How not to get a job

By now, you have probably heard about the college grad who couldn't get a job and decided to sue her college to get back tuition fees. The argument being put forth is that the college didn't do enough to assist her in getting a job (and not that the college should have guaranteed her a job after graduation).

Of course, without actually knowing what the college agreed with her or how the college markets itself, its not possible to accurately comment on the complaint. However, looking at her quotes in the CNN article and also at how she completed the court filing does tell us a couple of things.

"any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record."
er ... no.

A 2.7 grade-point average is just that - average. She didn't get particularly good grades, doesn't seem to have any other qualifications worth talking about (at least, the article didn't talk about any other qualifications) and she thinks "any reasonable employer would pounce" on her?

She is dreaming. Even in a good economy (never mind the shitty economy we are in now where people who actually have good grades and other qualifications are having trouble finding jobs), she wouldn't be considered a top catch. She may get a job, but employers would definitely NOT be pouncing on her.

"They're supposed to say, 'I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right -- can you interview this person?"
Is this meant to be a joke? She seriously thinks that the college should call up all prospective employers in their list and ask them if they want to interview a particular individual with average grades?

The reality is that the college probably isn't even doing this for people with good grades. Logistically, its just not feasible to call up every employer on their list to do this. Bear in mind that if they do it for her, they have to do it for every one of their students.

Also, by mentioning her good attendance first, does this mean that she thinks her key selling point is her attendance? Seriously? You think people should hire you because you will turn up? I can see that going down well in an interview...

"But no more than two employers have responded to her outreach, and those leads have borne no fruit"
In other words, you sent out your CVs and even though two potential employers responded, neither of them thought you were worth hiring.

The only real responsibility of the career advancement office should be to highlight opportunities to students and give advice to students on CV's, interviews etc. I have no idea if she took advantage of the career office other than to locate job openings as the article doesn't mention this. In any event, it looks like she had her chance and blew it.

"It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned."
So? A degree doesn't get you a nice high paying job. All it does is make you comparable to the thousands upon thousands of other people with degrees so that you have a chance of landing a job which, when combined with additional experience and/or other qualifications, will ultimately give you a chance of landing a nice high paying job.

Just because you got a degree doesn't give you the right to anything - not even an interview. All it does is give you a chance that you wouldn't have without the degree.

"did not make sure their monroe e-recruiting clients call the graduates that recently finished college for a interview"
My response to this is similar to the second point above. Why does she expect that the college should guarantee that she gets an interview? This is just ridiculous.

Comment response
Despite the silliness of the complaint as it appears to be, the incredible thing is that there are a lot of comments being posted in various forums in support of her (although, to be fair, the overwhelming majority of comments are people laughing at her). It seems that quite a few people are disenfranchised with how college's in the USA advertise themselves.

Again, to reiterate, I've not seen any of the actual ads myself. However, from a common sense point of view, I just can't believe that these ads are actually giving a guarantee that people who graduate with a degree will get a nice high paying job. The only thing that you can guarantee is that, if you don't get a degree, you will find it unbelievably hard to get a nice high paying job.

My overall view
In case its not clear, I think this is just a waste of time lawsuit brought about by someone with a sad sense of entitlement. Judging from the number of comments in support of her, there are quite a few people with a similar sense of entitlement. Here's a life lesson for you - Get over yourself, the World doesn't owe you a single damn thing! Having said that, it is worth repeating that the overwhelming majority of comments seem to be derisory.

The second point which occurs to me is that, after lodging this lawsuit, does she seriously think that any reasonable employer would ever hire her? If I was the employer, as soon as I saw her application and ran her name in Google and saw this frivolous lawsuit, I wouldn't touch her with a 10 foot bargepole.