Agreed - you do what you need to do in life to put food on the table. Also worth mentioning that an entry level position isn't necessarily a terrible thing with the right company, things can often turn out much better than you would have thought after a year or two.
If I was the 26 year old, I definitely would have grabbed the clerk job. And then start looking for the ideal job. Cause Ideal and Reality is 2 different things. But what can you do? You can't stop people from being stubborn idiots...
I got a job as a software developer right here in the US of A. I'm in my mid-30's, I have no college degree at all, no on-the-job coding experience for the previous 8 years, I didn't know anyone at the firm that hired me. If you want a job, there is a job out there that wants you. You have to meet it half way though. You can't go in thinking your God's gift to whatever. I'm not making top dollar, I don't have benefits or a retirement plan. But I have a job, and a damn good one at that.
By rejecting such a job, he's not being a 'stubborn idiot'. He's being realistic. There's no point in taking a job that isn't going to work out very well, and one is going to leave ASAP. That's just unprofessional, and costs both the job seeker and the employer major bucks (job seeker = loses money because he's not working at his potential, employer loses money in retraining costs!). If the exec wants a clerk, he should go out and hire a clerk, someone he can retain over the long term, and isn't overqualified for the job. Not some guy who isn't going to be happy on the job, and is just going to jump ship as soon as he can. The economy isn't served well by idiots who take jobs just for the sake of having jobs. If the exec wanted to help him out, he would have created a job that would have used his skills and talents to the best of his potential. The fault largely lies in the exec, and his very narrow thinking. Good managers of people do everything to try and bring the talents out of their people, to create the most value.
Welcome to Obama Land College Grads. The fact of the reality is.....College is over rated now adays, unless you attended a top university and even then....good luck. College was a place to educated great minds. Now aday's its a business cranking out many Schlep Rocks (like the ones on ET who like to correct Spelling.) who can't think for themselves, who lack any solid grounding in "Life" and who believe they will walk outa the university to make Millions. THE JIG IS UP. The future holds Tech Schools, skilled labor Schools. The MBA's, LAW, LIBERAL ARTS (My degree) and so forth are a wasteland. Medical School may be worth it, depending on what happens with OBAMACARE. I guess now, ET will be full of "Successful" day traders and Financial People, as many will have plenty of time on their hands.
The smartest grads in the past decade haven't had any luck in the job market. Its not just the dumb ones who are having trouble. In fact, it seems that firms such as the banks would deliberately like to hire people who are incapable of seeing 'the big picture', or people who are more susceptible to brainwashing. This is why Engineers have fared so poorly in the past decade, especially ones good with numbers (electrical/computer/physics). Those people would be in the most ideal position to analyze the data and see that the US economy has been in a slow state of collapse ever since 2000, and that, if not for altered data, the recession/depression really began a decade ago.
Well see, then American businesses wonder why they're not competitive. Because they're hiring untrained people like you (without experience), instead of going for one of the many hoardes of unemployed software professionals who is far more qualified. Software developers with CS degrees and experience are a dime a dozen out there. And if employers don't value a CS degree and experience, then what's the point of even having CS degree programs? You wouldn't hire a veternarian to perform major surgery on your mother. Why would a software development company or function hire a non-CS degree person to perform software development?
Employers are using the recession as an excuse to drop wages yet again. I understand your point and I would probably take a lower position and then prove myself, but employers are offering people with college education (and huge debts) Wal Mart-like jobs. That only leads to eternal servitude, not a "career". THEY are smarter than all of us. It's a race to the bottom.
But if you do not have a job where do you get money to buy food and shelter? Actually the best Business people know all aspects of the job, have a varied experience in all kinds of jobs etc... ie like Dave Thomas who came in on the ground floor as a counterman and is not afraid of doing the kind of work a College Grad might look down on.
Yeah I wouldn't hire a college grad who took a job majorly beneath his skill level straight out of school, after a couple years. Why? Because if he's willing to sell himself for less than his worth for someone else, he's also probably willing to undercut me in the workforce. And such an attitude indicates that the person isn't cognizant of quality. I don't want people working for me who sell themselves short. Play hard, give it 100%, work to the best of your ability and skill level, or don't work at all. Nobody likes half-assers. Guys who work just for the sake of working and for the sake of a paycheque get nowhere in life. I have more respect for someone who goes onto welfare and manages their money carefully, living within their confines, than someone who goes to work at a $12/hour job and ends up wasting time and resources doing so. Go hard, or go home. Its a motto that worked for America very well until the bankers took over and ruined everything. Its a motto that will work again eventually. The bankers only have power over people because the people are willing to submit to slavery (like 26-year-old college educated people taking clerk jobs). And Engineers are actually God's gift to mankind, and any employer who doesn't hire as many of them as possible into good jobs is one that deserves to go out of business. Being able to hire engineers at today's super-low salaries (ie: $100k/year) is the closest thing to free money that you can possibly get in the marketplace these days.