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    KristenfromMAHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:48am

    University of Phoenix, a reputable school

    Nope.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendKristenfromMA
      2/20/14 11:55am

      I know many people in retail that have gone the University of Phoenix route, it's like managers get kickbacks for signing people up or something, it was such a part of the culture at Target. I think it's easy to get sucked in when you hear the company offers a discount and others are also "going" to that school.

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      areacelebrityKristenfromMA
      2/20/14 11:56am

      Just one of the interesting tidbits from that story...

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    JohnMcClanesSmirkHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 12:00pm

    I cannot afford an education but that didn't stop me from taking on $40,000 more debt in the hopes that once I graduate someone hires me.

    This statement right here really broke my already bitter liberal heart. It really is just so sad and exploitative. In the 90s, corporatist forces both inside and outside the government, led the way in gutting public education so it, like all other aspects of our life, could be flipped for profit. Now, to win over these same forces and get a half-way decent job we have to go out and feed this same profit center to the tune of 40k. Going further in debt, growing more and more insecure.

    This system, of course, can't sustain itself. Its neither economically or morally tenable. A fact made all the most vulgar when one considers the collective wealth of the Walton family could pay for our man's tuition for 2.5 million years.

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      kyngfishJohnMcClanesSmirk
      2/20/14 12:14pm

      It gets worse. In my field, I'm basically screwed on too much upward mobility until I get my MBA. To give you a bit of perspective, in Miami there are two major MBA programs for working professionals, University of Miami, which carries a bit more weight, and FIU. The cheaper one, FIU is still 63,000. Which makes spending the extra 20k for the UM MBA kind of a no-brainer. Either way I'm saddled with a ridiculous amount of debt.

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      DCcommenterJohnMcClanesSmirk
      2/20/14 12:26pm

      He also could have chosen to go to a local school or community college that offers in-state tuition, for much less than what he's spent at University of Phoenix.

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    The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabyStepsHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:47am

    I am not trying to be mean to this person but I wonder what their politics were when they were raking in the $12,000 to $38,000 monthly commissions.

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      swannysezThe Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabySteps
      2/20/14 11:54am

      How does their - or anyone's - politics figure into this?

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      areacelebrityThe Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabySteps
      2/20/14 11:55am

      ...any why he could not pay off a 750K home while making that much for 12 years.

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    aismoHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:43am

    "macroeconomic pressures"… so does that mean the economy is bad (and they may do shitty) or the economy is good (and they'll do shitty since people will go other places)?

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      Hamilton Nolanaismo
      2/20/14 11:46am

      Basically Walmart is so huge and pervasive that things that affect the lower sector of the economy inevitably affect its shoppers. Like changes in food stamp benefits, gas prices, employment rates, etc.

      This also provides WM with a convenient reason for any underperformance.

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      Exponential GrapeHamilton Nolan
      2/20/14 11:53am

      It seems like Walmart has positioned themselves as "too big to fail." They can end supplier's businesses on a whim. They can move into a town, put everyone out of business then fail and create a ghost town overnight.

      If Walmart were to get into some sort of financial trouble, I'd imagine it could have a serious effect on the world's economy.

      How are they not violating anti-trust laws? They seem to be operating under the same model as big oil and big steel, lower prices under the competition, get such a wide buyer base that they have the leverage to strangle suppliers.

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    FUCK YOU I'M WORKING FROM HOMEHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:48am

    I'm going to be a douche and ask, albeit in earnest: is University of Phoenix Online truly a reputable school? I thought it was a for-profit mill.

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      김치전!FUCK YOU I'M WORKING FROM HOME
      2/20/14 11:53am

      I think it's kind of a stretch to call it reputable, although it's the most reputable of its kind. That said, I look at someone who's actually managed to graduate from Phoenix with a fair amount of respect — Phoenix's dropout rate is more than 90%, so if somebody graduates, that's a testament to their perseverance and ability to work independently.

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      PipeSmokingGal김치전!
      2/20/14 12:04pm

      I commend you for that but I'm sure you'd agree there exists hiring officers who'd see that name and crumple, or click into the trash it goes. Do you remember the commenter a few months ago who said she trashed resumes if the person had an unusual or "ghetto" sounding name?

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    RealAmurricanHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:51am

    Cue the comments that are solely focused on taking her down for spending/saving irresponsibly, and passionately defending their right to purchase shitty imported goods to save $1.85 on their new waffle iron.

    Pay no attention to the fact that we're racing to the bottom, and that despite her skillset and work ethic, she can't find a position that will allow her to move off of government assistance, spend a little bit of money to help drive our consumer-driven economy, and enjoy a decent quality of life.

    America, Fuck Yeah!

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      Chubby_NemoRealAmurrican
      2/20/14 12:14pm

      I do sympathize and empathize so it's not that. It's the fact at how much money they were making before. Everyone criticizes middle-class families for living beyond their means when the houses came down. This was a really rich person living beyond their means so that's why I have a hard time feeling bad for them. I did everything right and still have a hard time making ends meet. Should I feel bad for someone that really messed up—like super rich messed up?

