Re: Does Success Depend on Knowledge of What's Ahead?

["Robert W. Jones" <shaka -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

On Mon, 22 Aug 1994, Vollbach, Elizabeth wrote:

>      Why does Shelley Larock believe that a student must be told what to
>      expect of the job market if that student is to be successful?  No one
>      told me.  To tell you the truth, Shelley, I think you'll find that
>      regardless of how much Michigan Tech tries to prepare you for the job
>      market, you won't know it until you're in it.  Besides, the job market
>      changes over time and from place to place.  For example, the job
>      market in Michigan in 1984, I found, was unlike the current job market
>      in California.  I think the best advice they can give you is, just
>      grit your teeth and do it.


What is a major failure of higher education is that little attention is
given to career planning or becoming independent. The typical MBA plan is
for helping big business. Many of us will go on to grad school and
get that PhD in Medieval Greek, or stop with that BA in Urban Psychology
and spend a several years being unemployed
or under employed. Some of us will even deny that PhD on our resume or
job application just to get a job selling shoes at Sears. No I am not
knocking shoe sales or that PhD in Greek, but no one is going to empower you
to take charge of your career but You. Few teachers at State or Wash U
know beans about the real world of work until they get the pink slip...or
a grant is cancelled.  A tenured teacher has job security...at IBM and just
about every where else NOT. It is said that we
will have several careers in our lives...so start preparing early.

There are many helpful books about networking and career planning, and if
all else fails you might become a lawyer or open a chain of fastfood/car
wash chains.