 As both a professional in Talent Acquisition and someone who went to College and took many years to pay back my loans, Adam Carroll's movie documentary "Broke Busted & Disgusted" https://www.brokebusteddisgusted.com/the-film/ really moved me! Mr. Carroll is the CEO of National Financial Educators. My take on his documentary, is that in NO Way is he discouraging Young Adults from going to College after High School. However he does intend to communicate a clear message, that before jumping in and accepting the responsibility for the Financial Burden of College, High School Kids need to be strategic and smart! This means NO More can future College Students afford to just go to College thinking they will figure out their future along the way. My suggestion and I wish I did this for myself back then, was to take High School Senior year to explore career options. Whether that is doing informational interviews, or even doing a non-paid internship if it means getting a real taste at what a potential career would encompass. If that is not possible, maybe consider delaying college for 1-2 years to do some exploring. My message is when you decide to jump in and take the financial responsibility, make sure you make the most of every moment to make it a valuable investment! With that said, I don't want you to think I'm putting all the responsibility for this on the students, because I'm not! The Universities as well need to take some responsibility for the problem that Mr. Carroll points out. These students are customers of the Universities so if they are taking money for services they are providing, that comes with obligations to make sure the students are getting maximum value for what they are paying for! So what is the responsibility of colleges and universities to students after graduation ? Do they have any ? Are the schools there to meet their own needs of tuition, over the needs of students to transition into the profession they majored in ? I want to try to answer this. I am a Technology Recruiter, and for the most part I place Senior Level Executives in Technology Firms. Recently I have received many requests from Millennials that are college graduates frustrated and needing help because they can't find work in a program they just paid $100,000 or more for. In each situation they are struggling to support themselves forced to take a combination of 2 or more part time jobs just to pay the bills . I try to do my part to help because I truly feel for these individuals so I outsource these requests to professionals that work with millennials in finding entry level positions. The question I have is why does this problem exist and what could be done about it ? I was without an answer on this . After that I was told about the documentary of Broke Busted & Disgusted www.brokebusted&disgusted.com The title is what most college graduates feel after the party of college is done with . They are broke because they have a student loan that they could not pay back. They are busted with the economic situation they are in, feeling as if they have nothing . They are disgusted, that means they have a feeling of dislike to the schools after they played the game as they were told . As I was watching Broke Busted & Disgusted, the schools are in on encouraging students to take out these loans. As the students naively think that employment after college is going to allow for the means to payback the loans. In most situations this is not reality. When i talk to recent college graduates, In each situation I was told the schools do not want to hear from them and that the schools resources is for current students. What they are saying pick a major, take general education classes, pay your tuition, books, supplies and fees and that is it. If you should switch your major, you must take more classes and increasing the expense even more! Some majors do not have a high percentage of placement success for a rewarding career after graduation. This means some college administrators are encouraging students to take classes that have minimal to no value in the professional business world . What I hear from employers is that recent college graduates generally do not have the skills to qualify themselves in the workplace. This is where talent is overlooked . What is it that students are learning besides what they are being tested on ? This is not what they signed up and paid for. Is the solution that college is only for those that have the means ? I think not. Should tuition not be so high ? I think so. A solution I have is that all students need to find a Professional Mentor. This person should not be connected with the school, since most professionals that are employed at schools have not worked in the business world for sometime. The people working on behalf of the Universities who are giving guidance to the students really mean well and they do try. The problem is there are not enough resources to go around, as well as lacking the insights on what the new trends are like out in the Business World. My solution is, if the Counselors really want to do justice on the students behalf they could put their efforts to designing Mentor Programs to help find and coordinate efforts to set students up with Mentors from various Industries. This program needs to start as early as Freshman Year, so that while students are taking prerequisites they can be learning about different career options. This way when Junior Year comes, they are armed with some very updated and credible information to help them make an informed decision when they have to declare a major. I want to make this clear I am not Anti-education. I am just suggesting there must be some way to fix and work with the system to do the proper "justice" for Graduates and Alumni. Written By: Steve Rosen-Talent Acquisition Consultant
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