What's up with all these NYC jobs paying $25-40k/year?!?!?! (Cleveland: student loans, employment)

[DaddyJM]

I have read through your posts and It sounds word for word like the stories I hear everyday from my friends. We are all in our late 20s early 30s and all have higher education. To give you a idea how bad it is, one of my friends has a degree from John Hopkins University, got a teaching job right out of school while he looked for a better opportunity. He is still a teacher and dam lucky if he keeps his job after the Job cuts coming. Another close friend of mine graduated top of his class from (embarrassed I forgot..lol) and then received his masters degree from N.Y.U. He is currently working for TSA making 15 a hour and his boss has the IQ of a squirrel. Hang in there man I wish you luck. As for me I'm out of this city ASAP.

[henry1]

Originally Posted by DaddyJM

He is currently working for TSA making 15 a hour and his boss has the IQ of a squirrel..

but there is some people out there in the work force across this country will never get this simple fact in there head about when you comeing out of college or some training program and starting off with your first company ..

that you as the worker have to put the time in company to get the big money in the job and that means you as a worker with the company going through the good times and bad times with the company and putting your dues in with company ..

[Blackbeauty212]

I kinda agree with Henry1.....Look we all agree the Labor force is overly saturated with capable degree earners, it to the point now just having a degree doesn't entitle you to a decent job anymore...Experience is now the trump card

If I have the option of hiring someone with solid 5 experience as a money manager vs. kid who graduated from a top business school...I'm still going to chose the guy with the "experience"..While the Kid maybe top talent the business world still views him as "entry level"...

We're at a point where Experience trumps Degrees.

[BingCherry]

I get what you're saying, but I think Daddy's point is that the pay is SUPER low regardless of the fact that they are new grads. That's something you pay a teenager right out of highschool (without a degree).

I agree. You have to put in a few years and gain experience to better your salary, but $15/hr? Yikes. Who needs to go to college to seriously even earn that? I can do bad all on my own.

[manchesterUnited]

I think part of the problem in many fields is the difficulty in truly comparing the value of two employees. If you're interviewing for a position and you have 10+ years of experience, how much more valuable are you than the kids straight out of college your competing with? I think this is equally hard for employers and employees during the interview process.

You can shout experience all you want, but as someone who is heavily involved with hiring at a company, I've seen almost no correlation (let alone causal relationship) between how effective people are at the job and years of experience they had before joining.

It's becoming more and more important to provide truly compelling evidence that you're someone who hasn't just done job X for 10 years, prove that you've continued to truly grow and become more effective. Prove you can execute, and find the firms that can recognize it, that's how you can land a high salary in this city.

[EastBoundandDownChick]

I have been reading through these posts and think a lot of excellent points have been made here. I will have my Master's of Accounting soon but my job experience is mostly unrelated in the legal field. I am doing a paid internship but that is the only real applicable experience I'll be able to bring to the table fresh out of school. Unless I get one of the Big 4 jobs I realize I will probably struggle for a few more years. But while it is true experience almost trumps education in this market, they still want a degree most of the time even for menial AR and AP jobs. So the reality is that I might be scraping by for a few years. But that is fine with me. All I truly ask for is a comfortable salary. So I will stay in a regional market until I have more leverage because you really can't live comfortably in NYC on a modest salary.

[henry1]

Originally Posted by pinkybumpkin

but $15/hr? Yikes. Who needs to go to college to seriously even earn that?

Where i come from $15/hr job is thought of as a good job becuase of most the places paying only $7 dollars to 8.dollars a hour after a few years on the job ..so to get paid that hourly rate is not a bad job compare to other part of the country

Originally Posted by manchesterUnited

I think part of the problem in many fields is the difficulty in truly comparing the value of two employees. If you're interviewing for a position and you have 10+ years of experience, how much more valuable are you than the kids straight out of college your competing with? I think this is equally hard for employers and employees during the interview process.

You can shout experience all you want, but as someone who is heavily involved with hiring at a company, I've seen almost no correlation (let alone causal relationship) between how effective people are at the job and years of experience they had before joining.

