I recieve Gloria Herman’s email once per week about current events, trends, employment, culture etc…  I have also heard her and her late husband speak on two different occasions.  I do not agree with everything she writes or says about the present or the future but I do like the article she sent out today via her email subscribers.  I felt it was worth publishing here on my blog.  Enjoy!
Also, please become a subscriber yourself to her enewsletter, it is well worth it.
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Herman Trend Alert: Higher Education and Employment 2017  May 9, 2007

The following material is an excerpt from a 1200-word essay provided to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). We were asked to provide a scenario for higher education and graduates’ employment prospects for ten years from now. The full essay will be posted on the NACE web site after their annual conference in early June. Enjoy!

The year is 2017. Virtual worlds engage students early. Employers have established major installations in Second Life and other virtual worlds where the students can work for the employer any hour of the day or night at the organization’s office or hospital. The students love the reality of the game and the employers enjoy being able to “teach” the students their cultures—effortlessly.

Mentors play a substantial role in growth. Now, beginning in ninth grade, students are paired with full-time employees. When, after college graduation, a mentee chooses to come to work for the employer, the mentor receives a substantial financial gift; most employers are paying $5000 to $10,000, because the companies discovered long ago that these mentored young people have a better track record with their firms.

Colleges and universities have found efficiency in numbers. Ten years ago in 2007, we saw the beginning of this trend on the part of colleges and universities to work together to capitalize on advancing technologies and eliminate duplication of efforts. At this point in time, they have created consortia in a wide variety of areas, from forming buying groups to holding career fairs, and even working together on common projects like building national databases of internships and other career resources.

Alumni play a greater role. College alumni working for large organizations converge on campus to recruit the best and the brightest beginning with their freshmen years. The goal is to attract this top talent to work for their employers. Recruiting alumni will use personal music programming and pod casts, as well as other media (not yet invented in 2007) to win over the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s students.

College-employer partnerships thrive. Employers sponsor summer programs for high school students and pay for college in an effort to win over top talent. Students identified early, sometimes feel like they are riding magic carpets that allow them to explore their field(s) of interest, while receiving valuable guidance and financial support. It’s not happening yet, but some employers are even discussing working with fifth grade teachers to identify the most promising students and gain a competitive edge.

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Herman Trend Alerts are written by Joyce Gioia-Herman, a strategic
business futurist, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and
professional speakers. Archived editions are posted at http://www.hermangroup.com/archive.html

This post is a part of the ProBlogger Top 5 Group writing project.

Top 5 Ways for a College Student to Get a Job after Graduation by: Justin Driscoll 

5. Job shadowing at various companies during college

4. Short term project work during your school year with various companies

3. Internships, internship, internships!

2. Co-ops (multiple year work assignments with the same company)

1. Networking, networking, networking

Graduation is near for many of the nation’s college students.  In order to prepare for this many students will be looking for jobs in all the wrong places.  Many of the large internet sites will make the list of frequent surfing.  In light of this increased amount of job searching among college students or recent college grads I ask you to consider this stat.

Last week I was the bi-annual meeting for the Career Services Advisory board of the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.  At this meeting a recruiter from Enterprise Rent-A-Car was sitting next to me.  During the meeting he made the point that they hire nearly 50% of their people from employee referrals.  Did you catch that?

The largest employer of new college grads, 8,000 a year, said that they hire nearly half of all their new hires from employee referrals.  So I will ask again; why are you spending the majority of your time surfing Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs, when you should be spending at least half of your time trying to network with current employees at the company you want to work at.  The numbers have been in for a long time, network beats every other job search strategy around.

When I planned on coming to Santa Fe I did not plan on dealing with SNOW!  I am from Pittsburgh so I thought by traveling to the southwest for a conference I could avoid the typical Pittsburgh weather, but I was so wrong as you can see below.

The other day I had a chance to speak on a panel discussion with eight other employers to some student athletes about career choices.

The discussion really centered on resumes and resume writing, but after listening, and participating, in this discussion I walked away with a few thoughts.

