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Eastern Michigan University gave Sam Fanning a degree in network and information-technology administration last December. A month later, after he couldn't find work, it gave him a job as a custodian in the student center.
Mr. Fanning feels fortunate to be working in a unionized job with benefits. As he toils to make monthly $500 payments on his student loan, he is able to chuckle about his situation. But it isn't the future he envisioned for himself.
Q. Why did you decide to take this job?
A. I took it because I couldn't get any other job.
Q. What did you do to look for work?
A. I was looking for work while I was still in school. Maybe three or four months before I graduated, I started searching. ... I was checking all the job-search places and looking around locally to see if anyone was hiring. I looked at a lot of the universities in the area. Borders's headquarters is nearby, mostly larger places like that. I had one interview, but they chose someone else.
Q. Are you still looking?
A. I've just started looking again recently, but once I got the job at the university, I stopped looking, because I planned to get a couple more certifications. Once I found out I could go to grad school, I thought maybe I'll take a break and do that. [Eastern Michigan offers free tuition to its employees.]
Q. Do you wear a uniform?
A. Well, I don't have it yet, but I'm supposed to.
Q. How much are you paid?
A. I started out at $13.01 an hour.
Q. That doesn't sound terrible for just getting out of school.
A. I knew that that was probably the best nonskilled job that I could get. It's unionized, so we have a little better pay, and I also have benefits. I get sick and vacation time. I have a 401(k) that they contribute to. I also get pretty decent health care. And the tuition-assistance benefit is pretty good.
Q. Describe a typical day.
A. I work the midnight shift, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., so it's a lot of deep cleaning. ... I go through and clean bathrooms, and I'm in charge of cleaning one of the floors of the building as well.
Q. Do you ever run into any of your old classmates?
A. No, I don't, because most of them are graduated as well, although I do see some people I know.
Q. How do they treat you?
A. They're aware of my situation. I don't think anyone looks down on me, because everyone who is graduating or is close to graduation is probably thinking the same thing.
Q. Like "Can you get me a job, too?"
A. Yeah.
Q. Do your professors know you're there?
A. One of them does. Most of the core classes in my major were taught by one professor. I communicate with him once in a while. ... While I was an undergrad, he told me about [unpaid] internship positions.
Q. Did you take any of those internships?
A. I wasn't able to, because when I was an undergrad I was working close to 30 hours a week and going to school full time.
Q. What's the worst mess you've ever had to clean up?
A. It could be pretty graphic [laughs]. Some of the stuff happens regularly, so I'm sort of desensitized to it, like [feces] that's caked on the toilet bowls, things like that.
The worst occurrence I've ever had was one day when there was a large event. Someone had dropped a baby diaper on the carpeted floor and smeared it in. I got a radio call about it. I went up there, and there were tons of people standing around gawking, making comments. I just got really angry. I wanted to quit that day. It smelled terrible, it was stuck in the carpet, it was terrible to clean up. ... Some people were just standing there laughing about it.
Q. What's next for you?
A. I feel like this is the biggest decision-making time of my life right now. I have so many things I could do, but it's hard to decide which one's the right one. I'm definitely applying to grad school. I'm also trying to look for jobs. But I don't know if it's a good idea to take a job. My education would be free, and I think that eventually anyone who wants to have some upward mobility probably goes back to school at some point in their life.
Q. What's your debt right now?
A. I have about $35,000 taken out. It's not bad compared to some people, but looking back, I think I could have done more to reduce the debt. I took out a little extra some semesters, and I always ended up spending it instead of paying it back like I should have. I also initially had a scholarship if I could keep my GPA above 3.5, and it dropped to a 3.45, so I lost that. I didn't really think a lot of it at the time, but that would have really added up. I think it was three grand a year.
Q. Have you considered moving?
A. I've considered it. [He is locked into an apartment lease, though a sublet is possible.] I'd like to look out of state, but right now I almost feel like I'm sort of worse off, because in a year I haven't really worked with any IT. I don't have any on-the-job experience. When I apply for those jobs, it's sort of hard for me to feel legitimate. I consider myself a really quick learner. I can excel in that sort of environment given some time, but I feel I'd be a detriment at first.
Q. What has this experience done to your confidence?
A. I'm not really too bent out of shape about it. I know that one of the things I should have had was some real-life work experience when I was an undergrad, and I was unable to get that. There are some reasons why I don't have a job right now. I don't feel incompetent. I just feel like my potential isn't being used.
He can avoid paying the $500 in student loans if he stays enrolled in school at least half time at an accredited institution. (I work in financial aid, and have an MBA in Finance can't you tell?). If his university offers a tuition waiver for being an employee, then he is in a perfect position to take a few classes in an effort to postpone re-payment of his student loans. If not, then figure out, a) the cost of attending half time out-of-pocket per semester vs. b) paying a semester's-lengthworth of student loans. If a < b, then stay enrolled! Hope this helps you buddy! Be patient! That IT job is out there, they just haven't found you yet! Questions? Email me! Letamend@nova.edu
13. karls14 - October 19, 2010 at 10:18 am
As a Fulbrighter working at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina last year, I encountered numerous Egyptian university grads who found themselves in situations achingly similar to Mr. Fanning's--with the distinction that they were unlikely EVER to work in their chosen fields. People with BAs, BSs and even Master's degrees were, ten to fifteen years after graduating, driving cabs, collecting trash, or working as service employees in hotels at subsistence wages. In a stagnant economy with huge disparities in wealth, a university education is still viewed in that country as the only way to improve one's prospects. However, from my experience there, such a hope seems increasingly vain and unrealistic. I trust that such a scenario is not in our collective future and, more immediately, that it is not in Mr. Fanning's.