WSJ is discussing what happens when recent grads hit the slow job market:
Mike Stewart is putting off law school in favor of teaching in Washington, D.C., for the next two years. Katherine Atwill, an Ivy League graduate, stopped interviewing at consulting firms in favor of teaching in the Bronx. Rebecca Graziano, at age 23, quickly gave up looking for work. “There’s nothing out there right now,” says the Emory University graduate. She’s heading to sub-Saharan Africa to work in youth development.
Young people like these are part of the growing ranks of college graduates who, amid a worsening job market, are contributing to a surge in applications and enlistments at public-service agencies like Teach for America and the Peace Corps.
One thing the article doesn’t mention is the selectivity of the organizations. Both the Peace Corps and Teach for America are very picky, and the acceptance process is often long and complex. The article seems to give the impression that because recent graduates can’t get jobs in the private sector, they are easily accepted in the service sector - and that’s not true. It’s competitive. With that clarified, the article is much more a commentary on the economy than service. It also seems the article reduces the choice to the job market - if JP Morgan won’t hire, then everyone will move to the Peace Corps! This idea seems overly simplistic.
But the basic point is clear - the slow market means people look into not-as-traditional alternatives, especially service. Great to see service covered.
Tags: jobs, Peace Corps, Teach For America
July 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
True….our program will not take someone whose heart is not in it, whose motivation is not “service first”. But I think there are more and more people out there looking for opportunites like ours….even older people who are very experienced in the workplace and thus, “marketable”, apply to our program because they are tired of the rat race. They want a change and they want to give back.