In the 1960s, earning an undergraduate degree set aspiring workers apart from the pack. Today, it’s impossible to be a part of the pack without one. One third of all under-25s in the US now have an undergraduate degree. Yet according to a recent survey by Accenture, only 16 percent of those graduates have solid job prospects: 34 percent admit they’re willing to jump at the first job they get offered, no matter how overqualified they may be. They’re typically very overqualified.
More often than not, it seems, university-educated workers are finding themselves in roles that require no college-level skills whatsoever, such as waiting tables and answering phones. Things are little better in the UK. Last year, the opening of a new Costa Coffee branch attracted 1,700 applications for just eight jobs – and positions that require specialised business knowledge are even more competitive. Because British firms are continuing to wrestle with the aftermath of recession, they’re hiring substantially less, and so every opening is a blessing. Consequently, aspiring professionals must do anything they can to differentiate themselves from the competition. For many, this means going back to school.
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