Why do so many people with expensive college degrees settle for low-paying jobs?

"Settling" for a low-paying job is proof that one is likely not worthy of a higher paying job.

Key word here is "settle." I do not mean to imply that one should not take a low-paying job. In fact, low-paying "entry level" jobs in virtually any industry is the key to success for anybody with drive and ambition.

Too many people take these low-skill jobs and stagnate in them. They don't give their employer anything extra. They simply do what their manager assigns them and go home at the end of the day. They are wasting their opportunity and devaluing themselves in the process.

Consider a job at McDonalds for instance. The typical entry-level worker might be assigned to work the drive-through. They become pretty good at it but never look to do anything else. So two years go by and they are still working that drive-though window.

Now what if that same employee looked for other things to do in that store? Right away they are increasing their value. They can fill in for when the fry cook calls in sick. They can then train new hires on various jobs. They are quickly given more and more responsibility - not necessarily because they ask for it, but because they just go ahead and take it on.

In six months, these kind of people are no longer working the drive-in at $8/hr. They may now be a shift manager at $12/hr. That's a 50% increase in pay in just half a year. They are now on a trajectory for store manager and then regional manager, which according to glassdoor.com can net you up to $133,000 per year, putting them well ahead of the typical college graduate - with the added bonus that they do not have any college loans to pay off.

The above can be replicated in almost any industry. There are many corporate executives, even CEOs, that got their start in the proverbial "mail room."

All you really have to do is work hard, be a self-starter and ASSUME additional responsibilities on your own. Very rarely does anybody get tapped on the shoulder for a promotion with more responsibility. You have to show that initiative on your own. This is because most managers want to keep excellent workers right where they are - as it makes their job easier. If you simply come in, do your job and go home at end of the day, you are not going to go anywhere career wise.

Colleges are little more then job programs for unemployable leftist tyrants who got degrees in useless subjects.

Like people who received degrees in diversity and inclusion? My take is the universities have created an imaginary problem to help fill job spots for those degree holders. I've worked with people from all walks of life over my working career. We pretty much all got along. I wonder why it is supposedly a big problem these days?

Because they don’t get a degree in a field that actually provides them with the means to earn a decent living and they go to over priced colleges which have no problem bleeding these kids and their parents dry to give them that useless degree.

I read recently that 12% of community college enrollees already have a Bachelor’s Degree. They’re going back to learn a marketable skill, nursing, HVAC, auto repair, EMT, coding, etc. They could have saved a ton of money and those 4 years if they weren’t pushed to college.

I’ve been telling kids to consider studying a trade and take some basic business classes. I tell them to read the Millionaire Next Door. I’ve had a couple take that route. It’ll take a while to see if the business angle works out, but they are making decent money for 20-25 year olds with no college debt.

At one point, I saw a survey saying the job with the most satisfaction for men is heavy equipment operator. The pay is good and you get to build things.

I will not be sending my kids to college unless somebody else pays for it and it is a Christian school (a real Christian school, unlike Notre Dame for example).

JoMa

Reminds me of the old Bill Cosby record “Why is There Air”. Asks the philosophy major: “Why is there air?”. Replies Coach Cosby: “To inflate basketballs.”

Thank you for one of the best replies to this post. One of the most successful men I have ever known did not have a college degree. However, he was smart, ambitious, and a self-starter. He also worked very, very hard.

I retired in my sixties and have been retired a couple of years.

I have not looked back—but it will be very difficult for my employer to could find a young person that could effectively do my job.

That is at least partially the fault of the decline in an education system that practices propaganda instead of teaching students critical thinking skills.

I agree with you there. In my opinion, the vast majority of jobs should require a quality high school diploma and be able to hire people from that and train them on the job. I do believe the majority of jobs could be filled in this fashion, but the old high school educations were the equivalent of two years of college today in terms of requirements before a person could graduate.

Fifty years ago only seven percent of high school graduates went on to college.

Approx. 50 years ago I was discharged from the Army and within two weeks got a job in the auto industry where I was fortunate enough to last 35 years without getting laid off........Those days are gone.

