College grads fail; not the job market.

"Failure to Launch"
The following article blames a litany of events as to why grads are not getting high paying jobs right out of college.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/MoneyInYour20s/FailToLaunch.aspx

The author details a 24 year old named Loreno Bravo. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Masters Degree in teaching and great work experience. She has $70,000 in debt.

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The article blames the cost of college, the low income of entry level positions, the debt you “have” to rack up to go to college including credit cards, and that colleges do not prepare you for the real world.

Here’s reality.

First, Bravo majored in psychology. How many jobs are in her area that are going to pay her enough to get the job she “deserves?” Obviously there aren’t that many. Majoring in psychology probably wasn’t the best idea if she doesn’t plan on moving and making the sacrifices necessary to get the job she “deserves.”

Second, Bravo has a teaching certificate. I thought she wants a job that pays her the money she “deserves.” Teaching is a noble profession and they are not paid even close to enough money. Majoring in teaching is going to take more than just accepting a paycheck. Teachers are also needed throughout the country…but psychology isn’t the most desired position. Bravo should have done a little research.

Doing what you want to do means that you may not get paid what you want to get paid and you are probably going to end up at home living with your parents until you get a job that has little to nothing to do with your degree.

Now for the “colleges do not prepare you for the real world.” In the sense that you do not have to show up to every class, you only have class a few days a week and it is usually not an consecutive 8 hours day 5 days a week this is correct. Oh, and the facts that you aren’t getting paid for your work and even sub par work allows you to make it through the class (Cs and Ds) this is correct. Work sucks, it is every day, you have to show up, and you have to do better than average at a real job or you are rarely going to be paid for sub par work for very long.

Even the tiniest community colleges I’ve researched online offer classes in adapting to the “real world.” Most people do not take them as they aren’t required for their degree. Is this the colleges’ fault? Nope. It’s the students’ fault for not researching their options and planning ahead.

There is also something else missing in this equation…Parents. Why haven’t Bravo’s parents taught her what life is all about, bills, work, bills, work, bills, work and continue until you die. Throw taxes in there and you have real life. Why are so many parents trying to farm this responsibility out to someone else?

Our ancestors can teach us a lot. You are here because your ancestors knew how to take care of themselves and knew how to be 100% self sufficient. You may have to look back many, many generations but at some point your forefather taught his son how to hunt, how to plant food, how to make it through tough times including drought, storms, wars and so on.

Today life is so easy that we are complacent and believe that if we go to college and learn how to be a basket weaver simply because basket weaving is “in our hearts, it is something we really want to do, something that we feel good about doing and is something we are good at” then the world is going to reward us with a high paying job and a spot in society’s high life.

Since the dawn of the first trade, life has been about having something that everyone else wants. The person with the most wanted item “wins,” gets rich, lives famously and “succeeds”. After all, that is how the author defined Bravo’s world. She can’t find a job that pays enough so she hasn’t succeeded. The world has let her down. In reality she’s the person with the least wanted item and ekes out a living while living with her parents until she finally realizes that she really does have a place in society and really can find a job…just not exactly what she “wants” to do or paid over $70,000 to be trained to do.

I guarantee you that our ancestors woke up some morning wishing they didn’t have to go kill their food…but they had to. We have evolved into paying someone else to kill our food for us but in a sense we are still working toward the same goal, staying alive.

So here’s the list.

1. Get a degree in something that is going to immediately pay you what you think you are worth.…Psychology and Literature are great examples of degrees you are going to struggle with.

2. Work as much as you can during college to pay off loans, or better yet, to be able to borrow less. No one cares if you get a low A or a high C in college. They see your degree and go from there. Try getting jobs (during college) in your degree that pay well; if you can’t find any, you are probably in the wrong major.

3. Stay away from:

a. Eating pizza and buying it for everyone

b. living in the dorms for no reason (i.e. your parents live just 30 miles from the college)

c. activities that keep you from working or paying for your college (extreme drinking, drugs, not missing a single episode of the top 10 sitcoms, not missing a single movie in the theatres)

d. classes that are easy but meaningless (i.e. basketball if you aren’t on the team, extreme Frisbee even if you are on the team, basket weaving)

4. Do

a. Live as cheap as possible during college

b. Live with your parents, even if it means you have a curfew, fight with them constantly (obviously not any abusive fighting) have to go to a college you don’t like, or have to travel every day. Why? Would you rather live with your parents when you are 30?

c. Focus on paying off your debt as it happens.

d. Take classes that have meaning. Finance classes are usually available in high school so they are definitely available in college. If not find a college where they are available and take them.

The simple truth is the real world sucks when you think you deserve things. If you suffer through college for a few years, you’ll make enough money to live how you want when it really matters. Before you go to college think about about supporting your family, how many kids you can afford, where your next paycheck is going to come from. Being valuable and getting the job and paycheck you "deserve" all starts with some common sense preparations. It's a shame that such simplicity is missed by so many failing to launch.

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