Dad of New Liberal Arts (International Studies) Grad - Need Advice - Daughter Conside

[dallas27]

Guys, disney is globally successful brand with great verticals and horizontals. They have no equal. How would they be bad for your resume?

I worked my first gig for a fortune 500 you have never heard of. I'd prefer to have disney in there.


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[Bestwifeever]

OP's daughter won't be able to rewind to the higher paying job right out of college if she takes the Disney job first. I wonder if the Disney name really has enough cachet on a resume to open doors in the future for her.

 

[marko]

We used to call this "sowing wild oats". Not to worrry.

"It's a phase you generally get out of your way when you're young or perhaps after a breakup, but it's not a long-term lifestyle (or if it is, it stops going by that name at some point"

The only challenge I see is if the person gets caught up in a particular lifestyle of similarly employed individuals. You meet a girl/boyfriend there, end up living a low income life, fall into the 'who needs all that money mindset' and it slowly becomes your normal.

Then again, I know of a fellow who had to drop out of college and take an entry level manufacturing job with a $84 a week take-home pay. Thirty years later he ended up running that company, made $500K a year, was FI at 40 and retired at 50.

So, maybe it's a matter of "the cream rising to the top" coupled to a certain level of hunger.

 

[unclemick]

Peace Corps, Bartend in Ireland, Europe on $ per day, etc. - why work?

Last night gave away bellows, electric furnace and some other Blacksmith(from new wife's deceased husband) specialty vises and forming tools to a young couple nearing graduation. They will set up shop a relative's garage/barn and live/camp in while selling their art.

Successful? Time will tell.

heh heh heh - why work is the first question. With Google in the neighborhood we have all kinds of 'youngsters' doing minimum wage jobs while they pursue/find their real passion.

 

[aaronc879]

Not sure what kind of companies hire her degree.... but it could hinder her later in life... IOW, a year later if she decides to try and get a job.... she will be competing with the kids coming out of college now.... who would you want to hire Someone who chose to go to Disney and make $15K or someone who just graduated with good grades and is raring to get to work for you.... I know which one I would hire...

I know which one I would hire too. I'd hire the one with actual work experience instead of the one with just a piece of paper.

 

[MooreBonds]

I know which one I would hire too. I'd hire the one with actual work experience instead of the one with just a piece of paper.

But what 'work experience' is a job at Disney paying $15k/year? The same "experience" as working at McDonald's. Would your suggestion be any different if the OP said she was looking at getting a job at the local Dairy Queen/McDonald's flipping burgers and making $15k/year?

Does it give you some experience? Certainly....but as I and others have mentioned, who gives you the impression as being more of a go-getter: someone who graduates and settles for a minimum wage job at Disney doing the very basic of things (taking orders at a kiosk) for 1-2 years, or someone straight out of college with decent grades? The fact that the minimum wage worker apparently didn't have any summer jobs during school would be enough of a worry about lack of ambition (the OP didn't clarify - since he didn't say "she did have some previous minimum wage jobs, so she knows what the job would be like", we can only assume that she has ZERO work experience).

You know the first person probably wasn't that motivated to get a more challenging job. If someone isn't that worried about earning more than minimum wage for themselves, how much LESS are they going to be worried about making money for you, the employer? Or just doing the minimum to get by? (Obviously, if it's 2010, there could be valid reasons for not getting a more challenging job right out of college when you graduated in 2008/2009, but this is a different scenario).

Working for the Peace Corps is an entirely different decision/factors than making minimum wage at Disney - one is almost always a volunteer position to 'give back' and be selfless, and a decision you go out of your way to make. The latter is more likely to be just a 'clueless' person who doesn't have ambition and doesn't really care about their (or their employer's) success, or a decision out of desperation. Again, there are always exceptions with people who are truly driven, but we are talking about the 75%-90% of the crowd here, not the 2% rare exceptions.

 

[dallas27]

Jeesh, she better just get her hair done and find a successful man, her career is over and she destined to be a pauper if she tries to make it on her own without someone telling her what to do. There's really no hope at this point, before she's had her first job.


