Career Track Live

The Washington area is a magnet for smart, ambitious young workers. Post columnist Mary Ellen Slayter writes a regular column for these professionals who are establishing their careers locally, and offers advice online as well.

The transcript follows below.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Mary Ellen Slayter: Good morning, everyone!

Yesterday's column was about the Annie E. Casey Foundation report that found more young people are "disconnected" these days, neither working nor in school. I was a bit upset with the way some newspaper articles about the report characterized the young adults in question. Mostly, I felt like the rise in the number of people in this category was due to a dearth of opportunities, not laziness. Did any of you read the study? What do you think?

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North Carolina: I'm looking to relocate to the Maryland, DC area. Do employers really consider people out of state? I feel more comfortable getting a job first, then moving. Is that the best way or should I just make the move and then find a job?

Mary Ellen Slayter: It depends on the type of job you're looking for. Generally, the more high-level the position, the harder it will be to find a job AND the more likely employers will consider out-of-state candidates, so in that case, I would recommend searching from there. If you're looking for, say, admin work, you could more easily get away with moving here without a job already lined up. Make a few phone calls to recruiters in the area and see what the prospects look like in your field.

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Blogs as writing samples: What's your take on this? If, say, my blog caters more to the field I'm interested in (travel journalism - I kept a blog for a year while living abroad) than my academic writing samples, how do you think a potential employer would react?

Mary Ellen Slayter: I'd say you better make d*mn sure you've never said anything on your blog that might offend a prospective employer. Watch the ewwwwwwww factor. If your blog contains a lot of personal details about your love life and such, I'd be hesitant to advertise it. Ultimately, the blog, I think, could be a cool thing to bring up in an interview, especially if you designed the site yourself and the writing is professional quality, but I wouldn't rely on it as my formal writing sample.

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queens, new york: Dear Mary Ellen -

I moved to NYC to start a new job at the beginning of May. For the past few weeks, I have already started to feel burned out, but I don't even know why. I like the people, I find the work very interesting and it makes good use of my degrees. But I feel physically tired when I get up to go to work, whether I sleep a lot or not, and headachy and weepy at times. Any advice on how to better examine the situation and how to go about fixing it? Thanks.

Mary Ellen Slayter: I'd start with a good basic checkup with a doctor, to rule out any physical problems that could be dragging you down.

However, I suspect it's just the transition into the daily grind/routine of New York. You haven't been there long. Basically, just long enough that the thrill of moving to a new city and getting a new job has worn off, revealing how tired all that excitement can make you.

Make sure you get enough sleep, exercise and good food, and just ride it out for a few more months.

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Washington, DC: Graduating college is difficult because you are going from the peak of your intellectual identity, where you write hundred page papers and are expected by professors to submit the most flawless work. Then, as you enter the job market, you have to act enthusiatic about answering the telephone and filing mail, just to get you foot in the door. So i think that graduates today aren't lazy at all, in fact the opposite. With so many more people graduating college, you have to work harder just to compete for the admin. asst. jobs.

Mary Ellen Slayter: I don't think young people are lazy either. I think sometimes our expectations about what life is like after graduation are totally off the mark, but that's another matter.

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St. Louis, MO: I thought the article did a good job of outlining the reasons why many of these "disconnected" youth are not in the workplace. I wouldn't limit their absence to lack of work opportunities, but the expense of school. Higher education costs are out of control and not getting any better. And, for those who are educated, there is an increasing pressure to attend graduate school at astronomical costs (i.e. I am a typical DC gov't attorney w/$150K in student loan debt).

Mary Ellen Slayter: Exactly! Student loan burdens have been skyrocketing over the past 15 years, to cover ridiculous increases in tuition. It's especially bad lately as state governments have made deep cuts into higher education funding to balance lopsided budgets. Guess who pays for these "savings"? We do, in the form of higher student loan payments for the first 20 years of our careers. Some "savings," huh?

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Silver Spring: I'm sure you've answered this before.....but what is Agronomy? I see that is what your degree was in. What sort of classes do you take in that program? Just curious.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Agronomy is soil science. I studied dirt. We have very good dirt in Louisiana!

