It is an amazing feeling when students are finally done with school, they get ready to graduate and start off on their journey to the real world in search of that job they have always dreamt of obtaining right after they finish all those hard working years of college. Unfortunately for many graduates, they are faced with the realization that they are not qualified for the jobs they want due to their lack of experience in the competitive world.
Today, students graduate college and are sent out into the dog-eat-dog world to get themselves a job with whatever qualifications they have. Some students go years in college without having an internship that will help them in their field of choice.
Partly the students are to blame for their lack of experience, but with all the money we pay for our schooling, shouldn’t it also be the responsibility of the university to also prepare us for the job competition out there?
We spent years in college working hard in our classes, special projects, while at the same time we juggle work and our social life, most of us think that the hard work and good grades are enough to get the job we want once we graduate, we are wrong.
Graduating students come back to visit their professors complaining about how no one prepared them or told them how hard it would be to get a job after graduating. Graduates who work hard to get hired and have some experience spent months unemployed after graduating. Graduates with no experience have it harder and sometimes opt to get a job anywhere they can.
Not many students know of any programs available for us to get jobs, get internships or anything of that sort here at CSUN, but who is to blame? Should it be demanded from our university to prepare us? Our tuition pays for everything the university has to offer us, but how come we do not have any programs that truly prepare us for a job, and if there are any, how come we do not know about it?
Think about how many students with the same major are graduating with you on graduation day, and then think about how many of those students chose to go out and intern somewhere or network with people who can hire them. We do not have to mention all those other graduates from prominent schools like Harvard, UCLA, USC, among others, who we know we will have to face off with. What are the realistic chances that you will easily get hired right after graduating?
Thankfully there are a lot of programs out there that prepare high school students to go to college and keep on getting their education; unfortunately, even though we are older now, we are not informed of any programs or resources that help us prepare for when we finish college.
Before spring registration I found out about a class that helps us prepare for the job-hunting after graduating, but still, not many students know about classes like this. The Chicano Studies class, SOC 270 Field Work Barrio, is a class that teaches about the Chicano community, but you are also given the opportunity to network with many prominent and successful people who give you an internship in your field, or related to your field. Not only do you get the experience and update your resume for the competitive job world, but you also get units for it.
Students have the power to change the ways our education and future is conducted. We are the only ones who can change our own future and it would be a good idea if students demand more from the university, their education and future. Think about what we can possibly do to change how prepared we are to face the competition out there after graduation, and do something about it.
