When Nadia Sheikh (Georgetown '09) told her Dean how she hadn't found "gainful employment" despite having both a Bachelor's and Graduate Degree, that Dean joked: "Does she want her money back?"
Nadia is now pursuing a career in international development consulting in Pakistan, where she is keeping a blog journal of her experiences living and working abroad. You can find more of Nadia's writings at nadiainpakistan.blogspot.com, or follow her on twitter (@sheikhandbake).
Getting Your Money's Worth
By Nadia Sheikh
About two months ago, Dean Gillis, the dean of the College at Georgetown University made a pit stop in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. During the Q and A section, my mom raised her hand and told him about my story -- how almost three years post-graduation, I haven't found gainful employment despite honors from Georgetown and now LSE. In his response, first, he made a joke, 'does she want her money back?' Then went on to say that I could contact him.
I sent him a friendly email, explaining my circumstances and how I've done everything in my power to get a job. I interned throughout college (six internships), volunteered post college, had part-time jobs, and did another internship for eight months post college. I went to the career center at LSE and Georgetown for weeks on end, getting appointments whenever they'd let me this past year, gone to every networking and career center event I could possibly go to to meet HR reps, career fairs, 500+ applications, and continued calling and meeting alums on the alumni networks for both schools in the US and even in Pakistan. Why do I not have a job yet? Is it just bad luck? The economy? Interviewing skills? My field of choice? Lack of connections?
Part of the reason I came to Pakistan was the fact I was having so much trouble in the US, but I also wanted to understand how development/policy works here. I wanted to demonstrate work experience abroad, so Pakistan was an easy and practical choice. In many ways, it was a back up plan too. I don't speak the language. Constantly, I am frustrated. But it offered me something that the US hasn't given me -- a job. My boss is great and appreciates me. That's way more than I can ask from the US at the moment.
But the broader question -- are my two degrees -- Georgetown and LSE -- both absolutely valueless at this point? Could I have just gotten an education at a public university and been able to find employment? What about all those hours of free labor as an intern while I was also a student and part-time worker? Do they amount to nothing in this day and age? Should I even blame my colleges -- is it an inherent problem within education?
Recently, I skyped with a friend and we came to this realization that in school, we're not taught WHAT we want to do. We're taught if we study hard, write well, get good grades, we'll somehow figure it out. There is no clear vocational or technical training. That's the problem with the approach of the career centers of schools I've attended -- I had an idea of what I wanted to do -- something policy-related. But not an exact description of my ideal job. On the other hand, career centers focus on those interested in finance, consulting, and business rather than other possible fields. If we want people to be employed from graduation onward, we need a better way to train people for possible employment with a clear idea of career tracks while they are still students. Not after.
About the author: Nadia Sheikh is a Georgetown grad (2009) who studied government and just received her Master's in International Relations from the London School of Economics this past winter. You can find more of Nadia's writings at nadiainpakistan.blogspot.com or follow her on twitter (sheikhandbake).
To follow up on the Facebook comment…
ReplyDeleteThe Alumni Network website that Georgetown has---I forget the name of it, but I am referencing the one where you can look up names of alumni by employer or by sector—is notoriously lacking. Very few alumni actually have information on it (and the University makes little attempt to rectify that problem), and asking for informational interviews has its value but lacks any strong, effective institutional structure. Whether fully deserved or not (I’d lean slightly to the former), the Career Center has the reputation of being useful only if you want to go into banking, consulting, or (maybe) corporate law, but for anything outside of that, you’re largely on your own. The Career Center every now and again would do something about government jobs or nonprofit jobs, but the events were often rather broad and had the same unwelcoming aura of formality that shrouds much of the Center’s efforts.
From having worked with the Georgetown Ambassador Program (as a student interviewing alumni), I know many alumni as well believe that the school is only interested in them if they are a lawyer or financier with a lot of money, and if they are not overwhelmingly affluent and not a “ra-ra” sports fan, they probably will not maintain connection with the university. However, many alumni expressed interest in learning more about what the student body is doing and in helping current students—and more in the way that a cursory overview of a biannual glossy mag can ever really offer.
Most alumni that I interviewed (I think I interviewed about 500 total alumni from freshman year to the summer after graduation) expressed some degree of interest in a mentorship program if the school were to establish it—some way of pairing students with alumni in a field/job/sector of interest for the sake of a more lasting relationship than that offered by the quick yet friendly visit of an informational interview. I think the MSB might have something of the sort although I don’t know how extensive or effective it is. However, for any such program to work, it would need some type of organizational and institutional framework; I think somebody spoke to me in more detail about possible arrangements of that before, but I’d have to check on an old external hard drive because I don’ t have any of my old files on my current laptop.
However, networking events or career panels—the go-to events of career centers—are not particularly welcoming events, and I think more could be gained by having more open arrangements. I know several people had spoken to me about an interest in events that would bring together alumni, students, and professors, and if such an event were organized annually or biannually by each department, it could possibly have a lot of value for students wondering about what they can actually do with their major (and what others have done). Since the event would be oriented around something other than job-searching, there would be more ready fodder for conversation, and you could always facilitate seating arrangements to avoid the all-too-common tendency of people to self-segregate into like groups. (However, such events would probably end up failing if the cost of entry were too high—an element of many of the university’s events that turn away a number of alumni).
Granted, although I interviewed around 500 alumni, it didn’t lead me to any stunning revelations about what I want to do in the future (but gave me insights into what I definitely do not want to do, at least, from seeing which fields tend to have the least satisfied people), and after finishing grad school in a dual degree program run by Columbia and the LSE, I’m now job hunting. However, I do think that for any alumni-oriented career-related initiative to work, it would have to start in freshman year, and you could even require students to participate in some type of seminar about thinking about your future although I don’t know the best way to design that without it ending up rather affected.
Thanks for the thoughts, Jon - hope you're doing well. What's interesting is that community colleges and technical schools almost seem more likely to develop constructive relationships with local employers than a supposedly "elite" university like Georgetown, where the opportunities for graduates *should* extend even farther and wider (or so they tell us so we'll keep ponying up). Community colleges are going through their own challenges trying to develop effective workforce training programs, but the sense I get is that Georgetown and others like it just don't think that long and hard about how to connect its current students with future resources and opportunities. A mentoring program would be a great start but what is really needed is a change in mindset. I too was frustrated by the fact that every career center email and event - save for the token education and non-profit week - seemed like it was overwhelmingly focused on finance, business, or consulting. These are all fine careers but in a university of 6,000 undergraduates, it seems a bit ridiculous not to do a better job providing more possible options.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, it's up to you to find a job when you graduate. But the overwhelming majority of people I know who have had a difficult time doing so (from Georgetown and other colleges) are trying really hard and still coming up short. Bottom line, if we're going to charge 50k+ and congratulate ourselves at every turn for what a great school we are, we need to at least think about whether we are providing an appropriate return on that investment.