On education versus real world experience:
Yeah, I'm older, and have a different view of things but I'll get this off my chest right now. When I was a hiring manager, (IT) I interviewed a lot of people finishing up school, or just recently graduated, and more than half the time, I was DISGUSTED by the fact that nobody wanted to work their way up the corporate ladder, and felt it was their RIGHT to start a new career higher up the org chart just because they had a piece of paper, and ZERO real world experience. It doesn't work that way, at least in my chosen field of work. I'm SO tired of "I'm OWED this, you HAVE to give me that...", etc etc. My current view of LOTS of the younger people is their work ethic sucks, their people skills suck, and they DON'T contribute. They want a paycheck just for showing up. People like this NEED to get chewed up and spit out by the dozens. Out of everything I learned in school in the then data processing field, I used about 10%. It was only after gaining experience, and working my ass off, that I started the move upwards. Bottom line - Make me choose between some self professed "expert" ,green & just out of school, and a person with at least few years experience, I'll go with the experienced person 99% of the time, even if he/she is short on some skills/experience the green school graduate might have.
On the underemployed/unemployed scenario - I've been so close to rock bottom, I coould count the pea gravel! Nearly lost EVERYTHING. I figured with my schooling & experience, I should be able to find SOMETHING in my field. I was turned down for a TEMP job on an assembly line because I was over qualified. I drove cars for dealerships, I worked at Home Depot, and did some consulting, but it took 2 years to get where I am now, making about half what I did before. Find something you can TOLERATE doing while you keep looking for the big job. NEVER give up looking for something better. f you have no real experience in the profession you are looking in, you may have to grovel a bit in a lower paying, lower titled job, but use that to gain experience, and if you bust ass for a manager/boss who even thinks a little like I do, you'll do ok. Good luck to all of you in school, and all of you looking for work, I seriously mean that, the working world is NOTHING like school, and it's a tough out in the corporate world....
J-Dubya
