Written by What are you experiencing out there in the current job market? Have the new graduates found jobs easily or still searching? We want to hear from you!
Posts in category crisis
Summer Job Opportunities
Every news source seems to be reporting the same now that summer is here. More bad news for job seekers! Except this time its so bad even high school students can’t find temporary summer jobs. The lack of of seasonal employment is said to be at its lowest since World War II! How is any educated professional or recent graduate expected to find a job when even simple seasonal employment cannot be found? Something is terribly wrong and its just getting worse. Seems like its slowly trickling down to every workforce group. There are countless numbers of students set to start or return to college in the fall, but how can they justify that in this market. Of course many will feel its best to ride this out while getting an education. It could be that for some the better choice could be just forgoing the debt they will accumulate and college. What do you think? Would you start college in the Fall?
Value of Education
Nothing has a Purpose if it has No Value…
I have learned that if something does not have a purpose in your life, then it really has no value. Of course, purpose is very relative to that person and their particular being. For the context in which we are speaking, however, I am evaluating the tangible value of my education at this very moment in my life.
Thankful is far beyond an understatement in describing my feelings for my support system. However, it’s a somber reality in thinking about those who have absolutely no support in their journey to success. With all that being said, when it comes time to financially invest in your daily responsibilities and obligations how do you measure the value of your education? Meaning, how much do you value your education when being a broke college student has disgustingly overflowed and oozed its way into your alumni era.
Most people, including myself have a very high regard and respect for those who have done the necessary work to earn their degree. But is it just me, or can that value become skewed when some of the critical purposes for earning your degree continue to go unfulfilled? Educated…now what?
Education Epidemic
Plan C…
My journey includes significant experience working within the sports industry. I mention that only to emphasize the irony of the idea of having a Plan C. Yes…I made that up in my head but please be open to my rationale.
During all of the work I have done for organizations from little league all the way up to professional sports, the universal lecture to ALL is have a Plan B! Right??? Right! So I’m just a bit curious if there are any parents, or mentors out there in this fascinating time we are living cautioning young people in their lives as they run up to them with gusto and naivete saying, “I want to go to college”, replying to them, “I support your dream, but make sure you have a Plan C just in case that higher education thing does not work out!”
Historically a college education has carried the weight of being a solid foundation to implement your Plan B effectively. I’m of the opinion the solid foundation that has held our beloved Plan B for so many years has a severe crack in it. Could the irony now exist of having a back-up plan “just in case” our wild dreams of being a college educated, gainfully employed, financially productive citizen does not happen either despite all of your hard work, hopes, and dreams? Educated…now what?
A SELLERS MARKET
Not a Buyers’ Market…
Has the degree industry become like the real estate industry? (And yes, I did say degree industry on purpose) Are you upside down in the return on your investment? Did you pay more for your degree yesterday than its’ worth today? Upside-down mortgage…does that sound familiar?
Or perhaps the purchase of a college degree is metaphorically more reflective of the purchase of a car. What is exactly the total cost of ownership of a 2012 model college degree? The moment your drove that shiny new degree off the university lot, did it depreciate in value? If you sold your degree back to the university would you be upside- down in that car note?
Just like there is sometimes a great time to buy, or a great time to sell, could there possibly also be a great time to get educated?
UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN 2012
Useless Degree Syndrome (UDS)
Just coming to realize you might have been infected by a useless degree? At what point did you realize there might be a bigger problem?
Symptoms of (UDS)
*Underemployment
*Past due bill payments and you want to pay your bills soooooo badly
*Inability to pay back the student loans for that precious degree hanging on your wall
*Endless job searches with no tangible results
*Growing resentment for trying to better yourself
*Inbox filled with rejections from jobs first thing in the morning
*Responses from jobs you forgot you even applied for
*Unexplained or unprovoked aggression towards underwhelming job descriptions *Uncontrolled twitching of the eye to the term “overqualified”
*Slight depression intermingled with overpowering determination to not be a statistic
*Reoccurring hallucinations that you are regressing in life instead of progressing
*Lack of mental understanding in areas such as:
-Earning a job in your field
-Making almost the same salary I did long before I had a degree
-Non-paid internships
-Not being hired because you are actually the best candidate
THE ULTIMATE JOB SEARCH
The Internet is filled with too many job search engines, agencies and services to count. Each tend to claim they are the best and offer the most postings. The problem is weeding out the scams from the actual quality resources. Some are filled with 1000s of results of which 30 percent may be actual solid opportunities. It takes time to sift through all of those and time is precious when you are unemployed.
