When Gina Petersen graduated along with her affiliate diploma from Kirkwood Group School two years in the past, she described it as “the largest accomplishment I’ve ever performed.”
As a returning grownup school scholar, she had struggled to suit her research partly time, on-line, whereas working as a coach for a tech firm. She had gotten that job by means of connections, and she or he hoped {that a} school diploma could be an enormous assist if she ever wanted to discover a new job sooner or later.
We advised the story of Petersen’s school journey — which took her greater than seven years and a few false begins to finish — as a part of a three-part podcast sequence we did in 2022 referred to as Second Acts.
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For this week’s episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we checked again in with Petersen to see what the diploma has meant for her skilled and private life.
And we discovered that the credential has not opened as many doorways as she had hoped.
A couple of months after we final talked to Gina, she received laid off from her coaching job after 10 years on the firm. And at first she rapidly discovered a venture supervisor place by means of her networks. However she felt the job wasn’t a very good match, so she give up after a bit greater than a 12 months, hoping she’d rapidly discover one other place.
What she encountered, nonetheless, was a job market that abruptly felt rather more daunting.
“I’ve despatched my resume to, I’d say, 150 totally different locations for 150 totally different roles, and but, nothing,” she says, even after getting skilled assist crafting her resume.
What’s worse, she says, she has been ghosted by employers when she does get preliminary curiosity. “I’ve had two folks attain out for cellphone interviews and say, ‘Sure’ and ensure, after which I actually don’t get referred to as,” she says.
Petersen is just not alone, in keeping with labor market specialists.
Man Berger, director of financial analysis on the Burning Glass Institute, notes that as a result of it has change into simpler to use for jobs, because of one-click purposes on firm web sites and the expansion of platforms like Linkedin, job seekers have extra alternatives than ever. However in addition they must work tougher to seek out the appropriate match because of this. Whereas as soon as it could be frequent to use to fifteen jobs, now it’s common to have to use to greater than 150, he says.
“Now, you’re making use of to much more issues – you’re getting extra cracks on the bat — however you’re simply getting much more rejections,” Berger says.
That may really feel demoralizing to job candidates, he provides, whereas additionally arduous for employers as they battle to sift by means of a flood of candidates.
In the meantime, Berger says that the variety of jobs for current graduates has fallen lately, and simply having a level is just not as assured a “meal ticket” as up to now.
“School graduates nonetheless get typically better-paying jobs than individuals who don’t have a school diploma, and there’s a wider vary of alternatives accessible to them after they’re in search of a job,” he says. “However in the event you’re taking a look at how a lot of a lift it supplies, most likely it’s smaller than it was up to now.”
Even so, Petersen says she is glad she received her diploma, as she discovered helpful expertise in school that she put to make use of in her job. However she isn’t wanting to return for extra increased schooling at this level.
Hear extra about Petersen’s search, traits in hiring and what faculties can do to answer this altering panorama on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.
Try the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on the participant beneath.
