I was in my doctor's office today, when one of his receptionists, randomly out of nowhere asked me if I could get her a job......happy of course to help anyone out that I could (I came up the "hard way", working through school and waiting tables for over a decade, including 5 with an MS before a quirky little skill landed me a nice job). I politely asked her about her background.
In speaking to her, being brutally blunt, I came to discover that she, single mother of 4 children, mostly a career waitress in I'm guessing her late forties was of limited capabilities.......speaking realistically (and very I'm sorry to sound "haughty" or however you want to characterize it), I would suspect that clerical work is about the extent of her capability in the white collar world. I also discovered that she has a college degree (she made it sound like a BS--I forgot to clarify...could be an Associates) in Psychology/Theology, most probably from one of the "degree mills" around here and there.........there are a few extensions from "real colleges" (2 Big 10 Universities and a moderately prestigious private school) around with open admissions, but having spent some time as a psyche major in a comparable program am severely disinclined to believe that she could make it through one of them.
This brings up the issue at hand.......while we obviously have bigger fish to fry at this time, and I certainly wouldn't dissuade anyone from becoming better educated, improving themselves, pursuing their dreams.......also, caveat emptor and all that.....all of that being said of course, I was ABSOLUTELY disgusted that some institution of "higher learning" took this poor single mother's money and time for for a multi-year period while I strongly suspect NEVER realistically communicating to her the actual value of their degree, and her potential to do knowledge work.
Yes, I do realize that I'm going off half-cocked from incomplete information and being reactionary (although if everything I assume doesn't exist here, it most certainly does in other places).........but it strikes me that this is just yet even one more little place we could use a just a bit more regulation.
If anyone else has a different perspective, please share......maybe I'm out in left field on this.
If and when she does send her resume to me (I don't have a job for her unfortunately) I'm inclined to politely and kindly direct her towards government service work, the only place I can think of that an otherwise probably useless piece of paper might get her a little traction.
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