Let's Rethink Career Success

Picture this: A 24-year-old woman who’s climbing the career ladder. She earns a competitive salary that’s enabled her to buy a car and her first home. She’s achieved her “American Dream” after earning a degree from a four-year college, right??

Think again. Instead of taking the traditional high-school-to-college path, this Gen Zer decided to study for a job in the skilled trades, where opportunities to achieve high earnings and job satisfaction are abundant. The woman, Crist Morillon, is one of our Universal Technical Institute graduates and she recently told CNBC that becoming a service technician at an auto manufacturer has transformed her life.?“This is a career that can provide you with the kind of job security and stability that last a lifetime. That peace of mind is priceless,” she said.

Crist’s story isn’t an anomaly; rather, it’s becoming more common thanks to skepticism about the ROI of college and Gen Z’s growing awareness of their postsecondary alternatives, according to a recent study funded by the Gates Foundation.

Still, even as more students pursue what I call “skilled collar” jobs, a recent Wall Street Journal poll of over 1,500 U.S. adults revealed a significant disconnect between aspirations and reality, underscoring that the American Dream feels increasingly out of reach for too many.?This can be especially true for young adults struggling to pay off their student loan debt.?While I’ll leave it to public officials and economists to debate the merits of policies that might address the respondents’ concerns, the poll’s results suggest more should be done to inform students about the many post-high school educational options that cost far less to attain and offer strong earning potential. And, in my opinion, it starts with one key influencer group: parents.

As I visit our campuses and talk with potential students and their parents, I regularly see how the latter’s skepticism turns to enthusiastic support. Why? Because they’ve enlarged their vision about what career success means, and how to achieve it, in today’s economy.

The reality is the skilled trades are highly technical in nature: students must be tech-savvy and able to understand the science that drives these tech-forward jobs. If you’ve visited a car dealership lately, to use one example, you’ve noticed how it looks more like a hospital full of machines than the grease shops of years past.?In addition, the historical perception about what career fields are “best” for men and women have changed, thanks to female social media influencers who post the cool things they’re doing at their jobs in welding or construction, as well as efforts by companies like ours to reach more females about careers in STEM (as well as males in healthcare roles that are typically overrepresented by women). ???

Lastly, many skilled collar industries are experiencing worker shortages—which translates into job security, an increasingly rare commodity in many fields today—and the salaries and opportunities for advancement into leadership and entrepreneurship rival those of some white-collar jobs. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics there are more than 134,000 combined average annual automotive, diesel, and welding job openings in the United States and 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030.

The American Dream is as relevant as ever. The path to get there is just different.

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