I've seen several people in my department come in as the admin and get promoted up - me, two of our sales team, and our research manager all started out in the same admin position and got promoted out of it.

I freely admit that the industry I work in tends to like "new blood" and flash names (for the industry), so people get stuck at the bottom/middle a lot.

I think everyone's individual experience colors the way they view other people's choices. I'm just saying I can see some circumstances that may have led to the kid turning down the job.

There's also an opportunity cost to taking something that is a poor fit. There was a job that was only nominally close to my area, not great pay, but not really worth it to basically work in what amounts, in my line, to an assembly line. I agonized over not taking it, because it was getting dire for us, and then shortly after I interviewed and got this job, and I am so happy here that I'm actually sad some days when it's the weekend or holiday, and I'm off.

I turned down the first job that was offered to me out of college, actually -- it was a highly-paid (relatively speaking) admin job, and I could tell that the other admins there were miserable but felt trapped because of the money. And I knew I didn't want to be an admin for my career.

When I graduated from college within two months my parents were pushing me to get a job, any job. I was living at home and not paying rent, but I was also pretty much running the house (laundry, cleaning, dishes, etc.). And, at the time, almost any job for a woman would involve typing. I didn't do well in NYC, so I moved to DC and grabbed the first job I was offered. I soon came to hate it, was miserable - was fired - but moved on to better and better ones over the years.

I can see turning down a job that's a bad fit, in a general sense. When you've been unemployed for two years, though, to turn down a professional job, paying near the US median income, and you're 24? And you've never actually had a full-time job, ever, as far as we can tell?

I tempted for parts of my first year after college (and lived rent-free with my grandfather, which was good, 'cause paying rent would have been hard on what I was making), and twice got solid leads for full-time jobs from it - like, one of the people in the office would say, "are you looking for full-time work? Because my sister at Place X is looking for someone..." I was already planning on grad school at that point (okay, not the wisest idea ever as it turned out), but temping was certainly a good place to start out of college if I'd wanted to get into a variety of professions.

It's not like he was unemployed and doing absolutely nothing though. Sometimes it's better to take odd jobs and keep looking for something acceptable, than to take anything and get stuck. Had I been at the 1st job, I wouldn't have gotten this interview and job.

Maybe he is an entitled dick who has no concept of what to expect from the real world, or maybe he's someone who is trying to make the best decision while he's got a safety net before he gets trapped by bad choices. I have no idea of knowing which it is.

Toddson is me, except for the cities and relocating. I finally got a job in August after graduating in May, quickly grew to hate it and got fired after a year, but through someone I knew at that job I got contacted by a headhunter for my next job.

When I applied to the blind ad for my first job at my current company back in 1992, I didn't know that my cousin was already working here as head of accounting. If I happen to mention that he's (now) the CFO to a coworker, they assume I started working here through him, but nope, got the job on my own.

I may not have worked my way to the top, but I started here as a temp doing data entry. Then I got a full time job in the accounting group and maxed out my growth there. Now I'm in a different group with more room for growth.

Maybe he is an entitled dick who has no concept of what to expect from the real world, or maybe he's someone who is trying to make the best decision while he's got a safety net before he gets trapped by bad choices. I have no idea of knowing which it is.

A good point.

The big thing is that the NY times is painting this as typical. And most people on unemployment do accept any remotely acceptable job. As to accepting the absolute first job. Well even Hil turned down at least one job. And she was right to do so.