By Rose Rodriguez
The end of the semester is upon us, which also means summer plans are being arranged. Some will go straight into working, others will take advantage of the few months off and relax. And there will even be some who will be looking at gaining experience through summer internships.
But for graduates, this time of year is one of the most exhilarating and terrifying moments there is, with the uneasy feeling of not knowing what is next.
In my case – and many others – the logical next step would be to jump into the work field, and go into the career that we’ve hoped for since applying for college. The hope is that after numerous years of college, countless hours of homework, long and sleepless nights, we can finally settle into a job.
What a nice dream that would truly be.
If you haven’t looked into the job market recently I’ll give you a little summary of what it’s looking like. In a nutshell: the first day of freshman year, you should have begun applying to your career in order to gain the experience that they are now requiring. Qualifications for “entry” level positions can differ per application, but something that remains the same amongst all is that companies desire an individual who has one to three years of experience.
If that is the case, where is the step-in? What qualifies as the “years of experience”? Would it be a course I could take that was specified in that job application? Or would it look more like an internship during the year that is typically around 12 weeks? Or, does it have to be being involved in an office and working full-time while simultaneously managing being a full-time student?
Another issue that arises is we — soon to be graduates — are not only competing against other graduates for a position. We are also competing against people who have already been in the workforce for years.
If a degree is no longer enough to get your foot in the door, then there is a problem between corporations or colleges. Either corporations set their standards too high as a justification of a lower paycheck, or universities need to do a better job at providing the experience these corporations desire.
