BBC Documentary: Who gets the best jobs..

[rayinpenn]

I was surfing YouTube and this BBC documentary “Who gets the best jobs” caught my eye. I thought some might find it interesting..

Some of it is to be expected and some trends pointed it are arguably disturbing - the widening gap between classes.

One school administrator said there are two kinds of helicopter Parents (Thus the descriptive ‘hovering’) the Banker who buys his way in to everything (Me) and the agent who negotiates on behalf of their children.

I couldn’t help but think of a very recent argument I had with my Daughter about why she is employed while some of her highschool classmates, now college graduates, are unemployed.
Her position was that she was ‘lucky’. I offered up a couple of other alternatives:
1. Paid Internship with the navy followed by job offer. - she found the program online and submitted her resume and application.
2. Internship in Australia with a software firm - internship was offered by the university.
3. Super high grades - worked until the wee hours studying.
4. Well known highly respected school.

I cant help but wonder how much the relatively wayward son is going to cost. Lol.

 

[Cessna152]

According to some online tools and stats for determining such things, my wife and I are in the 80 percentile range compared to others our age (62 & 63) for net worth. Our families growing up likely had close to zero net worth (my father, a carpenter, died at the age of 52 when I was 10, and I was the middle child of 7 kids. No silver spoon here.) I don't recall any good luck per se in going from 0 to 80 (I do have pleasant memories of growing up, so no bad luck either.) As a result I don't believe in the concept of "classes" in the U.S.

When I was young and learning how to play chess I recall reading that a good strategy is to first move one's pieces so they always support each other and open lines of attack before worrying too much about specifics of your opponent. "Develop your pieces first and you will find opportunities of attack opening up for you without additional effort." I always thought of that as a good general rule for making it through life. (Haven't played chess in decades, though.)

 

[marko]

Hair dyed bright blue
Not shaved in three days
Tatoos all over

"I don't know why I can't get a job"

 

[aja8888]

Hair dyed bright blue
Not shaved in three days
Tatoos all over

"I don't know why I can't get a job"

Same with females except the unshaven beard.

 

[Texas Proud]

Well, first of all they can eliminate UNPAID internships...

I do not know of they have them here, but all I have heard about have been paid...

Doing some research it appears the ones that are at the beginning of this piece would not qualify for being unpaid in the US...

Will watch more now...

 

[ncbill]

not worried about my kids since they work so much harder than me...and their peers.

oldest has a job guaranteed after graduation, but they've also done internships at federal national laboratories.

i spent my summers (and whenever else I could) in undergrad working construction, since it paid the most of what I could get.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I try not to paint with a broad brush, but in my recent experience in "going back to school", (law school, where the average student is 23-26 years old) I have noticed that a vast majority of these young adults feel "entitled" to only the best legal jobs that are out there and EXPECT to make 180K a year right off the bat. They flat out ignore the fact that there is only one job for every two graduates, and only the best of the best get the "coveted" big-law-firm jobs that pay 180K a year. The others that are "lucky" in that can find employment as a public defender making less than 45K a year. When you point out these facts and figures, they just say, "well, I am different"...and they are the ones that are late for every class and have had little luck in finding paid or unpaid internships.

I have also noticed that when taking a class a night, (where the demographics are much older and usually have some "life experience") there is more interaction with the professors, a better understanding of the material, and NO ONE expects to get a big-law-firm job at graduation. In other words, the older folks have REASONABLE expectations.

 

[Bigdawg]

Only watched the first few minutes. Same old story. Two quick stories from my past: I was working as a shipping receiving guy during college. Went nowhere because the owner's son worked there too. I moved on to the Corps with maybe 500 bucks to my name. Sept of 1990. Stood on the yellow footprints at MCRD San Diego. They shaved my head and off I went. DW joined in Nov of 1990. We met 11 months later on the rifle range in Okinawa. Here we are today with combined pensions of 100K+ and both making 6 fig's plus on the job. DS graduated college and working in Melbourne Australia and DS in the Corps finishing up his degree nights and weekends. Before I headed off to the Marine Corps I was bouncing at a bar and giving plasma twice per week for the $15 checks so I could buy beans, wieners and ramen noodles. Three guys in a 2 bedroom apartment. No car. Now, FI, property in 4 states and doing well. It is amazing what can happen in 27 years.

