亲爱的安妮：再过几个月，我儿子就要大学毕业了。说实话，我现在对他有一点儿担心。他在学校主修金融学，辅修商科，成绩优异，我觉得他在求职市场上会很有竞争力。他曾做过几份实习，既有著名的大公司，也有初创公司，但到现在还没有一家公司给他一份全职工作。

    我知道，现在工作很不好找，虽然我不想变成可怕的“直升机父母”，整天形影不离、喋喋不休地问长问短。但我觉得，他也许需要我的帮助。我和孩子爸爸在各自的工作领域内人脉很广，我们是否应该托熟人介绍些工作机会给儿子？这是不是个好办法？你和你的读者有什么建议吗？——一位来自明尼苏达州的母亲。

亲爱的明尼苏达州母亲：你的想法一点儿都没错（我们稍后就会谈原因），而且除非你的“帮忙”阻碍了他的成长，否则，你就不是“直升机父母”。“找工作本来就是孩子们的事，你不应插手，”戴维•德朗说。“另一方面，父母们十分清楚求职之路上的竞争有多激烈，而象牙塔中的学生们却知之甚少。”德朗很有发言权，他的女儿正在读大学三年级，但是他确切的身份是麻省理工学院年代实验室（Age Lab）的职员，也是《毕业不失业：怎样在求职大军中脱颖而出》（Graduate to a Great Job: Make Your College Degree Pay Off in Today's Market）一书的作者。这本书中有几个章节正是专为应届毕业生的父母所写，对你来说或许会有帮助。

    的确，2014年毕业的应届生马上就要加入浩浩荡荡的求职者大军了。在美国，18至29岁之间年轻人的失业率高达16%，而在无需本科文凭的工作中，同样年龄段年轻人的失业率接近50%。

    根据芝加哥职业介绍机构Challenger, Gray & Christmas的报告显示，虽然2013年12月的企业裁员人数同比下降了3%，创下了自2000年以来的新低，但金融类的工作机会却并不是那么好找。整个2013年，金融行业减少了成千上万个职位，仅纽约市就减少了8万个岗位。讽刺的是，由于经济复苏，市场对擅长于止赎或冲销不良贷款专业人士的需求大幅下降，而他们总归是要找一份工作。你儿子除了要与这些人竞争之外，也还会面对许多经验丰富的金融从业人员。

    Dear Annie: Now that it's 2014, my son will be graduating from college in just a few months, and I have to admit I'm a little worried. He's gotten good grades as a finance major with a minor in business, which I think makes him pretty marketable. He's also done a couple of internships, one with a big-name company and one with a startup, but neither has yet offered him a regular full-time job.

    I know the job market is still pretty weak, and although I hate to think of myself as the dreaded "helicopter parent" always hovering nearby, I still think he could use some help. My husband and I are both well-connected in our respective fields, so should we be introducing our son to people who might know of job openings, or is that a bad idea? What do you and your readers recommend? ------ Minnesota Mom

    Dear M.M.: It's not a bad idea at all (more about that in a minute), and wanting to help doesn't make you a helicopter parent unless your "help" starts getting in the way. "Getting a job is really your child's job. It's not your fight," notes David DeLong. "On the other hand, parents know how tough it is out there, which college students don't always realize."

    DeLong should know. He has a daughter who's a junior in college, but, more to the point, he's a fellow at MIT's Age Lab and the author of a new book called Graduate to a Great Job: Make Your College Degree Pay Off in Today's Market. You might find it useful, since it has a couple of chapters just for parents of new grads.

    It's certainly true that the class of 2014 will step into a rocky job market. Unemployment among U.S. young people ages 18 to 29 is stuck at about 16%, and underemployment in the same age group -- that is, working at a job that doesn't call for a four-year degree -- stands at roughly half.

    Moreover, although layoffs in December fell by about 3% year to year, to their lowest level since 2000, according to Chicago outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, finance jobs are not thick on the ground: The financial industry lost hundreds of thousands of jobs -- more than 80,000 in New York City alone -- in 2013, ironically due to an economic recovery that has drastically reduced the need for people who specialize in foreclosures and rewriting troubled loans. All of those people have had to go somewhere, and your son is competing against them, as well as against many other seasoned finance mavens.