Mollycoddled Graduates Ill-Equipped For Job Market Rigors

Some new graduates are guarding their right to make or receive personal calls at work, a little too seriously, saying that they would rather forgo job offers that would not allow them this privilege. According to Adecco’s 2012 Graduation Survey, 12 percent graduates confessed that they were reluctant to work for an employer who wouldn’t let them check Twitter or Facebook.

Five percent of the youth, said that they were averse to working with an employer, who would not let them shop online or view outcomes of sporting activity.

The report had no statistics on the number of grads, willing to forgo job offers that did not have coffee breaks and afternoon siestas as part of the package.

Were such students in tune with the real world, where joblessness prevails and employment is hard to come by? Would it be easy for them to find a boss who says, “The girl you met last night is on line two, son. Take all the time you want, the meeting can wait.”

What is wrong with the students? Why are they so fastidious? Why don’t they understand the nuances of the job market? Major corporations drive hard bargains and do not play soft, when it comes to hiring people, especially in an employer-driven market.

However, these grads cannot be blamed. It has been ingrained in them since their childhood that they are special and entitled to the benefits that society offers. They were not prepared for the hard trek ahead of them, post their college education. They remained fragile and delicate. It will take a few hard knocks, to realize that there is a world of a difference between their dream worlds and real life.

The children’s upbringing made them vain and led them to believe that they were special and could get away with demands, however, ludicrous. Nobody told them, that for all their exclusivity, they could not play with someone else’s time. When a business hires you, they expect you to do a full day’s work, for a full day’s pay. They don’t pay you less, so why expect to get time-off for other work.

Two-thirds of the graduates said they would leave their jobs, if their pay was cut. Without doubt, parents of these kids would have taken pay-cuts during their employment days, especially during these recession period. It is ironical for grads to feel that what was right for their parents is not right for them.

What is even more absurd, and outrageously funny, is that these grads want their jobs to come with benefits and security.

Proving that they are still leaning on their parents for support and have not been able to discard their crutches of dependency, 8 percent of them tagged a parent along for the interview. 3 percent actually had a parent sit in the interview. A parent wrote a thank-you note for his son.

Its time someone told these parents, that kids graduating college, are no more kids but grownups and it’s time to let them fend for themselves.

This miniscule few need a refresher. They should know, that since the economy dived southwards, in 2008, 50 percent of youth, between 18 and 34, took on jobs, just to make ends meet. These were jobs that they, otherwise, would never have opted for. Inspite of having a job, 1 in 4 youngsters moved back home with their parents.

Last year, 50 percent of all college graduates, were either jobless or underemployed.

However, on the reverse side, 58 percent of the graduates surveyed, said that they would accept jobs, even if that implied that they would not be able to access social-service sites, tweet, check sporting scores or shop online.

In today’s real world, the only one who can, perhaps, get away with checking Facebook during work is Mark Zuckerberg.