With a recognized Type-A personality and a knack for planning and attention to detail, one would not assume I am very spontaneous. That is just not so.
In fact, I move to initiate a new personality trait descriptor which includes characteristics from both Type A and B personalities. However, since the English alphabet lacks a letter between A and B, I am unsure of what to name this new persona. Type A/B, Type A 1/2, Type -B? Those are starting to sound like blood types, so I digress.
The purpose behind bringing up personality types is this: with all the planning, details, calendar entries, and organization a Type-A person such as my self deals with, it would come as a highly unexpected surprise that I made the decision to sell my belongings, quit my job, leave my house and move to Costa Rica to volunteer at a hostel for three months with no plan as to what I will do when those three months are up. Additionally, this big decision and all of the smaller decisions that went along with it happened within four days. Yes, that's correct, four days. See? Highly unexpected.
The odd part about all of this unexpected, anti-Type-A, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants decision making, is that this choice was very easy for me. Aside from the initial reservations regarding safety, legitimacy of the business, and the "go-ahead" blessing from my parents, it was a no-brainer. Nothing was telling me not to take the opportunity.
So all within the span of four days, I pitched the idea to my friends, got them on-board, pitched the idea to my parents, got them somewhat on-board, researched the country as a whole as well as the city in which we will reside, had an in-depth conversation with the owner of the hostel and our soon-to-be volunteer coordinator, and made the firm decision to take a leap of faith.
So far, I have had no regrets about the decision and have been taking all of the necessary steps to make it go as smoothly as possible (can't hide the Type-A forever). I firmly believe I won't have any regrets in the future either. With a decision as easy as this one, and everything falling into place like it has, what is there to be regretful about?
Those of you who follow my blog might remember a post a while back about a panic attack that was self-induced by my freakishly fast decision to move to Spain. Rest assured this situation is different. Although I don't have a plan as to what I will do when my volunteer contract is up, I think the simple fact of knowing I am not "moving" to a new country is reassuring.
My freakishly fast decision to adventure to Costa Rica for a 1/4 of the year is nothing short of exciting. As of this moment, I can't wait to begin this next adventure, learn more about myself, immerse myself into the Costa Rican culture, and experience life as it comes.
Check back for new and exciting things coming to the blog (hint hint, changes are coming) and more stories as I prepare for and leave on my next adventure!
The thoughts, dreams, travels, insights and happenings of my life as a storyteller.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
My Freakishly Fast Decision to Adventure to Costa Rica for 1/4 of the Year
Monday, May 5, 2014
College Graduates Are Much Too Entitled
A friend of mine works for a childcare facility making minimum wage. She attends the local community college, paying for the classes, books and supplies on her own. Due to being denied scholarships and grants, she pays for her tuition via the payment plan offered by the school. She lives in a house with roommates and often struggles to pay her bills on time.
As I was browsing job listings in an effort to help her find a better paying job, I came across something that sincerely rattled my brain.
The position listed was a full time Administrative Assistant for an early childcare facility. It required occasional travel, as well as extra weekend hours for traveling and special events. Some duties included general office tasks like filing, answering phones, contacting applicants and sending and receiving applicant mail. In addition, accounting duties would be required such as payable requests, reimbursements, registry of expenditures, accounting spreadsheets, merchant account statements and related paperwork, monitoring purchases, mass mailings and more.
Due to these position requirements the education and experience requirements include childcare facility experience, accounting experience, administrative experience, as well as a bachelors degree in early childhood development, family studies, or a related degree path, all for the measly wage of $12 an hour.
Are you kidding me?
All too often I see companies looking to hire experienced, intelligent applicants who have a degree in a field related to the job listed. Although those preferences are not unrealistic, they are if the company is only willing to pay $12 per hour to hire an applicant with such qualifications.
The problem starts with a company listing a position with requirements like that of the childcare facility and stamping it with a value of $12 per hour. The problem then continues when a prospective employee accepts the position at the posted wage, signaling to other companies that offering such a low wage is acceptable.
