Ivy League Graduates Need to be More Content with Perceived "Mediocrity"
The times are tough and the jobs are hard to come by. The grave situation of the world economy is certainly not news, and can be easily seen even with a casual visit to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant. For newly graduated college students of the past couple of years, there could not have been tougher times for starting up a professional career. With little work experience, little practical knowledge, and little professional connections, it is no wonder that many are left behind in the increasingly competitive job market, here in the US and across the world.
While the anxiety and the sorrow behind not being able to find jobs after four years of hard work in college are definitely understandable and worthy of sympathy, the amount of depressing rhetoric that is accompanying the whole situation has been getting a little too hard to stomach for even (newly) jobless new grads like myself. Public sentiment, echoing the gloomy expressions of the printed media, has been convinced that even the most brilliant and well-qualified college grads are in the risk of not being able to support themselves financially for years to come.
Certainly, there is no denying that finding good-paying jobs these days are certainly difficult for college grads. In the past years, the pillars of American undergrad hiring such as consulting and financial sectors have been reducing employment and have seriously cut into fresh hiring. And to deal with the situation, many potential candidates for such jobs have had no choice but to turn to part-time jobs such as those in the services sector (restaurants, retail, etc) and move back in with their parents in order to support themselves financially until the prospects brighten up again.
But the way that most college students and graduates react to seeing fresh grads waiting tables and bumming at home is often too outrageously unjustifiable. Especially in the case of many Ivy League and other top school graduates, they have not been at all reluctant to express their sheer anger in the economy undervaluing their "talents" (or as some secretly prefer, "geniuses"). They have, long since the beginning of their college days, came to the conclusion that they, as the future elite leaders of the world, must be given the solid opportunities to realize their full potential" the moment they step out of their college campuses.
Partially, the elite colleges are to blame for teaching their students intellectual arrogance combined with a complete lack of practical knowledge immediately usable in a real-world workplace. But ultimately, it is the college graduates themselves have are mainly to be blamed for buying into the fairy-tale-like smoothness of such admissions-enhancing propaganda on the part of the colleges. By taking the words of their alma mater at face value, they can only find themselves the inevitable sufferers of job-related depressions.
Their fundamental mistake lies in believing how they are somehow too "superior" for certain jobs. What is wrong with waiting tables anyways? With the need for discipline, politeness, speed, accuracy, and memory, the jobs are highly qualified to be undertaken by college graduates. And contrary to popular beliefs, they are certainly not dead-end jobs for "scums of society." There are plenty of possibility in upward career movements, taking lowly bartenders to corporate managerial positions after years of hard work.
In fact, there are no jobs too "superior" for anyone, only jobs are incompatible with a person's skill set (for a foreigners to do Japanese-language phone sales, for instance). In today's economy, even highly educated people should change their mentality that there exists some sort of strict social hierarchy predetermined by the education levels of individuals. Reality may force anyone to end up anywhere, and people should simply be satisfied that they have jobs at all and can scrap by paycheck-to-paycheck.
If there still is some sort of social hierarchy in modern society, the defining factor should be "effort," not education or some vaguely conceived idea of "intelligence" or "talent." Those try hard, no matter in how "lowly" of a job they start with, will be rewarded by greater pay, faster career advancement, and raise in social status. Unlike what the media and people, there is no dearth of jobs, it is simply that Ivy League graduates are not coming down from their pedestals and looking at the bottom levels. If they want to survive in the society of today, they better start thinking about coming down...
While the anxiety and the sorrow behind not being able to find jobs after four years of hard work in college are definitely understandable and worthy of sympathy, the amount of depressing rhetoric that is accompanying the whole situation has been getting a little too hard to stomach for even (newly) jobless new grads like myself. Public sentiment, echoing the gloomy expressions of the printed media, has been convinced that even the most brilliant and well-qualified college grads are in the risk of not being able to support themselves financially for years to come.
Certainly, there is no denying that finding good-paying jobs these days are certainly difficult for college grads. In the past years, the pillars of American undergrad hiring such as consulting and financial sectors have been reducing employment and have seriously cut into fresh hiring. And to deal with the situation, many potential candidates for such jobs have had no choice but to turn to part-time jobs such as those in the services sector (restaurants, retail, etc) and move back in with their parents in order to support themselves financially until the prospects brighten up again.
But the way that most college students and graduates react to seeing fresh grads waiting tables and bumming at home is often too outrageously unjustifiable. Especially in the case of many Ivy League and other top school graduates, they have not been at all reluctant to express their sheer anger in the economy undervaluing their "talents" (or as some secretly prefer, "geniuses"). They have, long since the beginning of their college days, came to the conclusion that they, as the future elite leaders of the world, must be given the solid opportunities to realize their full potential" the moment they step out of their college campuses.
Partially, the elite colleges are to blame for teaching their students intellectual arrogance combined with a complete lack of practical knowledge immediately usable in a real-world workplace. But ultimately, it is the college graduates themselves have are mainly to be blamed for buying into the fairy-tale-like smoothness of such admissions-enhancing propaganda on the part of the colleges. By taking the words of their alma mater at face value, they can only find themselves the inevitable sufferers of job-related depressions.
Their fundamental mistake lies in believing how they are somehow too "superior" for certain jobs. What is wrong with waiting tables anyways? With the need for discipline, politeness, speed, accuracy, and memory, the jobs are highly qualified to be undertaken by college graduates. And contrary to popular beliefs, they are certainly not dead-end jobs for "scums of society." There are plenty of possibility in upward career movements, taking lowly bartenders to corporate managerial positions after years of hard work.
In fact, there are no jobs too "superior" for anyone, only jobs are incompatible with a person's skill set (for a foreigners to do Japanese-language phone sales, for instance). In today's economy, even highly educated people should change their mentality that there exists some sort of strict social hierarchy predetermined by the education levels of individuals. Reality may force anyone to end up anywhere, and people should simply be satisfied that they have jobs at all and can scrap by paycheck-to-paycheck.
If there still is some sort of social hierarchy in modern society, the defining factor should be "effort," not education or some vaguely conceived idea of "intelligence" or "talent." Those try hard, no matter in how "lowly" of a job they start with, will be rewarded by greater pay, faster career advancement, and raise in social status. Unlike what the media and people, there is no dearth of jobs, it is simply that Ivy League graduates are not coming down from their pedestals and looking at the bottom levels. If they want to survive in the society of today, they better start thinking about coming down...
Comments
Post a Comment