Just a heads up, this is not going to boost your spirits, but you may want to read on anyway.
Despite what you’ve been taught the past 20-odd years of your life, education is not going to get you very far in the world.
Now, wait. Don’t go throwing your textbooks out the window or cursing your just-paid tuition yet. Education is clearly important, but it is not going to be your golden ticket to earning a lot of, well, gold.
Long gone are the days when getting your bachelor’s degree meant you were a prime candidate to walk into any entry-level job in your preferred field.
So go ahead and kiss that dream goodbye.
As we get closer and closer to graduation, the harsh realities of the “real world” are becoming ever clearer. The 14 percent drop in the 2009 employment rate for graduates of the W.P. Carey School of Business is a depressing indicator of that.
Your BA in finance doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going sitting pretty with a middle-class income anymore — even less so if your BA is in a less lucrative subject like music. It sucks, but it’s true.
Just because the odds are against you doesn’t mean you should give up your passion. But it does mean that you need to work a whole lot harder to achieve it.
You can do your work well; get a solid 3.0 GPA and graduate with honors. But someone else will have beaten your GPA, been involved in more organizations and worked at various internships. Who will be doing your dream job after you get your diploma? Probably not you.
Being successful in college isn’t good enough anymore. You have to be outstanding.
You can spend your time in a bar or at parties and not in a classroom or the library, that’s your choice, but you’d better be real sure it was worth it.
No one will have a job waiting for you when you get out of college unless you make sure that they do.
Networking, going to career fairs, and “taking a robust approach to your job search” will be key, said Jim Clayton, director of the Graduate Career Management Center for the business school on the Tempe campus.
College is supposed to be an experience, and a certain amount of fun is necessary, but don’t give yourself anything to regret from your time here.
It’s up to you. You can go to Mill Avenue every night and bump ASU up a couple of notches on the “party school” achievement list; just don’t expect anyone to bail you out once your four (or five) years are up. Are you willing to gamble your future? We don’t think so.
So go ahead, be mediocre. Party like a rock star, win a few beer pong championships and sleep through your Monday morning classes. You’ll be one less competitor to worry about when they start hiring at your dream job.
