Ganging up on a millennial

Millennials had a rough week on The Times’ letters page.

In addition to the handful of responses Thursday agreeing with the editorial that criticized student leaders at UC Santa Barbara for calling on professors to flag any potentially distressful class material, recent college graduate Emily Koss’ Op-Ed article lamenting her plight as an “over-educated nanny” after 18 years of school didn’t draw much sympathy. Those readers whose letters were printed Wednesday faulted Koss for failing to research the job market before deciding what to study.

Some thought the criticism was too much. Six readers rose to Koss’ defense, saying her critics were too harsh and ignored market realities; one reader responded by offering more criticism. Here are some of their letters.

-- Paul Thornton, letters editor

Phil Brimble of Los Angeles says there are factors beyond Koss’ control:

Koss’ critics don’t tell us what their majors were and how their career paths went, but they all seem to think Koss should have just chosen a major that would make her money.

In the “old days” that these vitriolic folks seem to hearken back to, college was about getting an education, and fields of work were open to thoughtful people. Whether a major would make you money wasn’t the only consideration.

I’m retired, but even I know that there are plenty of smart young people who are unemployed and under-employed due to our disastrous economy, not because of their “irresponsibility.”

Los Angeles resident Charles E. Berezin hits back at the empathy-challenged:

I suppose it is only to be expected that the empathy-challenged crowd would fault the over-educated nanny for choosing a liberal arts major. Why study the classics when you could major in accounting?

Koss should have known that the most lucrative professions are those that make money for the rich, the “job creators.” To the empathy-challenged crowd, it’s the job of the rich to determine everyone’s priorities.

Susan Wiczynski of La Jolla has some advice for Koss:

The two main reasons people go to college are to learn a skill and to learn more about something that interests them. One who indulges in the latter, as I did, must be prepared for the obvious consequences.

What Koss misses is that liberal-arts majors can use their low-paying jobs to learn marketable skills. As a nanny, Koss can learn about event organization, personal care, meal preparation, negotiation and people management.

I worked for $6 an hour in a deli after I graduated from an Ivy League school. I worked my way up to a restaurant manager job, which was my springboard to regional food service sales. I saved my bonuses and eventually bought a small company that I ran for nine years and sold for seven figures.

It isn’t any harder finding your first job after college now than it was in the ‘80s, and the expectation that lucrative work will just fall into your lap is ludicrous.

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