College Graduation & the Quest for Meaningful Work

Are universities properly equipping students with the skills to navigate their career? Originally published on Medium.

I recently had the chance to work with college students around the country through an entrepreneurship program I’m involved with. It’s been great getting to know these students— learning about their career ambitions, goals, and struggles. The conversations I’ve had have been quite insightful and prompted some personal reflection on my own educational path and career journey. The experience has also reminded me of many of the challenges college students face as they enter today’s workforce.

A Quick Look Back ??

I love what I do—building software that helps companies reimagine how they approach their hiring process. I cofounded Take the Interview in 2012, and today I have the pleasure of working with amazing brands like NBCUniversal, Airbnb, Deloitte, and Condé Nast, helping them solve some their gnarliest recruiting challenges. But there have been many ups and downs along the way for me, and the start to my career was far from graceful. Allow me to briefly acquaint you with my personal journey…

I was lost during college, lacking a clear focus or direction. I coasted through school, not knowing where I was going or how college would help me get there. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn’t know the first place to start — the possibilities were both paralyzingly infinite and discouragingly distant. And the longer I was in school, the more the idea of entrepreneurship felt like an unrealistic pipe dream. I started telling myself I’d be better off just growing up and getting a real job. The college career center was far from helpful — the system felt tailor-made for a few key career paths and nothing else. Overall, I felt my college experience did nothing to ignite a passion in me or instill any real sense of direction, much less equip me with the skills to navigate my career or start a business. I could have done more to leverage the resources available to me, no doubt, but I think my experience is pretty typical among college students.

After graduating, I puttered around Athens, GA, taking odd-end jobs and trying to put off the real world for as long as possible. After eventually realizing I could no longer delay the inevitable, I moved back to ATL to get a real job. I floundered while searching for a career — nothing I found excited me and I felt doomed to work in a cubicle doing meaningless work while my soul slowly rotted away (seriously, this is how I thought at the time…??). The highlight of my job search was a working interview I went on for a “marketing agency”. They sent me door-to-door in the rain selling Braves tickets in the neighborhood I grew up in. My friends’ parents would answer the door while I stood there in my oversized suit, soaking-wet, asking them to buy packages of baseball tickets. Not my finest hour. ??

I ended up doing what I told myself I would never do: take a job in the family business. My dad’s recruiting agency was opening an executive search division at the time and I saw this as an opportunity to gain some valuable skills while I figured out what to do. I told myself I’d only work there a year — five years later, I was still plugging away and we were in the midst of the recession ??. But I committed myself to doing the best work I possibly could and to learn as much as possible. I dug in and began to realize what I excelled at (and what I really sucked at ??). This period taught me grit and how to get creative when times got hard. I shifted from a closed-off posture to a learning mindset. I worked my butt off and learned a ton about myself and what I actually wanted to do with my life. It was during this season of life that the idea was born for what is now Take the Interview.

It took years and lots of trial and error to slowly discover my direction and sense of purpose. Over time, I developed an understanding of what I truly valued, both personally and professionally. I began to care deeply about aligning my values with my work. In looking back, I can start to see how the dots are connected together. But I have to wonder, was all this necessary for me to find work I love? What if I had been able to cultivate a sense of purpose and direction in college? Or even before college?

Higher Ed to the Rescue? ????

Now back to the conversations I’ve had with college students. These students ranged widely in their career aspirations. Some had no clue what they wanted to do, while others had committed to a particular path by freshman year (most common was investment banking or management consulting). Regardless of their scenario, I sensed a universal lack of understanding for the opportunities available to these students. It was as if their career choices didn’t extend far beyond what was in front of them at career fairs or their campus job board. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of possibilities these students may be missing out on ??.

One student told me, “It’s kind of hard not having career FOMO. You’re marching down the track of investment banking and then you learn about someone doing something totally different and you’re like, damn it, why didn’t I know about that sooner! But you’re already pot committed at that point, which sucks.”

And this got me thinking. Whether you think you know what you want to do or not, shouldn’t college be helping you maneuver these murky waters of career exploration? Aren’t university career centers set up to address these very needs? I know I certainly could have benefited from some mentorship and guidance during college. With these questions in mind, I started doing a bit of research. It turns out a whopping 77% of students graduate college without a job. I did a double-take when I first saw this stat. Students are going hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt for a 33% placement rate! ?? And fewer than 5% of these students actually find jobs via their career center. Ninety days post graduation, the unemployment rate drops to 10%, which is a huge improvement, but doesn’t it make you wonder, how many recent grads are just taking the first job offer they get because they need the money, not because they find the right gig? I know I certainly fell into this camp.

Because most students aren’t aware of the options they have, they end up taking the first gig that comes along, resulting in a poor match and a vacant seat in 9–12 months. On average, it takes a minimum of 2 gigs for a college grad to get a sense of what they want in their career (years after graduation). Many of the students I’ve talked with, despite how sure/unsure they are about what they want to do, will likely fall into this camp. As a frequent employer of recent college grads, I try to keep this in mind when we vet candidates, but it’s still really hard to avoid churn for entry-level talent. Many of the enterprise clients we work with hire entry-level talent at such scale that it’s near impossible to combat. This poses real problems for employers.

So…Where Do We Go From Here? ??

A surprisingly large number of university students are being underserved by their universities. The career center hasn’t evolved to meet the needs of these students, and students aren’t graduating with the skills to navigate their career effectively. You may argue there are many exceptions out there, and you’d be right. But generally speaking, for most college students, these are big problems. Many are predicting a decline in formal education by as much as 30% in the coming years — when you look across the college landscape, it’s not hard to see why. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-college. But I do think the value of a college degree is on the decline, while the cost of tuition is on the rise. We are living in a time where a college degree is far from a necessary prerequisite to finding meaningful, well-paying, fulfilling work.

It is my hope and belief that educators, entrepreneurs, and innovators will step up and address the problems that universities are not. Many already have, and they are changing the landscape of education. Learning platforms like Udacity offer students a cost-effective alternative to traditional 4-year colleges. Their nano-degree programs equip students with cutting edge skills informed directly by the needs of the market. Educators like Dave Evans and Bill Burnett at Stanford University are equipping students with practical skills to navigate their career and life post college. Their course, Designing Your Life, is currently the most popular course at Stanford and applies design-thinking principles to the challenge of finding meaningful work (their book is a must-read). Entrepreneurs like Jeff Sandefer are tackling many of these challenges further upstream in primary ed. Acton Academy, a self-paced, student-driven learning model, equips students with the skills needed to start a business, navigate their career options, and find the needed support through rich mentorship. Students graduate with so much hands-on experience, college is far from the obvious next step — many students have gone on to launch a career or business right after graduating high school. ?? These are only a few examples — there are many people out there fighting the good fight.

Finding meaningful, fulfilling work will always be difficult. But today, as the world evolves at a rate far faster than it ever has in human history, finding it is more challenging than ever. And the very institutions we turn to to help prepare and equip us for these challenges are oftentimes falling short. It will take people both inside and outside the system to fix these fundamental problems. It’s my hope that more people stand up and do something about it. ??

If you agree or disagree, or have thoughts to add/share, I’d love to hear from you. ??