Monday, May 9, 2011

THOSE SUMMERTIME BLUES

Those Cal Poly MBA students I am mentoring as they prepare to enter the wonderful world of work are telling me tales of unreturned phone calls and emails, and of their sense that the beautifully crafted cover letters and resumes they submit are entering some black hole somewhere. And these are student offering to work for free, for heaven’s sake! They just want summer internships. (On a related note, the April edition of the Reader’s Digest includes a quote from a long time HR Director, who says: “People assume someone’s reading their cover letter. I haven’t read one in 11 years.”)

Be glad you’re not a high school student trying to save up for a car or college this summer. The latest word from whoever predicts these things is that summertime work is predicted to be a record low. Only 1 in 4 teenagers will land a job in the coming months as a result of the still-poor job market. The summer employment rate among U.S. teenagers was projected at between 25-27%, a record post World War II low.

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