By Robert Allen
 
I know many of my peers are already painfully aware. But, it may yet be a surprise for some of us that our future college degrees will not guarantee us a job.
Over Christmas break I learned that a good friend, who recently graduated with a psychology degree, is now working at McDonalds. That was the only job he could currently find. His willingness to strive toward self-sufficiency is commendable. To him, the pursuit of productivity and independence is worth more than any preconceptions about his post-graduation image. That is not something that can be said for everyone.
This friend’s plight and response illustrates two respective points. Our future job options have the potential to be grim. And, there are unexpected situations we may have to endure in order to be more than dead, societal weight until our country catches up to our rose tinted expectations – if it ever does.
However, there is a way we can combat the risk of an undesired job upon graduation. The matter is not completely out of our control.   
We should take full advantage of our education. We should know our business and be good at it. There is a difference between actually learning and simply satisfying requirements to receive a piece of a paper. The latter, especially in the current job market, is not sufficient. If someone can’t do the job, the next guy will.
And guess what? The next guy may have the same degree. We’re not rare. Our degree alone will not sufficiently set us apart from the rest of the job-seeking crowd. In most fields, there are enough people looking for jobs and few enough corresponding opportunities that employers can select people with both the desired degree and required skill. Yes, we need our degree; but, we need to deliver in a manner that is equal to – and probably beyond – what that degree is designed to suggest.  
True, if every student did try to be the best they potentially could be in their field, some would still be better than others. The range of performance levels would just collectively shift upward. Someone would still be the best. Someone would still be the worst. And so, with a shrunken economy, someone would still not have the job they want.
But, that’s no excuse not to try – because not everyone will try. I doubt this collective shift will occur. There is potential to stand out.
And if we do not, we should not complain about lacking what we naively expected. Let us not turn into the deadweight-generation simply because the America we are about to join is a little rougher than we anticipated. We should either work to set ourselves apart from the crowd and obtain the jobs we want, or we should tend the deep fryers of society, free from debilitating notions of unrealistic self-entitlement, and be productive while we wait for our fortunes to change.
 
Robert Allen is a Northern Review staff columnist. He can be reached at r-allen.4@onu.edu