The Class of 2012 has reason to celebrate. They’re among the 56% of college students who stuck it out and finished a college degree in under 6 years,¹ they found their calling, and they are prepared to make an impact on the world. However, with rising student debt, a volatile job market, and an overall uncertain economic future, many students may also be leaving with anxiety about entering the workforce.

Graduation, whether in 1960 or 2012 or in an up or down economy, can bring a mixed bag of emotions. Our evolving society provides each generation a unique perspective as they leave the comfort of academia, but we all have common emotions, thoughts, and questions as we step into a new environment that possesses some level of uncertainty. Change is a dichotomy. This exciting time full of parties, toasts, friends, and family can also bring pangs of sadness.

Many college students are lining up internships for the summer months or the coming semester. Some college graduates are also getting internships to further their professional experience after college and possibly get their foot in the door in careers and fields they have recently narrowed to match their interests and abilities.

An estimated fifty-percent of college grads in 2008 held an internship,¹ and the number has only grown since the beginning of the recession.  Unpaid internships have received bad press in the last few years because some companies have taken advantage of interns, asking them to work late at night or run errands to get coffee for staff members.  These isolated situations don’t take into account the many companies who provide valuable experience for interns, often helping them to gain enough experience to land their first job. The payment issue with interns is a mixed bag. Many companies aren’t willing to take a risk to pay someone they consider unskilled and yet many students can’t get a job and improve their skills unless they have “experience”.

Internships provide students, graduates, and professionals with experience they can only get through being on the job. This experience can solidify their passion for the field or company. It can also do the opposite, and show them they might be ill-suited for the “idea” of their perfect job or that they have skills that are better fit for another field altogether.  Whether the experience is a good fit or a bad fit for their career, most internships teach students something about the team dynamics, leadership, and levels of responsibility they require to be effective in any career.

At LifeBound, we have interns who are referred to us from local universities who are managed and monitored by their university’s internship coordinators. These students receive grades and school credit for their professional experience. Many interns have found a part or full time position after graduation at our company. We’ve also had interns who came to us thinking they wanted an editorial career, for example, who in a few different instances found their real passions in marketing or film. The “wrong” internship turned out to be just as valuable, if not more, for these students as they were given the chance to explore their interests in a professional environment for the first time.

The world of work is ever- changing. However, new graduates will experience a heightened level of change over the span of their careers, as technology becomes more integrated and new software, tools, and gadgets make their work more efficient and far reaching.  Add to that the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of today’s young people who will be launching many of the new businesses which will fuel our economic growth over the next several decades in areas that don’t yet exist, and it could be hard to predict what the workforce will look like in 20, or even 10, years.

All industries use technology, but that doesn’t mean all students or current workers have been trained or prepared for demands of the digital workforce. Older workers are finding they need to return to school to keep up with technology changing their industry, even with twenty-plus years on the job¹. Graduating youth may be at an advantage now as they exit college with know-how to succeed in today’s job market, but must adopt the mindset of a lifelong learner to stay ahead of the curve.

Technology hasn’t only changed the way we organize, communicate, and entertain, it’s also opened the doors to a global market and started a conversation between workers around the world. We are moving toward a complete reliance on technology to communicate, which is infiltrating dialogues, local and international, and requiring professionals have stronger communication skills than ever before in order to converse with the diverse workforce. In his commencement speech, David Calhoun, CEO of The Nielson Co. also highlighted the need to “keep learning throughout life,” not solely because of technology, but because globalization causes the world to change so fast that we can safely bet that our skills will become outdated at a fast pace².

Have you used Skype to talk with your parents while away at college? Have you used your filters on your Gmail account to separate your personal messages from your school messages? Have you learned how to close a professional email? Have you learned how to effectively write a negative message and close it in a positive way? All of these skills of diplomacy and negotiating will help you to launch your business ideas inside a small start up, a mid-size company, or within a department of a Fortune 500 company. Some colleges offer basic computer literacy classes that teach you how to use basic computer programs like word processors, spreadsheets, and some online organization tools, but much of the skills students are expected to bring to the world of work are self taught.

Consider the following reality of the new workforce:

• A Skype commissioned survey estimates that 62% of firms employ workers remotely³.
• Miscommunication can be a common problem because new hires lack of verbal and nonverbal skills.
• Immediacy may take away from the quality of computer mediated communication, as writers who feel rushed may not proof their emails, instant messages, or text messages for errors before sending⁴.
• Technology is everywhere, making a finer line for workers between personal time and work time.
• Currently, 57% of employers offer flexible working hours, due to the large amount of remote workers⁵.
• A lot of companies spread their employment across borders, which may pose language and cultural barriers between workers from different countries.

