It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk

by 00DAD 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  00DAD

  This just in:

  It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk

  

  By CATHERINE RAMPELL | New York Times – Wed, Feb 20, 2013 10:52 AM EST

  ATLANTA —The college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the new minimum requirement, albeit an expensive one, for getting even the lowest-level job.

  Consider the 45-person law firm of Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh here in Atlanta, a place that has seen tremendous growth in the college-educated population. Like other employers across the country, the firm hires only people with a bachelor’s degree, even for jobs that do not require college-level skills.

  This prerequisite applies to everyone, including the receptionist, paralegals, administrative assistants and file clerks. Even the office “runner” — the in-house courier who, for $10 an hour, ferries documents back and forth between the courthouse and the office — went to a four-year school.

  ... click here for the full article ...
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  00DAD

  The WTBTS's policy on Higher Education will only continue to handicap their dedictated followers even more ... but then again: that's what they want: Keep 'em dependent!
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  respectful_observer

  00DAD, here's another thread on this same article:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/246316/1/College-Degree-Required

  There seemed to be a spate of college-educated, self-reliant J-dubs coming out of the early/mid-90s to early 2000s when college was suddenly, if briefly viewed as acceptable. (Maybe it was just enough time to train the next generation of dentists, doctors, and lawyers that will volunteer at Bethel? After all the educated baby boomers that came in in the 70s and early 80s are moving toward retirement!)

  I wonder what it will all look like in another 10-20 years.
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  lovelylil

  I have noticed that trend up here in Boston too. I see a lot of jobs with relatively low pay like $11 - $13 an hour which you could NOT live on in Boston area, and they want a Bachelors degree as a requirement.

  Its really ridiculous. But I am glad I got educated prior to becoming a JW. Had a BA in Business Finance.

  Sometimes it does help to have a degree, it depends on the company. I am a Hospice & Palliative Care Nurse Assistant and you do not need a degree for this job. But It did help me start way above the payscale that a NA without a degree would have gotten. Also I enjoy other perks like training other aides in our dept. and get extra pay for that.
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  breakfast of champions

  00DAD - yes keep them in the dark, keep them dependent, but at what cost? As membership rises in the third world and declines in the rest, it will put a huge put a financial strain on WT, one that can't be offset by members with good-paying jobs.

  And from what I've seen locally, I think that higher education isn't neccesarily the death knell of the WT:

  First, at our congregation level, the "best" group of kids to come through the hall and stay "in the truth" are those from the "generation" that saw the gap in anti-education sentiment (mid '90s to 2k). I would say the retention rate from that period is about 75-80%. Before (my generation) and after that, the retention rate is abysmal; perhaps 10% of the kids I grew up with are still "in".

  Secondly, although college strives to sharpen kids critical thinking skills (this is the "danger" WT sees in college), that doesn't mean that they succeed. I mean, attending college as an adult having mentally left a cult, I totally get it and appreciate it. But honestly, most kids in college are not going to "get it" even though their professors are constantly encouraging t.
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  soontobe

  Bachelor's degrees for entry level jobs?

  This is just more evidence of the devaluation of a college education, and of a bubble in higher education.
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  Bungi Bill

  As the economy begins to worsen (in this part of the world, at least) and workers are made redundant, I see this happening a lot:

  - Persons like me, who are abundant in straight-out practical experience (having done just about everything it is possible to do in the industry) but who are weak on academic qualifications, get retrenched.

  - While they retain those with high academic qualifications, but whose practical experience with anything ranges from the meagre to the non-existent.

  Ironically, at the same time as this pattern has been developing over the last 25 years, the skills base (particularly that now-endangered species, Common Sense!) has deteriorated at about the same pace.

  We witnessed an example of this here in yesterday's lightning storm, which threatened to shut the whole operation down for up to 12 hours. In earlier times, if a point was supplied through several different high voltage power lines, these would be routed in different directions, so that the same lightning storm would be unlikely to take out both. However, the hot-shot characters who designed this power system saw fit to run the two high voltage lines side by side - almost gauranteeing that both will be tripped out by the same lightning hit.

  This is just one example of the near-extinction of common sense that I could cite:

  - the rest would nearly fill a volume.

  (The observations of a grumpy old man!)

  Bill.
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  straightshooter

  I remember the Farmers Insurance Group headquarters only hiring those with college degrees. They would not even consider a high school grad for any possition. This was some 30 years ago.
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  DesirousOfChange

  The WTBTS's policy on Higher Education will only continue to handicap their dedictated followers even more ... but then again: that's what they want: Keep 'em dependent!...............

  .....................and persecuted by this unjust, wicked system of things.

  Doc
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  doofdaddy

  I agree with Soontobe (BTS) In this country 40 yrs ago (Australia), a degree was something that indicated you could research, write assignments well, could set goals and achieve them. Now it is a fully commercial enterprise as Gov funding dropped and private enterprise started to fill the gap. Of course to gain students it's inevitable in the free market that standards drop ( until there is a readjustment). What student wants to pay tens of thousands of dollars and fail? HIgh standards, less students gaining degrees and getting employment.

  My ex lectures at Uni and (I hope she doesn't read this) I believe the standard of her work for her degree and masters was poor but she got a job. Considering the volume of students going through that Uni and the size of our country, there must be a point where a degree is useless, so the need for a readjustment.