Job Seeking for a College Graduate in 1980 versus Today ~ Triggered by Millennial Angst on the Diane Rehm Show.

Job Seeking for a College Graduate in 1980 versus Today ~ Triggered by Millennial Angst on the Diane Rehm Show.

During my commute I often have the radio tuned to WAMU / NPR. Monday morning the Diane Rehm Show had assembled a panel of Millennials to discuss their views on life, which as usual resulted in complaints about their student loan debts and inability to find a good job. The panelists asserted the US Economy was at its worst for recent grads since the Great Depression. Apparently, many Millennials missed classes on 20^th Century History and Economics.

The economy has always been cyclical with the job outlook for recent college graduates ebbing and flowing and ever changing. When I was graduated from my small Midwestern university in 1980, the world was in crisis, Jimmy Carter was president and had put a freeze on federal hiring, the hostages were still held by student radicals in Iran, there was a recession, an oil shortage, and it was a white man’s world. But returning to the parental nest was not an option for me. My siblings and I were raised to be independent and make it or not on our own.

I was fortunate in that I did not graduate with the burden of huge student loans.

For one thing, lending institutions were more cautious and would not have loaned that much money to a student borrower without any collateral. A parent had to co-sign. But there was never any question I would attend college for at least one year. Unlike many students today who stretch what should be a 4 year degree into 5 or more, I made the conscious decision to take extra credits (at one point 20 credits per quarter), worked at a radio station and a pizza parlor, and graduated in 3 years with the ever-so-useful liberal arts degree in French. But I believed and still do today that a liberal arts background prepares one to be a well- rounded person who can exhibit the skills necessary to compete in any job environment.

With the job outlook quite challenging and the understanding that I needed employment, I decided to apply for any job that would consider a female liberal arts graduate a viable candidate. When I applied for the job as a claims adjuster for the now defunct Commercial Union Assurance Companies, I did not even know what the job entailed. I’d never heard the term before. Before I was offered the job, I was required to take series of personality tests, which were purported to gauge whether I was suited to the particular job. Either I passed the tests or the company was under significant pressure to diversify its work force. I was offered the job for $12,500 per year and a company car – a 1980 green Ford Fairmont with a cream landau top.  I was the first woman field adjuster hired in the Indianapolis office.  When I accepted the job, I still didn’t know precisely what it was. But, it was a job. My foot was in the door.  And I made it a career.

So the lesson for young people entering the job market today is this~be open to any opportunity. You won’t have to earn a fortune to pay loans if you attend a state university in the state in which you live to keep tuition costs down. One shouldn’t expect to start at the top, or even the middle, or even make a decent income at first.  But the best way to get a better job is to have work experience. And it is easier to find a job when you have a job. So take a job, try it, and if you don’t like it, keep looking. And finding a work/life balance is not always possible at first. But you can get there after earning it through hard work.