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1 year, 5 months ago'Right job' eludes many young workers
Lower Hudson Online powered by The Journal News (Gannett Co., Inc.)
David Schepp, September 17, 2007
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 last week's Lower Hudson Job Fair at the Westchester County Center in White Plains was Brian Salta, a 21-year-old recent college graduate.
Salta, who emigrated from the Philippines in June and now lives in Yonkers, says he hopes his bachelor's in psychology will help him get a job in human resources.
Currently working in retail, Salta had hopes the job fair might help him find the break he was looking for but had no real plan for going about finding that job.
The same was true for Querida Taylor, a 27-year-old Bronx resident who recently moved from North Carolina, where she pursued a bachelor's degree in elementary education.
Taylor probably would have benefited from a college course that helps students navigate the employment maze, she says, but "they don't have any classes or seminars to look for jobs."
Such concerns, typical of younger workers, are fixable, says Nicholas Aretakis, author of "No More Ramen: the 20-something's real world survival guide," published by Next Stage Press.
Young workers today aren't getting a lot of common sense, real-world experience, he says.
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, he says.
"They have to have reasonable goals and objectives but ambitious enough to advance themselves," he says. "It starts with just sitting down and trying to determine what you want out of life," Aretakis says. "What are the things that really matter?"
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 says.
The college experience itself can be instructive simply for the way that it's structured, Aretakis says. 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 in writing his book, with the idea of providing 20-somethings with a guide to aid in career decision-making.
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 that big 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, says Jody Queen-Hubert, executive director of cooperative education and career services at Pace University, which has campuses in Pleasantville and Manhattan.
For about 18 months now, Pace has offered a two-credit-course, taught by career counselors, geared toward freshmen and undecided majors. "We're really trying to go beyond just (telling students to) pick a major," she says.
Internships are the best way to explore a major and gain experience, Queen-Hubert says. "It's what the competitive (job) market is really demanding these days."
