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While it has been ingrained in the brains of most high schoolers that college is their compulsory next step, reality has proven that this is not a foolproof promise for a place in the workforce.
With each passing year, the bachelor’s value wavers more and more. That is one of the four-year nature, not to be confused with the popular reality television show. Instead of roses, more and more graduates are getting rejection emails as rewards for their collegiate achievements.
Around the turn of the 21st century, it became common for businesses to require applicants to have a college degree. Businesses that previously had little interest in college education began to add it as a requirement for jobs that did not previously require one, even though the job itself had not changed.
In 2022, the percentage of job postings requiring a bachelor’s degree rose as high as 75%. However, over the last two years, more than half of companies have either gotten rid of or plan to get rid of their college degree requirements for varying positions.
While eliminating these requirements has allowed companies to create a more inclusive and diverse group of applicants, follow-through in hiring still needs to be done. Companies are experiencing a low percentage of success in actually hiring non-degree employees.
To put it simply, degree inflation has ruined the workforce for everyone. The job market has become increasingly competitive and inefficient due to the imbalance of jobs that unnecessarily require college degrees and the number of people with a college education.
The adults around us have drilled the idea into our heads that college guarantees a good job, but employers continue to work to prove them wrong.
Having a four-year college education is no longer enough. A considerable number of employers now also expect applicants to have unreasonable amounts of prior experience before they will hire you.
This raises the age-old question: how does one acquire years of experience if companies are unwilling to hire inexperienced employees?
As a current college student, I find these prospects challenging. It’s disheartening to hear how difficult finding a job is these days. Even after four years of advanced education and thousands of dollars, it’s still insufficient.
While people may claim that this generation is full of lazy kids who don’t want to work, I will point them to the inconsistent job market that has us running in circles. In the meantime, we will have to continue trying to figure out the perfect combination of education, experience, and personality to make us desirable prospects.
Best of luck, my fellow students.
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