Friday, March 27, 2009

╠ The Grim yet sad future for graduates ╣

The more time that I look into the generalizations of generations, the more I think I may fit some of them. Mainly the I want my path laid out in front of me simply for me to take. That being said I don't believe it should be easy, however I would like it to simply be like a quest where you must complete this, then this, then one last thing and then boom success.

However what is looking more and more likely as Uni draws to an end is what appears to be a complete dead end thankyou to Mr. Economic Crisis.

Now the problem that I face is basically I go and ask people who I like 'Do you have any graduate opportunities. Their answer so far without fail has included these two elements, laughter and a mention of the economic crisis as if I as a commerce student had no idea of all that such a thing existed. Overall I'm left not actually with a conclusive answer which is what I was after. I understand the situation, myself and many other people who have put themself through about 16 years of education often inclusive of putting themself into debt now no longer have opportunities to use any knowledge that they tried to specialize in.

Needless to say we understand the gravity of the situation. I think businesses are ignoring the potential opportunities going to waste here. With everyone cutting back there will be above average people who will create great worth for a business out of work so perhaps it is worth offering the odd spot here and there. Also by completely palming off prospective grads you're going to discourage them from turning to you when you do actually open your doors years down the track when they have realized great proportions of their potential.

I think businesses shouldn't just jump straight to cutting programs. They should be trying to find different ways around things. We will understand that you can't afford the spots now and also that we will probably face the issue of being a job not suited to our skills. If they say not now but try to hold onto us for when times are better it could value add to both parties.

Personally I don't know the best way to do this because it's obviously hard to lock someone in without yourself being bound to some requirement but for an example this would be how I would do it for Apple.

Apple have online training modules, I would give grads access to this as well as maintaining a blog for the so that they know whenever even a single spot is coming up. Because of the competition to get into a job you want people would keep up to date on the modules. So basically you have a trained group of university educated graduates knowing what you want them to know and ready to jump into the fray at quick access without actually locking yourself into actually providing them any reimbursement for their dedication to your brand.

Much better than a laugh in the face if you ask me.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I was talking to a group of almost uni grads last week and the main point I stressed was that even if you don't work in the industry, you can still be involved in the industry. Sure you'd love to get paid for it but there's nothing stopping you from developing relationships (physical or online) with those that can help you get a foot in the door when the situation arises. Good luck!

Tannie said...

That's a good point. More and more I realize as I go on the old methods of networking are not as successful as they once were, at least in comparison to the avenues open these days.

Hunting down people online to blogs or whatever else they have can be a much more successful endeavour than any meet and greet event.