Nope, not me, Scott Nicholson, 24, of Grafton, Mass.

After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother had used for a vase of flowers until her unemployed son found himself reluctantly stuck at home.

The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a résumé and cover letter — four or five a week, week after week.

Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

Nicholson may find himself working as a management-trainee at the local McDonalds if dutiful employers Google his name and read this New York Times article. Despite what he may think, he doesn’t come off well and this article is unlikely to help him.

I realize it’s tough out there, but the article later notes that Nicholson graduated in 2008. He’s been looking for a job for the better part of two years and he turned down one paying $40,000.

More proof that a college degree isn’t necessarily indicative of a minimal level of intelligence.