Anyone have experience of graduating and getting an entry level job at a late age? Do companies favor younger college grads over older ones? etc

I'll be graduating sometime around 2013-2015 and will be about 30.

9/6/2009 7:02:32 AM

Quote :

"Do companies favor younger college grads over older ones? etc"

If so, I think I would just give up now.

9/6/2009 9:21:28 AM

^ lol same.

I'm assuming you have some sort of real world experience between the time you graduated high school and graduated college? You weren't just sitting in your house staring at the walls were you?

9/6/2009 9:53:22 AM

I don't think companies are legally allowed to do age based discrimination despite the quality of your resume until you are 45+, then all bets are off.

9/6/2009 10:35:41 AM

^ thats partially true. if you have higher salary expectations or requirements, they can gladly take someone just out of college who will do the job for less.


that said if you were out working at burger king until you were 30 and are willing to take a decent salary that a 22 year old would, i cant imagine there'd be much of a problem. may actually be preferred depending on the job.

[Edited on September 6, 2009 at 10:46 AM. Reason : .]

9/6/2009 10:45:01 AM

I am (or was) in pretty much the same boat, and I'm aware of at least two other people where I work who were also in this situation. I haven't found age to be an issue. In some ways it's an advantage.

I agree with wolfpackgrr--the only likely way for age to be an issue is if you haven't been doing anything constructive.

9/6/2009 10:46:36 AM

I went to NCSU from 03-06, ran out of money, took a year off to work to try to pay for tuition also just became jaded of school, said 'fuck it' and enlisted in the Air Force

9/6/2009 12:29:25 PM

well if you served in the military you should be fine.

Its not like you were fucking sheep somewhere and not working.

9/6/2009 12:40:11 PM

Quote :

"well if you served in the military you should be fine."

agree

9/6/2009 9:00:34 PM

What if you have a bachelor's degree, have never really worked (~3 months in retail during your sophmore year), and have decided to go back to grad school from ages 25-27 without working, volunteering, or interning...can you expect to get hired when you're done with grad school even at entry level? What if you're able to get good references from your professors?

9/9/2009 9:06:17 AM

At my last job we routinely hired guys in their 40s to do entry level type work. Some of them took to it quickly and moved up in due time, the others (well, one other) you could tell wasn't happy being low man on the totem pole and lasted a little over a year before moving on.

9/9/2009 9:08:56 AM

Quote :

"What if you're able to get good references from your professors?"

lol do jobs take letters of reference? Every grown up job I've applied for has wanted just a cover letter and resume.

9/9/2009 9:16:40 AM

I made a thread about this very topic in TSB about a year ago. My suggestion to the masses was to work in the real world first, before pursuing a graduate degree, simply because of the way the market was acting at the time and because going to graduate school simply to avoid the real world is a bad idea. Now a year later, people that only have graduate degrees and no professional experience still cannot find a good job, as I suspected. Hopefully, some of you managed to get decent financial aid and aren't sinking in debt right now. My other suggestion was to get your employer to pay for your graduate degree, but even that is asking too much of companies nowadays. Your education should always be your top priority, unless it sinks your boat. However, if you were able to establish enough contacts at the university with leads into the private/public sector, with a little patience, you should be able to find something within 6 months in your field if you are willing to make as much as a 22 year old.

[Edited on September 9, 2009 at 9:19 AM. Reason : -]

9/9/2009 9:16:53 AM

^ Completely agree with that. I am so thankful now that I decided to jump into the workforce after school and delay getting a grad degree. Now I'm in a good position to get hired by a university in the next year and get my grad degree for next to nothing

9/9/2009 9:22:10 AM

ok,
how do you make a friend realize that waiting to finish a graduate degree at 27 with no work experience will screw them over?

Also, would employers look at such an individual as lacking a work ethic or just a dedicated student who took 2 years off from school?

9/9/2009 9:27:31 AM

Personally, when I was doing HR, if I had two candidates that were about equal, but one had been doing volunteer work or working retail or whatever, and another had been doing literally nothing, I'd choose the first person every time.

9/9/2009 9:37:37 AM

just get a note from your mom asking to excuse your tardiness

9/9/2009 10:29:49 AM