When Gina Petersen graduated along with her affiliate diploma from Kirkwood Group School two years in the past, she described it as “the largest accomplishment I’ve ever accomplished.”
As a returning grownup faculty pupil, she had struggled to suit her research partially time, on-line, whereas working as a coach for a tech firm. She had gotten that job by connections, and he or she hoped {that a} faculty diploma could be a giant assist if she ever wanted to discover a new job sooner or later.
We advised the story of Petersen’s faculty journey — which took her greater than seven years and a few false begins to finish — as a part of a three-part podcast collection we did in 2022 referred to as Second Acts.
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For this week’s episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we checked again in with Petersen to see what the diploma has meant for her skilled and private life.
And we discovered that the credential has not opened as many doorways as she had hoped.
A couple of months after we final talked to Gina, she obtained laid off from her coaching job after 10 years on the firm. And at first she shortly discovered a venture supervisor place by her networks. However she felt the job wasn’t a great match, so she stop after just a little greater than a 12 months, hoping she’d shortly discover one other place.
What she encountered, nevertheless, was a job market that all of the sudden felt rather more daunting.
“I’ve despatched my resume to, I’d say, 150 totally different locations for 150 totally different roles, and but, nothing,” she says, even after getting skilled assist crafting her resume.
What’s worse, she says, she has been ghosted by employers when she does get preliminary curiosity. “I’ve had two individuals attain out for telephone interviews and say, ‘Sure’ and ensure, after which I actually don’t get referred to as,” she says.
Petersen just isn’t alone, based on labor market consultants.
Man Berger, director of financial analysis on the Burning Glass Institute, notes that as a result of it has grow to be simpler to use for jobs, due to one-click purposes on firm web sites and the expansion of platforms like Linkedin, job seekers have extra alternatives than ever. However additionally they need to work more durable to seek out the precise match consequently. Whereas as soon as it is likely to be widespread to use to fifteen jobs, now it’s commonplace to have to use to greater than 150, he says.
“Now, you’re making use of to much more issues – you’re getting extra cracks on the bat — however you’re simply getting much more rejections,” Berger says.
That may really feel demoralizing to job candidates, he provides, whereas additionally laborious for employers as they battle to sift by a flood of candidates.
In the meantime, Berger says that the variety of jobs for current graduates has fallen lately, and simply having a level just isn’t as assured a “meal ticket” as previously.
“School graduates nonetheless get usually better-paying jobs than individuals who don’t have a school diploma, and there’s a wider vary of alternatives out there to them after they’re searching for a job,” he says. “However should you’re taking a look at how a lot of a lift it gives, most likely it’s smaller than it was previously.”
Even so, Petersen says she is glad she obtained her diploma, as she discovered helpful abilities in faculty that she put to make use of in her job. However she isn’t wanting to return for extra greater training at this level.
Hear extra about Petersen’s search, developments in hiring and what schools can do to answer this altering panorama on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.
Try the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on the participant beneath.