Based off of the Overdensity Podcast Episode: Value of education and how its role may evolve in the US, which featured a discussion on the practicality a 4 year degree in today’s economy and how skills.
The podcast was an interview of a young man who’d recently left a “safe” job for a job about which he’s more passionate, and his assessment of the job market and job search process. I feel very strongly that people should follow their bliss. Like the young many in the interview, I, too, gave up a “safe” job. I’d worked in the legal field for a decade, earning very good money, but working 80 – 100 hours per week to make other people very wealthy. I, also, found myself helping to defend people who’d done terrible things, including wrecking the global economy and ruining the lives of millions.
In the end, I chose to seek a job that would let me sleep at night, rather than sell my values for the sake of security and creature comforts. Would my life have been easier if I’d stayed at the big law firm, earning well, but being a nameless cog in the machine of injustice? Certainly, but that option was not one I could stomach. Like the young man in the interview, I sought to work in the arts, which proved to be a riskier, although more rewarding career choice. So, after ten years, I left my “corporate” job feeling exhausted, exploited, and unfulfilled.
I was rather astounded by some of the figures the young man quoted with regard to employment and the length of time he said it took him to find employment. There is no doubt that many college graduates do face a hard time finding employment in their particular fields. Of course, I recall from my own college experience that many of my fellow students chose majors that were not particularly in demand. I, personally, know people with PhD. degrees who have difficulty finding work because their field of study is so narrow. If that is the case, students must be prepared to look for work outside of their area of expertise and expect realistic compensation.
In other words, yes, you may have a doctorate in Medieval History, but you’re not likely to get lots of job offers in your field, nor will you be earning a six-figure salary right after graduation, if ever. Of course, while a six-figure salary may be necessary to raise a family in New York City, you can live comfortably on less in another city. While the young man in the interview chose very mainstream places for his job search like LinkedIn and job posting boards, I don’t usually use those methods.
I found my first jobs through my school’s career counseling center. I find that, also, eliminated a good deal of competition. Again, I was astounded to hear that he found himself competing with hundreds of job applicants. That seems to be a very frustrating way to seek employment. Many employers simply post jobs at the schools where they graduated, which narrows the applicant pool significantly. I run a non-profit organization, and I never post jobs on public job posting sites, nor do I look for applicants on sites like LinkedIn.
For talent jobs in the arts, I’ve posted on Craigslist, and for longer positions, I post with the career/guidance offices at the school I attended and other schools with which I’ve fostered relationships over the years. As an employer, this assures me a smaller, but better pool of applicants.
Consequently, as an employer I must, also, disagree with his process of writing elaborate cover letters. I would, personally, never bother to read a one-page long, single spaced cover letter. I don’t have time to read lengthy letters from many applicants, nor do I find it necessary. I can tell, by looking at a few lines of a resume or a few lines in an email if I’m interested or not. Similarly, when I meet an applicant, it only takes me a few minutes to make a decision. I look, listen, and take mental notes. I, personally, choose applicants who do not seem to be following a script or expected process. I want the person who demonstrates that they can think outside the box. When I am looking for jobs, I don’t apply for jobs en masse. Doing so wastes time and leads to frustration when you apply to hundreds of jobs, and don’t hear back from most. In truth, many jobs advertised already have someone to fill them. Many companies simply promote from within, and, then there’s old-fashioned nepotism. Still, companies run the “help wanted” ads to be in compliance with corporate policies. Consequently, I only apply for jobs that really interest me, rather than adopting a “shot gun” approach.
The young man in the interview did touch on some very good points that are very relevant to the current political and emotional climate in the United States. I do believe that in the 2016 election there was a sense of anger from the working class that led some people to vote against candidates whom they perceived as being a part of the status quo. Sadly, I think many of these people were looking for a savior of sorts.
Similarly, as more and more jobs, both professional and industrial, are being outsourced to third-world countries, people are looking for scapegoats. They claim immigrants are “taking their jobs.” The truth is immigrants are not taking their jobs. Rather their jobs are being shipped overseas and no amount of tax cuts or wall building or tariffs will bring those jobs back.
Take, for instance, the fashion industry, The Gap will never make clothes in America where workers earn $15 per hour, when someone is paid $3.50 in Indonesia or less in countries like Bangladesh or Cambodia. This is not even considering the fact that in other countries companies pay less because working conditions are much worse, and workers, including child workers can be forced to work longer hours with fewer days off. Those jobs will NEVER come back to America, and no politician, regardless of the lies they tell or hats they wear, will ever make that happen, especially when they themselves use cheap foreign labor to make their own products.
With regard to the suggestion that Americans look abroad for work, I must disagree. Countries where workers earn less are not going to look for an American who will expect to be paid more. Then, there’s the question of skill. Many countries in Eastern Europe, South America, and Asia have workers with computer skills, which is why so many of those areas have tech service and call centers. They are not looking to hire Americans because their own people have those skills.
Looking abroad for a job would require offering a unique skill, such as teaching English in a foreign country. I do agree that automation is a huge, if not the greatest threat to American jobs. One need only look at stores like Target and CVS or the MTA to see that people are being replaced by machines. Again, here we need a change of mind set. Across the nation, fast food workers have been fighting for a $15 minimum wage. While they argue that they need a living wage, they don’t see that their jobs are becoming obsolete, and, in fact, their pay raise will lead to their unemployment.
McDonald’s has already started installing tablets where customers are expected to place their orders, eventually eliminating the need for cashiers. Taco Bell has installed taco making robots for their restaurant assembly lines. If fast food restaurants have to pay $15 per hour to employees, they will simply employ fewer people.
What America has always had is innovation. We need to foster that spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. The solution is not to be job seekers, but job creators. We cannot look to large corporations to provide jobs, but, rather, we must learn to think outside the box, redefine the box, and create a new kind of box. For instance, I think there is tremendous opportunity in new technology. While politicians may want to push for coal and lower fuel standards, the opportunities of the future are in new green industries.
I’ve met with people nationwide who tell me, “We want green jobs.” I look at someone like Elon Musk who became a job creator by creating a new type of car (a stylish, luxury electric car). That is exactly the type of thinking we need. I meet every day with forward thinking designers and innovators who are getting ready to be employers of the future, rather than victims of the past.
Incidentally, with regard to the opening conversation as to why New York City is hotter than areas even 10 miles inland, I’ll note that concrete and urban congestion does, in fact, make a city hotter than a rural area. Also, New York City is a city of islands. The surrounding water provides a warming effect in the winter and a cooling effect in the summer.
