alt="Remember"/> Unfortunately, many existing degree programs are not well aligned to graduate’s first jobs and only 16 percent of students believe college is preparing them for their first jobs. I’ve known plenty of students who end up at a particular college because they or their parents thought the name and image it carried was good. I can’t emphasize enough and it’s a point which will recur throughout this book that you should take the time and effort to explore what it is you’re actually signing up for at a given school that on the surface seems appealing.
With regards to college not actually prepping students for their first jobs, in his book, “A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College” (BenBella), Ryan Craig cites the former Computer Science chairperson at Yale (where both Craig and I graduated from) Roger Schank, as saying that the faculty in that department are mostly theoreticians who don’t now do programming anymore and instead are interested in teaching about new ideas and their latest theories. Schank was hearing increasing numbers of complaints from Yale undergrads who were being snubbed in hiring by Google. Schank also cites how the head of Columbia University’s economics department told him that calculus is required for the major simply to reduce the volume of students who want to work in finance and seek out the major.
“Many faculty members resist the idea that teaching should be aligned to employment opportunities,” says Craig.
He provides numerous examples of colleges failing to ever solicit input from employers as to what they should consider teaching undergraduates.
“The implication — one that is absolutely in the mainstream of faculty thinking — is that updating curriculum to reflect current labor market needs may not be a worthwhile pursuit because such needs will change in five to ten years. Can you imagine similar thinking in any other sector of the economy?”
This is, of course, ridiculous. Even though colleges like my alma mater Yale charge big bucks to families for the educational services they are providing, they don’t think enough of the students and their parents who are paying the bills as their customers. Hence, the disconnect about best preparing their graduates for the modern job market.
Career services is another area where colleges and universities too often fail to meet the employment imperative. I frequently hear this complaint from parents and college students alike including from top name schools. With increasing recruiting and hiring being done online, fewer employers are finding the need to recruit on campus and go through career services.
What students actually do in college
After running the gauntlet of various honors and advanced placement courses in high school and participating in after school activities and doing endless homework assignments nightly, some students find college to be dare I say a tad easier. This is generally true for students who graduated from a demanding high school that offered lots of Advanced Placement and other challenging college level courses. Many students find that they have more free time, in part because they don’t actually spend much time in class in college compared with high school.
Numerous studies raise questions about the critical thinking skills of college graduates which isn’t surprising given how most students spend their time in college and given what some schools and courses actually require of them. According to the Heritage Foundation, the average college student spends only about 2.8 hours per day on education-related activities. By contrast, college students are averaging 4.4 hours per day on leisure activities (e.g. playing video games, working out at the gym, perusing social media, etc.) which doesn’t include shopping, grooming, personal care, housework, cooking and eating.
Of course, different students have different schedules. Those college students who must work a fair number of hours to afford their college education are particularly busy. So too are those who have a demanding major and courses (e.g. pre-meds, engineering majors), participate in time intensive extras like a varsity sport, performing arts, etc.
Hiring and jobs
In generations past, employers advertised job openings and applicants submitted paper-based resumes usually by mailing it (through the US Postal Service, that is). My how times have changed! Today, the hiring process is dramatically different as job openings are generally posted online which makes it easy for hundreds (or even thousands) of applicants to quickly and efficiently apply for a desired job. That creates a different type of sorting problem for employers which is why the vast majority of them utilize applicant tracking systems to screen resumes and manage the hiring process. To do well with those systems, job applicants should understand how to match desired keywords in their resume from the job description. It can also help to have a personal contact or recommendation at an employer an applicant desires to work for. Networking with alums of your college can help and that can be part of the “value” that is derived by graduating from a particular college.
According to CompTIA, an information technology industry association, the most significant technology skill gaps are in areas like artificial intelligence, automation, integration of apps, data and platforms, cloud infrastructure and apps, digital business transformation, cybersecurity, software or app development, and data management and data analytics.
Ryan Craig notes that increasing numbers of students who recognize the disconnect between impractical course offerings that don’t connect to real world jobs are double majoring. They are doings so as a way of hedging their risks and hopefully increasing their future employment chances and options.
What does Craig see that employers are looking for? “Most experts agree that a combination of technical skills and soft skills is the sweet spot in the labor market…By soft or noncognitive skills, I’m referring to fundamental capabilities such as teamwork, communication, organization, creativity, adaptability, and punctuality. In a LinkedIn study of hiring managers, 59 percent said soft skills were difficult to find and this skill gap was limiting their productivity.”
So, what are employers doing about this unhappiness? Several things according to Craig:
Refraining at times from hiring. Higher skill jobs may go unfilled.
Degree inflation. Requiring master’s degrees when a bachelors would do before or requiring a college degree when only a high school diploma was previously required.
Experience inflation. Requiring more work experience.
Jettisoning degree requirements. Some employers (e.g. Google, IBM) have removed degree requirements from some entry level positions or evaluate candidates regardless of whether they have particular degrees. Some employers are instead looking for micro-credentials from providers like Credly or e-Portfolios from Portfolium.
Looking at How the Higher Education Landscape is Changing
Those who have spent time on college campuses either as students or as a place of employment know that they are places where change is generally slow to happen. A good part of this is because unlike companies operating in the private sector, colleges are insulated from many (but by no means all) the forces of competition.
Change is happening and will continue
