I know a college grad who can't find a job and is living at home. He's considering graduate school. Seems like a new trend because there aren't enough jobs.

Do you think we might end up with an overeducated generation of people who still can't find jobs?

I know people who are over educated and underemployed in both my kid's generation and in my own. I wonder if people learn the academic system so well as to become so comfortable there that on some level sabotage they sabotage their job search.

I once owned a personnel agency and saw it there. People who were over educated and underexperienced often had limited human skills and little practical knowledge, but were great at the academic skills of memorizing and research. Even if the counselors found them a job using those skills, however, the applicants often sabotaged the process in some way so that they never actually went to work. They would have a well paying job offer and suddenly announce that they had returned to college to pursue some additional degree. They seemed to feel that academia was in some way superior to employment.

Seems like the incidence of that type personality is increasing. Probably because us boomers made it possible for our kids to pursue education forever without employment. Most of us probably never had that opportunity.

smile

Yup, I think there certainly people who would rather be in school than out in the working world.

Smile, you have so many hidden facets to your life. Owning a personnel agency...how interesting. Bet you met all kinds of people. What places of employment did you mainly represent?

Dotsie, You're right. My life is totally weird. It's like several other people just threw their lives in to confuse things. And the parts edited out are the weirdest.

Until recently I simultaneously had several jobs, started and ran a few businesses, and got a few degrees. Creativity has always been a huge part of things and I always painted and exhibited and sold. I published articles and stories and songs, I sold and produced a few plays and moved around a little, I met wonderful people, traveled a lot, and most importantly, I single handedly raised a couple of great kids.

It was not always easy. There were a couple of near fatal accidents and cancer and the loss of a few friends to death. But within all that, there has always been great joy and lots of fun.

Now I'm just coasting. Wallowing in my self. Sometimes I think I'm lost in this peaceful playground. All so unfamiliar to me.

Another great adventure.

smile

Don't you just love to read her post? She is so interesting, intelligent, and fun to chat with. I would love to read an entire count of her life AND even better, have her as a business mentor...sigh...

let's see, if I could get DJ to mentor me in gardening, Similin to mentor me in business, ahh...Thistle to mentor me in weaving, the Divine Ms. M to mentor me in beading, hmmm....I could list something for everyone in here! Hey Teacher!!!!!

Okay JJ, I'll be your business mentor, you be my PR person. Good idea??

(You sure you don't have me mixed up with someone else?)

Thanks for the nice words.

smile

Girl, I'm positive...put you and Lynn in the same room and I would try to blend into the wallpaper! You two have done sooo much and I LOVE to hear your stories...

Hey Jawjaw, I'd love to be your gardening mentor. Especially now. Is it zero down there? And in a few months, we're getting the 17 year locusts so gardening up here won't be pretty.
Smile--
How can someone be "over educated"? There's no such thing. Is it possible to know too much? No. Instead, we have a society that doesn't know how to use its resources. We have so many problems, but the country seems so stuck in its ways, and doesn't know how to use our educated people to find the answers when the answers stare them in the face. Plus we've just hemoraged 2 million jobs to other countries, leaving our college grads to choose between WalMart and Wendy's.

I believe in the intrinsic value of education. However, I don't believe it is limited to the classroom and I believe that rewarding work is not only a form of education, but a very important part of a fulfilled life. Education should free us to pursue a better life, not imprison us. If it keeps us from rewarding work, then it may not only be worthless, it may be harmful.

The most obvious reason our 2 million jobs went to other countries is because people there are willing to work for less money. Perhaps they recognize the value of work over the value of education.

College grads who prefer unemployment to working at Wendy's or Walmart may be a part of the problem.

Just my thoughts.

smile

[ January 22, 2004, 09:42 PM: Message edited by: smilinize ]

I'd certainly be the first to agree that education takes place outside of school -- I've worked as a garden designer for 14 years without a degree in horticulture or design; I worked as a portrait painter without a degree in art; I taught schizophrenics without a degree in social work.
However, that's not what I was saying. What I am saying is that there are many well educated people in this country with lots of good ideas. But those ideas are actually stymied by industry and by bosses and by state, local and federal governments that want to keep doing things the same old way, thinking inside the little ol' box. Not everyone has the talent to become a business owner and operator, so many must serve those who do, but who don't like to delegate, or who don't like to listen, or who don't like to share power. For example, we've know the science of pollution at least since the 1950s, and yet we continue to pollute. We've known about alternative energy sources at least since the late 1960s, but oil companies continue to buy up patents for solar and wind powered systems. I could go on, but I think anyone reading this can think of other examples.