The problem is due, in large part, to this idea that all students who graduate college immediately adopt an entitled mindset and attitude where they feel they are owed a larger sum of money than those who have not graduated college. And although there are a handful of people who fit this stereotype, it is not an accurate description of the group as a whole and the description is used much too loosely.
While I personally feel this problem affects more students than just the twenty-somethings, I am going to focus on the group of people who fit the twenty-something description for this discussion.
The graduated students of the Gen-Y or Millennial communities are no strangers to descriptors like lazy, entitled, and high-maintenence. Our hard working, ambitious generation has been unfairly labeled at the hands of a few.
Believe it or not, beyond those students who skate through college on their parents' dime, care more about their summer tans than their school grades and whose only contribution to the community was the philanthropic efforts led by their sororities or fraternities, are the students who work hard outside school, often times at more than one establishment, so they can continue working hard throughout their college career, gaining as much experience and knowledge as possible before they enter the post-graduate, working world.
Those students deserve more than an entitled label, undervalued wages and society's erroneously perceived value of their efforts. After all, it was the preceding generation who pushed us toward the collegiate path, often times without highlighting the dangers of student loans and degrees that lacked demand. Federal grants and loans allowed more students to attend college, and as fortunate as we were to have such opportunities, it severely reduced the value of a degree in addition to reducing the number of jobs in the midst of a financial crisis.
So, due to the lack of jobs, devalued degrees and an olympic-sized pool of applicants to choose from, students are being forced to accept low-paying jobs from companies that have a choice to fairly compensate their employees.
Is it truly laziness and entitled attitudes that earn us jobs with unfair wages? Sure, that may be true for some, but companies have a choice. We should not discount the current state of our economy and unfortunate circumstances these graduates were catapulted into, nor should we discount the hard work and dedication it took for these students to get to the job-seeker point despite those circumstances.
That is assuming a graduate can even find a job after obtaining that proverbial piece of paper. Graduates in today's society are faced with the prospect of not only earning wages below what their experience and education should garner, but of not being able to secure a job at all.
To quote a friend who discussed this same topic with me, "I do not feel entitled to a high paying job. I do, however, think that if I am told to work my ass off in college and do so, that I deserve a chance to prove my worth;" Our worth being defined by our individual efforts to succeed in the field we are working toward, not the perceived effort based on a generational stereotype.
According to an article published in the Huffington Post last summer, half of recent graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree, which is presumable related to the overall unemployment rate for recent graduates of 7.9%. These facts can be easily circled back to the olympic-sized pool of applicants I referred to earlier and the push our generation felt to walk down the collegiate path.
Now, some of you might be thinking "at least you have a job," or "$12 per hour is better than nothing," and you would be correct. However, with the rising costs of college tuition and the declining dollar amount of wages, many of the jobs these college-educated applicants are able to obtain are not worth the price of their degrees.
A January 2013 report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity states that increasing numbers of college graduates are ending up in positions that require less than a four-year college education. In addition, about five million college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says require less than a high school education.
How are college graduates suppose to cover the cost of their four-year education or pay off their student loans with wages from jobs that don't even require that education? Similarly, how are college graduates suppose to pay off those debts with unfair wages in the positions they worked so hard to obtain?
Employment, and everything needed to be offered employment, (education, experience, training, etc.) is not cheap, especially for Gen-Ys and Millennials. Those who put the work in should be compensated fairly.
Although I respect opposing opinions, please do not mistake this for an entitled rant about low wages and tough jobs. This is about working hard and earning our right to a position we deserve and making a fair wage.
As I was browsing job listings in an effort to help her find a better paying job, I came across something that sincerely rattled my brain.
The position listed was a full time Administrative Assistant for an early childcare facility. It required occasional travel, as well as extra weekend hours for traveling and special events. Some duties included general office tasks like filing, answering phones, contacting applicants and sending and receiving applicant mail. In addition, accounting duties would be required such as payable requests, reimbursements, registry of expenditures, accounting spreadsheets, merchant account statements and related paperwork, monitoring purchases, mass mailings and more.
Due to these position requirements the education and experience requirements include childcare facility experience, accounting experience, administrative experience, as well as a bachelors degree in early childhood development, family studies, or a related degree path, all for the measly wage of $12 an hour.
