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Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

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Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#11

Post by DiggyJohnson »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #7
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #4

Graduated in 2020, and I was shocked by how few of my peers had done any research into the type of work and compensation that would be available to them upon graduation. No, I'm not referring to the issue of 17-20 years olds choosing a degree path with little awareness of post-graduation opportunities, but for upperclassmen 0-2 years out from graduation. On the other hand, I can report a disproportionate awareness /…

I know a lot of people who go a Masters because they didn't want to get a job, then never worked in their field.

Precisely. I was trying to avoid sounding overly cynical of my own peer group, but there’s a lot of this. And as I was trying to get at in my main comment, I think it has to do with a tendency to avoid looking multiple steps towards questions like “what am I actually going to do with my education?”

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#12

Post by AlphaOne1 »

retrac wrote: post #5

> Current graduates are simply asking for their compensation to reflect the cost of living in the United States. If the entire GDP of the USA, after taxes, were simply taken (about $15 trillion) and equally distributed among the ~210 million working age adults of the United States, each would receive about $70,000 a year. If the 70 million university graduates were each paid a handsome and deserved $150,000 (hey, tha…

yes, but I think we need to start discussing what value college is actually bringing to society. Many of these majors do not contribute directly to wealth growth (but teach 'skills' such as critical thinking etc.) Higher education has no incentive to lower prices because they carry none of the risk if a student defaults. Even worse, there is no guarantee that students will be financially successful after graduation and they are still responsible for the debt if they are not successful. I don't blame students for being resentful but I think the resentment needs to be directed at the correct source of the problem: higher education, rather than blaming businesses for not paying enough money to pay off a 100K student loan debt. I think it is a tragedy that we live in a society where you are viewed as 'less than' if one does not go to college. This view takes advantage of our emotions and leads some to go to college without a plan and load up on debt without a clear plan on what they will do with their life. Just to be clear, some people should definitely go to college but the current situation kids being told practically from birth (my evidence is the popularity of 529 funds parents/grandparents set up) that they need to attend college is ridiculous.

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#13

Post by DiggyJohnson »

throwaway08642 wrote: post #9
throwayyy479087 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to - SF is trying to lower the local voting age to 16, so being able to do a bit of research shouldn't be too much to ask for an 18 year old.

I have an idea. We make it clear that students can sue educators who do not inform them about the stupidity of taking on too much debt at a young age, and make "An Introduction to College, Adult Life, and Debt" a mandatory semester in all High Schools.

Not sure that students should be able to sue their high school for something like this. Why aren’t parents stepping in/up?

How would you avoid “my guidance counselor mentioned this, but they didn’t stress the importance?” My generation already struggles with the expectation of others to solve an individual’s problem - at the risk of sounding too cynical.

Suing your school does not seem like a good springboard into adulthood.

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#14

Post by rzazueta »

My town in the Bay Area has always been considered one of the more "affordable" options (which is why we live here). The estimated cost of living to do more than just survive here is roughly estimated to be about $96,000/yr. That factors in rent / mortgage, food, transportation, etc.

So who are really the one's doing the poor estimating? The new college grads staring down the barrel of a career that will allow them to just skate by after paying the cost of living on top of their loans, or the companies making record profits but exploiting new college grads by paying less than a thriving wage?

"Pay your dues" is the cry of the exploiters who profit more from your labor than you do.

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#15

Post by zamadatix »

retrac wrote: post #5

> Current graduates are simply asking for their compensation to reflect the cost of living in the United States. If the entire GDP of the USA, after taxes, were simply taken (about $15 trillion) and equally distributed among the ~210 million working age adults of the United States, each would receive about $70,000 a year. If the 70 million university graduates were each paid a handsome and deserved $150,000 (hey, tha…

Real GDP per capita per year increases over time though, it's not some static number that must take from others for yours to grow, it's perfectly possible to increase the GDP to get your larger salary.

That said one needs to be realistic about it, is going to college really going to make you 3x more productive at 22 than if you didn't?

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#16

Post by jollyllama »

throwaway08642 wrote: post #9
throwayyy479087 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to - SF is trying to lower the local voting age to 16, so being able to do a bit of research shouldn't be too much to ask for an 18 year old.

I have an idea. We make it clear that students can sue educators who do not inform them about the stupidity of taking on too much debt at a young age, and make "An Introduction to College, Adult Life, and Debt" a mandatory semester in all High Schools.

Or we just do what we do with other "dangerous" products like alcohol or tobacco and ban it for people under 21.

Scary warning labels on all college correspondence would be a nice start. WARNING: MAY LEAD TO A LIFETIME OF DEBT SLAVERY

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#17

Post by IceMetalPunk »

I applied for my first career job (read: first job that wasn't "you don't get a living wage" retail, and which actually used my degree) 4 years ago. It's the job I'm currently still at. When I applied, it was for an entry level position at $35k. After the interview, I was offered a senior position instead for double that salary. Apparently, my current salary after 4 years of $81k is still on the low end for a senior app dev; go figure.

So on the one hand, expecting a six-figure job out of the gate is ridiculously naive.

On the other hand, over the past few months, I've gotten more and more tired of the very idea of money. Everything from "do you deserve to enjoy yourself?" down to "do you even deserve to live?" (and everything in between) is decided by how much money other people are willing to give you, meaning employers have a massive, slavery-like chokehold on employees. Meanwhile, most people don't even understand what fiat money is, but they're greedy about wanting it because under a certain amount, you suffer and die. Literally. Which only happens... because other people are greedy about money, too, for the same reasons. It's a vicious cycle. (BTW, the answer to "what is fiat money?" is "anything that represents a promise to complete a trade". That's all, it's just promises, but we treat it like it's a deity that we must worship lest it send its wrath upon us and kill us.)

Anyway, rant over for now.

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#18

Post by conro1108 »

rzazueta wrote: post #14

My town in the Bay Area has always been considered one of the more "affordable" options (which is why we live here). The estimated cost of living to do more than just survive here is roughly estimated to be about $96,000/yr. That factors in rent / mortgage, food, transportation, etc. So who are really the one's doing the poor estimating? The new college grads staring down the barrel of a career that will allow them t…

But "relatively affordable in the Bay Area" is still relatively very expensive nationally no?

Maybe the gap is just that the people surveyed overestimated their likelihood of working in a HCOL place (or the sample and/or population in question is legitimately biased toward that)

Re: Gen Z Is Overestimating the Average Starting Salary by $50K, Survey Finds

#19

Post by alephnerd »

My 2 cents as a Zellenial:

1. I've spent an hour trying to find this survey but cannot. My hunch is it's an online survey with questionable reproducibility (especially after looking at similar research produced by Clever)

2. I'm not too surprised by my college aged peers overestimataing average starting salaries. With the increase in CS/ECE students and a relatively small but vocal minority talking about 200K TC out of college, the rest of us assume assume this is a common entry level salary, when in reality compensation is well below that (on a separate note - I HATE the TC designation. that 200k TC is more like 140k/year when you factor in vesting). Heck, the CS program I went to is one of the best programs in the world and even they vocalized that their AVERAGE starting salary was in the 80-90k range, yet most of my peers never realized this.

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