has commented numerous times about how rude the CUSTOMERS are in H'burg. This is only one person's perception in one store, but it's an interesting contrast to the previous comments. The worst offenders, she says, are middle to upper income women. Her previous experience was in several retail stores in a city with many tourists, including international tourists.
Thanks for raising the other side of the coin. Having worked as a retain sales clerk while completing my BS degree (many years ago), it is an eye opening experience to have to work with the public as customers!
Observer wrote: it's not surprising that some are not quite happy doing what they do in some cases. I've noticed there are some academic departments that occasionally lead undergraduate students to believe that a high paying job awaits them when they walk out of the colleseum diploma in hand. These students graduate with the sincere belief that they will begin their career high on the food chain. Upon graduation the students learn that is not going to happen. Maybe this is why some low wage employees are discontent. They may be college graduates who discover the job market in their field is not as rosy as they were led to believe, or that they must start at the bottom and try to work their way up, or that the title of the job they must take does not match the name of their academic major. Their expectations and reality do not match.
Another thing that bothers some college graduates is working beside employees who don't have a college degree but who are doing the same work for the same pay. Some college graduates seem to think that owning a degree means that they own the marketplace. How quickly the real world disabuses them of that idea!
Reporter, I don't think that its beacuse their degrees are in the wrong discipline. The Clarion-Ledger article to which you referred implied that engineering is the way to go. Aside from the fact that USM does not offer an engineering degree, there is a salient fact the CL overlooked: the supply-demand in engineering goes and comes. I have followed that trend for decades. It is related to a large extent to the availability of federal funds for defense. I know students who were near the top of their class at lst tier engineering schools who could not find suitable employment. The most recent among them is currently working in a clerical capacity with a county agency. And that's not because of some personal "quirk" of the student. I'm talking about a popular student with a great personality who make the mistake of taking an engineering degree in a depressed job market in that specialty.
A student can do pretty much anything they want to do with any major if they have the other requisite credentials. I have seen undergraduate music majors go to medical school. I've seen undergraduate biochemistry majors go to law school, I've known nursing majors who go to graduate school in psychology, I've know physics majors that went to graduate school in areospace engineering, I've known business majors that went to graduate school in pharmacy, and I've know theatre majors who went to graduate school in geology. In addition to the requisites for gaining admission to those graduate and professional programs, all had a firm grounding in the liberal arts and sciences. The specific major was largely irrelevant. If an undergraduate student, whatever the major, takes creampuff elective courses their options will be reduced materially.
Those are among the reasons that good undergraduate liberal arts colleges are so successful in getting their students into graduate and professional schools. Amerherst, Williams, Rhodes, Swarthmore, Millsaps, and Furman and are cases in point. Data shows that the two major liberal arts colleges in Mississippi have a much better batting average in getting their undergraduates into medical school than do the three major public doctoral granting universities.
As far as the unsuccessful students are concerned, I don't think its because they took their major in the wrong discipline. I think that many of them had the wrong advisor. USM has been so obsessed with building up the enrollment that has often overlooked the student.