How Hard is Hardworking?

I recently attended a job fair here at Stony Brook University. I am approaching my senior year so I feel it is time for a change; maybe an internship would get me out of those “student debt statistics”. I am majoring in computer science and I was in luck. Many, actually most, employers were going for people to write software and for people who are in the technology field. I fit the description…well kind of. The problem is that I only recently declared my major which means less experience. Many people I talked to wanted higher skills or a bigger knowledge base of programs which I don’t currently possess. I did however realize that I was not alone. Many people at the fair were being turned away because they did not have the experience as well which left me one question. “How are we going to get out of this debt?”

My view of student debt is simple; the world is changing and people are not. The business world has changed from wanting volunteering, recommendations, etc… to wanting real world workplace experience. The first comment I got at the fair was “Oh, I can see you have experience from your job.” This is fine however it creates an ironic dilemma. Most people my age don’t have work experience in their field so how are you going to get experience if you don’t have it? Same goes for credit cards in the sense that companies want to see history but if you can’t get approved, how are you ever going to build history? As a result, graduates are getting turned away for jobs, students are getting frustrated, and student debt has risen to the trillions.

I can only foresee this problem getting worse in the future. The only way to solve it is to start early and I don’t see it happening anytime soon. We need to build up a history of experience in the field by any means possible. This may mean going out to a fancy art gallery and talking it up to get in with the rich or even just continuing applying until you get that internship. Opportunity is out there but it is hard to reach. We must continue reaching and solve the issue of student debt on our own.