Post by Guest Author: Alexis Shahnasarian
You just graduated college. You received your college degree. You are about to transition into the real-world and take the last steps to finally becoming an adult. You have your entire life ahead of you and the opportunity to pursue your dream career.
For many of us recent college grads, what should be seen as an exciting time turns into a dreaded period of our lives. We fear receiving rejection and putting our application into the HR black hole of cyber space. According to government figures, “young people aged 18-34 have struggled with double-digit unemployment and account for half of the 10.9 million unemployed Americas.” What our generation must recognize is that as companies and business continue to evolve, we must also change how approach to the career search.
“The Surprising Reason College Grads Can’t Get a Job,” by CNBC released on January 29, 2014 tried to discredit our recent college grads in the working force with grave statistics. After surveying business decision makers and recruiters, the most shocking statistics included:
- 66% feel recent graduates lack of preparation a “real problem”
- 62% think the unpreparedness harms the daily productivity of their business
- 60% believe applicants lack “communication and interpersonal skills”
What CNBC Failed to Realize
After discrediting recent college graduates, CNBC did not recognize that these statistics all have an underlying theme: soft skill shortages (such as preparation, communication, and interpersonal skills) as well as hard skills (such as Java and .Net) can be trained. Bright young people who struggle to find jobs/careers post-grad can be trained to do just about anything.
Take for instance the lack of programming talent- because of federal regulations and risks, many companies now prefer to hire talent within the United States. Companies that decide to do so cut the talent pool of possible candidates by 75%. With only 23.5% of current US applicants applying for programming jobs knowing how to use Java, employers anticipate the hiring process to take longer.
What does this mean for us recent college grads?
Employers are having a harder time finding a candidate that has the right skill set and that will be a good fit for the company. We have the aptitude and intellect to be trained to learn the soft and hard skills that employers are looking for to differentiate ourselves from other candidates and land our dream job.
