Future Income Risks

I was originally a mathematics major and switched to economics my sophomore year. I have always loved math and after taking some economics courses I realized I wanted to switch majors.  Economics would give me more opportunities in the work force and a mathematics major would have been more limited. I believe giving myself more options career wise with my degree is a form of self-protection.  I will have more opportunities to different jobs and this reduces my probability of being unemployed after college. Additionally, on campus I am involved with the service fraternity on campus for a few reasons. First, I am passionate about volunteering my time to help others who need help. My parents taught me an appreciation for what I have and that volunteering is extremely important. The second reason, is that volunteer is an important aspect of a resume. I believe employers want to see that a person has volunteer experience. This also goes towards the candidate’s character.

In terms of debt, I am privileged to not be acquiring any. My parents have saved money their entire marriage to send me and my siblings to school debt free so that we would not have to deal with paying it off later. My parents have worked extremely hard to do this for us and I am so grateful. We made a deal that if I continue to have good grades and work through school, that they would pay for undergrad.

Additionally, I decided to stay in state for undergrad to reduce my income risk in the future. I knew I wanted to stay near my parents after school and eventually try to work and live in Chicago after school. With that in mind, I wanted to stay in state for cheaper tuition and more opportunities for internships in a future location that I wanted to be at. A lot of alumni work in Chicago, so this would be a good networking site. So, staying in-state was self-insurance to me because it is cheaper than out-of-state and network closer to where I want to be after college.

Over the summer, I interned at a medical practice for 40 hours a week for 8 weeks. This improved my resume and work experience. I learned skills on new software, worked with medical professionals, gained experience with data reports and date analysis, and so much more. The more skills you have, the more options that are available to you. Companies look for different skills and having more skills will set me apart from the others. I networked at the company and impressed them to offer me an internship for next summer. This is my back up plan in case I do not find a new internship. I can work there, instead of doing nothing over the summer.

Recently, my family friend graduated from college with a history degree. He was originally a biology major, but always loved history and was stubborn about switching to a major that was truer to himself. He switched majors very late in his undergrad career, but graduated in four years. He always worked over the summer, but never any jobs that applied to his major or were internships. Now he is almost 5 months out of school and still has no job. He is currently working at a job that has nothing to do with his major and still looking for volunteer, internship, and jobs in his field. His major was not a safe asset to begin with because positions for history majors are limited to mainly teaching and he is stubborn about not wanting to teach. In addition, he acquired no work experience in his field before graduating and now has no connections or network to look for a job. He had no self-protection or self-insurance in place and now has huge income risk. His struggles have reinforced the importance of getting internships in my field and networking so that I can line up a job before graduating.


The goal for the year is to find an internship for the summer and fall of 2018. This will build my experience and hopefully help me find a company that I want to work at after graduating. Having something lined up with reduce my income risk greatly. However, if I do not find an internship or company that I believe will hire me after school, I will consider going graduate school to get my MBA and working to get more financially stable.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 20, 2017 at 9:40 AM

    The story you told about your parents insisting to do volunteer work is interesting. I will say something about that in class on Tuesday. I think it is right and way to stay balanced in your priorities. There may be a few jobs where the good things of volunteer work are part of the job. Nursing is surely one of those. Teaching grade school is another. But most jobs don't have that sort of doing good works as part of the job. In that case a separate volunteer career would be a good complement to the work career that generates income.

    I would be curious about how your are searching for an internship and whether you've gotten coaching on that. In the current labor market, where the unemployment rate is quite low, one might expect it to be relatively easy to find such an internship. But I don't know how that macroeconomic situation translates into the individual experience of the students in the class. Some of that we'll inquire about on Tuesday in class.

    It surely is an advantage to have your parents pay for college. Mine did that as well. It takes an entire level of anxiety away. Some other students have written about the high stress caused by carrying debt from paying college tuition. Those students are under more pressure than you are to generated income to service that debt, once they graduate.

    On your friend the history major, it seems to me that if he had started out as a history major in his first year in college he would then have had the time to do a minor in some other area (or even a second major) in a field that would have produced more job prospects than history. I do think that humanists get good jobs out of college, but then they might have to go to a more elite school than the U of I, the University of Chicago for example, or they really have to be exceptional relative to their classmates. Otherwise the minor that produces a job qualification would be a sensible alternative. But, the way you described things, by switching to history late your friend didn't have the chance to take that minor. So he got stuck that way. In retrospect, it might be that graduating on time was not the wise choice. If he took another year, he might then have gotten that minor which would have been a path to a decent job.

    You never know these things. You can only guess at them. And even Econ is no sure thing for a job. But it surely is more likely than History.

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    Replies
    1. Joan RobinsonOctober 23, 2017 at 6:05 PM

      I look for internships on HandShake, LinkedIn, and Indeed.com. I have not received any coaching on how to get an internship or resume building services. Friends, family, and peers have helped me understand what my resume and profiles should look like and what qualities are desired by companies. Finding an internship can be easier the sooner you start. So, I started looking at the beginning of school and want to have one before the semester is over to insure my summer plans. In addition, most companies I have come across are looking for juniors or seniors because they want them to complete their training program over the summer and then graduate the next year and begin working right away.

      I agree that students who face debt after college are under more stress and pressure to graduate. However, because my parents are paying for college I feel pressure to not let them down or disappoint them. I want to make them understand that I appreciate and understand what they are doing for me. This is a different and not equivalent stress, but it still is a stress I face.

      Delete
  2. Joan RobinsonOctober 23, 2017 at 6:04 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Robert Giffen Econ 490 fall 2017December 12, 2017 at 11:26 AM

    It is great to hear that you don't have to worry too much about accumulating debt from college, this is a struggle for so many students. I also had the same experience as you where I wanted to stay in state to eliminate any future income risk. Additionally, I would also like to eventually end up in Chicago to stay close to my parents. The networking opportunities are a huge plus as well because many of my friends are from the city. I have someone of a similar story to your family friend. I started as biology but switched to econ a bit later into college. However, I think this has played out a bit different for me since I do intend to apply for medical school after taking a gap year. I am still figuring out what to do during my gap year, but I would like to potentially work or do research to boost my resume and keep myself occupied.

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