I was interested in environmental science, and the agronomy program was the best way to study wetlands at LSU. I took a lot of chemistry and statistics classes. I also got to spend a lot of time hanging out in the Gulf of Mexico. For a good part of my senior year, my classes involved going out in boats every weekend. My mother would tell people I was majoring in "fishing."

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Blog as writing sample: I would be concerned if a prospective employee considered a diary entry to be a professional writing sample, because many blogs are just that, a personal diary. If the candidate wanted to use the blog as an inspiration for a piece, by all means. But a blog as a final product would make me re-consider a candidate.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Yeah, that's what I am thinking, too. Some blogs are so well-written that they are elevated to the level of "serious" writing, but those usually involve a layer of editing.

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Pentagon City, VA: How does one break out of the admin cycle? I've been working as an admin for the past 8 years while putting mysef through college part-time. I will finally graduate in the spring and am wondering how to best find a job in another line of wrok when all of my experience has been as an admin. assistant? I have complete respect for admins and the work that we do, however, now that I am finally approaching graduation, I would like to seek new opportunities. It seems that having "admin" on your resume is like a brand and it is very tough to get people to consider you for anything else.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Well, the first question is what kind of work DO you want to do? Between now and graduation you need to make some decisions about your focus, and line up an internship or two. The truth is, though, that the jobs that most recent college grads are qualified for are essentially admin work.

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Arlington, VA: As someone who spent the last nine years working on her undergraduate and graduate degrees as a 20-30 something, I have noticed that the expectations of "traditional" college students have of the working world are often unrealistic. Many expect outrageous salaries and don't realize that most employers will start you as low as possible. Also, some have really pompous attitudes about what kind of work they absolutely will not do, and in hearing them talk, I know the jobs they want are going to require some of that "scut work" to get where they eventually want to be. As difficult as college can be, the real world is much harder. No wonder I've seen a lot of regular college students roll right into graduate school after their first 4 years---keeps 'em away from the realities for a bit longer.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Sometimes it's entitlement, sometimes it's fear.

Also, we have to consider where they got the information about what salaries and job conditions to expect. TV, movies, etc. sure aren't accurate.

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Bethesda, MD: I read the report. I do feel opportunities exist but the disconnected youth do not know how to access them

Mary Ellen Slayter: Very good point. Especially for the most at-risk kids, there's a real shortage of role models to guide them through this transition. Even filling out the financial aid forms can seem daunting to a 17-year-old, no matter how motivated they are.

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admin again: That's the problem! - I can't be an intern because I need to support myself. People that have to put themselves through college are at a very big disadvantage to studetns whose parents support them. I am already behind the game because it's taken me so long to get through school part-time, not to mention I'm pretty exhausted. I can't just quit my job for an internship that pays nothing or minimum wage. If I could, I wouldn't be in this situation. I even realize I'm quite lucky because my company now only hires admins with degrees already. I got my job years ago when the job economy was hot. I probably couldn't even get my job in today's market.

I'd like to work in intelligence, perhaps the CIA or FBI. I work for an intelligence analyst now and have a clearance.

Mary Ellen Slayter: One, an internship isn't necessarily unpaid, but I hear you about the disadvantage that system puts poor/working class students at.

If you have a good relationship with your supervisor, talk to him or her! Say, hey, I am graduating next year and here's what I am interested in doing after that. What do you think I need to do to make this happen?

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Metro Area: I have received 2 job offers after a long serach. While I am very relieved, I now have the unpleasant task of turning someone down that I received a written offer from. I wanted to take the job but the second offer was better. How should I go about this when they fully expect me to accept.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Politely and quickly. And in writing.

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Admin Cycle: A great way to break out of the admin cycle and get substantial experience in your area is to work for a non-profit. I've found that many non-profits and associations (there are a gazillion in DC and VA) hire relatively new grads because the salary is usually pretty low, but the up side is that you get way more responsibility right off the bat. For instance, I had a poli sci degree and got hired as a "Manager of Public Awareness" for a 12-person nonprofit. Manager sounds great on a resume, and my responsibilities were large (but nothing I couldn't handle). Then, 2 years later, I could put "handled all public awareness activities for national association" on my resume and it was a great stepping stone up the ladder.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Good suggestion!

