Megan McArdle Profile picture
Aug 31, 2020 5 tweets 1 min read Read on X
My MBA class, the Class of 2001, had the worst job market experience of any class in living memory. (Yes, worse than the financial crisis). The Class of 2021 will probably outdo us. wsj.com/articles/m-b-a…
Before you ask, how could 2001 have done worse than the classes of 2008 or 2009?

Because companies that had fired whole associate classes found themselves, 5-8 years later, without the middle management layers they needed. In 2008, they resolved not to let that happen again.
2001 was hammered because we were right in the eye of Hurricane Stock Market Crash--the Class of 2000 got a year of relatively normal job experience and seniority when the layoffs started; 2002 got some warning. 2001 got hosed.
But 2021 is likely to do worse because they're not just dealing with an economic downturn; they're dealing with companies that don't want to start new employees remotely, for good reason: you can't socialize them into the company culture over Zoom.
So to the Class of 2021: Sorry, guys, it sucks. I've been there. Try to find some way to usefully occupy your time (mine was blogging). Maybe it will eventually turn into a job, as blogging did for me.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @asymmetricinfo

Mar 13
For whatever reason this post from 2022 went re-viral just as I was reading about various plans to make data more portable and it reminded me of how nerds simply cannot wrap their mind around the fact that most people simply do not want more granular control over their tech.
Many years ago, I unwisely embroiled myself in the Linux wars, making the same point over and over: end users do not want a more flexible, customizable system. They want to trade power for simplicity and convenience.
Linux-heads told me I Didn't Get It and would be Left Behind in Our Amazing Open Source Future, and they were wrong, not because they were dumb, but because they were too smart to comprehend the limitations of the average user.
Read 8 tweets
Feb 16
Bunch of people assuming that the reason I am harping on the Biden age issue is that I want him to lose to Donald Trump. This is wrong; I'm voting for Biden, or whoever the non-Trump candidate is.

So why am I talking about it? Three reasons.
First, Biden's obvious decline is a Thing That is True. My job is Saying Things That Are True (And Explaining What Follows). "Why are you saying this thing that is true?" is a dumb question to ask a journalist. It is particularly distressing when it comes from other journalists.
Second, even if I were inclined to pretend that the Thing That Is True is not in fact true, in order to improve Biden's chance of re-election, it wouldn't work. Folks who think they can make the issue go away if they just work the media refs hard enough are delusional.
Read 21 tweets
Jan 5
Conservatives who are reveling in Claudine Gay schadenfreude might pause to notice that Harvard eventually realized that protecting an insider who had violated institutional norms was destroying the institution, and course-corrected, while the GOP is still saddled with Trump.
This makes an excellent lead-in to my column on that very topic: how progressives trying to fend off conservative attacks on academia instead ending up aping their opponent's worst mistakes: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…
This episode was a giant embarassment for academia, and not a few progressive journalists, who started inventing new definitions of plagiarism, most of which boiled down to "Whatever Claudine Gay has not yet done".
Read 12 tweets
Oct 6, 2023
Well, Trump has endorsed Jim Jordan for Speaker, which should make things interesting, and provides a nice hook to discuss my column on why the Democrats made a mistake helping Gaetz oust McCarthy. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
As you might imagine this was very unpopular with my readers, who made various versions of the same arguments I was tackling in the column: that Republicans are bad, that they don't deserve Democratic help, that voters need to understand how bad they are.
And hey, I hear you. I am also very mad at GOP about a bunch of things. Not necessarily mad for all the same reasons--but you and I are united in our loathing of Trump, our feeling that GOP support of him is despicable, our dismay at the strength of the "burn it all down" caucus.
Read 29 tweets
Oct 4, 2023
Why your theory of how to punish Republicans out of acting bonkers is incorrect, a thread.
Here is the mental model of many people on Twitter today: "GOP is acting bonkers! They are demanding bad things! They reneged on their budget deal! They coddle Trump! We must punish them until they stop this outrageous behavior! Thus, help Gaetz vote out McCarthy!"
I get this mental model, and the sentiments behind it. But for structural reasons, it's almost certain to fail.

First, as noted elsewhere, "tit for tat" is a very viscerally appealing strategy that often works--but its failure mode is "blood feud".

washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-c…
Read 16 tweets
Sep 20, 2023
So @AlyssaRosenberg and I both wrote columns today about work by @kearney_melissa and @BradWilcoxIFS about the importance of family structure to kids.

SPOILER ALERT: It's really important. Specifically, two parent families are important--which in the US, means marriage.
@AlyssaRosenberg and I agree on a lot, but she focused on policy and framing--how liberals might build on the victories of the gay marriage movement by talking about access to marriage rather than what feels like finger wagging, and what sorts of policies they might pursue.
This is related to the approach Nicholas Kristof took in an excellent column last week, in which he chided liberals for ignoring the benefits of two parent families, then pointed out all the liberal policies that could help: nytimes.com/2023/09/13/opi…
Read 26 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(