We all go through the ebs and flows of decision making, wondering if we ever will become successful as a younger you… Parents are so thrilled with your creativity and your hunger to learn and pick up things fast! Then the inevitable happens as you end high school we are faced with the decision to go to college! What college do you want to attend? How much is it? What is the major you want to pursue? What college experience are you looking for? Am I going to play sports? … Are these traditional questions relevant to the modern society anymore?
So we all want to have a good school name backing our name, especially if you are pursuing a professional level career. What would that be? Lawyer, Doctor, etc. These are the more prestigious jobs in the economy we have heard from all the professionals and professors and industry leaders.
What kind of Life are you wanting to live? If you are thinking the American Dream and traditional ways of thinking, I am here to tell you this is not achievable to the level of your expectation. The amount of disruption, inflation and cost of living that has risen along with the way businesses and corporations change from the impact of society are directly effecting that American Dream vision. It is a much different path today, than even 1 year ago! The moores law of technology seems to be apply to everything as a whole at the Macro Level anymore! Is this because Technology is more integrated with our lives that we want to admit. Elon Musk on Feb, 13, 2017, made this statement to Technology Leaders in the UAE “Humans must merge with machines or become irrelevant in AI age” (Source: CNBC)
“Humans must merge with machines or become irrelevant in AI age” – Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
This just gives a glimps into the future how futurists are already positioning how Technology is utilized today to drive the way society will pivot! This is apparent in the direction artificial intelligence (AI) has taken a major turn for utilization within technology companies. Just recently Feb 20,2017, Mark Cuban made a bold statement about automation: “Robots are going to cause Unemployment” (Source: Fortune.com). This statement along with Elon Musk is a temperature of why automation technology is driving a lot of investments within corporations. Costs are out of control within the corporate world… The money saved by automation will be given to the newer roles that require sustainability with stable costs. All those Union jobs are going to dwindle because of automation, all those factory workers are suddenly going to become irreverent to the coming automation storm.
Why is this important to know while you worry about college and your kids future, well its simple… parents are worried their kid is going to fail in the future because they aren’t involved with enough education and it is misguided. There has to be a major shift in how we go about educating our kids. We have to be as realistic about this as possible and suspend disbelief for a moment to talk through this. Less and Less traditional schools have nothing to offer for kids today as far as job security nor a guaranteed job upon graduation. In fact, the average time to find a job out of graduation for an entry level position according to the Balance (https://www.thebalance.com/making-it-between-college-and-your-first-job-2386193) is 6 months, I would say 8 to find the right one not just the first one to offer you a job. The Washington Post does give a whole host of obstacles and guidance for the current economy, but this changes radically and within months of being published since last year (Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/05/02/graduating-from-college-this-year-employers-are-hiring-well-sort-of/?utm_term=.295387faffa9), their advice suggest graduates who do have interns are much likely to get hired faster and also start higher in salary but nothing short of headaches either route you take when the school loans start kicking in for repayment.
The Paradigm Shift:
The current mind shift has taken a dramatic turn from the result of modern outcomes based on the buzz surrounding online young entrepreneur startups and other personal growth hacker phenomenons in the last couple years or so. This has sparked a dramatic shift in the way students are re-thinking traditional education vs the alternative, a sure win in the current self-education of entrepreneurship. This mind shift is making High School students learn programming while in school and making $40,000+ and in some cases over $100,000. This puts a whole new perspective on the fear of unemployment and poverty. There is only intellect and curiosity that needs to be satisfied and the dare to dream. The possibilities are endless.
Startups take on average 2 – 3 years to get to the point where they are able to pay their founders and hired help in growth positions enough to equate to a fresh graduate entry-level salary in a company; but you won’t get even near half the experience you would through a startup because of the sheer compounding of entrepreneur and growth hacking and forced challenges of building a business at almost every position, not to mention the evolution of that position. For this reason, the whole paradigm is shifting to the process of thinking through how people today are realizing things are changing rapidly and for the first time our own self-awareness is kicking in to compare what is working against traditional ways that aren’t producing the results as they once were. I highly recommend parents get involved with your children as early as possible and stimulate the brain in your child to always challenge the traditions and think for themselves.
Photo by COD Newsroom 