Tuesday, December 30, 2003
The worthlessness of $60K+
Lauren and I were talking last night about what all our friends are up to these days, those whom we see and those whom we don't. She was feeling old (all of 24) and was lamenting about how many of our separate friends will be marrying shortly or have already been married. I confess I joined her in this particular bemoaning. And here we still sit, both still going to school of one variety or another. We got to talking about some of our friends who have not yet finished up their B.A.'s for one reason or another. I commented that I wished these friends all the power and luck they need to finish because of all the opportunity available to the bearer of that piece of paper unavailable to those who lack it. Well, then Lauren and I thought about that for a while and decided that right now - in this age - that is not entirely true.
With the economy like it is, though Trevor would swear it's on the up and up, many college grads of or about my grad year ('02-'04) have absolutely nothing to do. The job market is down, especially for us college grads with the theoretical know-how but without the experience necessary to be effective. This led to an enormous increase in applications put in to graduate programs this year, but without the same marked increase in spots in those programs. In turn, that led to two things: a whole bunch of people in MBA or other graduate programs and, a much larger bunch of people with college degrees without a job or a graduate school.
Likewise, in three to five years, all those MBA and other graduate students will graduate with their 'advanced' degrees to join a mob. An MBA grad will be a dime a dozen, rendering all that specilization for the sake of getting ahead worthless. There goes $60K+. We go to these programs to further ourselves, to gain an advantage over our contemporaries, and to, hopefully, increase our paycheck. But none of that will be true when we all graduate. It will be the same story all over again. So, what are we to do? What is there left for us? We are a new generation; Gen X was defined as having a severe distrust of organizations and institutions. Our Generation (whatever catchy title they give us) will be defined as the worthlessly educated generation, with a severe paucity of jobs above the level that a normal high school graduate would be able to achieve. What is the good side of this you ask? Simple: I predict in the future far more competency among restaurant waiters (whom you may want to ask for investment advice after ordering) and a deep drop in the amount of time it takes to get a burger at the McDonald's drivethru (the clerk at which will be able to offer entrepeneurial or marketing stratagies while they posit "Do you want fries with that?").
-R
Lauren and I were talking last night about what all our friends are up to these days, those whom we see and those whom we don't. She was feeling old (all of 24) and was lamenting about how many of our separate friends will be marrying shortly or have already been married. I confess I joined her in this particular bemoaning. And here we still sit, both still going to school of one variety or another. We got to talking about some of our friends who have not yet finished up their B.A.'s for one reason or another. I commented that I wished these friends all the power and luck they need to finish because of all the opportunity available to the bearer of that piece of paper unavailable to those who lack it. Well, then Lauren and I thought about that for a while and decided that right now - in this age - that is not entirely true.
With the economy like it is, though Trevor would swear it's on the up and up, many college grads of or about my grad year ('02-'04) have absolutely nothing to do. The job market is down, especially for us college grads with the theoretical know-how but without the experience necessary to be effective. This led to an enormous increase in applications put in to graduate programs this year, but without the same marked increase in spots in those programs. In turn, that led to two things: a whole bunch of people in MBA or other graduate programs and, a much larger bunch of people with college degrees without a job or a graduate school.
Likewise, in three to five years, all those MBA and other graduate students will graduate with their 'advanced' degrees to join a mob. An MBA grad will be a dime a dozen, rendering all that specilization for the sake of getting ahead worthless. There goes $60K+. We go to these programs to further ourselves, to gain an advantage over our contemporaries, and to, hopefully, increase our paycheck. But none of that will be true when we all graduate. It will be the same story all over again. So, what are we to do? What is there left for us? We are a new generation; Gen X was defined as having a severe distrust of organizations and institutions. Our Generation (whatever catchy title they give us) will be defined as the worthlessly educated generation, with a severe paucity of jobs above the level that a normal high school graduate would be able to achieve. What is the good side of this you ask? Simple: I predict in the future far more competency among restaurant waiters (whom you may want to ask for investment advice after ordering) and a deep drop in the amount of time it takes to get a burger at the McDonald's drivethru (the clerk at which will be able to offer entrepeneurial or marketing stratagies while they posit "Do you want fries with that?").
-R
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