Kscopeforum

If you are in college or graduate school right now, chances are that you are pretty worried about your career future. Unlike recent college graduates, classes going into the world face a receding job market that decreases the options one might have for employment post graduation. As a graduate student, I constantly wonder if my education alone is going to be enough when people with much more experience than me are being let go from the careers I might consider when I finish here.

I want to here the presidential candidates talking about people my age and what we are supposed to do to support ourselves and climb the economic ladder. So far I’ve heard a lot of talk about the middle class, but very little about those trying to get into the middle class. At the current stage of my life, I am not the richest of individuals, but I have the skills, the will, and the education to be a productive member of society. I just want to hear someone tell me what we’re doing to provide opportunities for others such as myself for success. Right now, it seems like the job market is shrinking and the number of college students seeking well paying jobs is increasing. Could I go work in a retail outlet or something similar? Probably, but that’s not why I’ve worked my butt off for the better part of a decade for my Master’s Degree.

If someone in politics was talking about the twenty-something year olds like me who are being affected by the current recession, that would really be something. Instead, I’ve heard plenty of talk aimed at people who have established themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but we are citizens too, and need the guidance of our leaders to move into the future during this time of turmoil.

Philip Gibson

Columnist

philagan@gmail.com