Posted A Low Paying Optical Tech Job And Received 75 Applications In 24 Hours

[Singuy]

This is the first time we have ever posted a low paying job on an online website and it's overwhelming how many applications I received within 24 hours. The job requires no work experience and pays between 10-12 dollars/hr. After going through all the applications, this is what I found.

About 30% of all applicants are college graduates with at least an AA degree
About 40% of those college graduates have some sort of bachelors in psychology, health science, and liberal arts.

The rest are high school graduates. Less than 5% of the applicants are people who are still in school or want to go to school, which is kind of what we are looking for. Over 95% of the applicants are female(probably because it's a part time receptionist type job).

Contrasting this to our other job listing for an Optometrist. Pay is 600 dollars/day and we have nothing but crickets..posted for a week and so far zero applicants.

I still stand firmly. Don't go waste time in college to study trash majors. Your competition for a 12 dollar job is in the hundreds. It's actually very overwhelming for an employer to go through and a college degree doesn't mean jack when there are hundreds of applications to go through. We are now extremely picky and only contacted the select few who has actual optical tech experience because the demand is too high.

[prosper]

Just curious, why do you you think these majors are "trash?"

[disneysteve]

We've been through this here many times. Just because a particular major doesn't lead directly to a high-paying job doesn't make it worthless. Not everyone is in life for the money. And 73% of all college graduates are not working in the field of their major anyway. Except for a few specific fields, having ANY degree is what matters.

The fact that a small percentage of college grads have applied for this position really doesn't say much. Only 12% have a bachelors degree. That's not a high number. And it's a PT receptionist job so it's likely people who aren't looking for full time work or a major career-type job. Maybe it's a mom looking to do some work while the kids are in school. Not everyone who goes to college is looking for a career.

Someone will probably say something about the cost of college or student loan debt. For the class of 2018, 31% graduated with no debt. Of the 69% with loans, the average was just under 30K, less than the average price of a new car. There are certainly some horror stories out there but the majority of students aren't that bad off. We just never hear about them.

[Singuy]

I am a firm believer that the most important time that builds a financial stability future is between 16-26. If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to college, it's best not to piss it away. So don't be complaining about how the elites, the conservatives, the Mexicans, college cost, income inequality and globalization somehow screwed your future. Your decision at 16 screwed your future. I firmly believe that it's so easy to win financially in the U.S it's laughable...and yet these kids can't seem to do it. It's probably the politicians feeding them koolaid and scapegoats just to stay in power.

As I received now a hundred applications, I ended up putting myself in the shoes of one single applicant. This single applicant probably thinks to themselves that their credentials are decent having work experience and some sort of college education. This single applicant submits the application thinking that there's a chance because he/she thinks the credentials are above the rest. The truth of the matter is, the rate at which employers receive applications is something I have never experienced before. Your application is just a blur, and it's blurred against the rest. In fact I've accidentally deleted some applicants due to swiping error on my phone and didn't even care. So if you don't specialize, your chance really rely on connections more than anything to get an interview.

[Singuy]

Someone will probably say something about the cost of college or student loan debt. For the class of 2018, 31% graduated with no debt. Of the 69% with loans, the average was just under 30K, less than the average price of a new car. There are certainly some horror stories out there but the majority of students aren't that bad off. We just never hear about them.

The loan is not what killed you financially, it's the time you wasted and can never get back. Now with kids and family in your immediate future, whatever job you can muster is it for you. A few may go back to school trying to get out of a "barely scraping by" life but most will just jump job to job earning enough to put food on the table with no savings...turning on Fox news and Cnbc chanting how everyone in the world screwed you because it's not your fault. You have this state of affair in which politicians will constantly feed you want you want to hear to get elected..maybe even switch a few things around to keep their campaign promises. It just doesn't fix the root cause of the problem of why so many Americans are living in such a way.

I mean 78% of the people who barely make ends meet, 47% doesn't even make enough to pay federal income taxes while we have more college graduates than any time in our existence while high paying job applicants (like an optometrist) are NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. You don't see a problem telling these youths that "hey it's okay to waste 4-6 precious years of your youth away which is you know..the KEY time to stash away for retirement...because we need writers....". Plenty of rich parents who can feed their entitled kids plenty of cash to be a writer. Your struggling child doesn't need to be one.

[bjl584]

I'm guessing that the recent college grads are using a shotgun approach and just applying to every job posting that they come across. It is easier than ever to "quick apply" on the various job search sites to dozens of job postings at once. If you aren't specialized and have a general degree, then your options are limited. Quantity over quality.

[disneysteve]

So if you don't specialize, your chance really rely on connections more than anything to get an interview.

Actually, I think this is pretty true for most jobs. I'm a physician. I got my first job after residency because a doctor in the area was looking to hire someone. An old classmate of his worked at the hospital where I trained and he called him and asked if anyone good was coming out that year and the doctor gave him my name.

I got my 2nd job 7 years later when another area doctor was looking to hire someone and one of the pharmaceutical sales reps knew I was looking for work and passed my name along.

I got my current job 16 years later because a friend and former patient who is now a physician working in urgent care finally talked me into checking it out. I didn't end up working for the same group as her but at another group that she was very familiar with.

It's always largely who you know rather than what you know. A large percentage of jobs are never publicly posted as they get filled through word of mouth referrals. We hired a number of people at my office because someone already working for us knew someone who was looking so the job never made it as far as a job listing site.

[Singuy]

Just curious, why do you you think these majors are "trash?"