It's becoming more and more important to provide truly compelling evidence that you're someone who hasn't just done job X for 10 years, prove that you've continued to truly grow and become more effective. Prove you can execute, and find the firms that can recognize it, that's how you can land a high salary in this city.

since you work around the hr system you have meet these type who walks into the interview going your going to give me this salary and with this benfiets package because i have a college education with no experience in the job ..

i see that alot with people who come into my line of work i do now for 22 years at my job and i see why HR prostion is the hardest in the company to keep people at and they allways what to leave the prostion after a few years in the prostion to another place inside the company

what works out in another company does not mean it will tranfer the work knowage to my line of work in casino & bar business works ..

As i have to remind some of the socalled college educated personal at times when they walk into the office and start to saying things to us ..it takes years of work experience in our line of work to get to the job and it a long and loney road to the top ..

so if you want to work in this business there is no way to do it but from the ground floor start prostion and work your way up ..

or

as my saying goes ..


you got to put your dues in and that means our business ..

weekends shifts and night shifts and holidays shifts worked along with not haveing a socalled social life above at one prostion because the place takes up all of your time that you have to run the place ..

it comeing into work 6 days or sometimes 7 days a week with no time off from work to make sure the business is running right..

haveing odd days off or single day off dureing the week to get you laundry done and dry cleaning in and picked up and do your grocery shopping all in that day to make sure things are done that need to be done

it sleepless night worrying that the shift personal have not messed up so bad with the night count or something else ..

there is no dinners with friends or nights out with girlfriend or wife to get to some prostion with the company ..

it messing the kids perfrom at the schools fuctions or other things to do with the family ..that why most of the people i know in this business are single and do not have familys or there kids are grown up and moved out and they are now on there own by themselfs in this world

moveing one a year or maybe every couple of weeks if it need to a new area to fill in for someone else who out sick or vacation

liveing out of a suitcase and haveing only your car and cloths and a computer and few other items as your only world things to move with you

staying in hotels and eatting all of your meals in a Denny's or local fast food place use a public laundry alot on your single day off or paying them to do the laundry so you can do something else like pay bills that day ..

it only long hard work and then if you put the time and the dues in my line of work to get to the top of the heap

that why you really see people last that long in our line of work and most of them get burned out by the hours or the life style along with most of them do not get the reason by the lifestyle

[LadyR1990]

Originally Posted by pinkybumpkin

I agree. You have to put in a few years and gain experience to better your salary, but $15/hr? Yikes. Who needs to go to college to seriously even earn that? I can do bad all on my own.

I never even made close to that without a degree. I made $7.25. Mimimum wage. When it was $5.50 I made that too.

My starting salary after college is $46,000 and I make more than alot of friends.

[grimace8]

Originally Posted by ohiogirl22

I never even made close to that without a degree. I made $7.25. Mimimum wage. When it was $5.50 I made that too.

okay but where? what city/state? without a college degree i made $16 an hour in the early 1990s as a temp at bankers trust (today it's deutsche bank) but it was a lousy job. answering phones all day and tons of walking to different areas within the complex (280 park ave) with a sealed envelope in hand. and i had to be there at 8 am sharp. hated it but at least in a way it was easy money for me.

[rexthedestroyer]

I manage a social security office. Back in September, we were lucky enough to open a position for a service representative slot. This is an entry level front line position. We hired a young lady who was currently taking night courses towards her bachelors degree. During the interview process, she was very motivated to get in with the federal government, even stating that it was her life long dream. On the face of it, she was a very good candidate for the position. Our only major concern with her was that we thought that she might be over qualified for the position (even though she had not gotten her BA yet) and might not stay. This was based on her prior work experience, education, and her long term career plans. A lesser issue was that her commute to work would have been 40 miles each way. She said that the commute would not be an issue. With that in mind, we offered her the position and she quickly accepted.

Her starting salary was $46k, which I think is pretty good for someone without a degree. She would also be working in a small office in an affluent area, so she would deal with a nicer clientele. Lastly, the management staff is very friendly and are all in our early 30's, as is the majority of the office. So all in all, I beleive that this is a pretty good place to work.

She lasted all of 8 days. And let me tell you, we were glad that she quit. Her major complaint was the commute. She said that the traffic was so bad that she wanted to kill herself. She was drama in other aspects that I dont even want to get in to. THe worst part of all of this is that in the federal government you can only hire during certain window periods. There has not been a hiring window since, and we are on a hiring freeze for the next two years. THe office is busy as ever, and we could sure use some help, but there is nothing we can do other than ask more of our employees.

This story really has nothing to do with this thread other than it is frustrating hearing about all these good candidates for jobs, and then making the wrong pick.