Experience Manifesto Part One : Let's Stop Pretending the Bucks Stops at a Degree

I know this has been written on by many people in my generation (us angry millenials! Oh my!), but I feel it still has importance despite its beaten nature. Everyone who comes across this path (including my fiancé) have different battle scars and stories to share. Although the message is depressing, it lends hope that we are not alone in this fight and perhaps we can help make changes for future generations. What battles do I speak of? The trials and tribulations of the entry-level graduating student.


The second greatest depression in the United States started at a time where many millenials (such as I) were setting off to new lands and living situations. We, such as all freshly graduated high school students, felt like we had the world in our hands and were fulfilling the goals that had been made for us: going to college and getting the all important degree. A degree was seen as the master key to unlock vital levels in the game of life.  A degree is what made you money. It didn't matter so much what you got it in, just as long as you eventually knew what you wanted to do and you got it. That way you could support yourself, that way you could make money.


Now I am not saying that this applies to all students, but this message is what I feel was taught to many of us on our paths. Dropping out of high school or not planning to go to college were often seen as poor options unless you were a skilled laborer. In my section of the country, skilled labor was blue collar work. You made the real money with the degree worth thousands.


Like the generations before us, we went to college, we graduated and we came to the rite of passage: finding the "big girl/big boy" first job that would help us on our chosen career paths. Some found jobs out of the gate, but a majority of us found only the cold, hard realization of nothingness in our path. We'd gotten the degree, now where were the jobs? Surely people needed us! People need our bright-eyed opinions and ambition! Most of that ambition, I have found, has gone into the service industry, rather than actual wanted jobs.


So, we went on the new path on trying to find something, anything in our focus. Some, like me, have turned to graduate school as a further schooling option; others have found nothing, despite higher education. The degree lied to us. It was supposed to help us find jobs, instead it help us find the hurt of the recession.


Like I said, not all graduating students found this. Some had a worthy degree, but for us in the arts and sciences, we ended up staring at a dusty road. I think it is time to stop telling students that a strong work ethic and a degree is all we need to succeed. The nasty word "experience" has popped up for many in their job hunts, particularly included in the phrase "lack of".  We need to have experience in the careers we want, but the awful truth is that no one is giving out experience for us to gain. My thoughts: Start the Experience Route Early. A Degree is Not All We Need.


For millenials and upcoming generations to get their footing, we need to start emphasizing internships, shadowing, networking...any external work experience that helps us decide where we want to go and how we are going to get there.  Colleges need to start acting to help us prepare to plow our way through the rest of this depression so we might hope to have a chance to make our way through. We need to know how make a plan for the good and the bad.


More Tomorrow:
Ellen

An Introduction

Welcome to my new blog. This is where I will discuss more professional issues I take note of, rather than those of personal nature. If you've never been here before, my name is Ellen, and I am graduate student studying museum science. I am close to entering my second year and preparing to search for an internship. I hope this blog is something I can keep up and, perhaps, interest people with in the future. 


 Thanks, Ellen