Preparing for college part 2
Most parents advise their children: “Go to college, get a degree, and then find a job in your field of study.” With globalization and fast changing job market, this advice is not enough. Today college students need more guidance about planning a career, developing special skills, and prepare to compete for good job when they graduate.
Both parents and students need to understand that there is a difference between a degree and skills. Companies are paying less attention to the degree as they expect that most candidates must have college degree, but they are more interested in the skills and abilities graduates can bring to the workplace.
This requires considerable thinking and planning from both parents and students when they prepare for college. They must monitor the job market to identify what areas are in high demand, find out about the needed skills, and determine which school has the best training program on these skills and select the field of study accordingly. They should not wait until entering college then start identifying what is needed as it would be too late. Today they must plan everything before entering college so they can select the right school and the right field of study.
Unfortunately, many students still go to college without a clear career plan. They wander around to see what field interests them. Many students select a field of study without thinking carefully, if they do not do well, they switch to another. They continue to do it few times until they find something that they like. However by doing that, they waste a lot of time and efforts, and probably select the easiest field to study. Only after graduated and could not find work then they began to think seriously about what to do with their lives. Some returned to school and began to learn seriously, they told me that they wished they would have known about career planning earlier.
Today there are many information available if students are serious about career planning. Job market research is the key to help students figure out which career make sense and which will be in high demand by the time they graduate. They must carefully review market trends to learn more about what are the next “Hot areas”, what kind of wages they can made, which field of study they should select, and what types of job are available.
Many first year students do not know how to plan their career. They often listen to their friends and sometime their friends are confused too. The best way is to talk to graduating students and ask them whether they have jobs or not. It is possible to ask school counselors: “How many graduates with this field of study over the last few years get good jobs? Where are they working now? What kind of salary are they making? Are they working in the same field of study?' If the answer is “No, they are not working but still looking for job” or “They are working but in different areas” or “Their wages are not very good.” then you may need to think carefully about your choice of study.
Another better way is to read job descriptions in newspapers to see what skills companies needs and what type of degree that they required. This information can help identify some career paths that students may want to consider. Another good source is the industry forecasting such as the bureau of labor statistics who often broadcast their prediction for the next five to ten years. Parents also need to be informed about the market trends. They need to be more proactive in reviewing and guide students to get on the right career paths.
Sometime students may like to select certain field of study because their best friends are studying it. Few years ago, a student told me: “All of my friends are studying architecture. There is no reason that I would choose another field. We have been together for several years in high school, I cannot leave my friends.” I told him: “If this is the field of study that you like and want to build a career than you are making a good choice. But if you only choose it because you do not want to leave your friends than you are making a mistake. You should find out what you want, what you are passion about, what career that you can do it for a long time because it is your life and your future.” He did not listen and few years later he dropped out of school when their friendship changed.
Last year, a graduate come to see me for advice. He said: “I could not find any job even with a bachelor degree in Literature. I want to go back and learn computer so I can get a good job.” I asked him: “What do you think you would do with a CS degree?” He seemed confuse: “I do not know I just hope to get a job as most CS graduates always get good job.” This is a typical student without a career plan, without clear direction in life because all he wants is a job instead of a career. So I explained: “What is it that you really want to do? He said: “I like to write, I select literature as I want to be a writer.” I told him: “There are jobs involving writing skills in the technology industry called technical writing. You can write manual, document, instructions, procedures and standards. There are jobs writing for the Web such as blogs and news for some companies. You can combine your writing skills with your training in web development into something that you can actually use in this job market. Many technology companies are hiring people with your skills.” He was surprised as he never thinks of it as he did not read all the job descriptions that company advertised.
It is important for students to know that a career path is not a fixed roadmap. However by having one will help you to know the direction and where to find opportunities. Today a college education is no longer a guaranty for job but by having an education goal, you can always adjust your plan accordingly. Parents need to teach their children to balance idealism with realism. Young people are full of ideas, they all want to make the world a better place, they all want to change things to be better and parents need to support that idealism, but it has to be a balance with realism. When they graduate and leave home, they need a good job to support themselves and contribute to the society.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
