What’s one thing every college student dreams of?
A great job.
Waking up from that dream can be terrible.
Technology juggernaut Microsoft has decided to make a slight change to its company. And by that, I mean laying off nearly 18,000 employees.
The change comes after Microsoft acquired Nokia. When the employees transferred from Nokia are included, 18,000 jobs represent around 14 percent of Microsoft’s employees.
That’s like cutting off a limb.
The cuts will be made within the next year and will leave many high and dry. People will have to pull out their résumés and go back into the competitive job market once again.
While it has never been my dream to work for ?Microsoft, the news of their decision still made me think about the competition for jobs after college.
It is far too common to see recent graduates struggling to find a job where they can put their degrees to use.
Finding a job is something on every student’s mind, even if they bury it really deep and try not to think about it too much. We want do to something that we like and we’re good at, hopefully relating to that degree we just dropped thousands of dollars on.
But according to a report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, nearly 50 percent of recent college graduates are ?working jobs that don’t ?require a degree at all.
The thing is, too many people are competing for too few spots, especially in tech industries. As technology exponentially increases, we need fewer and fewer humans to do the work. Jobs are becoming much easier to outsource to robots.
The sad truth is a diploma is not a golden ticket that will guarantee the holder a job of their choice.
For many people it’s just a piece of paper that is ?sitting in their house, not ?being used.
For current college students, all of this should be motivation to work as hard as possible, in order to be part of the 50 percent of grads that do get a job in their field.
But remember to be realistic, and keep in mind that we’re competing with thousands who are just as qualified as we will be.
As for Microsoft’s decision to cut so many people, let’s just hope it isn’t the ?beginning of a trend for many to follow.
