It's All About Who Knows You, Or Is It?
By HairyMike87 6 Comments
This is a blog about what I have learned about the real world, college and the job market.
Usually when I try to go to sleep, I start thinking about all the things I have to do in the near future. I'm a college student that is under constant stress because of all the things I need to get done for my classes. Sometimes I stress myself out to the point that I should just try to get a job so I wouldn't have to worry about doing all these assignments. Crazy as it sounds, I'm able to push myself to a point of irrational thinking and felt that I needed to put something down to clear my head.
If you are anything like me, you don't want to feel that you are doing something for nothing. What's the reason that people even go to college? Many will say it is to boost their income that they will make for their lifetime and others will say that it is to further pursue a career in doing something that they love. I happen to believe that there is a way to try and get into a field of work that you love doing, but at the same time, putting up with college to try and better your chances just doesn't make me feel any better when there are so many others unable to find jobs.
Take my friend Greg, who has finished community college, for example.
My friend Greg is a really nice guy. This past spring and summer, he has been interning at a radio station which has helped him learn all the ins and outs of the company. Everyone who has worked with him loves him because he is a great person and a hard worker. Now Greg has finished community college and it comes time for him to apply for a job.
Greg is very confident that he is going to be able to get a job at the radio station based on the great recommendations received from his coworkers. He later receives news that they are not going to hire him right now but will once they get an open position that involved what he was doing. Greg is very upset and pleas with them that he will work in any position, even receptionist, and they still don't hire him. Even thought he's upset, he asks if he can still intern after summer and they agree.
This is the part that really upsets me.
A few weeks after this incident, they have an opening at the company for a job in public relations, which Greg had experience in. Greg applies again, along with I assume many other people, and does not get the job. They hired someone who never interned in public relations, a radio station or anywhere. The only reason why this person got the job was because they had a bachelor's degree.
If I was in Greg's shoes, I would be beyond rage at the fact that I sacrificed all of his time without pay to be with this station and they basically say that it doesn't matter. What a bunch of crap! I mean seriously. They were lucky enough to have a kid have so much passion for what he went to school for, sacrificed all his summer, just to have a shot at working in a radio station and they won't even stand by their words.
Why the hell did they have to string him along like that for? If they wanted people with a more advanced degree, they could have just told him that while he was interning in the spring. But no. They didn't and now he is struggling to try and find a job to earn enough money to continue his education.
The whole point of that story was to show that sometimes, it doesn't matter what you can do or who knows you, it's about how much time and money you have to spend on a piece of paper. That's the part of the real world that pisses me off the most. How dare you say indirectly that not having this much education, but the experience in the field, you are not qualified for any jobs that may be available. This is the world that we are going to be living in and I honestly don't like it very much.
One of the reasons why I don't like it very much is because I believe that the whole undergraduate education system is flawed. My major is communications and I am also studying some audio and video production so that I may have more experience in different fields that revolve around what I would like to do. I really enjoy my classes that are tailored to my major. On the flip side, hate the ones that I'm forced to take because it is a institutional requirement.
Take for example calculus.
When the fuck am I ever going to need to know this information when I'm doing a radio show; by the way, I have done some work on the radio. Are people going to need my help with some math problems or are we going to discuss different formulas after the break? That would be the WORST radio show ever! Well, maybe chemistry takes the cake instead of calculus, but that is only because I hate calculus and despise chemistry.
Do you get what I'm trying to say? If people want to be able to work in a field that they enjoy, why should they have to put up with classes and obstacles that don't relate to their line of study? Someone who wants to run a business and decides to major in business isn't going to need to know the periodic table! Well, maybe if they run a business that actually makes periodic tables for schools, but that's not the point!
What I would prefer is a way for people to figure out what they want to do in life and go intern with someone who is actually working in the field like an apprenticeship. That way, people will be able to see if they would enjoy the work while getting hands on right away instead of learning all of this other crap that they won't even need to know. This would eliminate so much wasted time and money for people that want to have certain jobs. I think that there should still be schools though for things that actually need to be taught in the classroom that really can't translate too well into an apprenticeship.
This is the stuff I've been thinking about tonight and many nights before it. We're in a time where there are barely any well paying jobs right after high school. College is almost going to be a mandatory step in life that some people will have to struggle to make if they want to have a reasonable salary for themselves and their families. For the ones who can't afford higher education and need to take out loans to help pay will already be in debt for years after they complete school.
I'm very fortunate that I have parents that are able to pay my way through school. I also don't like the fact that most of that money being used is going down the drain with most of the classes that are "required" and not even connected to what I'm studying. It also doesn't make sense that you basically have to go out and complete internships along with "required" education in order to have a chance at doing something you'll enjoy. It feels that even when all of my resources are being poured into obtaining a piece of paper, that still may not be enough to do what I want after college.
I just wish that it was easier to do what you love in this world, but that wish hasn't come true.
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