Harvard Graduate Is Now Jobless And Living At Home With His Parents — ‘I Thought A Harvard Degree Would Be My Golden Ticket’
He expected his prestigious degree to take him further.
bodnar.photo | Shutterstock Harvard University is typically associated with prestige and success. The list of notable alumni is neverending, including former presidents like Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, businessmen like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg, and countless other successful individuals.
A person who is struggling to even kickstart their career with little in the way of finances is not usually what comes to mind when thinking about the school. Yet, that’s the exact situation one recent Harvard graduate found himself in.
The Harvard graduate is jobless and living at home with his parents.
“I can’t believe I’m even writing this, but here I am — a recent Harvard graduate with a 3.94 GPA, back in New York City, jobless and living with my parents,” the young man explained.
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The Harvard graduate said that he got his bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Theater, Dance, and Media on a full-ride scholarship.
“I thought having that Harvard degree would be a golden ticket out of the middle class and open all kinds of doors," he admitted, "but right now, it feels useless."
The graduate explained that because of a late-in-the-game change in direction — from screenwriting to finance — he felt behind his peers.
“I ended up shifting my focus toward consulting and finance, but I feel like I was already too late to the game by the time I started applying seriously,” he wrote. “Everyone else had their internships lined up, their networking done and I was scrambling to catch up.”
“Now, it’s been months since graduation, and I’ve sent what feels like hundreds of emails to alumni, fired off LinkedIn messages to anyone who might be able to help and I’ve gotten next to no responses,” he said with disappointment.
The man’s job search has been so futile that he even tried to get a fast food job, to no avail.
“I’m desperate enough that I’ve even applied to Starbucks and McDonald’s, but they straight-up rejected me for being overqualified,” he wrote.
“And yes, I know I should’ve done things differently. I should’ve networked more, or I should’ve started earlier on the job search. I should’ve chosen a STEM major. Maybe I should’ve tried harder to get into those clubs but none of that helps me now.”
The graduate admitted that he's embarrassed to be back at home and living with his parents but "can’t even complain publicly because a Harvard [graduate is] supposed to [be] able to just get doors wide open for them.”
A Harvard education does not automatically equal immense success.
In a world where the job market has become so competitive, having a degree from Harvard doesn’t hold the shine that it once did.
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A post from Financial Samurai boldly declared, “An Ivy League education is no longer the golden ticket,” directly contradicting what this Reddit poster assumed.
Sam Dogen, the creator of Financial Samurai, explained that “if you went to an elite university, the expectation is that you will go on to do great things.” However, “we only hear about famous people who went to Harvard.”
Dogen noted that Harvard is one of the most famous colleges in the world and, because of that, we tend to assume the people who go there do exceptional things. But, the truth is, most Harvard graduates lead perfectly normal lives and careers. Unfortunately, normal by today's standard means struggling in the job search.
In fact, recent data shows that a majority, 52%, of recent four-year college graduates are unemployed a year after graduation.
This man is really not an outlier in any way. He’s just another recent college graduate who has had trouble finding a job.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.