Are you kidding me?
All too often I see companies looking to hire experienced, intelligent applicants who have a degree in a field related to the job listed. Although those preferences are not unrealistic, they are if the company is only willing to pay $12 per hour to hire an applicant with such qualifications.
The problem starts with a company listing a position with requirements like that of the childcare facility and stamping it with a value of $12 per hour. The problem then continues when a prospective employee accepts the position at the posted wage, signaling to other companies that offering such a low wage is acceptable.
The problem is due, in large part, to this idea that all students who graduate college immediately adopt an entitled mindset and attitude where they feel they are owed a larger sum of money than those who have not graduated college. And although there are a handful of people who fit this stereotype, it is not an accurate description of the group as a whole and the description is used much too loosely.
While I personally feel this problem affects more students than just the twenty-somethings, I am going to focus on the group of people who fit the twenty-something description for this discussion.
The graduated students of the Gen-Y or Millennial communities are no strangers to descriptors like lazy, entitled, and high-maintenence. Our hard working, ambitious generation has been unfairly labeled at the hands of a few.
Believe it or not, beyond those students who skate through college on their parents' dime, care more about their summer tans than their school grades and whose only contribution to the community was the philanthropic efforts led by their sororities or fraternities, are the students who work hard outside school, often times at more than one establishment, so they can continue working hard throughout their college career, gaining as much experience and knowledge as possible before they enter the post-graduate, working world.
Those students deserve more than an entitled label, undervalued wages and society's erroneously perceived value of their efforts. After all, it was the preceding generation who pushed us toward the collegiate path, often times without highlighting the dangers of student loans and degrees that lacked demand. Federal grants and loans allowed more students to attend college, and as fortunate as we were to have such opportunities, it severely reduced the value of a degree in addition to reducing the number of jobs in the midst of a financial crisis.
So, due to the lack of jobs, devalued degrees and an olympic-sized pool of applicants to choose from, students are being forced to accept low-paying jobs from companies that have a choice to fairly compensate their employees.
Is it truly laziness and entitled attitudes that earn us jobs with unfair wages? Sure, that may be true for some, but companies have a choice. We should not discount the current state of our economy and unfortunate circumstances these graduates were catapulted into, nor should we discount the hard work and dedication it took for these students to get to the job-seeker point despite those circumstances.
That is assuming a graduate can even find a job after obtaining that proverbial piece of paper. Graduates in today's society are faced with the prospect of not only earning wages below what their experience and education should garner, but of not being able to secure a job at all.
To quote a friend who discussed this same topic with me, "I do not feel entitled to a high paying job. I do, however, think that if I am told to work my ass off in college and do so, that I deserve a chance to prove my worth;" Our worth being defined by our individual efforts to succeed in the field we are working toward, not the perceived effort based on a generational stereotype.
According to an article published in the Huffington Post last summer, half of recent graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree, which is presumable related to the overall unemployment rate for recent graduates of 7.9%. These facts can be easily circled back to the olympic-sized pool of applicants I referred to earlier and the push our generation felt to walk down the collegiate path.
Now, some of you might be thinking "at least you have a job," or "$12 per hour is better than nothing," and you would be correct. However, with the rising costs of college tuition and the declining dollar amount of wages, many of the jobs these college-educated applicants are able to obtain are not worth the price of their degrees.
A January 2013 report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity states that increasing numbers of college graduates are ending up in positions that require less than a four-year college education. In addition, about five million college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says require less than a high school education.
How are college graduates suppose to cover the cost of their four-year education or pay off their student loans with wages from jobs that don't even require that education? Similarly, how are college graduates suppose to pay off those debts with unfair wages in the positions they worked so hard to obtain?
Employment, and everything needed to be offered employment, (education, experience, training, etc.) is not cheap, especially for Gen-Ys and Millennials. Those who put the work in should be compensated fairly.
Although I respect opposing opinions, please do not mistake this for an entitled rant about low wages and tough jobs. This is about working hard and earning our right to a position we deserve and making a fair wage.
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