Saturday, April 9, 2016

Shoulda been an IT guy...

I grow weary of the cacophony of voices bemoaning the lack of 6 figure jobs immediately upon graduation from university.
1. University education USED to be something achieved only by those with plenty of money or a driving desire to better their situation such that they got scholarships or else they worked their way through college. Obviously, the first group already had a leg up, but let's consider the other two. This would be 2 out of 3, not 1%, with me?
* The one with enough drive and intelligence to get scholarships probably also had to work to get through. We are not talking about athletic, but rather academic scholarships. Those once required one to actually perform above expectations to achieve. Those tend to be handed out to folks who don't fit into the first group and are only successfully completed by people with a stake in their personal success.
* The one who only completed university by simultaneously working, sometimes menial labor, maybe more than one job WHILE attending school only completes their degree through strenuous hard work and dedication. (I may be in this category, so I speak with some authority).
These 2 of 3 people STILL did not complete their degree with any idea that they should immediately have money and opportunity rained on them. They realized it was only one step on a long road to achievement. And they worked hard to do just that.
2. Currently, the NORM is for people to have a university degree So, if you have the precisely same degree as millions of others, you are not immediately marketable. If your degree is not in one of the very difficult to obtain STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) categories, but rather fine arts (nothing wrong with fine arts, love fine arts, but we are talking marketability here) or "University Studies" (swear to Tebow, that's a real degree) or something similarly attainable by every average Joe, you have not yet found your way to shine. You may, with a degree in those fields, go on to change the world, but that does not legitimize some beef about not being able to find gainful employment immediately upon graduation.
3. Learn a skill. Check out mikeroweworks It's all about promoting skilled labor. Know what there is definitely a shortage of? Nope, not lawyers (really? Gonna sue your law school because you didn't land a partner track spot?) Plumbers. Electricians. Masons. Carpenters. Mechanics. You know, all those people we pay through the nose because there are so few of them and yet we ALL need them? Do that.
Do SOMETHING, but stop blaming the government, the establishment, the previous generation, anyone but yourself. And DO SOMETHING.




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