Higher Education: On Life, Landing a Job, and Everything Else They Didnt Teach You in College

Three primary developments in the job market make it more difficult employers set the recruiting calendar, and everyone else followed along. and government agencies also loom over hiring in a way they didn't Give high school students more exposure to training for a variety of You might also like.
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It was an easy process for students and campuses to understand. In recent years, those two companies hired only a few dozen students from Michigan State. There are more employers today, each of them recruiting fewer students, and all have specific needs and timetables for students to track. Companies that build things no longer dominate the economy; business and professional services that reorganize those old-line companies now do. Teach for America and AmeriCorps are among the top 10 destinations for Michigan State graduates today, and several other nonprofit organizations fill spots in the top In the s, nonprofits occupied none of those spots.

In a nationwide survey, more than 40 percent of the class of said they wanted to work for the government, at the federal, state or local level. Give high school students more exposure to training for a variety of careers ]. Second, employers have raised the bar on the skills workers need to start a job on day one and are less involved in employee training.

Young adults are largely on their own to acquire those skills. Doing so becomes increasingly challenging because the rules keep shifting. Only a quarter of companies have specific hiring targets when they start campus recruiting, according to surveys by Michigan State. Many of those programs have been eliminated in corporate cost-cutting. Entire industries have been disrupted by technology and globalization in recent years, even stalwarts like law, accounting and medicine.


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In a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, two-thirds of college leaders said more discussions about job preparation were occurring on campus compared with just three years earlier. But what kinds of jobs are campuses supposed to be preparing students for?

Benefits of Earning a College Degree

For most people, the ability to earn more money is the driving force behind going to college. A post-secondary degree, whether it is a bachelor's, master's or PhD, is the most common route to careers that demand higher skills and offer higher pay. Studies show that college graduates earn significantly more money throughout their lifetime than those with only high school education.

This translates to a significant earnings gap over the course of one's life. Earnings potential varies depending on what field you work in.

For example, a master's degree in education or nursing won't lead to nearly as much wealth as a master's degree in engineering or business. But education and nursing are far and away the most in-demand professions out there. If you enter one of these fields, you're likely to find a good job somewhere — even if it doesn't pay as well a job in engineering or business.

There is still an income disparity in gender and race. White males tend to make more money than their non-white-male counterparts. But relative to all gender and racial demographics, earnings potential still increases dramatically with a college degree.

Benefits of Earning a College Degree

Obviously, higher income is a primary benefit of earning your college degree. But most jobs that require a bachelor's, master's, doctoral or professional degree tend to also provide more benefits. This can include health care, retirement investment, travel and other perks. These types of benefits are rarely offered for high-school-level jobs. Part of the reason employment benefits are so important is because they offer stability for your family, especially in the case of health care.

They are called benefits, but in reality, they are a vital part of anyone's salary. In some cases, the value of benefits even exceeds an employee's take-home pay. The benefits of a college education also extend beyond generations. Families of college graduates are generally better off economically and socially.

1. Make More Money

But it is also more likely that the next generation of children will attend college. So you can look at it as an investment in the future of your family. Earning a college degree is the most common pathway to a better career.

Entering college, not everyone knows what they want to do when they grow up. But most know they want to have a better job-not only one that will pay more, but one in which they are more satisfied and secure. That combination of benefits is why so many people make the investment of time and money to go to college.

Often times it's not necessarily what you study, but the fact that you studied something at all. Aside from training you in an expert field, college trains you to think analytically, understand complex subjects and communicate your own critical ideas about them. It also instills crucial skills like organization, self-discipline and the ability to complete tasks from start to finish. In other words, college helps mold you into a more professional individual.

Because college gives you a broad range of skills, many college graduates end up in fields that are not what they studied in school. College can open up unexpected opportunities that aren't always there for those who haven't engaged in a higher level of education.