- The Future
I´ve written a series of posts about how the economic crisis has changed the way we live our lives. Unemployment, debt, foreclosures, vanishing retirements….but also a rise in volunteering, creative business ideas, a shuffling of top talent, and so on. I found another article in The New York Times (there seem to be endless articles in NYT about such things) about how the economic crisis has caused a huge shift in the careers people seek.
Finance, for years, has been an almost guaranteed ticket to big salaries. Thousands of young adults entering college opt to study finance, with dollar signs in their eyes. A degree in finance or economics, and a nice internship at some of the big companies, and you are almost guaranteed a good job with a high salary, fresh out of college. Lots even receive signing bonuses while still in college – the top companies want to lock up their talent before they even graduate.
But with these financial institutions sinking, the jobs simply aren´t there anymore. Not only are there layoffs at banks, but as I wrote in my previous post, the top talent at these banks are choosing to leave. The current state of affairs in the financial world doesn´t exactly promise a good working environment. So, with all this in mind, imagine you are in college choosing a major, or even a new graduate looking for a job. Does investment banking sound like a good career path right now? Probably not. These people will probably choose a different direction.
As the NYT reports, there has been a huge surge in other sectors. Public service, government, sciences, teaching, social work. Kedamai Fisseha, a finance major, had always believed he would be working on Wall Street after graduation, but with the economic crisis, he has applied for Teach For America, which places promising young teachers at struggling schools. Enrollment in finance degree programs has decreased with an increase in computer science, public policy, technology. Graduate school applications in these fields are on the rise as well.
Furthermore, as I noted in a previous post, volunteering is on the rise. A recent headline of an article in The Economist tells all: ¨A Service Nation¨. Forcing people from their jobs that they may have had for years has also forced them to look at their lives in a different way. Now that they are no longer working for a job they may not have loved, they are pursuing their dreams, often thinking they have nothing else to lose.
Law firms that are trying to cut costs are asking their career lawyers to accept one third of their salaray – to not come to work. That´s right, get paid 33% of your salary, and do whatever you want. Then come back in a year, and pickup where you left off. An article in NYT talks about Heather Eisenlord, who will be getting paid $80,000 (one third of her previous salary), and she will try to go to east Asia to install solar panels in remote parts of the Himalayas. It has nothing to do with her job, but having the opportunity to cast off the shackles of her job, she is pursuing something totally different.
Heather Eisenlord Planning Her Year Off
And this brings me to my point, which is the same point I´ve made in some previous posts. This economic crisis is awful, painful, and wrecking havoc across the world. But it´s also changing the way we think; changing the way we live our lives. No longer are teenagers entering college looking for a degree that will make them fast money. With problems across the world, people are trying to help and serve. A rise in volunteering, and now a rise in service-based degrees. Teaching, social work, public policy, and sciences – I believe we are witnessing a shift in culture, a shift in the way people want to live their lives.
Tags: college degrees, degrees, doing the right thing, ethical business, finance, making money, service, unemployed, university, volunteer, Volunteering
