Torrey students are very bright and I am lucky enough to hear from them every day. As a new cohort heads into society, or when speaking to recent graduates about the economy, what am I hearing? What tips do they give me to share with other grads that might help to land that first job or make it in a difficult environment?
This is not meant to sound “preachy.” These are general tips which may not apply to each person. They are also “stuff we know already,” but like tips about diet and exercise ideas we try to ignore. General rules are generally true. You better know why you are breaking them, before finding that you are generally doomed!
Here is what I am hearing:
First, successful grads are discovering that there is always room at the bottom.
Torrey students are trained to be servant-leaders so they seem fairly willing to take the entry level jobs that too many graduates ignore. Over the last four years I have seen several recent grads start at the bottom of a company and gradually work their way to management level jobs (with decent pay) by hard work, good ethics, and better ideas.
The lesson learned? Successful people are willing to clean bathrooms (my first real job!) and then move up.
Your “old boy/old girl” network is an important way to get a job. Torrey grads, for example, are often willing to help other Torrey grads. Poke around to see if an older grad will help get you that first job. Other schools also have strong networks of alum and you should use them.
Older alum should help where they can!
Second, debt is very bad.
Seniors and recent grads were, until very recently, deluged with credit offers. My son, a freshman with limited income, still gets them. Some students use that credit and find themselves crippled.
Recent graduates are often sick of the “dorm lifestyle” and try to upgrade to their parent’s standard of living. If financed by debt, this choice is a disaster that limits future choices. You may have to accept that you are going to live with several other people for now. Find two or three friends and share costs. That need not look like a dorm, if you have really grown up.
Don’t use credit cards without paying them off each month.
Third, for those students with money both cars and housing are much more affordable now than in the recent past. Many students are able to get good mortgages if they have saved the down payment or can use wedding gifts to put together a down payment. In a “cash is king” economy, the frugal are being rewarded.
Fourth, students who cannot get that first job warn of one mistake and offer some real opportunities.
The warning relates to using grad school as an escape from “bad times.” Grad school is rigorous and expensive (if only in lost career time) and so should only be undertaken with strong and particular motivation for a future career. Even if you get that coveted degree, you might find that the person who took the “chump change” job has already worked up the ranks in the time it took you to finish. If your grad degree is first rate and directly relates to your career choice, then it might be a good move, but otherwise no. It might be that your lack of a decent job is a nudge from God to get that MBA or it could be that you are not thinking broadly enough about vocation.
Non-profit work has proven a fantastic opportunity for many students. Serving others might not pay well, but it is good for the soul. Recent grads who lived sacrificially while working with the poor have seen (in Wesley’s words) that they “have done well by doing good.” Even if this direct service is only for a season, it is a good idea.
Of course, you should not serve out of a sense of desperation, but out of a consideration of calling. Does your inability to work for profit indicate a calling to do something else? Do programs like “Teach for America” (a personal favorite) need your gifts and talents?
Finally, students who should go to graduate school are finding that schools are in a financial pinch. They are admitting fewer students and the rewards are less than in the past. Torrey students mostly have been successful in getting into one or two of their “top choice” schools, but have fewer choices than in the recent past. Where they might have gotten into three or four with decent funding, now they are glad to get an acceptance letter from one or two.
Three tips from recent grad school students:
First, go to the “best” grad school you can. Shiny labels really help on this front. An altruistic undergrad choice can be very smart (see Torrey at Biola!) . . . but unknown grad programs are different. However, find a school with a scholar with whom you want to work. Between decent school A with a scholar whose work fascinates you and better school B with only the “name,” you might be better off choosing A if the scholar gives any indication he or she might want to work with you.
I cannot express how thankful I am to people like Deborah Modrak who were great teachers, mentors, and scholarly examples. I don’t know how I could have done better in an adviser.
Second, don’t go into debt for grad school unless it is in a profession and from a school with a track record of grads being able to pay off debt fast. (See UCLA medical school.) Borrowing money for a philosophy doctorate is almost always unwise.
Third, community counts and loneliness can ruin a grad school experience. Find a community before moving. If you have two good choices, pick the one near a community of people you know. Torrey grads often look for alum in an area to help find such a community. Use your “old boy/girl network” to find good churches, part time jobs, and intellectual Christian fellowship.
Please send me other tips and I will happily post them!