In a day when you can gain an entire education online and specific job search firms such as The Ladders exist that a large service or search specifically catered to educated individuals has been created. It would certainly thrive in this economy with more job seekers than ever. There are a few niche job search sites, but what we need is a service who gathers all employers who only want those educated candidates and can then match them with job seekers whose education has been verified. This would be a huge advantage for job searchers and employers alike. Employers would have a trustworthy resource pool of educated candidates looking for employment and job searchers would have access to postings from employers they know value their education. This my friend would be The Ultimate Job Search! Hopefully somewhere between the niche job search websites and popular sites such as Career Builder or Monster this will be developed at some point. It would be a positive step in restoring value to a hard earned college education and giving the educated the leg up that they deserve in the job market.
EDUCATED, BUT CANT AFFORD TO EAT!
A while back a special aired on Food Network about the Hunger Crisis in America and it featured a particular man and his family that could not help but touch your heart. He is raising his son by himself and doing custom furniture and upholstery in his garage just to try and keep them fed. Now go back a year or two and this man had a degree in Economics and a promising career in the mortgage industry. He bought a nice home and things were going well and his education was providing him with a nice life for his son. Now fast forward the to economy and mortgage industry tanking and this man is about to have his house auctioned off and struggles to even afford to feed himself and family. This is not the case of lazy person or someone who went down the wrong path. This was an educated gentleman who followed the system and worked to receive qualifications that were supposed to benefit him in life. Unfortunately, he is not alone and many have been failed by there education. Many worked tirelessly for degrees that now enable them to at best work a minimum wage job. Something is wrong here and needs to be fixed if we ever expect education to be restored to its former glory and value.
Zero Unemployment
An interesting article came out recently about zero unemployment. It claimed that the unemployment rate of certain niche degrees was 0 percent. Now of course everyone would love to graduate and find a wonderful job right away, but that’s far from reality. However, their seems to be some fields that claim their are more jobs than workers right now…hard to believe considering the economy. Students majoring in Astrophysics,Actuary Science, Pharmacology and Geophysics are said to have job offers rolling in even before they graduate. This may be true for some schools and some areas, but is certainly not the norm. Not to mention those majors are difficult and not what your typical college student dreams of pursuing. Another tricky thing to consider in the concept of zero unemployment is the fact that it does not count those students who move onto graduate school as unemployed. That is a major glitch considering that the majority of those involved in these fields go onto obtain a masters degree or higher during their education.
The point is there is really no guarantee of which education niche will land you a job right away. Even professionals in these highly sought after fields claim the abundance of jobs will change soon just like every other field as more graduates enter the job market. There may be some degrees that are safer bets than others, but the bottom line is a higher education should be worth more than it currently is no matter what the degree focus. If you are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars and dedicate four years of your life or more to specializing in something it should pay off in some way some how. That’s sadly not the case and degree is no longer a degree and education is going to have to change if we ever want to begin to fathom a zero unemployment rate.
STUDENTS BECOMING JUST ANOTHER CUSTOMER
As college costs are rising and so are the number of new graduates it makes you wonder if higher education is becoming a for profit industry instead of a service. A college degree has certainly never been cheap, but current costs are outrageous. The average cost per year of a four year public university is around $21000! Now no one expects tuition to be the same it was 20 or 30 years ago, but tuition seems to increase by giant leaps on a consistent basis. It cannot just be keeping up with operation costs, these schools are most likely making a profit. Has the high cost caused lower enrollment numbers? Not a chance, students are just taking on more debt. It makes you wonder if higher education has the student in mind or just the amount of money they bring in tuition. Is this what is wrong with education? If higher education was more student and service focused would graduates have abetted chance at finding employment and have their degree held in higher regard by potential employers.