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[daylatedollarshort]

It is probably better from a resume standpoint to have a higher paying job out of college, but I don't think it is the end of the world if that doesn't happen. Of the three smartest programmers who used to be in our department at my last job, one had an MBA from Berkeley and big accounting experience, one didn't have a degree and one had a some sociology or zoology kind of major and eventually went to a tech school to learn programming. The non-MBAs just went into contracting and set high hourly rates. They were worth every penny, and the contract work pretty much reset their pay scale from whatever jobs they had initially.

There are at least some fields where what you know and can do today count for a lot more than what is on your resume from 5 years ago. I don't think a low paying first job from Disney is necessarily going to scar her for the rest of her working career.

 

[aja8888]

Jobs.....

All the firms I worked for are gone...and I mean no longer in business. Heck, I had the opportunity to go to work for Xerox out of college and I declined and went with another big firm. Opportunity missed! That would have been great on my resume.

 

[Texas Proud]

I know which one I would hire too. I'd hire the one with actual work experience instead of the one with just a piece of paper.

But what 'work experience' is a job at Disney paying $15k/year? The same "experience" as working at McDonald's. Would your suggestion be any different if the OP said she was looking at getting a job at the local Dairy Queen/McDonald's flipping burgers and making $15k/year?

Does it give you some experience? Certainly....but as I and others have mentioned, who gives you the impression as being more of a go-getter: someone who graduates and settles for a minimum wage job at Disney doing the very basic of things (taking orders at a kiosk) for 1-2 years, or someone straight out of college with decent grades? The fact that the minimum wage worker apparently didn't have any summer jobs during school would be enough of a worry about lack of ambition (the OP didn't clarify - since he didn't say "she did have some previous minimum wage jobs, so she knows what the job would be like", we can only assume that she has ZERO work experience).

You know the first person probably wasn't that motivated to get a more challenging job. If someone isn't that worried about earning more than minimum wage for themselves, how much LESS are they going to be worried about making money for you, the employer? Or just doing the minimum to get by? (Obviously, if it's 2010, there could be valid reasons for not getting a more challenging job right out of college when you graduated in 2008/2009, but this is a different scenario).

Working for the Peace Corps is an entirely different decision/factors than making minimum wage at Disney - one is almost always a volunteer position to 'give back' and be selfless, and a decision you go out of your way to make. The latter is more likely to be just a 'clueless' person who doesn't have ambition and doesn't really care about their (or their employer's) success, or a decision out of desperation. Again, there are always exceptions with people who are truly driven, but we are talking about the 75%-90% of the crowd here, not the 2% rare exceptions.

MooreBonds said it very well...

 

[bbb11]

As a young but (I think) personal finance literate person who is doing my best to educate my two younger sisters, I think it's important they buy into the importance of investing. You can try to talk them into it, but reading helpful resources for themselves is better, because then it doesn't seem like a family member trying to press their values.

 

[2B]

A coworkers daughter took a job at Disney World taking pictures of people. She didn't last long --- BOOOOOORING --- but she was initially all excited about working there. It's still work. They call it work for a reason.

What they have is a group of poorly paid kids all trying to get by living on dry dog food.

 

[bbb11]

Also is she really going to live off of 15K? Sit down with her and ask her to create a budget. Might get her to consider other options.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I saw a link to this article recently about a family of three who get by on $19K in expenditures:

How One Family Paid Off $118,000 in Debt - US News

"Her family still lives on about $19,000 a year, so they can save the rest. She even built her own furniture when her family moved into a new house, and asked family members for power tools as gifts for Christmas. She's since built a king-size bed, dining table and toy box. She also makes her own cleaning supplies and grows some of her family's food, too."

 

[mpeirce]

Jobs.....

All the firms I worked for are gone...and I mean no longer in business.

Looking at my old resume. The only company I ever worked for that's still in business is the last one (and it's doing very well). A couple of the previous have been merged out of existence, the rest are simply gone.

Good thing no one needs to check my references any more!

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

International Studies alumni here

Got my degree in '95. I was hoping to work at the International House of Pancakes upon graduation. Never was lucky enough to get that job, but school was certainly fun. I even was able to use some of the foreign language skills at work a few years ago when the squadron went to Colombia.

Just be glad she finished her degree. Disney sounds like fun until it becomes just another job. Then she'll probably get serious about making a living.