New College Graduates not ready for the work world
"Most students graduate with little exposure to professional environments, so when they arrive at their first job, they’re often learning basic workplace norms for the first time."
“A lot of professors have no work experience beyond teaching, they grow up in academia and stay there, but all of those degrees and certificates are not going to replace work experience.”
One of the things I think we did "right" as parents was to run-lean in terms of the financial support we offered during their transition from "child" to "adult'.
Let me lead off by saying every kid is different. Some are going to need more repetitions. Some are going to make more "mistakes" and learn less from those mistakes than others.
As an example
Belladonna was a waitress while in college. She worked for three different restaurants. The first was a small mom-and-pop. The second was a corporation with a robust training program. The third was a local sports bar. She learned different things from each environment. For example, she learned from the corporate restaurant that there is an optimum time to check with your customers for feedback. Most customers will have had time to look their food over and take a bite or two if you check back in EXACTLY two minutes (science, don't you know). If the order is wrong, or cold, or not what they expected...there is still time to fix it. Belladonna saw a dramatic jump in her tips when she started doing that.
While at school, she "worked events" like conventions and catered weddings where she helped set-up and break-down. The hours worked with her class schedule. She learned about networking and how a great boss doesn't just pay by the hour, they pay for productivity.
Then she got credentials to be a phlebotomist. She worked at a plasma center for a while. Then she worked for a hospital chain. One minor thing she learned from the chain is that you can negotiate win-win scenarios with powerful people when they need you. She was working in a local facility one Friday night when her boss approached her and said that the facility in Ionia was on-its-dupa for a phlebotomist. That was a VERY BIG DEAL. After mulling over the situation, Belladonna said that she could bridge the 12:00AM-to-6:00AM gap as long as they paid her drive time (easily 40 minutes, one way). The boss agreed in a heart-beat.
Belladonna didn't tell them she planned to spend the weekend in Grand Rapids and the "company" was paying her to drive half-way there. The fact that the boss "adjusted the time-clock" to pay for her an additional 40 minute to drive BACK home (total of 80 minutes drive time) was a bonus.
When she graduated from her nursing program, she was already in several hospital systems. She had multiple offers, partially because she was a known, proven worker. For her, the transition to shift-work, coworkers, stress, hospital smells...unfortunate outcomes...they were not punches in the gut. She had been there and seen most of it.
And while she might have been more comfortable if we had been able to do more for her financially, she would be less of the rock-star than she is now.
Teaching a work ethic and providing a loving family's support is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI would love to take credit for it, but most credit should go to Belladonna. She took to it like a duck-to-water.
DeleteProverbs 22:6
DeleteThe phrase "as the twig is bent, so grows the tree" is often associated with Proverbs 22:6 in the KJV, which states, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it."
As one that plants for the future you should understand your daily lessons example to Belladonna.
ERJ, all three of ours have subsidized their education through part time jobs. Like you, I definitely think it poises them a great deal more for success.
ReplyDeleteGood on her!
ReplyDeleteI think one of the modern new things we've tried as a society that has been an abject failure is the idea of everyones a winner, participation trophies and all that.
ReplyDeleteLosing a sporting event or competition on the playground is important for kids to learn to handle defeat and disappointment while still in a supportive, healthy, and nurturing environment. Life has ups and downs, you don't win all the time. Learning that, and how to handle that, is important. Kids who are told they are winners no matter what, who get a prize no matter what, not only never learn to handle defeat, but the winners also learn that their efforts were for naught.
Its an insidious and evil idea proposed by bleeding hearts with good intentions, but zero grasp of reality. I would bet my entire net worth it was a woman's idea. Not even remotely connected to reality.
My last three summer holidays as a schoolboy I spent as a casual labourer at the harbour. (I was big for my age.) I saved my income into my motorbike fund. Learning to talk to adults is a fine thing for teenagers.
ReplyDeleteAt university I worked during the vacations - delivering for the Royal Mail, tutoring, being a barman, labouring in a factory, working in a factory laboratory, running a small warehouse. These sorts of activities were standard in my day. And there was a synergy - having personal transport (the motorbike) made reaching several of these jobs practical when they wouldn't otherwise have been.
ERJ, proper parenting works wonders.
ReplyDeletemy Dad started to drag my ass out to work back when I was like 11 or so. he ran a concrete crew. so. every summer I spent it in holes in the ground or standing on scaffolding . fun.
ReplyDeletenever went to the shore or woods or whatever. just work every summer after that. used to get pissed at times with him and it.
it wasn't till later on did I realize just what he had done for
me. by 18 , I was 6'2" and a solid 190 pounds of muscle.
worked with some real assholes and could handle myself with ease. I joined the army, I was in better shape than my DI's where. talk about having a edge ! later on at the hand to hand mat, I tossed the "teacher" on his ass with ease. move enough 75 pound concrete blocks all day and it shows.
never fired from any job. and I was always told I could come back if I wanted too. kids need to know how to work. to get along with others and assholes too. dave in pa.