You Need College to Get a Good Job But You Still Might Not Get a Job
It’s a catch 22. College helps you get a better job but there’s no guarantee you’ll get one.
Robert Reich writes at the Huffington Post.
Why College Is Necessary But Gets You Nowhere
This is the time of year when high school seniors apply to college, and when I get lots of mail about whether college is worth the cost.
The answer is unequivocally yes, but with one big qualification. I’ll come to the qualification in a moment but first the financial case for why it’s worth going to college.
Put simply, people with college degrees continue to earn far more than people without them. And that college “premium” keeps rising.
Last year, Americans with four-year college degrees earned on average 98 percent more per hour than people without college degrees.
In the early 1980s, graduates earned 64 percent more.
So even though college costs are rising, the financial return to a college degree compared to not having one is rising even faster.
But here’s the qualification, and it’s a big one.
A college degree no longer guarantees a good job. The main reason it pays better than the job of someone without a degree is the latter’s wages are dropping.
In fact, it’s likely that new college graduates will spend some years in jobs for which they’re overqualified.
Comments
College graduates have demonstrated the ability to establish a long term goal and achieve it. This is important for hiring managers like me. What else do we need from college graduates? We hiring managers need basic skills in the discipline for which we are hiring. Could be writing, researching, math, sciences, engineering, programming, etc. Most college graduates have these. But what else? We want problem solving skills, the ability to work within a team, the ability to get along with peers and superiors, demonstrated creativity, the ability to make decisions, the ability to form a judgment and defend it, the ability to achieve results. We also want humility, tactful honesty, ethical behavior, the ability to subordinate one’s own desires for the good of the larger organization, and a strong work ethic. We want people who will come to work everyday and on time. We want people who if they are hung over in the morning will still get to work on time and be productive. We really like people who know how to overcome adversity with grace and poise, and people who know how to successfully sell themselves and their ideas. In time, we want employees who consistently deliver total value well in excess of the cost of their salary and benefits. We strongly dislike complainers and high maintenance people. And we like pleasant people, the kind with whom we’d like to share a meal.