Nothing excites me more than the prospect of living in my parents' basement. I mean, come on now, who doesn't like having their food cooked and laundry cleaned for them? Sadly, this really is a concern for me, and I'd imagine it's a concern for many others as well. The job market is anything but inviting. Simply graduating with a degree isn't enough to be guaranteed a job anymore. As future employees, we need to start honing our skills now to make us marketable later.
First and foremost is the résumé we accrue by graduation. We can have all the skills in the world but if we have no real work experience or campus involvement, employers will drop our application in the trash. Even the worst of college jobs beats having no experience at all.
However, school shouldn't just be about getting lines on a résumé. I've always been a believer that the bulk of the education we receive comes from outside of the classroom. Having a wide variety of life experiences can help us expand our knowledge base, which feeds directly into our value as an employee.
Next to our résumé, the most important thing we can do is hone our personal skills. These are the social, written, decision making, problem solving, critical thinking and motivation skills that affect how we work and interact with others. Honing these skills is not only beneficial to getting a job, but to having a successful life in general.
Today's work force is more than just a bunch of monkeys around some desks. Many companies are significantly cutting their research and development departments, especially in this economy, and are using their already existing work force to come up with new ideas. Being creative and having a willingness to innovate will help us go a long way toward getting a job.
Luckily for college students, there are certain areas we excel in that others in the market don't. We're the generation of the iPod and the Internet and we can pick up new technologies and learn them quickly. This makes us valuable as more companies start to place a higher emphasis on information technologies.
Many people believe their major dictates the jobs they can and can't take. While an accounting firm isn't likely to hire a communications major to be an accountant, generally the degree you get doesn't hurt or help your chances right out of college. You can be any major in the world as long as you're able to show that you can extract knowledge from your education and apply it to the job you're going for.
However, there are certain classes we can take in college to make us more marketable. Some of the most important ones are foreign languages. Globalization is quickly tearing down the borders of economics, and being able to communicate to larger sections of the market will make us a top choice for employers.
Along these same lines, we should be willing to adapt and look at jobs that are outside our field of study. On average, we'll have seven careers in our lifetimes. Expecting to spend a lifetime in the same field we decided to major in when starting college is a pipe dream.
Even with everything I've mentioned, it still might be hard to find a job. It's important to not settle for just anything that comes along. Living in our parents' basement for a few months as we find a job we can truly appreciate is better than doing something we hate. If our heart's not in it, we shouldn't do it.
The great thing is there are other options aside from getting a job after graduation. We can go back to school and continue to expand our knowledge base. Spending a year or two picking up a master's degree will not only make us better job candidates in the future, it also allows time for the economy to recover and new jobs to be created.
Alternatively, we can go do something crazy like backpack around Europe or join the Peace Corps. They might not have the same effect on our résumé as additional schooling will, but it'll give us life experiences that additional schooling can't.
And if all else fails, we could just find ourselves sugar daddies and mommas. Nothing beats rich old people.
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