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      ObliteratiChubby_Nemo
      2/20/14 12:44pm

      We have no idea from the available information if this person was really rich.

      It sounds like 2009 was a really good year for them, but they could have been making peanuts for the rest of the time. Which would be typical. People slave away for years, then through luck or skill come into a windfall and naively believe that it's a new paradigm and that's their new baseline. Happens all the time.

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    KaiFromDogtownHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:55am

    The turnover rate at most stores is about 45% per month.

    Holy Shit! This has got to be for all employees, right, and not just management? In any case, it seems very high to me. I wonder how it compares to their competitors.

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      TimF101KaiFromDogtown
      2/20/14 12:04pm

      The number is wrong. Wal Mart has ~45% turnover per year, not per month. For comparison the average annual turnover at Costco is about 6%.

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      ARP2KaiFromDogtown
      2/20/14 12:08pm

      Doesn't matter.

      WMT management's job is to keep costs down and sell a lot of stuff. People who work at a place too long have higher salaries and need to get cut, even if they're more helpful, productive, etc.

      Re: selling more stuff- they rely on their prices and driving out mom and pops to take care of that issues. In addition, by doing that, they drive down wages, and more people need to shop at their stores.

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    sighingloudlyHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:54am

    I don't know who I hate more, Wal-Mart for treating its employees like shit or the diploma mill University of Phoenix for giving good, hardworking people like this writer the impression that it's a reputable educational organization. I hope the writer's situation improves, but University of Phoenix on a resume can do more harm than good. $40,000 of debt for a piece of meaningless paper is not worth it. As someone still paying off student loans, I get it. School is expensive. But hear me now poor, returning older students like I once was: get your pre-reqs or core classes done at a community college and make sure they transfer to a regionally-accredited university in the program you want to pursue. You will still have to take out loans, but it will cut your costs way down. Do your research! That said, the writer can make an excellent argument for their managerial skills, so hopefully someone will notice they can write a hell of a cover letter highlighting their abilities.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendsighingloudly
      2/20/14 12:01pm

      I think people in retail turn to online classes so often because to work and move up (and even to be scheduled full time) an employee must be available 100% (maybe 80% if you are lucky) and when availability isn't fully open because of things like school or needing to care for your children the store usually pays you back by cutting your hours citing your lack of availability as the reason.

      Vicious circle of retail hell.

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      sizor_sistersighingloudly
      2/20/14 12:24pm

      I think you're missing part of the point. A lot of business/organizations require certain degrees to move up in the hierarchy. When I worked in government HR, the school didn't really matter. I saw a lot UoP degrees from people who were just moving up the ladder. We just needed to see that they had a BA, MA, or whatever. It was really just another box to check on the job requirements list. A lot of them weren't competing with other applicants like you would when you are applying for a job, they were just working on getting promotions and jobs that there was little competition for.

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    Montauk MonsterHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:52am

    Every management position I applied for required at least a Bachelor's degree. I have an Associate's degree.

    So so so so so stupid. Is it some kind of HR filter that prevents people with less than a Bachelor's from having a decent shot at a job in these positions? I've got zero sales or management experience but I do have a Bachelor's, so according to these places I'm somehow more qualified than the letter writer? That is absolutely nuts.

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      ARP2Montauk Monster
      2/20/14 12:04pm

      Lot's of factors:

      1) Poor jobs market- if you can get 200 people with bachelors to apply for a low paying job, why not ask.
      2) Letting HR policy dictate qualifications.
      3) Cost savings- it's cheaper to require a certain degree, GPA, keywords, etc. and let the resume scanning software filter, rather than have people review resumes for the combination of experience and education that best meets the position.
      4) Degree inflation- everyone is getting a bachelor's so why not ask for one.
      5) Our crappy educational system- not preparing people in high school to do a job. The fact that a person needs to get a BA/BS to be able to string a few thoughts together is a bit sad.

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      Indeed123Montauk Monster
      2/20/14 12:06pm

      I think it is a function of how many applicants there are. You need artificial filters to stand in as rough proxies for job qualifications in order to reduce the cost of reviewing resumes. Of course these artificial stand ins will be wrong some times (bad applicants meet these qualifications, some good applicants don't), but the volume of applications is too massive not to use them.

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    KaiFromDogtownHamilton Nolan
    2/20/14 11:52am

    Every management position I applied for required at least a Bachelor's degree. I have an Associate's degree.


    That's a problem.

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      JohnMcClanesSmirkKaiFromDogtown
      2/20/14 12:04pm

      Thus the $40,000 commitment to get a bachelors.

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      KaiFromDogtownJohnMcClanesSmirk
      2/20/14 12:07pm

      I was actually referring to the fact that he couldn't be hired with just his Associates, particularly given his prior work experience.

      As to the $40k spent at the University of Phoenix, however, it's not clear to me that this was a particularly good investment on his part.

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