Opinion Editorial (1990)

[never published]

(Author’s note: This editorial is an open letter to employers and academicians.)

Hard work and a good education can make a difference in your life.

When I was growing up, this concept was paramount in my mind. If only I could work hard and get a good education, I wouldn’t be stuck eking out an existence in the slums when I was 50. It was a world view that was drummed into the minds of a whole generation of baby boomers.

A college education is the key to success.

Before I went to college, I held a number of marginal positions, since I had no definitive skills or was too young to qualify for better paying jobs. College seemed like a good choice since the Vietnam War was raging and I needed a student deferment to prevent my being used as cannon fodder. Besides, when I left high school I was so thoroughly indoctrinated in the ‘college path’ that no other reality existed for me.

I struggled though a university education, studying between other extra-curricular activities. Somehow I made it through and by 1974 I had received that vaunted diploma, The College Degree.

Americans want to succeed, not just survive.

Boy, did I ever have high hopes upon receiving my college degree! For a year and a half after getting my Bachelor’s, I was only able to secure employment that people who only had a high school diploma usually turned down. Real success! So, I thought, the problem is that there are too many people on the job market with B.A.’s, so what I needed, to stand apart, was an M.A.

Advanced degrees make the job seeker more marketable.

I spent one year engaged in post-undergraduate studies, primarily in labor economics, and then two more years working on a graduate degree in public administration. During this time, I completed a graduate internship with the City of Albuquerque. Unfortunately, though, I picked a department which had no openings available to me upon graduation. Finally, in 1978 I reentered the job market with The Advanced Degree.

The mandate of public administration programs is to prepare capable and effective administrators for public service agencies.

I was able to secure employment with the State of New Mexico government in a position that only required a Bachelor’s degree. I didn’t secure the position on the basis of academic qualifications, but rather because of political patronage. (I am not slighting patronage, only noting that my Advanced Degree was not required.)

The first day on the job my supervisor gave me a project to complete “as soon as possible”. Two hours later, I gave him the completed project, and to put it mildly, he was furious: he didn’t want it to be completed until Friday at 5 p.m. At best, the balance of that first year was the same, and often there was no work assigned to me. The second year I was allowed to engage in some work assignments, but for most of the third year I xeroxed documents 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It very nearly provoked a nervous breakdown.

Private industry is the answer. Unlike the government, they are profit-motivated!

All my professional friends in private industry told me that that was the ‘place to go’ if I really wanted to work hard and be respected for it. So, upon being laid off from my position in state government, I spend 15 months and about $10,000 of savings traveling around the Southwest and South, looking for employment in the employee relations arena, which was my academically trained field.

Almost all of the ‘private industry’ companies I had visited during my job search gave the same answer: you’re overqualified for lower level positions and we only hire from within for upper level openings. How does one “get in”?? There was never a credible answer.

My ‘success’ was so abysmally lacking that I got into the habit of sending off the same number (about 40 per week) of sweepstakes entries as resumes I submitted, both locally and nationwide. I figured that even at odds of 1:50,000,000, my chances were better to win a sweepstakes than to secure employment with my Master’s degree. Finally, after15 months of unemployment insurance and about 1400 resumes (but no contest winnings), I was offered another government position, again through patronage.

All work is noble. Work is alone noble.

Finally, I thought, a chance to work hard, be in my trained field, and be paid well for it. Well, the pay was quite lucrative; the work, however, was little -- when it occurred at all -- with massive languid gaps in between. Although I was allowed to complete some important in-depth staff studies, the main thing I was paid for was to call Santa Fe once a week and ask for my latest assignment. Almost always, the answer was “call next week”. Period.

I spent 15 months drawing a very fat paycheck, probably actually worked about 5 months, and spent the balance of the time either staring at the wall or reading books. A truly fantastic use of the taxpayer’s dollar! I would have felt even worse were it not for the fact that there were numerous upper level employees who made even greater salaries and whose workload, if you can believe, was less than mine (although they did a much better job of appearing busy).

For much of the time I spent in my office, I did absolutely no work, because no work was assigned to me. I got into the habit of asking employees who were functionally (though not line) subordinates for work to do. I stopped wearing contact lenses at this time because I kept falling asleep at my desk, and that caused the lenses to end up under my upper eye lids.

Education will open doors for you that are not open to those who lack the motivation to strive for ‘higher education’.

Thankfully, after 15 months, I was laid off. I truly hated losing the paycheck, a rather fat one at that, and didn’t relish being unemployed; but I didn’t mind losing the job, because frankly I didn’t have a job to lose.

