"Right job" eludes many young workers
2 years, 12 months agoPosted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/29/07
BY DAVID SCHEPP
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Computers and e-mail have made searching for work easier than ever for lots of jobseekers. Many 20-somethings, however, still struggle with the same issues their parents did in finding that first "real" job. Fresh from college or still in the early stages of their careers, 20-somethings often say they aren't clear on which career to pursue or how to go about it.
It's no surprise then that such young workers consistently report "lack of meaningful work" and "no sense of contribution" as the top two reasons for leaving an entry-level job earlier than they had planned or hoped. Among the youthful jobseekers attending a recent job fair at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, N.Y., was Brian Salta, a 21-year-old recent college graduate with a bachelor's in psychology who lives in Yonkers, N.Y. Salta, who was working in retail, said he hoped the job fair might help him achieve his goal, a job in human resources. But he had no real plan for going about finding that job.
The same was true for Querida Taylor, a 27-year-old Bronx, N.Y., resident who recently moved from North Carolina, where she pursued a bachelor's degree in elementary education.
Taylor said she probably would have benefited from a college course that helps students navigate the employment maze, but "they don't have any classes or seminars to look for jobs."
Such concerns, typical of younger workers, are fixable, said Nicholas Aretakis, author of "No More Ramen: the 20-something's real world survival guide," published by Next Stage Press.
Those who are entering the work force or in the early stage of their careers need to set goals and objectives and reset them along the way, too, Aretakis said.
"They have to have reasonable goals and objectives but ambitious enough to advance themselves," he said. "It starts with just sitting down and trying to determine what you want out of life."
He encourages young adults to take a "get-to-know-yourself-type" test, many of which are commonly available on career Web sites or at guidance offices.
"The goal is to find the delicate intersection of what you enjoy, where your talents and skills are at, where you have passion, and maybe where you have some experience," Aretakis said.
The college experience itself can be helpful for jobseekers simply because of the way that it's structured, Aretakis said. Students eye the prize of a degree and take steps to get there, sometimes altering plans or even courses of study in order to achieve that goal.
Aretakis talked with hundreds of young workers before writing his book. His goal was to help 20-somethings decide on a career.
The book's title is drawn from the lean years that many young people experience in college and shortly after graduation. Struggling to make ends meet on meager salaries, many freshly minted grads fuel their careers on the dried noodles, awaiting a career break that will allow them to graduate back to real food.
And while Taylor may have groused about the lack of courses to help students with their career track, colleges and universities are answering the demand for such classes, said Jody Queen-Hubert, executive director of cooperative education and career services at Pace University in New York City. The university has offered just such a course, taught by career counselors and geared toward freshmen and undecided majors, for the last 18 months.
Queen-Hubert recommended internships as the best way to explore a major and gain experience.
"It's what the competitive (job) market is really demanding these days," she said.
