I attended a university gathering a few days ago and was horrified to learn a classmate of mine is mired in depression, perhaps considering suicide according to one particular source. I guess it is all hearsay at the moment since no one has really seen his condition first hand. We all heard from someone else who in turn heard it elsewhere. From what I understand, he has encountered very tough times since graduating from business school. He is a bright, some say brilliant guy (again hearsay since I had only worked with him once and found him quite average), but I was told he couldn't find a job. He has been unemployed for three years and supposedly moved out. I don't know why he moved, but someone speculated his parents were demanding he apply for jobs he thought would be degrading for a person who graduated from one of the top business schools in the country. He does have family money and can survive that way.

Has anyone encountered anything similar? Should he just be left alone for fear of making things worse? I'm not trying to counsel him. One of my professors tried to lend him a hand, but I think he might be unemployable already, at least for the top-paying jobs he always thought he would land. I did not know him well, but if what I heard is true, I think it is an unfortunate story.

yeah man storys like these are sick..its happening in sweden now more than ever.. highly educated young ppl dont get jobs.. it sucks..
i say lower the pension age..and give benefits to companys that hire young ppl..

PS
And for your friend..well its sad..but i guess he needs some space..

situations like these are delicate. if you give them too much space you really don't know what he'll do. a little less than a month ago a student at my university commited suicide and no one really knew why. his grades were good, he had friends, no family problems...

maybe someone should tip off his family..and they can deal with it..

I agree with what you said, Artist, but as the recent demonstrations in France show, companies are not being given benefits for hiring young workers. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I think industrial unions have become too powerful and the retirement burden of past workers is too great on even large companies like the American automobile manufacturers.

Why is this happening in Sweden? Is there anything unique about the economy? It used to be a problem in Japan, but many Asian countries have problems with suicide.

This business school colleague of mine has a very wealthy family and I just don't understand why he can't just run that operation. Arguably, he could make more money than he would by working for an outside employer. I can't imagine him having a good answer for why he hasn't worked for three years. I think he's become unemployable and could end up like the university student you referred to, notic.

well the suicides arent happening in sweden..but the unemployment of educated young ppl is high..
a party called the center here in sweden layed forth the same purposal as in france .. their hq´s got hit pretty hard here in sweden to..

I had been away for a few days so didn't see your response. Why can't the educated youth land decent jobs anywhere it seems? Is there something specific to Sweden or is it a general trend? I really don't know.

As for my university colleague, everyone is concerned about him, but don't know how to react. Over the weekend, I had another get together with a few other classmates, one of whom saw this depressed chap about two months ago. We all think he has maybe six months to live barring a miracle turnaround. He appears headed for suicide. It would be a terrible shame. He looked to have had it all: grades, what he thought was a great degree, a lot of family money, nice cars (Lexus IS300, BMW 330Ci). Geez, what went wrong? Perhaps it's just fate. The Chinese always claimed it was a fool's game to fight fate and destiny.

I think universities have to wake up to the fact that they often fail their students. Particularly, the business school I attended was more concerned about the expensive MBA program's image and job placement. The undergraduate program was always second fiddle and these bastards have the nerve to constantly pester me for alumni donations! If anyone is in university still, learn to help yourself!

If he's nobody that you're really friends with, then I think you'll have a hard time helping him in any way even if you want to.

A sad but not uncommon story. Not sure what the laws are like where he is, but can his family have him declared and force him into treatment? I know this is an awful step, but it what you say is correct the alternatives are worse.

The facts are the a brilliant degree is not always a guarantee of suitability for a great job. True, whilst most smart people who graduate from the best business schools are the type that will do well in the corporate world, there is a certain percentage of people who I have interviewed who have a brilliant transcripts, are clearly not dumb...but would not be able to run a business, to manage their employees, to lead, to innovate, negotiate and carry through a demanding project. It is sad that expectations for people are raised so high that they think a good MBA is an automatic passport to fortune - it's only part of the package. It is sad this misunderstanding sometimes results in situations like this.

I couldn't begin to imagine what his problems are. Perhaps the pressure is indeed getting to him, and maybe not in ways that are readily apparent to you.

What might seem a brilliant life to one man may be a tragedy for another - a man in backwater Africa might be happy to survive another week, whereas this guy might have had expectations of getting even better grades, or whatever. Conversely, maybe it's family or romance problems that are getting to him. Who knows.

What to do? Well, like Carbon said, there's not much that you can do if you weren't already someone he'd listen to. You have to earn the right to be trusted and to be listened to, and the fact is, if you hadn't done that already, it's probably a little late to start now.

Maybe the best thing is to get him professional treatment, like Bozz said. The alternative could be death, for him, and for you, the realisation that nobody said anything when they had the chance..