1. All employers have different views about what should or should not be on your resume.
2. Internships and experience is very important when looking for a job
3. Your resume will get you in the door but the employer won’t hire you based on your resume alone; they will hire you based on who you are.
4. The job interview process is getting longer and longer because companies cannot afford to hire the wrong person
5. The real world and college differ drastically; the only way to fully understand how life works in the real world is to experience it.

I have been speaking a lot lately.

Last week I spoke at Carnegie Mellon University for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers student banquet. That was very enjoyable. I want to thank Jim Miller for brining me into speak to this great group of chemical engineers.

Then the following night I spoke at Chatham College for a very creative Alumni event where I shared the “7 Things” from The 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated. Monica Ritter did a great job at organizing this event. It brought an author and seven alumni to campus for one event. Everyone involved was very happy!

Today, I spoke at the Community College of Allegheny County here in Pittsburgh. My good friend Dave Young brought me into to speak about my new book. The students who attended were great. They were very engaged in the conversation and gave me some great insight into what they are thinking when it comes to their career.

One of the students shared that he feels like there isn’t a job on this planet that would interest him. He does not feel like he can find a job that will give him any type of satisfaction. He said that he would work because he has to in order to make money but not because he enjoys it. To him work is that four-letter word that no one likes to think about.

This statement made me really think. If work is just something we do to get by in life then it will make retirement feel like a long way off. In my book I talk about this very attitude, and I make the case that work does not have to be so terrible if you are working for a company and in a job that you love. If you find your passion in life then it is not work but just who you are. This poor student did not believe me but I hope over time he will see that if he finds his passion in life work might not be so dreadful.

As you can see from my calendar March is a busy month and I just booked an engagement for April so let the good times roll.

I know I probably reference Seth Godin’s blog way to much but I do that for one simple reason; it is REALLY good. Seth has another great post today on what it means to be remarkable in today’s business environment. I would take his post one step further and relate it to today’s job market. If you are a job seeker you must be remarkable and not average. You must be innovative and not normal. Read Seth’s post and try to relate this to your own job search situation.

Click here to read Seth’s post.

My wife, son and I have been staying at the Doubletree in Pittsburgh since Wednesday night because of a major plumbing problem. Since we are trying to make the best of it, Noah and I wanted to say hi. By the way, Noah turned one-year old this past Wednesday February 7th! Happy B-Day Noah!!

I want to thank Rebecca Florey from Carnegie Mellon’s Career Center for setting up a great event the other night at her school.  I spoke to about 30 students on my new book The 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated.  The students were extremely engaged in the session and gave me a number of things to ponder as I try to help college students with their careers.

What can you do if you know what your career passion is but are not in a position to act on it?

My answer was, if you know what you want to do but cannot get out of where you are then I would suggest waiting until the timing is right.  How many small business owners wanted to start their company years before they actually could because they had to wait for capital?  Or how many actors knew they wanted to be actors but had to waiter for years until they found their big break?  I don’t believe in coincidences in life.  If you know what you are called to do then if you are indeed called your passion will come to fruition in due time.  Patience truly is a virtue.

College graduates are kind of expected to “have their act together” when they graduate.  What should we do if we don’t have a clue what to do with our life after college?

Isn’t that the question of the ages for all college grads?  I can think of three people I graduated with who were scared to death to graduate.  They didn’t want to face to realities of growing up.  They were quite comfortable with living the college life.  For many students graduation brings more grief than it does jubilation.

If you are in the position of fear rather than excitement after graduation I would suggest taking it slow.  Don’t jump into the first job that comes your way.  Explore your options, determine what you like to do and do it.  Don’t just take a job because you will need to start making student loan payments six months after graduation.  If you can move back into your parent’s house for a time, do it.  Save your money.  Or if the thought of moving home causes stomach pains you might be able to find a cheap apartment with a friend but please don’t look for rooms at Trump Tower.  Stay conservative until you determine what you are suppose to be doing with your life.

I think the biggest thing to remember is that you don’t need to know everything about life after graduation.  Face it, you are still young, and relatively ignorant of how life works.  Find an experienced successful person that you trust and get some good advice from them about life.  Don’t try and do things as a lone ranger.  Get good advice from someone who “has been there and done that.”

Thanks again CMU for bringing me in to speak.  I look forward to seeing you again!

Justin