Hi blog. I have not forgotten about you, I promise. I appreciate the comments I still get from time to time on some of my older posts. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who has been struggling to find their career potential, and I hope the best for anyone in a similar situation that might find themselves here.
Speaking about not being the only one in my situation, Yahoo had an article over a month ago that featured several others who obtained master’s degrees that didn’t help them in the job market. Yes, that’s how long I’ve been meaning to write this post.
The article covers people in a variety of different fields: business, HR, psychology, education. But while the article is a little comforting for me, it does very little in addressing how this situation could be resolved.
Case in point: Nick got his master’s in HR, and is working 3 part-time jobs. Daniel, who went into clinical psychology (which, I know plenty of people in this field. There are jobs, they just pay next to nothing) mentions what he wished he did instead. His answer would be getting a degree in HR.
I mean, does this article just pretend that I didn’t just read a short story about someone struggling in HR? It also did it with the first two people, with one person wishing she got an MBA and another person not finding work with that same degree.
So what does this mean? Are we all just screwed?
As I’ve been researching into what I would like to go back to school for (as I mentioned in the previous post, I WILL apply for something next fall), I’m being very careful to look into what my career prospects will be once I’m done. I don’t want to go into more debt just to end up in the same position I was two years ago.
This might be showing me that no matter what I go into, there might be a certain gamble I will be taking. I’m currently looking into public health (I’ll go into to that at a later point), and while schools seem to boast about their high employment rates after graduation and these applied programs all have internships built into them – something that is a must for any future degree program I will enroll in – I’m just not 100% sold on it. I’m not just convinced that it is worth the investment just yet, although a lot of what I’ve looked into seems very intriguing.
I guess I’ll be doing a lot of weighing pros and cons, and talking to as many people as possible in the coming months. I don’t have to make a decision tomorrow, but I will need to soon. Just hoping that as I role the dice once again in terms of my education, that I don’t end up on a similar list as these 5 individuals again. Hopefully the risk, whatever it may, pays off in the end.
A Master of Nothing Employable 
I’m jaunty degree ink for administrative purpose (in technology, not admin). At this point, the degree is no more than the proverbial expensive piece of useless paper. I don’t talk about my education when working rock bottom, and many times use. A nickname, to rebuild my real life credentials of being “over-qualified” or inexperienced.
I was just months from finishing my MBA in aviation management, when I was packaged out of my job as a corporate pilot, July of 2008. I earned the degree in December 2008, and my Certified Aviation Manager designation in July of 2009.
As I apply for positions, I also pursue my consulting business. This year the consulting is picking up, but I’m still at a fraction of my 2008 income. Luckily my wife has a good job. So, I am now key at home with our 13 and 11 year old sons. I only wish that I could be putting away for their college.
Over these 65 months I have been advised to take my MBA and CAM designation off of my resume, and to reduce my piloting experience from 13,000 hours to something less that 10,000. Yet I don’t think those things would matter, as I don’t seem to have the exact experience jobs have been looking for. Further, I truly believe that HR has the process twisted, and screens out good whole-people, for specifically experienced people, that might not be as wholistically valuable.
We also have hiring managers who weeded out subordinates that they felt would be their competitors, and now that these managers are restaffing, they are still not going to bring someone on who they feel may out perform them.
The bottom line concern is: will those of us in our fifties be viable for jobs after this mess gets straightened out, in years to come?
sorry to hear that Hicieri, things will work out- you are creative and hard working.