Recent College Grad Seeks Job

A recent university graduate wrote to Lucy Kellaway at the Financial Times. Link here.

Here is his letter: “In 2009, I graduated from a top-tier US university with a degree in European history and since then I have struggled to find work in the US. I tried civilian intelligence, then finance and venture capital – everything from sales to being a police officer. Now, in despair, I am enlisting in the swollen US military. I believe my liberal arts education has given me a good basis for joining the workforce (I also speak Russian) but it seems employers do not agree. They prefer candidates from a state university with qualifications in business or marketing. What has gone wrong?”

Actually, nothing has gone wrong. Except perhaps his bad attitude.

Kellaway is kind enough to inform this young man that degrees in European history do not have very much value in the marketplace, and, that even her own college-student daughter knows that.

It should not be news that business and marketing degree holders from state universities are more desirable than humanities graduates from top-tier, i. e. Ivy League, schools. I would merely add that job candidates who have degrees in engineering are also in high demand.

Kellaway does not exactly let this man off the hook. She points out that people who drift from job to job in different fields tend to look unfocused. This does not make them very desirable employees. This man has tried out nearly a half-dozen jobs in the space of around eighteen months. What does that say about him?

The young man seems to have come away from his top-flight education with a well-developed sense of entitlement. He has become a whiner who believes that his Ivy League degree makes him intrinsically better than those who went to state schools and mastered more practical disciplines.

His reality check is more like a gut check.

Now, having come to the end of his rope, in the depths of his despair, he has chosen to join the military. He seems to think that this is some kind of grand injustice. How will he ever explain it to his fellow alums?

Of course, as Kellaway says, he has made a very good decision. He may not know it yet, but military service will help him to undo many of the lessons he learned in college. It will also teach him some skills that will serve him well in his future job searches.

In Kellaway’s words: “For now, being in the military sounds like a good scheme. Even if you only learn what you don’t want to do with your life, that will be a start. At least you’ll be picking up some skills that really do help in the workforce. Like doing what you are told.”