Advice on education 2011
According to a new global study, this year companies will hire more college graduates than last year but only for certain degrees. Computer Science, Software Engineering, Medical and Healthcare are HOT. Business and Finance majors will have much difficult time to get job because there are over 150,000 experienced but unemployed workers in the U.S alone. It is estimated that there are close to a million unemployed business and finance majors globally resulting from the financial crisis few years ago. The study also shows that approximately 87% of job available require a bachelors degree as minimum. This trend indicate that people without a college degree will not be able to find job easily this year and in the future.
If you are graduating this year, what are the chances that you will get job or be unemployed? Since the job market is highly competitive, you should be actively looking for job NOW. Do not wait for the economy to improve or wait until you graduate to start looking for job. I know a lot of people doing this. They wait and wait until the situation is perfect than do something about it. If they cannot find jobs, they will go back to school since their parents are still willing to support them. In my opinion, as adults, students must be prepared and ready to start their careers as soon as possible. I recommend that students start organize their resumes at the beginning of the fourth year and looking for jobs immediately. They should look for jobs that interest them but will also develop their skills and knowledge in their field of study. This mean if needed, they may have to volunteer to work someplace with minimum pay or non-payment just to get the experience rather than be underemployed. This will help them get to where they want to be in the future.
Last year, I received several emails from students who told me that they did NOT have the right degrees or the skills that the job market need. They have studied philosophy, literatures, arts, economics, history, general sciences, etc and they have tough time getting any job. The simple reason: Many did NOT plan for a career when entered college. Many enrolled in fields that were easy to getting into so after four years, they were facing the “reality” of the job market. However, as college graduated, they have taken many courses on different topics that teach them about general knowledge and skills which could be apply to any situation. Many companies do hire these students for general business related roles as long as they demonstrate certain level of aptitude and maturity. Of course, they cannot expect good salaries because the companies will have to train them on whatever jobs they do. For practical solutions, I recommend that they may want to take additional courses in the area that the industry needs to improve their chances. For example, they may have a degree in philosophy but also have programming skills by having taken three programming courses in school. They may have a degree in arts but also have foreign language skills because they took six English courses. With globalization, communication is an essential skills, almost every business will need people with foreign language skills so having a good communication skill in a foreign language is another solution for students who may not select the technical career.
Some students also want to continue their education in a foreign country. Today, a majority of students want to go to the U.S because it is still one of the best education system in the world. For the past ten years, the number of foreign students in U.S graduated schools have increased significantly. Chinese, Indian, and European students are among the largest group of foreign students in U.S school. Of course, many students only know about top universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, and Berkeley but there are also many excellent schools in the U.S that they may want to know. The best way is to do research and investigate carefully to determine which school would meet your interests. Following are some information that you may find useful:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
http://www.princetonreview.com/rankingsbest.aspx
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html
When apply for schools in the U.S you must carefully avoid some “Heavily advertised schools” that promise a lot but turn out to be “Bogus” schools. Every country has illegitimated schools and so does the U.S. Every year, government have to close out many schools but they still continue appear in the internet, via “brokerage” and special places. Last year, thousand foreign students had to return to their countries after paid a lot of money for bogus schools that did not exist. Many schools would take the money, issue acceptance paper but when students arrive, it is just an empty building. Some schools do exist but do not “get accredited” (Paper Mill degrees) so their degree is worthless. Please be careful, it is your money, your time and your future so you must investigate carefully before applying.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