In past cycles of the U.S. economy, a college degree — or even a high school diploma — could be enough for a job seeker to land a well-paying position that afforded them staples of an American lifestyle, such as home and car ownership, leaving home as a teen or young adult, and starting a family. In the new economy, with high unemployment rates for teens and adults, neither a college degree or high school diploma comes with a job guarantee, and many young adults are reacting by living with their parents longer, delaying marriage and child birth and indefinitely postponing large purchases. ¹

Part of the dissatisfaction in the job market for new graduates and young professionals is not that they are unemployed, but that they are underemployed. An underemployed professional is described as someone who makes a living doing something that requires lower-skill levels and does not require their degree. In an economy where the underemployed are considered the fortunate ones to some, many keep their jobs to pay the bills and supplement their work with something more fulfilling, like a part-time job, volunteering, internships, a hobby, or starting their own business. The new professional who finds him or herself underemployed may find comfort in having a job, but they must take chances, find their grit, and search for (or create) employment opportunities that will keep them engaged in the professional world they hope to join and ultimately, improve.

Through working with young professionals, I hear stories of new grads and professionals who are moving above being underemployed by taking a leap of faith. Kenny is a new graduate who graduated with a degree in English. He started working at Whole Foods in college, and continued working there after graduation. A regular patron knew Kenny was a writer and told him she knew a nonprofit that was looking for a copywriter for their newsletter and website. He called the nonprofit and got his first professional writing job, where he got experience setting a freelance wage, working with clients, and meeting deadlines outside of school.  He was open, receptive and failed to be a “victim” bemoaning his current status.  That outlook is attractive and positively impressed this patron who is opening all kinds of doors for Kenny.

Izzy, a graduate of a prestigious women’s college, works at a coffee shop for six months out of the year to save money to travel to Nepal, where for the remaining six months she lives with a local family and volunteers at an orphanage. Her ten year goal is to start her own organization in Nepal that would allow her to spend more of her time at the orphanage, and less time at the coffee shop. By living with her parents the six months out the year she is in the U.S., she is able to save money off her barista wages for her flight to Nepal, as well as bring suitcases of needed supplies to her kids.  She is purposeful in her choices and focused on her long term goals.

Alice is a college senior who recently quit her well-paying supervisor job at a grocery store for a lower-paying job at a non-profit organization that better aligned with her career goals in political science. As a new hire, she worked odd hours canvassing neighborhoods, which was not her ideal job, but one that she hoped would help her get her foot in the door of the organization. After a few months, the position for her dream job opened, which came with a salary and an office. Alice went for it, and against dozens of applicants in the organizations, landed her first professional job.  She was convinced that her willingness to step in to her passion, even for lower pay, would ultimately pay off and it did.

The job market can be difficult for many of today’s young adults, but those who are resourceful, driven, have vision, and fight for a position in the new economy will find their hard work pays off.  Have a teflon attitude about your gifts, talents and passions and you will forge your own rewarding, sustainable path.

Thirty years ago this summer, I was finishing my first unpaid internship in Washington, D.C with Common Cause, a lobbying  group run at the time by Archibald Cox, John Gardner of Stanford, and, at times, Ralph Nader. The next year, the report,  A NATION AT RISK¹, was issued as I began my internship in New York City at the Academy for Educational Development. During both summers, I waited on tables at night to be able to work for no pay at my valuable internships. This report was commissioned by the then President Ronald Reagan. I distinctly remember one of the most defining lines of that document:  The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.

In 1984, I graduated into one of the worst job markets since that the one we are experiencing today.  Little did I know then that almost thirty years later, I would look back on a career in education which has, in the last decade specifically, become devoted to reversing America’s underdeveloped, undereducated and underemployed.

Fast forward almost thirty years beyond the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND legislation, the largesse of people like Bill and Melinda Gates and the global picture of students around the world compared with the students learning here in the United States. Students who were born in and around that time now make up some of the college graduates who are in their twenties during one of the most difficult recessions for young adults. According to this week’s New York Times², youth advocacy groups designed to galvanize the efforts of graduates, in a more effective way than the Occupy Movement, are emerging. These graduates are required to be resourceful about creating their future work, facilitating networks where they can help each other, and developing a strong psychological personal outlook which will help them endure any economic turbulence.