I attempted to make a career change into real estate, but never really gained a knack for it. I was able to produce a marginally sufficient commission, enough that, with family financial assistance, I kept my head above water. The whole time I was in real estate sales I continued to apply for professional positions with my Advance Degree, but was never called for a single interview. I continued my professional education, training as a mediator and a crisis intervention counselor, and worked for several months as a carpenter.

Fulfill your dreams. Life is too short to waste.

Tiring of my dismal production in real estate, I decided that if only I went to vocational school and developed a trade, I could secure steady employment. I assumed that the extra schooling would allow me to surmount the ‘no education/no experience’ obstacle, and that it would prove to potential employers that I was serious about career change.

So, I attended the Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute (TVI), and entered the Culinary Arts program. Since childhood, I had had a love of cooking and had become, as an adult, quite good at it. I figured that I would, as a result, have a skill that I enjoyed and that was marketable.

TVI’s motto: “Education that you can use”.

I’ve been searching for a full-time cooking position for eight months now, and almost uniformly I’ve been told that I was overqualified -- when I haven’t even held a cooking job yet! I have begun to intentionally devalue my past lucrative salaries and have stopped mentioning my M.A., since it has never assisted me in securing employment. It has only been ‘of value’ for employers to tell me I was overqualified.

The amazing part is that, because of the dismal history of being turned away for employment as a result of having earned a Master’s degree, I had decided to not even attempt to use it anymore. I was more than willing to make considerably less income since I realized that would be necessary if I want to make a career change.

The kicker, and the motivation for writing this editorial, came recently when I was told I was overqualified for a cooking job because I had a cooking school certificate!

Studies consistently show that a college degree increases a person’s chance of being in the upper income levels.

I have begun to envy my friends who only have high school diplomas and no further education of any kind. At least they can get a job and they don’t have to devalue themselves to be employed.

The main problem is that there are only a limited number of jobs that require college degrees, especially advanced degrees. On the other hand, there are an overabundance of people with those degrees seeking employment, far more than the number of jobs available to them. If an individual cannot secure an employment situation that requires an advance degree, they then must compete with other applicants for positions that require either only a high school degree or no special education at all.

Even where a college education is not required, employers often choose a graduate over a non-graduate.

Having an advanced degree would not be a disadvantage were it not the case that employers, who have openings that do not require college degrees, discriminate against people with advanced education. Rather than being appreciative that they may have an applicant who is smarter, more creative, probably more mature, and more responsible than the general applicant, they very often view that persons with advanced degrees a being ‘overqualified’, and therefore not ‘worthy’ of being hired.

Many employers mistakenly feel that persons with college educations will either leave the position the first time another position, that requires a degree, becomes available, or that the person will become too easily bored and therefore will resign quickly. The problem with these assumptions is that, since there are far greater numbers of persons seeking positions requiring college education than there are positions available, there is a very good chance that the college-educated worker will remain a long time before they ever get a chance for another position. And they may grow to enjoy the job by then, like any other worker. Secondly, if the individual picked that place of employment, then there is a good chance they like the work and will not become bored or are in the process of making a career change.

College graduates typically have greater job security and more opportunities for advancement than non-graduates.

That is, of course, if anyone will hire them in the first place. There is just too much emphasis, by employers in New Mexico, on gearing their hiring toward individuals with no education (at least none other than a high school diploma). If the potential applicant fails to secure employment in a professional field, or has no desire to use their degree in that manner, then the combination of a desire to work hard, be competent, and have higher education definitely works against the job seeker in our state.

The person who is ‘educated’, and who either through choice or circumstance is applying for positions that do not require college or vocational education, has an experience of being ostracized that would be no greater if they had leprosy or some other fatally communicable disease.

Education: the key to success.

I am happy that I pursued my college and vocational education. Schooling and learning have always been a source of enjoyment for me. Education has widened my social and psychological horizons. As far as the job market is concerned, though, my education has thus far only served to prevent my being marketable.

There are some profound structural problems with New Mexico’s economy. It is no wonder so many students leave the state upon graduation [in 1976, when I had a part-time job at UNM doing statistical analysis, at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, the percentage of University of New Mexico graduates, who left the state upon obtaining their degrees, was 75%]..

You can make a difference - if you try!

It is not surprising that America is losing its competitive edge in the world marketplace, when so many potential educated applicants must devalue their education and experience in order to gain any employment. These people are not dishonestly upgrading their resumes in order to secure employment; instead, they are forced to disclaim the education and experience they do have, in order to be employed at all.

I now have Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and a Culinary Arts certificate. I am trained in public administration and employee relations, as a political and community organizer, as a mediator, and as a crisis intervention counselor. And I have served on numerous community boards. For all this education and experience though the only result is to be told, continuously, that I am unworthy of employment.

If employers think I’m far too overqualified to be hired, just think how frightfully overqualified I am to be unemployed!!