 

[Texas Proud]

Watched some more of it and it does not quite jive with my experience...

I worked in the UK for 14 months... had to hire a number of people... none of the people went to private school... heck, the EVP I reported to did not graduate from university... none of the other high level people were private school people from what I could tell..

Now, I have no idea about the traders or some of the really high paid people as I never dealt with them....

OH, also, one of the assistants was going to night school to become a lawyer... she was not from money...

 

[frayne]

The ovarian lottery does have a large impact on one's ability to improve his/her lot in life but is not the only component. On the other hand education,work ethic, social skills also play major parts. My concern in the US is our public education system is largely failing our youth and their future ability to compete in a world economy. No easy answers and no, life ain't fair and it is largely up to the individual to take the initiative to do something about it. With that said, I did work my butt off to put my son through the private education system and it has paid off. The decision wasn't that hard and the sacrifices made to do that were well worth it.

 

[Walt34]

My concern in the US is our public education system is largely failing our youth and their future ability to compete in a world economy.

Ya think?

Thirteen high schools in Baltimore, MD (one third of the total) had zero students proficient in math. The future for those kids is pretty scary.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/cult...e-schools-have-no-students-proficient-in-math

 

[Sunset]

Everyone likes to blame the public schools for all the dropouts, failures, and not learning math. But both DW and I went to public schools and we both learned math well.

I blame the parents, the neighborhood work/societal ethics, the peer pressure of all the kids and parents in neighborhoods. How many of those kids parents read and do the homework with them every night, probably very few.

DW went to high school in a very bad area, she noticed that the boys kept dropping out of school, there were gangs in the neighborhood, by the end of high school, her classes were almost entirely female as the majority of males had dropped out along the way.

 

[Walt34]

I blame the parents, the neighborhood work/societal ethics, the peer pressure of all the kids and parents in neighborhoods. How many of those kids parents read and do the homework with them every night, probably very few.

Oh, for the most part I agree. I've seen my part of what we called "dirtball parents".

But wow, just wow, one third of high schools didn't have one kid proficient in math? It could be that things in the neighborhoods are worse than I thought. But the statistic just took me aback.

 

[Texas Proud]

Everyone likes to blame the public schools for all the dropouts, failures, and not learning math. But both DW and I went to public schools and we both learned math well.

I blame the parents, the neighborhood work/societal ethics, the peer pressure of all the kids and parents in neighborhoods. How many of those kids parents read and do the homework with them every night, probably very few.

DW went to high school in a very bad area, she noticed that the boys kept dropping out of school, there were gangs in the neighborhood, by the end of high school, her classes were almost entirely female as the majority of males had dropped out along the way.

You must not have some of the schools with large minority and poor people attending... there are a few schools in a lower class area in our school district and they perform very poorly... so it is not the district that is the problem as all the other schools are highly rated...

But, the good teachers do not want to work at those schools... they do not have to either as they can get a job in a good school... so the 'bad' teachers are hired to teach there... so even if someone was wanting to do good in school they are at a disadvantage since they will have bad teachers....

Sure, the parents are not helping out which is a big cause of the school being bad and not attracting good teachers, but it is not like the best and brightest are going to be coming from those schools...

 

[rayinpenn]

A few years back I was taking a computer course South of Baltimore. I think it was about a two hour dive from my home. I didn’t hotel it because I wanted to minimize cost so there would be more courses
(And there were).

With all that driving time there was lots of talk show listening. I heard an interview with the former head of police in Baltimore. I remember it clearly because he cited some telling and troubling statistics:
- 60% graduation rate (now about 70% but some graduates can’t pass basic proficiency exams so there’s a back door)
- teen pregnancy and High schoolers with children is widespread. 60+ per 1000 students 15-19. The highest in the country (now at 40 +)

They are improving but much still needs to be done...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/maryland-health/bs-hs-teen-pregnancy-20150224-story.html