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Students shouldn’t rely on degree alone for finding job

Written by Navid Razi

Thursday, 24 April 2008 06:54 PM

I pity the fool that thinks a college degree alone will land him the job of his dreams.

This is not directed toward you doctorate or master’s pursuers. This is for the common folk.
Involvement in student organizations is at an all-time low. In the College of Business alone, five organizations went inactive due to a lack of participation over the past year.

Active organizations barely retain existing members, and recruiting new members is becoming as rare as a Cowboys postseason win.

So where are all these students, and what are they doing?

They are sitting on their beat-up couches, catching up with online episodes of “The Hills” they missed due to the moronic 12-hour YouTube binge they went on the night before.
Being involved in three student organizations, taking 15 hours and juggling two jobs myself, I will be the first to tell you that at times, a swift kick to the groin seems like a better idea than committing to an organization. That being said, the skills, connections and professional development are invaluable.

Student organizations are a perfect way to hone these skills and help you find out where you want to be in life.

Employers are no longer satisfied with a college degree alone. They want their new employees to be able to hit the ground running with minimal training. They want students to have applicable experience or internships or show that they did something in college besides occasionally show up for class and regurgitate useless information.

The economy being in shambles offers no help to this YouTube generation that doesn’t want to hassle with student organizations. Companies are trimming the fat, swiftly cutting thousands of jobs, and unless you have special skills or some nude photos of your married boss and his secretary, expect a salary well below what you believe you deserve.

Nobody wants to face reality or take the red pill. They are content with taking the blue pill and waking up in a state of nirvana, but in the words of the great Drew Bundini, “The truth tastes good when there’s a belly full of lies.”

The following story is just one of many examples of today’s diminishing degree.
A UNT marketing graduate who works for the Dallas Mavericks, a more than $400 million operation, earns a whopping salary of $25,000, or about a year’s worth of gas for a Hummer.
Think that’s a typo?

That’s probably exactly what the UNT graduate thought, speeding back to his uptown apartment he could no longer afford to burn to ashes the marketing degree he spent $50,000 on.

When you can make more money selling jeans at The Buckle, why bother wasting $50,000 and four years of your life?

By the time the four-year college grind is over, you find that you are oddly pear-shaped from spending years sitting on that beat-up couch and watching Heidi and Spencer’s latest spat followed by an overdramatic 15-minute stare-off stemming from a disagreement over toothpaste, and that you can no longer fit into those tight little flare jeans anymore anyway.

Some will disregard this student organization sermon, and for those who do, just remember these two key phrases: “A nice button-down would look great with these jeans,” and “Remember to wash your jeans with Epsom Salt. It retains the color.”

— Navid Razi is a marketing senior and a reporter for The Shorthorn.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 January 2009 05:26 PM )

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