Mental Thoughts of a Recent College Graduate
By: Eddie “Dr. Philosophy” Yancey, III
“What do I do now? Where do I go from here? What’s next in life? Where does my future lie” These are just a few of the many questions of most students who have the dignity of calling themselves recent college graduates. What once was a feat of purpose, excellence, and persistence now seems like a test of will power, determination, and patience as many recent graduates of universities, colleges, technical schools, and the like are struggling to gain access to the entrance of that “dream career job” that they envisioned while working those long hours at retail stores and restaurants as well as staying up all night to finish exams, projects, papers, and study guides. It’s so bad that a 2009 feature film called Post Grad highlighted the struggles that recent college graduates are having.
After speaking with many of my friends that are recent graduates of higher education, I’ve come to the conclusion that most recent college graduates are pretty much in three categories. The first category is the recent grad that has a career job in their field of study. The second category consists of those former students who are working at a job that has nothing to do with their degree, just to pass time until that career job does happen to come along. The third and final category is the graduate who already obtained a first degree and decided to pursue another one.
The job market hasn’t been too friendly for the recent grad, that’s why a lot of former college students aren’t in that first category. Of all of my friends who I attended school with or who attended college, I know maybe a handful or two who have a job that they actually enjoy that’s in their field of what they studied in school. So, in short, all is well and dandy with the ones in this category. They have a career job with a respectable company. The young adults in this category have some obstacles, such as possible having to pay Sallie Mae back, but all-in-all they are currently better off than the recent graduates in categories two and three.
All of the recent graduates that work in a job that has absolutely nothing to do with their degree inhabit category two. These individuals pretty much go to work just to get a paycheck. They know that they’re not going to make this job a career, unless something miraculous happens. They don’t want any part of the benefits package or anything else that would require them to stay at their job any longer than they’d have to. People that are in category two usually dislike working at their current job. To sum it up, the young adults that work at this job are just there to pass time until something better comes along.
The third category involves those graduates who said, “Forget this crazy economy and job market. I’m not going to sit here and wait around to hear back from all these companies where I applied to. I’m going back to school!” These young adults took the initiative to go back to school to gain more knowledge and beef up their resume. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the ones in this category had a lot of pros and cons to weigh when it regarded ultimately deciding on whether or not to go back to school. On one end, the current graduate students would seemingly have more classroom and practical knowledge when it pertains to their degree, giving them a better chance of standing out in a crowded workforce. On the other end, they may ultimately have more money to pay Sallie Mae, since finding funding for graduate school is way more difficult than getting undergrad paid for.
These are just a few mental thoughts that I, personally, have had since I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in May of 2009. The categories are just the grouping that I came up with after many hours of conversing with my buddies that are recent higher education grads. The category I would put myself in is probably category two. I have a job in my field, but I dislike the culture and ethics of the organization. With that said, I may be switching over to category three in the next year. Either way it goes, things will get better for me and the rest of us recent college graduates. While in undergrad, I had multiple internships, numerous jobs, above average grades, fraternity participation, and work around the community and campus and yet things still aren’t handed to me on a silver platter. My message and advice to current college students would be to stay focused on the task at hand, make good grades, utilize the equipment and technology around campus so that you can tone your craft as much as possible, get in good with the career center, build professional relationships with your professors, and attending as many career fairs and seminars as possible among other things.
These reflections are just a tale from me to other recent and upcoming graduates that things aren’t peaches and cream in the real, business world, but tough it out and weather the storm and things can’t do nothing but go up!
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