When I wrote my first book, now in its fifth edition, MAJORING IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE:  Career Secrets for College Students, I explored all of the workplace realities which few people bothered to share with undergraduates so that they could actually prepare for success once they earned their degree and landed their first job. The keys to the hidden job market are now as they were in the mid to late 1980s –a willingness from mentors and managers whom students have met on internships to pick up the phone, write a specific letter (or email)  or set up a meeting for a former intern who has demonstrated not just what they know, but what they know how to do; a college student who is willing to forego partying during the week to dig earnestly and wholly into their academics through facilitating a study group, reaching out to the professor or clarifying subject matter with a teaching assistant; a freshman who starts college by spending his summer truly learning what is ahead and preparing fully for a successful transition, including honestly evaluating his own strengths and weaknesses. Students with this kind of foresight can navigate the hidden job market as well as the transparent one.  They know how to tirelessly pursue opportunities and they know how to add real value once they are given the chance to show both their knowledge and their skills. These are the graduates who will not just get a job this season after they graduate. Indeed, they will be forging a promotion path no matter where their gifts and talents take them.

In the coming days, I will explore initiatives we’ve tried and the academic performance, graduation rates and graduation prospects compared with our past, as well as developing and developed nations around the world.

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¹ “A Nation at Risk,” by the National Commission on Excellence in Education.” April 1983. http://reagan.procon.org/sourcefiles/a-nation-at-risk-reagan-april-1983.pdf

² “Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships,” by Steven Greenhouse. 6 May 2012. The New York Times. Accessed on 7 May 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/business/unpaid-internships-dont-always-deliver.html

Graduates in 2012 will be entering an economy with more debt and less job opportunities than they would have 20 or even 10 years ago.  The last recession of this proportion was actually in 1984, the year I graduated from college.

But the surprise isn’t only on the new graduates. Employers are gaining new hires who have spent some of their most formidable years in a bad economy and who have responded with either apathy or a zeal to overcome obstacles in the professional world. For both kinds of young adults, and those in between, they will be up against some challenges that, although sometimes grim, are the reality of our current economy. Instead of  being the apathetic new hire or job seeker, I encourage you to take on the following challenges with the mindset that you will keep moving forward until you can overcome.

Challenge: There aren’t enough jobs to employ teens and new grads.

There are 75 million people ages 15 to 24 who are currently looking for work around the world. You are not alone in your struggle, and that may require you to be more creative and open when looking for a job. Some new graduates are moving to Asian nations in an effort to get their career started, according to the article “‘Made’ in China: The Millenials Look East for Jobs.”¹ As population growth in China slows and the number of elderly people increases, more European and American citizens are moving East and taking advantage of the softening migration rules.

Many new graduates are also choosing to create jobs of their own². With the boom in startups and a national call for more innovation, new graduates with an entrepreneurial spirit are encouraged to go back to small business models and use their digital expertise to find their place in the new economy.

Challenge: Many teens and young adults don’t have the skills to land and keep a job. 

More than half of American teens are unemployed, which brings many more long-term concerns than it does for concerns over teen wallets. The scarcity of teen jobs implies that a large portion of teens will go through their high school and college years without having any real-world experience that is critical for learning how to navigate the world of work after college. Young adults will have to have experiential learning opportunities to learn these skills, and many are forced to push this basic learning until after college.

In her article ”Too Busy for a Summer Job? Why America’s Youth Lacks Basic Work Skills,” Erika Christakis points out a paradox that today’s young adults are living: “Despite unprecedented technological and cultural sophistication, this generation’s 20-year-olds lack some of the ‘soft’ skills that are necessary to move up the professional ladder: perseverance, humility, flexibility and commitment.”³ Be willing to take on experiences that could propose a learning opportunity, even if they aren’t ideal. Any job is better than no job when it comes developing transferable skills you need to land a more ideal and better paying job in the future.

Challenge: Many new grads enter the working world are buried in debt. 

Recently, the U.S. student-loan debt reached $1 trillion, surpassing credit card debt.⁴ Many students went into their college careers willingly taking on decades worth of debt, believing there would be a job waiting for them after graduation. For many, the jobs aren’t there and for many there are jobs, but not ones that pay a high enough salary to put a dent in their monthly loan payments.