If I had a kid who wasn't highly motivated and goal oriented, I wouldn't waste my money on sending him to college with no guarantee of a decent job in his future. I would direct him towards a trade school.

My nephew's son was not a good high school student due to ADHD but at least during his junior and senior year his high school had a welding program after school that he attended and enjoyed. He's starting school in February at the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Ohio which is a one year program........

For the vast majority of kids a trade program in welding/hvac/electrician can be the ticket to a great middle class life.Journeyman can make 150k and spend their earnings buying a house/boat/nice truck ect. and not on paying for an overpriced worthless college degree that won’t help get a job

quality high school diploma

Agree--"education" is _way_ over-rated unless it is very high quality.

With the Internet a self-motivated person can learn most of what they need outside the educational system--and their employer can fill in the gaps with specific training.

Reasonable intelligence, high motivation (and positive attitude and willingness to work hard) will get most jobs done.

I could have trained my replacement in a couple of years if I got to pick them and teach them the tricks--my employer was more interested in checking the "diversity" boxes...

Their call (wicked grin...).

https://www.thecollegefix.com/group-highlights-extremely-biased-college-classes-dirty-dozen-list/

Jennifer Kabbany - Fix Editor •December 2, 2016

Many professors try to tell students what to think and give them only one side of the story inside the classroom. But then there’s scholars who go above and beyond in their attempts to indoctrinate students.

Young America’s Foundation has pulled together a list of examples, calling it “The Dirty Dozen: America’s Most Bizarre and Politically Correct College Courses of 2016-2017.”

“The sad truth is that many of America’s greatest minds are spending four formative years and tens of thousands of dollars sitting in classes such as ‘Ecofeminism,’ and ‘Queering God,’ which clearly do little to equip them to face the real and complex problems our country desperately needs them to solve,” the foundation stated in releasing its list.

The list of classes named by YAF as the most egregious this year are:

1. Diversity and Design, University of Arkansas
2. Black Hair Politics, University of Florida
3. Gender and Food Politics, University of Florida
4. Ecofeminism, University of South Carolina
5. Transgender Cultural Production, Yale University
6. Hand to Mouth: Writing, Eating, and the Construction of Gender, Dartmouth University
7. Racial Capitalism, Williams College
8. Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology, Swarthmore College
9. Environmental Justice, University of Missouri
10. White People, Middlebury College
11. Transgender Latina Immigration: Politics of Belonging and Labor in the United States, Bowdoin College
12. Saints and Sexuality, University of Mississippi

The course descriptions are listed in full on YAF’s website.

Because high-paying jobs make them put away their cellphones and do some work.

Colleges and universities are all in it for the money and status it seems anymore. I understand campus resources, athletic programs, social things to try to keep them out of trouble...but for $30,000/year and seemingly most of that just makes them appear impressive...maybe us non-educated just don’t understand.

(”Great Recession of 2008.” Isn’t that racist?)

I got an MBA in finance from a major midwestern university in 1985. I always felt that my education was equal to that of having an undergraduate degree a generation or two before me, an my bachelor of arts undergraduate degree was like a high school diploma of a similar time. Today’s college grad is the equivalent of someone with an 8th grade education from 100 years ago......

Older article but it makes your point.

https://thefederalist.com/2018/09/18/60-percent-college-students-need-remedial-classes-needs-change-now/

As far as hospital and ambulatory EMR systems the two primary players are Epic and Cerner, 39% & 26% market share respectively. McKesson may have some sub-specialty EMR system but these days they’re just not prevalent in terms of an enterprise EMR. However, they are still a major player in the enterprise PACS space but those days are closing also. There is a company called Sectra that is way ahead of the other players. We just spent 1.5 years integrating it at Vanderbilt with epic and other third-party systems. Pretty cool stuff and its awesome the patient experiences near immediate turnaround in terms of getting exam iresults.

Government made it easy to sign up for enormous loans.
Many pay for an education, not realizing they actually have to work for it.
A glut of supply competes for low demand for degreed workers.
And still nobody addresses the huge fraction of those who start degrees but don’t finish - in debt for something they can’t use.

Because the degrees are worthless?

I believe the proper definition should be - Thanks for playing, here is your trophy