People are still thinking “Jobjobjob, must get a job” while not understanding how the economy has changed.
My field of study is construction and the degree is a specialised one. This allows me to target individual markets where jobs are concerned and many companies actually take graduates with my degree because the broader aspects of it can be applied to their company roles.
I can also use it as a general degree for the mass market but this is where a lot of people get stuck. If someone was to study English literature, they will be in the general market unless they had specialised into a certain area with a Masters and PHD.
However a Masters and PHD is not a common occurrence so the majority have the general degree. It means you are lumped with 100,000s of others looking for a low number of jobs.
Having a degree AND experience in your chosen field helps you become flexible.
Its like doing an engineering degree and knowing a second language. Bi-lingual engineers are chased by employers from the middle east, asia and other lucrative markets.
It helps to understand the needs of the market when you are considering your degree and during it. This is ignored by the masses because they are too young to give a shit and become surprised that aged 23 they are shit out of luck in a jobs market filled by 10000s of identical people.
Mature students such as myself actually look around without being star struck about wages in a certain industry.
Experience counts the most in construction however.
To the OP or anyone else ( I didn’t read everything), Getting a good job these days is about selling yourself plain and simple. A degree won’t get you anything if you come off like a retard. Yeah sometimes people get lucky or are more likable than others but usually I hire people that seem like they don’t have their heads up their asses.
People with good work ethics are getting harder and harder to find depending on where you are in the country. There is also a lack of ambition and a lot of ignorance around. Especially with the comment " managers don’t do anything except check on people " . If you are worried about getting laid off or getting a pay cut then it’s your own fault for not marketing yourself within or getting educated one way or another and moving on.
[quote]crazyj23 wrote:
To the OP or anyone else ( I didn’t read everything), Getting a good job these days is about selling yourself plain and simple. A degree won’t get you anything if you come off like a retard. Yeah sometimes people get lucky or are more likable than others but usually I hire people that seem like they don’t have their heads up their asses. People with good work ethics are getting harder and harder to find depending on where you are in the country. There is also a lack of ambition and a lot of ignorance around. Especially with the comment " managers don’t do anything except check on people " . If you are worried about getting laid off or getting a pay cut then it’s your own fault for not marketing yourself within or getting educated one way or another and moving on.[/quote]
Good points. For my last few jobs, I would say marketing myself and networking contributed significantly. Obviously I also had the skills/experience to back it… but without the marketing and networking, I would have never been considered.
Also, a couple months back, someone made a comment basically stating “until you have at least 5-10 years of experience, you can’t really expect to get what you want.”
[quote]crazyj23 wrote:
To the OP or anyone else ( I didn’t read everything), Getting a good job these days is about selling yourself plain and simple. A degree won’t get you anything if you come off like a retard. Yeah sometimes people get lucky or are more likable than others but usually I hire people that seem like they don’t have their heads up their asses. People with good work ethics are getting harder and harder to find depending on where you are in the country. There is also a lack of ambition and a lot of ignorance around. Especially with the comment " managers don’t do anything except check on people " . If you are worried about getting laid off or getting a pay cut then it’s your own fault for not marketing yourself within or getting educated one way or another and moving on.[/quote]
Good points. For my last few jobs, I would say marketing myself and networking contributed significantly. Obviously I also had the skills/experience to back it… but without the marketing and networking, I would have never been considered.
Also, a couple months back, someone made a comment basically stating “until you have at least 5-10 years of experience, you can’t really expect to get what you want.”[/quote]
In some fields including mine, that is entirely true. A lot of times it is very hard for entry level employees to understand the grand scheme of things. “Most” of the time In an established organization that has experienced constant growth and profits the major players know what they are doing and do EVERYTHING for a specific reason which may be very hard for the little man to understand.