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Washington, DC: Hi Mary Ellen!

I'm looking to leave my awful teaching job here in D.C. for a school in the suburbs, and I'm already had four interviews, and have another lined up for Wednesday. Yay! Some of the schools, though, indicated that I should "be in touch" so I'm wondering how long I should wait before contacting them. Also, I've really liked all the schools, but two more than the others. If a school should (hopefully!) offer me a job, can I ask for a day or two to think about it? I want to make sure I'm making the right decision, but I don't want to seem uninterested. Thanks for your help!

Mary Ellen Slayter: Immediately after the interview, send thank-you notes to the people you met with. Then check in after a week, maybe?

Yes, you should be able to take a few days to consider an offer.

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Silver Spring, MD: Financial aid forms, I have a friend whose father refused to fill out his part. She eventually took night classes at community college, but does not have a bachelor's degree. Parents should not be able to keep their youth out of college! But as Alfred Lubrano pointed out, some parents really want to do that. PS-thank you so much for having him recently!

Mary Ellen Slayter: He is the awesom-est, isn't he?

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Re: your financial aid comment: Besides making confusing forms, the FAFSA bunch has not kept up with the times in regard to who pays for college. Most financial aid offices are required to include your parents' financial info until you are 23 or 24 even if your parents are not helping you pay for college. This gives financial aid officers a skewed view of how much a student can afford out of pocket.

Mary Ellen Slayter: Right. But I also see why schools do this. Otherwise, I'm sure you'd have tons of middle and upper-class kids claiming their parents don't give them any money.

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Our viewpoint: As a 20-something recent college graduate, I know that my friends and I were all disillusioned. This was because we graduated from a top school, where all of us had held leadership positions and internships that gave us a great deal of responsibility. To go from running a group of 100+ volunteers or managing your own internship projects, to answering phones and ordering supplies, is indeed a huge letdown. I actually think high school and colleges help contribute to the problem because activities and internships are beaten into your head so that you "succeed" and "get a good job after graduation". But since everyone else does it, there's no competitive advantage and you end up competing with similarly highly talented people for the same assistant positions. What most people my age don't realize is that even if you are stuck in a job like that, it's up to YOU to improve your lot and try to get ahead. It's those that just complain that make us look whiny and too big for our britches. Just my opinion. . .

Mary Ellen Slayter: Very, very good points.

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recent graduates: I haven't read the report that you cited in Sunday's article, but I'd be curious to see what they say young adults ARE doing. From my perspective, I wonder whether many of the starter "jobs" available nowadays get tracked by traditional employment records that are kept by the gov. and business types. So many people right out of college (and grad school) are working internships, fellowships, contract employment - a lot of that stuff just doesn't show up in statistics as being employed. For example, for 2 1/2 years after receiving my masters degree I was employed through various fellowship programs....1 1/2 years of that was actually a real job that was just called a fellowship (it was easier for the employer to bring me on as a fellow, but I had the same exact responsibilies as a real employee). However, I don't think that I actually showed up in federal job statistics as 'employed' - if I had been laid off, I couldn't collect unemployment...and it had all sorts of weird tax implications. I didn't have a permanent job in my field with benefits until I was 29, even though I'd been working since I've was out of college at age 21 - probably had less than 6 weeks of down time (no work or school) during that 8 year period, which encompassed about 12 different jobs, internships, or fellowships in 6 states.

Mary Ellen Slayter: The report did not limit its data to the unemployment figures to track whether young people worked. There are other measures. As I pointed out in the column, this group is the hardest to track unemployment for, since it's not like they had jobs to begin with.

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Arlington, VA: Admin intern wannabe. DOD, FBI and CIa all offer paid internships. There are some at the under grad level and more at the grad level.
You usually apply for them in early winter. You have a clearance so you have an advantage. Also check Cneter for Naval Analysis and Institute for Defense Analysis.

Mary Ellen Slayter: One last bit of advice for our would-be intelligence worker.

See you all next Monday!

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