Researcher Check-In

Recently, I received an email from a reader asking what was going on with Recession Grads--in case others are curious, I am posting both the reader's email and my response below:

Hi, Melissa, I read your Recession Grads blog for awhile and thought it was very interesting and revealing. You mentioned that you got full-employment and got married, hence distracted.  However, I see that the last posting was in 2012.  Is the blog still active and if not, does that mean that "recession grads" are doing OK now?

Dorothea,

a reader in the greater Washington, DC area

 

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Hi Dorothea,

It's wonderful to hear from a reader!  To answer your questions: 
1.  My full employment job has been more demanding than I could have anticipated, including many long hours and weekends--leaving little time for anything else.  Thankfully, I start employment with a different organization at the end of the month and should be able to dive back in to Recession Grads.

2.  That said, I finished the interviews portion of the work over a year ago.  I have one last interview to transcribe and post to the blog and then I will begin analysis of all that data.  I'll be combing through the full transcripts (not just the excerpts posted online) and looking for trends and themes.  This could take several months to a year.  I'm not sure yet whether I will be posting about the analysis prior to completing the work.  That is something I need to muse on a bit.

3.  Are recession grads ok?  Depends on who you ask.  The surveys/polls and other research I've seen indicate that recent grads are doing better, but the cohort of students who graduated in the first few years of the Great Recession haven't really "caught up" and probably never fully will.  I was considering trying to do a follow-up five years out (2015ish) and seeing how the folks I interviewed are faring. 

Hope that answers your questions!