Today is my birthday and while still just shy of 30, I never envisioned that coming out of university with a degree and some knowledge would have me working just like I had when I was 18, in retail, on my feet every day and forced to suppress any thoughts or opinions not related to the latest diet or fashion trends. I didn't go to school for this much less go above and beyond to succeed and ensure a diverse skill set. An education was supposed to be my ticket to middle class living with some degree of job security, something that has never been an option. I never imagined that it would turn out like this.
Of course this is the reality of the potentially lost generation of Americans. Over-educated and under-employed, my friends, most of them between 25 and 35 years of age, are practically poster children for the current phenomenon of a work environment that is deathly afraid of hiring those who are beyond qualified for the entry level positions and are assumed to be on the way out as soon as they come in. This is how you get someone with a law degree ends up waiting tabled, or a holder of a masters in psychology working in a home for the mentally disabled for ten dollars an hour, still waiting for the opportunity to get the counciling hours he needs for his license. Even with a double degree in political science and mathematics, another friend has been unemployed for two years now and barely gets a call now.
I seem to have lucked out in getting something, but that did not come without a number of interviews in which someone openly marveled at why I would want to work THERE given my educational background and previous work history (a lot of management and teaching). Several of these interviews openly asked me a question along the lines of "do you think this job will hold you back?" Needless to say it was almost always over from there.
This is what young people have to look forward to in America now. An education in many cases feels like a dead end now as the assumptions trump anything you can say that you offer. If a two year degree will suffice, then why would someone want someone with a four year or greater degree that will likely want more money and substantial benefits. If they want a piece of paper as a weeding tool, they will gladly take the person who majored in beer pong as a minimally competent person over those with nonsense such as research and teaching ability,
Of course I've had to cringe at the job descriptions posted online and in the newspaper with all sorts of typos and syntax errors, all while asking for 'excelent communicaton skill' and it becomes easy for those of us who could easily perform such jobs to wonder just why we can't get a call much less the chance to prove that we could use some of the things we learned as an asset to any business?
I'd love more than anything to go to graduate school and work toward an eventual PhD studying the thing I love. At heart I am a researcher and a teacher and it is the type of thing I could see myself doing until my mind goes feeble. I actually enjoy reading those dry journal articles detailing social change in Asian or Eastern European countries and love sharing the more interesting tidbits with others. But I wonder upon seeing how we treat teachers and professors, particularly at public universities, like useless tax sucking scum and the resulting cuts to funding in education if there would even be a job there after my illustrious degree is hung on my wall. There'd be the satisfaction of having accomplished this, but that does little to put food on they table or a little money aside to assure I am not stuck on my feet all day until I cease to get out of bed in the morning.
It seems so strange as in most times of economic hardship it is the well educated with work experience and willing to go the extra mile that get ahead. The best and the brightest are typically the ones that would be most desired because of their diverse skills and a willingness to develop them. Instead, as several of my friends who snuck into entry level office work by lying about their educations know, it's all about being a drone with little thought and no aspirations other than to keep making that 10-12 dollars an hour.
It is my most sincere hope that we can see some of this change and we will stop considering education to be an elitist institution. Higher education may not be for everyone, but that doesn't mean it is not rewarding for those who enjoy. Having had to work through school, I can't help but think I'd be employable in some meaningful way. Heck, you'd think, given the international nature of business in this day and age that having international experience would be valued somewhere.
Instead I turn 28 and need to get ready to sell furniture until evening and drone out the talk of endless diets and hope that I won't turn into another one of this lost generation.
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