9 Important Benefits College Bound Students get from Knowing Their Best Career

In a recent article How To Increase The Number Of Engaged Employees In Your Organization, I discussed how careers for college graduates vary from being:

• ‘engaged and happy’
• ‘unengaged and just there for a paycheck’
• ‘underemployed and miserable’

This article shows comparisons of time, costs, and/or incomes for Groups A, B and C (shown in the graphic above). Group A represents students who know their best career and major before starting college and usually graduate in 4 years. Group B generally represents students with some idea of a good major (who only change majors once), and often graduate in about 5 years. Group C generally represents students entering college with no idea of a good major, and change majors 2 or 3 times and require 6+years to graduate.

The comparisons clearly show 10 important benefits Group A students have during college and for their entire career.

Note: there will always be exceptions for any category. Prime examples are Steve Jobs and Bill Gates who became billionaires without gaining a college degree. Our discussion is aimed at the vast majority of college students.

1. Results of Time Devoted to Determining Their Best Career and Major

Think they know a major they would like

Have no idea about a career or major

The Group A students spend several days determining their best career and major. This time includes:

• A few hours for taking the PATH2 career discovery program.
• Several days researching the 1 or 2 most promising careers.

The time spent by Group B students may include several days of research on careers they feel might be best for them or are suggested by their parents.

Group C students usually have no strong feeling about a major and may spent little time researching alternatives.

2. Cost of College Tuition and Room and Board

One year of college tuition and room and board will vary depending on whether the school is an elite private school, or an in-state or out-of- state public school. The range varies from about $25,000 to $55,000. For purposes of comparing costs for Group A, B and C students we will use an average annual cost of $40.

The total costs for Groups A, B and C are illustrated to be $160,000, $200,000 and $240,000. The differences are because Group A requires only 4 years to graduate, while Groups B and C require 5 and 6+ years.

3. Magnitude and Duration of College and Career Related Stress

College is somewhat stressful to all students because of the need to acclimate to a new environment, social pressure, managing a new academic workload, etc. However, the level of stress increases substantially for the many students who require more than the originally anticipated 4-years to graduate.

Students that know their best career when entering college have the least amount of stress because they: 1) are studying topics they are good at good at and passionate about; 2) get very good internships; and 3) feel confident they will graduate in 4 years and be hired immediately into a good job.

Conversely, students that enter college with no firm idea of a best career and major often find the college experience to be very stressful. Especially when they realize they are not good at or interested in the topics related to their initial major. So they decide to change majors. Then they begin to worry that it may take 5 years to graduate and they will need to increase their college debt because of the extra year.

These causes of stress increase further for students who decide to change majors 2 or 3 times. It becomes evident that it probably will take 6 or more years to graduate and their college debt will increase to a level that will impact all of their decisions after graduation. They will also observe that they are not getting the solid internships in their final major area that are necessary to get a good job at graduation.

The high level of stress will continue to increase for most of the 5- and 6 — year graduates. They will realize they will not be able to get a good job at graduation. And when they do get a job in 6 or so months it probably will not be in the area of their last major, and often will not even requiring a college degree.

The high stress in these cases can last for years because the available salaries are far below those anticipated with the original decision to go to college and many important decisions are negatively affected trying to pay off the large student debt.

4. Salary Lost Due to Added Years to Graduate

In addition to having to spend more for the extra 1 or 2+ years in college, the Group B and C students will also lose the opportunity to work for those extra years to graduate. This amount of lost income could vary signicantly depending on the career type. For illustration purposes $50,000 per year is used as a starting career income.

5. Student Debt Avoidance by Graduating in 4 Years

Several important college debt statistics are:

• The average debt for Bachelor degree graduates is about $35,000
• Approximately $30% of 4-year college students graduate with no debt
• 70% of the student debt is due to the extra 2 years required to graduate.

This increased burden for the extra 2 years is primarily because initial funding support stops at 4 years and parents have not budgeted for the 2 years of added costs.

Based on this data it is reasonable to estimate that the student debt for students who graduate in: 1) 4 years is relatively low [$0 to $10,000]; 2) 5 years is above average [$40,000]; and 3) 6 years is substantially above average [60,000].

6. Benefits of Having Solid Internships

Today, it is essential for a college graduate to have at least 1 (but preferably 2) solid internships in the area of their major to get hired into a great job at graduation. This is because, unlike 30/40 years ago, employers value experience even above a graduates education.

It used to be that employers would establish a budget and time frame for training new employees. Now, because there are many more graduates than jobs requiring a degree, employers can be more selective when hiring only graduates with useful experience.

Group A students have by far the best opportunity to get 2 or 3 solid internships because they: 1) generally do not change majors; and 2) begin to develop a network in the area of their major before they even enter college.

Students who change majors in their Junior or Senior years have much less time to establish a major related network. They also cannot compete with Group A students who already have 1 or 2 solid internships.

7. Average Days to Get a Job After Graduation

On average, it takes students that do not graduate in 4 years with solid internships about 7 months to get a job. And most often, the only job they can find does not even require a college degree.

These ‘underemployed’ graduates often have no choice but to take jobs that require only a high school diploma because they become obligated to begin to pay back their student loans. They also need to earn some money to live on.

Often they are forced to move back into their ‘parent’s basement.’ They cannot even consider getting married, buying a house, or starting a family for many years.

8. Range of Total Career Incomes

The total career incomes for the 3 Groups is probably the most important statistic for some. This factor will have major impacts on many aspect of their life, including:

• When they get married (and the size of family they can support)
• Characteristics of the neighborhood they live in.
• Schools and colleges their children go to.
• Country Clubs they belong to.
• Their ability to invest to increase earnings.
• The number and types of vacations they take.
• The amount of support they can give the children.
• The amount of money they leave their heirs.

The reasons Group A incomes are so high is because they are: 1) engaged with, good at, and happy with their job; and 2) by far the most likely to be promoted when opportunities arise. It is estimated that they will earn between $3 and $5 million during their total career — and those promoted to executive positions can earn far more.

Group B graduates most often will work in careers requiring a degree, but one in which they will not be engaged in or happy with. As a result, they generally will not be given promotions above middle managers.

Group C graduates will generally windup being ‘underemployed’, working jobs that do not require a degree.

9. Days of happiness at work

It’s worth thinking about how long you work and how happy graduates are in their entire career. This will put all other times discussed above into perspective.

Probably the most important comparison is the 4 or 5 days it takes to determine their best career and major before entering college to the 80,000 days they will be: 1) engaged and happy, 2) unengaged and not happy; or 3) disengaged and unhappy/miserable.

From this perspective, parents and students should happy as much time as necessary to maximize the potential to be in Group A.

Closing Comments

From these discussions and graphics it should be a ‘no- brainer’ that any college bound student will be much better off for all aspects of their future if they discover a good career for them and related major before entering college. The time and cost to accomplish this would be infinitesimal with regard to the gains they could achieve for all of their college and career experiences.