I Got a Graduate Degree for This?

Recently, several girl friends and female acquaintances have been questioning their careers.

Mind you, they are all extremely grateful to have jobs.  Especially when the media is a constant barrage of bad news on the employment front.  But, for the most part, there is an entire generation of college-educated women who are looking at their “careers” and asking themselves a troubling question.

I got a graduate degree for this?

Now, mid-life dissatisfaction and alienation among men has been well-documented.  Hell, Jack Lemmon even won an Oscar for the part in “Save the Tiger”.  But women, well, this is the first generation that has had enough college-educated women in the workplace for a long enough period for the phenomena to exist. 

The bulk of their dissatisfaction stem from that which, in my mind, qualifies as “under-employment.” 

According to Wikipedia, the “under-employed” are a) workers who are not fully occupied (I can hear the jokes about government workers now!), b) part-time workers who could and would like to work full-time, and c) workers with high skill levels in low-wage jobs that do not require such abilities.

Quite frankly, I think definition (c) doesn’t begin to do justice to the term.  To me, “under-employed” stands for the gals who, having obtained a college degree, or two, now post items like this on FaceBook:

“Just finished putting the finishing touches on our new “Manscaping: Brows-to-Brazilians” diagrams. Do you think this is the career choice my mother had in mind for me when I finished my Business Degree? Examining the hair growth of male genitalia?”

No, hon, I don’t.  But you’ve inspired a writer somewhere in Hollywood to start a new script. 

Recently, several girl friends and female acquaintances have been questioning their careers.

 

Mind you, they are all extremely grateful to have jobs.  Especially when the media is a constant barrage of bad news on the employment front.  But, for the most part, there is an entire generation of college-educated women who are looking at their “careers” and asking themselves a troubling question.

 

I got a graduate degree for this?

 

Now, mid-life dissatisfaction and alienation among men has been well-documented.  Hell, Jack Lemmon even won an Oscar for the part in “Save the Tiger”.  But women, well, this is the first generation that has had enough college-educated women in the workplace for a long enough period for the phenomena to exist. 

 

The bulk of their dissatisfaction stem from that which, in my mind, qualifies as “under-employment.” 

 

According to Wikipedia, the “under-employed” are a) workers who are not fully occupied (I can hear the jokes about government workers now!), b) part-time workers who could and would like to work full-time, and c) workers with high skill levels in low-wage jobs that do not require such abilities.

 

Quite frankly, I think definition (c) doesn’t begin to do justice to the term.  To me, “under-employed” stands for the gals who, having obtained a college degree, or two, now post items like this on FaceBook:

 

“Just finished putting the finishing touches on our new “Manscaping: Brows-to-Brazilians” diagrams. Do you think this is the career choice my mother had in mind for me when I finished my Business Degree? Examining the hair growth of male genitalia?”

 

No, hon, I don’t.  But you’ve inspired a writer somewhere in Hollywood to start a new script.