Underemployment for All!

in your notebooks:
How will you deal with finding a job after you graduate? Who will hire you?

That was the question my 11th-graders had to write answers to at the lesson yesterday. Mostly, it was to practice the unit 5-8 vocabulary of "to graduate," "to hire," and "to deal with," but it also seemed at least a little relevant. But then...

student 1: Do you mean after we graduate from school, or after we graduate from university?
me: If you're going to university, then after university. If you're not, then after school.
student 1: Okay.
student 2: Who's not going to university?
student teacher: Jeni, in our country, you cannot get a job if you do not go to university. Especially not in Samtredia.
me: I mean, you could be a waitress--
student teacher: You must go to university to get a job.
student 3: "When I finish university, I will be a professional and I think companies will easily want to hire me, and that is how I will deal with finding a job."
me: That's very optimi--
student 4: "I will study psychology at university because I want to be a famous psychologist. There are many people in Georgia who need help."
me: That's interesting, you're the first student I've seen here who wants to be a psychologist.
student 4: (points at student 5) She is the second student you've seen.
me: You want to be a psychologist, too?
student 5: (nods)
me: Well, read your response.
student 5: (shrugs, lowers head)
me: What have you been doing for the last ten minutes?
student 5: (shrugs)
me: Thanks.

The entire exchange got me to thinking about a trait endemic to those who walk upon American soil, namely the ability to resign oneself to a lesser, possibly crappy job if no others are available. That doesn't come up a lot here (granted, there aren't a ton of jobs in either category to begin with). Someone who has a degree from Tbilisi State U, 1984 in economics is therefore an "economist" and will not work in a restaurant. No self-respecting 11th-grader would ever be caught dead cleaning dishes for money. University students are loathe to deliver flyers or clean floors. It's a matter of pride in oneself, I think, but pride really has no place in the heart of a broke university student. If I ate canned corn for dinner, you can. If I'm currently wearing the same pair of $9 brown pants that I got on clearance at Old Navy five years ago, you can.

Aside from the millions of exploited immigrants and overseas sweatshop workers who take the jobs that broke American college students won't take, selling oneself short is what makes our economy tick. Maybe, in exchange, you have no Japan-esque job security, or Sweden-esque benefits. Maybe it's taking it one step too far for immigrants with post-graduate degrees to have no options other than to run grocery stores. But at least I know that somewhere out there is a job for me, as long as I'm not too stuck-up to take it.

This issue is a pertinent one for second-year Peace Corps volunteers. With a mere eight months left to go, the younger and less-experienced among us may find ourselves wondering what kind of magical resume we'll have to come up with to avoid the drifting unemployment we watched our fellow bachelor's-degree-holders bob through for months after we left. Now, they've all found their footing, and we're the ones with no two-year plan. I wish I had the faith in my degree that my students have in their future ones. As I don't, I'm going to have to use the power of my 20-hits-per-day blog and throw this out there...

PLEASE HIRE ME!!!
Jennifer McFann, age 23
willing to relocate to Washington, DC or New York City
availability: September 2008
languages: Georgian, Spanish, minimal and practically useless levels of Russian and French
education: B.A. international relations, NYU
publications: "Laveidem," Scholastic 2004
publications that sold non-negligible number of copies: none
advantageous personal traits: love of writing, willingness to agree with anything that's eloquently articulated, in favor of in world peace, minimal social life to interfere with weekend working hours, sometimes able to keep running sarcastic commentary to self and not blurt it out, blue belt in taekwondo
work experience: Peace Corps volunteer (teacher, projects, etc), NYC City Council intern, software review analyst (that is, analyst of reviews and not of software itself, which would be cooler), tutor, administrative assistant, server at mid-range family restaurant
looking for: global NGO, esp working with East Asia or Caucasus; political thinktank (I can make coffee); mid-range family restaurant
contact info: leave a comment on this blog with your organization's name and email, and I'll trip over both feet in my desperate rush to get in touch with you

P.S. If you are a citizen or resident of any other country and you object to my classification of taking lesser jobs as a distinctly American quality, then I urge you to leave comments on this post correcting me for my blatant ethnocentricism. If I see no comments, then I'm right forever.