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comment by zebra2
zebra2  ·  2042 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Helen Dale: My Unpopular Opinion: There Are Too Many Mediocre Artists

It's really outdated advice that is bad advice in the modern world, but it still lingers. You hear the "your degree is proof of capability and adaptability and employers will willing to take you on for that alone" line a lot, especially with advanced degrees. The market is saturated though. Who is ever going to take a chance with someone with no direct experience but nice credentials when there are 10 people with direct experience and the credentials also applying? My lab was hiring recently and the make-or-break point was applicants coming prepackaged with the skill set we wanted to train them with even for entry level spots. We entertained the idea of hiring an appealing, energetic untrained applicant, but whaddyaknow a skilled one at the same level came along right after.





kleinbl00  ·  2041 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think I mentioned that my breaking point was looking up how much to save for my daughter's college when she was 8 months old. They've got calculators. And were she to take 5 years in a private institution that she started at 18, these calculators felt I needed to set aside $850/mo (starting at 8 months old) to pay for an education that would cost approximately $800k. I determined that I'd be better off giving my daughter a couple restaurant franchises than a college education at that point, and I figured I wouldn't be the only one.

It cannot continue. Something is going to break. I suspect it's going to break violently.

tacocat  ·  2042 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've been able to talk to quite a few kids in the past two years who feel like failures for being in their early twenties and not being in college. Usually because of heroin. Whenever I get a chance I tell them they shouldn't worry about it and should just go live life and figure out what they enjoy, that I wish I'd known more about the world when I picked a shit major based on which class I liked in high school.

    My lab was hiring recently and the make-or-break point was applicants coming prepackaged with the skill set we wanted to train them with even for entry level spots.

I have like three cousins getting ready to or entering college soon and I should really find out how they're dealing with this reality and how aware of it they are. I assume most people know by now that entry level is a pay grade, not a description of your experience, but that is not a safe assumption.