Advice for the Class of 2010

John Jordan

June 1, 2010

A New York Times editorial last week painted a very bleak picture for this year's college graduates. The piece talks about the difficulties of the current job market and the fact that these current difficulties may be pervasive, signaling long-term career and financial challenges for current job seekers. The piece goes on to focus on its real editorial point, which is giving opinions about actions that should be taken by the government to improve the job market, and, in doing so, I think it misses a real opportunity.

No doubt that the government should try to do the "right" things to improve prospects for jobseekers, but, no matter what the government is doing or not doing, each of us needs to take responsibility for our self, our career, and our own future.

For college students, I have some advice based on my personal experience as a college student, as an adjunct lecturer teaching at the University of Texas for six years, and as a business person: if you're serious about your future and career, get a job or an internship while you're in school. If the internship doesn't pay, look for one that will or take on both a paying job and a non-paying internship.

Sure, in high school and early college, I had my fair share of manual labor, retail, and minimum wage jobs. I learned a lot in those jobs: how to show up on time, ask questions, do what needs to be done, think about how my actions impact the companies’ objectives. I had the opportunity to make mistakes (lots of them) and attempt to make them right. These are all valuable lessons to learn even if you're working on a landscaping crew, selling auto parts, or arranging clothes on a rack for minimum wage.

I've never regretted any of my work experiences. I was fortunate to work almost the entire four years I was in college, including summers. What I found was that one internship or job beget another and, by the end of college, I was actually a valuable employee at the firm where I worked. That job and the contacts it provide led me to my first job out of college, then I went to work for one of my clients, then went to work with a friend from graduate school, then I co-founded a company with some folks I'd worked with before. So, my "investments" in the form of jobs and internships in college have paid off by creating opportunities for me for the past 20 years.

So, while you can debate whether government jobs programs may be necessary or unnecessary, there is no doubt that the most direct form of job-related help is what we do for ourselves.

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