Selling your soul to "the man"...for FREE!

Student loan debt, rising unemployment rates, #occupywallst. These are words that are becoming all too common. As a recent college graduate, I know these words well. When I first entered college, I was unsure as to what I wanted to do with my life. People kept insisting that a business degree was the best option because “you could do anything with a business degree.” This sounded great to me, so I enrolled in the school of business and graduated with a BA in Business Administration. Senior year rolls around, I just completed an internship for a company the summer before and now I’m ready for a real life job. As it turns out, 2009 was a horrible year to graduate with a business degree. No one was hiring! The only jobs (if you can even call them that) to be found were unpaid internships. The catch, these unpaid internships are actually entry-level positions, disguised as internships so that the companies no longer have to pay anyone to do the job…In the last few years, paying jobs have become a luxury rather than a fact of life. College graduates are forced to take unpaid internships as a last resort to stay competitive in the job market. Don’t get me wrong, internships are extremely valuable and essential for work experience, but when companies are taking advantage of this fact and abusing the system, it becomes degrading. When I was growing up, it was instilled into my head that you go to college, graduate, and get a good job. A college degree was the difference. Now it seems that you go to college, go into debt, and hope that you can find a job that pays more than your monthly student loan bills. For those fortunate enough to have the means to take an unpaid internship in the job market, I salute you. But for the majority of us who need an income to survive, it’s a dark and dreary world out there. In 2010, there were 2.4 million unemployed people with bachelor’s degrees and higher. 2.4 MILLION!! That is our competition. Companies aren’t getting 30-50 applications anymore; they are getting hundreds and sometimes thousands. The hardest part isn’t comprehending that the economy is horrible right now. The more difficult part is the bombardment of being told no. Even if you know that you have a great resume and great credentials, after a while, being turned down over and over again, mentally gets to you. There is no guarantee that unemployed or underemployed college grads will move into much better jobs as conditions improve. Starting in a lower-level job with lower pay can mean lower levels of career attainment and earnings. Graduates who have been out of work or underemployed in the downturn may also find themselves at a competitive disadvantage with fresh new college graduates as the economy improves. So where do we go from here? What now? It’s a long road ahead and who knows what the future may bring. For now all we can do is keep working hard and hope that someday these college degrees will be used for something.

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