Student Debt Bubble Officially Pops As 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Goes Parabolic

[drewtam]

I think part of credentialism idiocy is EEOC & HR.

Requiring a credential, regardless of value to the job, provides another layer of protection against accusations of discrimination. And provides cover for hiring the person they already groomed and picked out for the position, but must pretend that they are opening the job up for anyone that might be best for it.

[roo_ster]

I find it funny that there are so many people going to college, but so few majoring in subjects that are actually employable.  To me, this is a failure at the personal level, the failing of each individual student who chooses to do what they love, not what will help them succeed.  There are many useless degrees out there.  And yet, at the same time, we are completely falling behind in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).  These subjects are absolutely critical to our country, as if I need to tell this group, and yet we can't find enough people to fill these jobs.  Yet we have an over-abundance of underwater basket weavers. 

Pay enough and more folks will consider it.  Like any other job. 

[longeyes]

"Living?  Our servants will do that for us."  ~from the play Axel

As far as "STEM" goes Americans figure Asians will do that for us.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

I find it funny that there are so many people going to college, but so few majoring in subjects that are actually employable.  To me, this is a failure at the personal level, the failing of each individual student who chooses to do what they love, not what will help them succeed.  There are many useless degrees out there.  And yet, at the same time, we are completely falling behind in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).  These subjects are absolutely critical to our country, as if I need to tell this group, and yet we can't find enough people to fill these jobs.  Yet we have an over-abundance of underwater basket weavers. 

There's an overabundance of engineers who can't find work - from fresh grads to guys with years of experience. I graduated top of my class, high GPA, published papers in a journal or two, rock-solid references, 19 months with no job offers (finally got one recently).

There's a shortage of people with very specific skills with very specific experience willing to take a low salary and/or work in a lousy place - and HR is unwilling to hire anybody whose experience/education deviates in the least bit from that ideal. I'm an electrical engineer, but have a significant amount of compsci skills. I was never considered for a moment for a CompSci position, because my degree didn't say "computer" in it. I was willing (eager, actually) to work in lousy places for mediocre salaries. HR didn't find me qualified to do so. I wasn't demanding to stay in the homeplace (eager to leave, actually).
Plenty of jobs I met all the basic requirements, and most of the preferred req's. I was told to take a hike, because I did not check every box on their list.

I went into engineering for the exact reasons you mentioned... and knowing what I know today, I would counsel my early self to avoid college completely. Mountains of debt, tons of pain and suffering with no reward whatsoever at the end. If I wanted that, I would've gotten married.

[Waitone]

IIRC student loan debt is not subject to bankruptcy laws meaning student loans will not be forgiven via bankruptcy court.

[longeyes]

Maybe it is time to examine what "human resources" is all about,  by what principles they operate and for whom exactly?

[RevDisk]

There's an overabundance of engineers who can't find work - from fresh grads to guys with years of experience. I graduated top of my class, high GPA, published papers in a journal or two, rock-solid references, 19 months with no job offers (finally got one recently).

There's a shortage of people with very specific skills with very specific experience willing to take a low salary and/or work in a lousy place - and HR is unwilling to hire anybody whose experience/education deviates in the least bit from that ideal. I'm an electrical engineer, but have a significant amount of compsci skills. I was never considered for a moment for a CompSci position, because my degree didn't say "computer" in it. I was willing (eager, actually) to work in lousy places for mediocre salaries. HR didn't find me qualified to do so. I wasn't demanding to stay in the homeplace (eager to leave, actually).
Plenty of jobs I met all the basic requirements, and most of the preferred req's. I was told to take a hike, because I did not check every box on their list.

I went into engineering for the exact reasons you mentioned... and knowing what I know today, I would counsel my early self to avoid college completely. Mountains of debt, tons of pain and suffering with no reward whatsoever at the end. If I wanted that, I would've gotten married.

Best way to get the right folks into the right jobs would be to fire HR. They generally tend not to be the best folks at hiring folks. I'm sure they handle the other aspects of the job much better, but HR should only polish up the requests from the functional area and leave off their own biases.

"You forgot to include specific number of years and required degree."
"You can become an expert in 6 months on something if you do it every day. As opposed to being a backup for someone else and only touching it every six years. I said "strong knowledge", "moderate knowledge", etc and I meant it. And since when has a CompSci degree had anything to do with IT?"
"But how will we weed folks out?"
"Toss out the completely not-relevant folks, sift the poorly made resumes, and send the rest to me. Don't go beyond that."
"Umm..."

We STILL ended up doing our OWN search and hiring our OWN guy, complete end-running HR because they took too long and only handed us paper-experts.

[Stetson]

Best way to get the right folks into the right jobs would be to fire HR. They generally tend not to be the best folks at hiring folks. I'm sure they handle the other aspects of the job much better, but HR should only polish up the requests from the functional area and leave off their own biases.

"You forgot to include specific number of years and required degree."
"You can become an expert in 6 months on something if you do it every day. As opposed to being a backup for someone else and only touching it every six years. I said "strong knowledge", "moderate knowledge", etc and I meant it. And since when has a CompSci degree had anything to do with IT?"
"But how will we weed folks out?"
"Toss out the completely not-relevant folks, sift the poorly made resumes, and send the rest to me. Don't go beyond that."
"Umm..."

We STILL ended up doing our OWN search and hiring our OWN guy, complete end-running HR because they took too long and only handed us paper-experts.

Aaaaand again, no 4 yr degree, no offer.  The IT manager wanted to hire me, his boss and the HR drone declined because of the missing degree.  This was Tier II Help Desk.  It's not hard but it is a job....

