Educational Catch Twenty Two

Blog post #481 of 365

A young friend is in her final semester of school. She has put in numerous applications all of which have replied with she needs experience. She says I need a job to get experience to get a job but I need a job to get experience.

I told her to try an internship. They are usually unpaid slave labor but you get experience that can possibly translate into a position somewhere.

I had a similar experience as a young adult but back then they didn't require a degree for an entry level job. However before my time they had these wonderful things called apprenticeships. My grandfather told me about them. They were paid entry level jobs, that didn't require an education (well most didn't), where the job was meant to teach you the job. You learned as you went and gained a decent amount of experience and never had to attend college to continue doing the job. Education and experience at the same time, what a novel idea. No university debt, self reliance, and a real career. That was back in a time where people usually never changed careers. They say the average person changes two to three times. Probably because they chose what they were interested in and if they didn't like it they tried something else before investing very much time. Another novel idea!

So to recap. To make a decent living you must go to college and at some point be able to spend some time working for free to gain experience to go along with the over priced education to obtain a job you may never love nor get out from under the debt incurred... Makes me want to cry for every young person I know!