Education Gives You No Guarantees For A Job!

By rkutchjm on August 6, 2013 • ( 0 )

Today, you can go through college and graduate school and never find a full-time position. Over 50% of college graduates are either unemployed or working a position that could have been achieved with a high school degree.

In addition, the cost of going to college has increased substantially. To attend a private school, look at spending around $40,000 a year and about $20,000 a year for a public institution. Most students have to take out a loan for that amount of cash. Then you are given a maximum of 10 years to pay off that debt. Average student loan debt is reaching $27,000 and increasing rapidly. This is only for a 4 year college education. That would be a loan payment of over $300 per month for 10 years.

Many colleges with longer more intensive programs like medical, pharmacy, law, etc. have students with much higher loan debt.

Currently, only 40% of federal student loans are being paid back by the borrowers. Almost 10% of the remaining 60% that are not being paid back are in default. This indicates that many college graduates can’t find jobs.

Renovating Your Mind‘s education started with pharmacy school. So let’s take a look at all the costs and time involved with getting a degree in the pharmaceutical sciences.

Graduation from pharmacy school requires six years of education. Tuition averages about $190,000 during that time. Books, health insurance, and lab fees cost another $30,000. This doesn’t take into account living expenses which include dorm room and a meal plan.

That totals $220,000 without the living expenses. Maybe you were fortunate enough to have your parents pay off $70,000 of that amount. What remains is a $150,000 student loan. At 6.8% interest, cost would be $1,700 monthly over 10 years. A major problem if you can only find a part-time job or possibly no job at all in the area. Then you would have to move to wherever the jobs are, which costs more bucks.

Pharmacist positions are getting more difficult to locate as is the case in many other fields. Existing colleges are graduating more students. Also, new colleges keep popping up sending even more graduates out into the field. Many pharmacists are working 2 jobs. Older pharmacists are not retiring because of the economy. Mechanization and software have also cut hours and positions. These situations have significantly increased the supply of pharmacists in the U.S.

Pharmacy employers are decreasing both salaries and benefits because of the excess of pharmacists without positions. You either take what they are offering or else suffer the alternate scenario. That is, out on the street with donation case, playing the saxophone for tips.

The same is happening for physicians, lawyers, accountants, etc. It’s a big game of musical chairs where the music just keeps getting faster and faster.

It is difficult getting through to HR (human resources) to interview for a job. Most open positions have applications only available on-line. Corporations use computers to filter out who doesn’t meet the criteria. Next, they weed it down to just a chosen few to fill the occupancy.

The whole process of human interaction has gone to the dogs.

My advice is to start looking to intern with a company early in your college career. It will give you a head start over your fellow students for experience. In addition, you will have more of a “favored child” status for a position with the company once you have passed licensing examinations.

Some employers, may loan or give you money for school. Read the fine print before you accept any agreement with corporate America. Make sure it works for your future, not just the company.

Photo credit: ralph and jenny / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Photo credit: velkr0 / Foter / CC BY

Photo credit: Nastassia Davis [www.nastassiadavis.com] / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Photo credit: kevin dooley / Foter / CC BY

Photo credit: gadl / Foter / CC BY-SA