I had an opportunity last week to speak to a group of graduating communication majors at California State University Channel Islands. In addition to my speech, they each had an opportunity to show the work they had done for their capstone project. A bit of a college science fair, as one of the students described it.
I spoke about one of my passions: that college seniors should be more focused on building a life, than on getting a job. The process of building a life starts by first defining your own success. It strikes me that very few of us—at any age—have a definition, for ourselves, of what success is. A vague concept maybe, usually attached to “societal values” of income and wealth. Anyway, I’ll save the details for another blog.
What I did want to mention was that out of 55 seniors who were at the event, one—a single student—has taken the time to contact me since last week. This isn’t about me, it’s about them. Many of the students asked about the best way to get a job and one of the critical points I mentioned was to contact everyone they know—or would like to know—who works in their industry. I offered myself as a starting point. To only have one student take advantage (to date) of that opportunity concerns me. Jobs, careers, opportunities, etc. are hard to come by—perhaps now more than ever. I know from speaking to the students and their parents that many, if not most, do not have post-graduation plans. I wonder why they haven’t called?
I have not met all of the students and only know a couple. However, based on the speed and depth of the response I did get, I would expect this particular student to be quite successful—both short and long term. For the others, is there a sense of entitlement with regards to jobs, a lack of understanding as to how challenging it might be or a thorough lack of training on how not just to do your job, but rather how to get one?
I wish them each the very best of luck and can only hope that this has been an aberration. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to meeting Tony.
-Scott Harris
President