As a result of high student loan debt, a report by Pew Research Center suggests more young adults are postponing marriage, having children, and buying assets, like cars and homes.⁵ Is it going to take longer to get to your career goals than you had planned freshman year? Reassess your career path and take it one step at a time.

Employment opportunities are scarce, but available; learning opportunities are abundant, but need to be taken advantage of; and debt cripples many dreams of buying homes, starting families, or pursuing higher education, but there is still hope. There may be challenges ahead, but with preparation, they can be less of a surprise.

To frame this situation in context, the brave men and women who survived World War II came back to the United States with pennies to their name.  They built much of our modern economy by starting in the mailroom, cleaning toilets, and working at more than one job.  What these industrious people learned is, in the words of James Allen:  The situation doesn’t make the man, it reveals him to himself.  In other words, difficult times show us who we are.  No matter who you are, no matter what your situation, this is your opportunity to shine. Adelante!

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Sources:

¹“‘Made’ in China: The Millenials Look East for Jobs,” by Courtney Subramanian. 30 April 2012. Time. Accessed on 1 May 2012. http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/04/30/made-in-china-the-millennials-look-east-for-jobs/

²“Why New Graduates Should Consider Entrepreneurship,” by Alexis Grant. 12 May 2012. US News. http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2011/07/12/why-new-graduates-should-consider-entrepreneurship

³“Too Busy for a Summer Job? Why America’s Youth Lacks Basic Work Skills,” by Erika Christakis. 1 May 2012. Time. Accessed on 1 May 2012. http://ideas.time.com/2012/05/01/too-busy-for-a-summer-job-why-americas-youth-lacks-basic-worth-skills/

⁴“Student-Loan Debt Reaches Record $1 Trillion, Report Says,” 22 March 2012. Bloomberg. Accessed on 1 May 2012. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/student-loan-debt-reaches-record-1-trillion-u-s-report-says.html

⁵“US Jobs Gap Between Young and Old Is Widest Ever,” by Hope Yen 9 February 2012. The Oakland Press. Accessed on 1 May 2012. http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/02/09/news/doc4f33c9b707386347710719.txt

The next wave of college graduates will be stepping into the world of work over the coming weeks. Some already have jobs, some are job hunting, and some have pushed aside the thought of a career until after finals week. No matter where you stand on the job front, you can all benefit by updating your vocabulary with a few words that can help you push through difficult times on the job hunt, on the job, or in all aspects of life. These words to live by are:

Grit. Persistence. Challenge.

As you transition and settle into new job territory, remember to revisit these words during the many transitions that are ahead. Just like in your college years, you will be confronted with the unexpected, work long hours, get stressed out, and sometimes be tempted to take the easy way out. But as many of you discovered in your college years, persistence will be invaluable as you learn, grow, and find yourself by standing strong to embrace  challenge. As you approach the working world remember the words grit, persistence, and challenge as you come across some of the common career challenges and milestones, especially on days that test your patience, sanity, and chosen career course.

• Stay at your entry-level job for at least two years. Why do you think it might be important to stay for more than a few months or a year at your job? While you build  relationships with people who could be a future reference and create a solid job description to put on your resume, the most important thing you do is build real-world experiences and learn real-world skills which become the foundation for everything else you do. It is hard to learn anything inside of two years.  But for quick  starts who are well beyond the learning curve, the second year can be the time when real skill and contributions are made laying the groundwork for more responsibility and sometimes inventing a whole new job function. Before quitting your job prematurely, or checking out and coasting on autopilot, ask yourself  how you will benefit by seeing your job as a challenge to be mastered, mentally jumping over all of the obstacles on the way.
• Set yourself apart. Once in your job, show your uniqueness, your extraordinary work ethic, and your desire to learn. Whether it’s staying late, taking on a heavier work load, or bringing more ideas to the team, you need to tap into that “extra” energy that sets you apart. You need to use your grit, persistence, and desire for challenge to make a difference in your work environment, on your team or with your ideas. Figure out how your unique abilities can improve your company and bring forth measurable results.
• Keep learning. The end of a college career doesn’t mean the end of your learning career; in fact, it is just the beginning. You’ve spent eighteen plus years learning how to seek knowledge, and now it is time to be a self-motivated learner. Technology will continue to change many of our industries, and as you become a seasoned worker, it’s important you are open to change and willing to learn new ways of doing things. Continue being a valued team member by blending your years of experience with a desire to keep learning and stay up-to-date. When you bring these new insights to your work world, you improve the overall mission and scope of your team, department, or company.