Wednesday, August 05, 2009

When Indigo Children Grow Up

This crossed my desk this morning, from CNN. A graduate of Monroe College in NY is suing the college (for the return of all tuition moneys) because she graduated in April and has not yet gotten a job, and blames the school for not finding her a job. The Office of Career Advancement (basically, the same help center that every college has to assist with job searches and resume writing), didn't do enough for her, she contends. Since she's still unemployed after she graduated with an oh-so-impresive GPA of 2.7 (please add as much sarcasm as you can to that sentence).

As Thompson sees it, any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record. But Monroe's career-services department has put forth insufficient effort to help her secure employment, she claims.

"They're supposed to say, 'I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right -- can you interview this person?' They're not doing that," she said.

"They're supposed to say..." Really? In what alternate universe? Did your school call employers for you to set up interviews? I don't think so. I think Miss Thompson needs to rethink her assessment that employers are clamoring for graduates like her. Sorry, honey, you highly over-rate your attractiveness to employers.

Don't you love the part about good attendance? Like this is grade school and she'll get a nice plaque at the end of the year? And she contends that the school offered more help and support to students with higher grade point averages. I especially liked the part where she accused the school of favoring students with 4.0GPA's. Oh, yes, I'm sure they were hired first because the school made extra effort to showcase them to employers, rather than employers preferentially hiring those with higher GPA's. Of course that's the problem.

Her complaint adds, "The office of career advancement information technology counselor did not make sure their Monroe e-recruiting clients call their graduates that recently finished college for an interview to get a job placement. They have not tried hard enough to help me."

Yes, because it's someone else's job to get her full-time employment. Apparently she hasn't considered the possibility that the e-recruiting companies took a look at her resume and her academic history and passed. I never realized that the school was supposed to MAKE local companies give interviews to recent graduates. Does this woman actually think that the school was supposed to force businesses to interview her? To call anyone? Wow, wouldn't that be nice? Graduate and the school is responsible for making sure you get the job you want? Where is that guarantee in the small print?

The very idea that you'd SUE a school because you can't get a job is so ridiculous and mockable that I initially thought it was a joke. But now, Miss I'm-So-Speshul really does seem to think it's someone else's fault that she isn't employed. It's not like the school lied about accreditation or misled her as to the job market. They didn't prevent her from taking certain classes or refuse to assist her. She got the same education and opportunity that every other student did. They did nothing wrong at all, although she seems to think that they supposed to grease her way into a new job automatically. Because she's so special, I guess. That sense of entitlement is boggling.

Is she so stupid that she doesn't realize that there are, literally, thousands of people out there who are more qualified than she is? She's even outranked by most of her graduating class, for pete's sake, not to mention the people out there with actual business experience. In this economy, no one is guaranteed a job, certainly not a self-entitled c-student.

Perhaps she should have paid more attention in class and gotten better grades so she was actually attractive to the empooyers that are out there. Although, if this is her attitude, even with a perfect gpa she might not be terribly attractive to an employer. I know I wouldn't want to hire someone who expected the world on a platter.

I hope, I really, really hope, that she is smacked down hard and publicly over this. She's an entitled idiot and should be dismissed as such.

[Oh, and the Indigo Children reference in the title? Here's Wiki's take on it]

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