[quote=meadandale]So, she has basically no practical experience in her chosen field; having worked in minimum wage jobs that high school students could do throughout college (hostess, sales associate, etc) and she finds that she is having trouble finding work?
Clearly she wasn’t carrying her $200k degree on the back of here hostess position. Perhaps she should have been doing an internship or volunteer work in her field rather than spinning her wheels in a minimum wage throwaway job?
Just saying…[/quote]
I completely agree with meandale on practical experience. Perhaps part of her inability to find a job might have to do with lack of practical experience and she should have been spending her free time exploring what she wanted to do, or trying a job out during summers, etc. Schooling really only get you so far. The other part is common sense, creativity, people skills and curiosity. You can’t be afraid to call upon alumni, strangers, attend networking functions, etc. 60 job applications is nothing in the digital age where you can send out 100 in one day online. What cities was she looking in, did she consider going to a larger market for her desired field?
Not a bad idea that she’s looking at traveling the world and figuring out what she wants out of life, more people should take pause to think about that versus doing what society expects of you. As long as her parents aren’t footing the bill and she’s going to work it out herself.
I have never thought much about traditional educations for most professions in terms of their usefulness. Yes it teaches you discipline, fundamentals, and hopefully some complex analytical thinking skills, but what does it really teach you to prepare you for a job? We need more vocational schools for kids starting at a much younger age. NYC has these type of high schools for fine arts, math & science, business, etc.
I had this conversation with a friend who is doing her vascular surgery residency. She got a liberal arts degree in undergrad and argues that her 4 years of studies there relate in no way shape or form to what she is doing now. She probably matured during that time, but it would have been a lot more relevant if she had gone and worked four years in a hospital, research facility, etc than going to undergrad. She thinks she could have gone directly to med school given the length of time doctors must study/ practice between schooling and internship/residency.
Moral of the story, I think kids these days, regardless of socioeconomic status should work, start em in high school. You have to be aggressive to get what you want. You have to have people skills and a lot of common sense. You can’t expect jobs will line up and fall into your lap or that you will even be recruited. Many undergrad programs require their students to intern for a minimum of 1 semester in their field of study. Surprised GW didn’t inbed this in their programs. Interning is a fantastic way to try on different things, with very little judgement about how many different things you try. Career hopping across industries post graduation is judged more so than when you’re still in college.
I paid for my 4 years in university. I got into several private universities that had better rankings, better brands, but ultimately I looked at the costs, and didn’t want to graduate with a load of debt. So I went to a public school that was top 20 ranked in business. Did she weigh the pros and cons at all, or did she just do what she wanted because someone else was footing the bill? How can you expect kids to grow up with any sense of work ethic if the choices they’ve made thus far have not had real life impact to them? If all kids had to pay for some of their education or living expenses, they would learn to appreciate hard work much earlier on and rationalizing choices.