Because they rob you of your time. In my opinion, the majority of Americans are financially unstable because they can't get their sh$t together before their first child. The average age for the first child to drop is 27. So you have a finite amount of time to get ready for a disruption in earning potential and expensive purchases such as a house/daycare. Either you go to college only for high paying jobs to make up for the lost opportunity time vs someone who didn't go to college or you don't go to college, live with parents, save your ass off and ends up ready for the family ahead. Don't follow these steps and you'll end up like the rest living paycheck to paycheck for life. Notice I didn't blame taxes, income inequality, Mexicans, globalization, liberals and conservatives as a barrier to financial stability. The only real barrier is the lack of optimization for the use of time.

[disneysteve]

If you aren't specialized and have a general degree, then your options are limited.

I don't agree. I think there are plenty of jobs where a specific degree isn't required but having a degree is required, or at least greatly preferred.

Bottom line is that I don't think you should force your kid into a field they aren't the least bit interested in just to hope that they grow to like it and get a great job after graduation.

I wonder how many people with "good" degrees aren't working in the field of their major. Surely a lot of them are in that 73% figure.

[Singuy]

I don't agree. I think there are plenty of jobs where a specific degree isn't required but having a degree is required, or at least greatly preferred.

Your ability to find a job IS limited because with hundreds of applications to review, your chances are essentially as high as a scratch off ticket. Better to be in an entry level job straight out of HS, get promoted as far as possible with the HS diploma, then go to school on the side for additional promotions within than to participate in the stampede of job seeking straight out of college.

[disneysteve]

Your ability to find a job IS limited because with hundreds of applications to review, your chances are essentially as high as a scratch off ticket. Better to be in an entry level job straight out of HS, get promoted as far as possible with the HS diploma, then go to school on the side for additional promotions within than to participate in the stampede of job seeking straight out of college.

Well that's a different point. Your job options aren't limited. They're wide open. That doesn't mean it will be easy to get one though. Those are two different things. Sure, there are jobs that have less competition because they require more specialized training but the applicant pool is way smaller too. If everybody who currently is going for a liberal arts degree suddenly shifted and got engineering degrees instead, what do you think would happen to the engineering job market? Suddenly those would be the employers getting hundreds of applicants and those grads would be the ones having trouble finding work.

[Singuy]

Well that's a different point. Your job options aren't limited. They're wide open. That doesn't mean it will be easy to get one though. Those are two different things. Sure, there are jobs that have less competition because they require more specialized training but the applicant pool is way smaller too. If everybody who currently is going for a liberal arts degree suddenly shifted and got engineering degrees instead, what do you think would happen to the engineering job market? Suddenly those would be the employers getting hundreds of applicants and those grads would be the ones having trouble finding work.

What happen is a normalization of the demand supply curve because good degrees are hard to obtain. Eventually people will just say it's not worth it and level off.

This is however NOT the case with "general studies" degree. These are given out like candy as long as you pay the tuition. That in conjunction with "you need to go to college" stigma as the general next step in progression for a productive member of society. So the supply being pumped out is WAY beyond demand that it'll take decades to normalize.

So my point is not to just go and get a good major. The other part of my point is you'll be more financially stable if you don't go to college and save accordingly.

If you make 20k/year right out of HS and choose to live at home.
Saving 5k in your 401k/year till age of 26 and then stop will give you 741k when you're 65.
Saving 10k/year in savings @ 4% return will get you 95k by 26.

So before your first child, you'll have almost 100k in your bank and you pretty much don't have to worry about your 401k account with zero debt. You are way head vs any liberal art recipient that's for sure.

Now imagine if your spouse did the same. 200k prior to the first child sitting in the bank with 1.5 million in retirement a 65 for the household making 10 dollars a hour working at star bucks.

This is what I mean by it's so EASY to be financially stable given that you still have parents and they are not drug addicts. If you're from a decent family who gives you the ability to go to college in the first place, option B will make you much more ready for life vs college.

[disneysteve]

So Singuy, how do you go about sorting through 100+ resumes? Do you even plan to review all of them or are you going in order of receipt until you find one you like? Will you reply to everyone who applied even with a canned response (thank you for your interest, blah, blah, blah)?

[Jluke]

If you make 20k/year right out of HS and choose to live at home.
Saving 5k in your 401k/year till age of 26 and then stop will give you 741k when you're 65.
Saving 10k/year in savings @ 4% return will get you 95k by 26.

So before your first child, you'll have almost 100k in your bank and you pretty much don't have to worry about your 401k account with zero debt. You are way head vs any liberal art recipient that's for sure.

Now imagine if your spouse did the same. 200k prior to the first child sitting in the bank with 1.5 million in retirement a 65 for the household making 10 dollars a hour working at star bucks.

I like your imaginary scenario. This person will save 5k pre-tax and 10k after tax
on a 20k salary. That leaves what 3-4K for expenses even though they are living at home? Car, car insurance and gas alone could cost that much. Oh and don’t forget about taxes. Probably closer to 3k or lower for what is left.

they will also live at home and do this for 8 years but somehow manage to date and be in a serious relationship that doesn’t cost money either.

If it were that simple and easy more people would do it.

Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry worked well for me. So don’t be too quick to dismiss the liberal arts education.

[disneysteve]

Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry worked well for me. So don’t be too quick to dismiss the liberal arts education.

Chem was a BA, not a BS?

I don't think it's a science degree that Singuy is referring to when he talks about liberal arts. I think he's talking about philosophy and social work and gender studies and other "non-professional" degrees.