Dartmouth graduate working at McDonald, Starbucks, Borders. Service-jobs.

Want Fries With That Frustration?

Is College the new High School. If everyone can go to college.

Will the college degree be like the high school diploma.

Dartmouth college graduate working at McDonald, Starbucks and Borders.
Service-jobs.

Is college a Fraud. Besides science, engineering, medicine. Is college a waste of time.

$200,000 piece of paper will get U a job at Starbucks, McDonald and Borders.




Sunday, February 10, 2008

When I was turned down for a purely administrative job at a nonprofit because the other candidate had a master's degree, I knew that there was something very wrong with the economy. Since reading the Jan. 21 front-page story "Highly Skilled and Out of Work," at least I know that there are others like me.

I moved to Adams Morgan in October convinced that my stint studying al-Jazeera in the Middle East as a Fulbright scholar, my internship at the White House, my public relations experience in Kuwait and my Ivy League education in government and international relations would give me an edge. Yet after months of searching for a job eight hours a day, every day, my savings are gone, I cannot pay the rent and I cannot afford to eat anything more elaborate than fried potatoes ¿ la Tabasco.

Frustrated with the r¿sum¿-eating abyss that is USAJobs.gov, I sought out career counselors, who advised me to go to the offices, r¿sum¿ in hand, and introduce myself to potential employers. They didn't warn me, however, that Brookings Institution security guards would throw me out of the building for not having a job number on my r¿sum¿. I learned the hard way that Washington does things a little differently.

Jennifer Krimm