[Physics]

There's an overabundance of engineers who can't find work - from fresh grads to guys with years of experience. I graduated top of my class, high GPA, published papers in a journal or two, rock-solid references, 19 months with no job offers (finally got one recently).

There's a shortage of people with very specific skills with very specific experience willing to take a low salary and/or work in a lousy place - and HR is unwilling to hire anybody whose experience/education deviates in the least bit from that ideal. I'm an electrical engineer, but have a significant amount of compsci skills. I was never considered for a moment for a CompSci position, because my degree didn't say "computer" in it. I was willing (eager, actually) to work in lousy places for mediocre salaries. HR didn't find me qualified to do so. I wasn't demanding to stay in the homeplace (eager to leave, actually).
Plenty of jobs I met all the basic requirements, and most of the preferred req's. I was told to take a hike, because I did not check every box on their list.

I went into engineering for the exact reasons you mentioned... and knowing what I know today, I would counsel my early self to avoid college completely. Mountains of debt, tons of pain and suffering with no reward whatsoever at the end. If I wanted that, I would've gotten married.

That's weird, I think location plays a major role here.  EE guys are in hot demand in the Silicon Forest, and generally the semiconductor companies take damn good care of their employees (they just work you to the bone).  Are there just no jobs to apply to, or are all the HR departments just being picky?  Your experience is the opposite of both what I've heard and what I've seen locally, except for the HR bit.  Running the HR gambit is the hardest part, and the most draining for sure.  It can be very difficult to get that face to face interview.  Luckily, my low paying, crappy company is too small to have an HR department, though they certainly make up for it other ways. 

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

That's weird, I think location plays a major role here.  EE guys are in hot demand in the Silicon Forest, and generally the semiconductor companies take damn good care of their employees (they just work you to the bone).  Are there just no jobs to apply to, or are all the HR departments just being picky?  Your experience is the opposite of both what I've heard and what I've seen locally, except for the HR bit.  Running the HR gambit is the hardest part, and the most draining for sure.  It can be very difficult to get that face to face interview.  Luckily, my low paying, crappy company is too small to have an HR department, though they certainly make up for it other ways. 

My experience is that it's both. Maybe most companies only list jobs in the local papers, or on their websites, or in trade magazines. I dunno. I've applied to many companies via their websites, and gotten nothing. Maybe I need to compile a massive list of buzzwords like core competencies, team player, authentic, synergy, etc and past them in randomly.

I know HR is stupidly picky. Funniest case was when a friend gave my resume to his boss. His boss liked what he saw, and said I should apply to 2-3 positions. I did just that, and got the HR "go to hell" letters a mere 12 hours later. 

[birdman]

My experience is that it's both. Maybe most companies only list jobs in the local papers, or on their websites, or in trade magazines. I dunno. I've applied to many companies via their websites, and gotten nothing. Maybe I need to compile a massive list of buzzwords like core competencies, team player, authentic, synergy, etc and past them in randomly.

I know HR is stupidly picky. Funniest case was when a friend gave my resume to his boss. His boss liked what he saw, and said I should apply to 2-3 positions. I did just that, and got the HR "go to hell" letters a mere 12 hours later.  

There are a few places I know of that need really good EE's like RIGHT NOW, and one or two of them are looking for folks that can work remotely (like from home).  

The work ranges from some transducer interface electronics design to higher end work, but the need is IMMEDIATE.   If you are interested whether it be full time or part time consulting work, send me a PM with an email address, a quick list of EE skill set (eg power electronics, mixed signal, PCB design/layout, high perf digitial, etc.) and ill email you with contact info.

For instance, I could really use a EE who can take the lead (part time, say 10-20hrs a week) on the design of a power receiver for a wireless power application (requires knowledge of how to impedamce match sources, design switched active rectifiers, model and simulate mixers signal hardware, etc).   I can supply tools (eg Altium) but the need is within the next few weeks and the pay is EXTREMELY good for the right skill set.

Note: it's NOT software work, though if someone has the above AND knows how to assembly code PIC micro controllers, you would pretty much save a project I'm on.

Right now, our critical path is being delayed by lack of EE support, and we are paying through the nose to outsource it to another company.

I'll make another post in the jobs board as well.

[Boomhauer]

IIRC student loan debt is not subject to bankruptcy laws meaning student loans will not be forgiven via bankruptcy court.

As far as federal student loans go you are correct. I dont know about private student loans offered by banks and credit card companies (but I know the CC company student loans have stupid high interest rates, on the order of near 30 percent (!) as a few people I know who have them found out)

[Tallpine]

I've never really gone through HR except for post-hiring processing.

[slingshot]

Universities, colleges, techical schools etc. feed on the college loan program just like the medical industry feeds on the insurance industry.  How can university costs raise at a rate that exceeds inflation year after year?  Someone is benefitting.  Basically there is more and more "administration" and less teaching which is the problem with education in general at the High School level and below.

I remember that I started working out of college at a salary almost as high as my professors. Seemed strange, but I justified this as teaching was a noble profession, not one to get rich.  I don't believe that is the case any more.  Professors make a lot more money now and the student loan program supports that.

[RaspberrySurprise]

Nothing.  However, it DOES have a lot to do with economics.  If the school didn't believe the marginal revenue increase associated with spending the money on a more expensive coach wasn't greater than the marginal increase in pay vs a cheaper coach, they probably wouldn't. 
Why is marginal return on invested capital or NPV of revenue vs NPV of cost so hard for people to see as an or the only reason for economic decisions?

Youre assuming the people doing the hiring are being rational and logical about it which isn't always the case. Also between the state giving them money and student loan money being handed out like holloween candy not all academic institutions are running with normal economic pressures.

[RocketMan]

Make more money available for a good or service, the cost of that good or service will increase to absorb the additional money.  It's pretty simple.