College Graduation: When the Expected Becomes the Unexpected – Complete Essay – by Daniella Cuen – English 110

June 1, 2018

College Graduation: When the Expected Becomes the Unexpected – Complete Essay – by Daniella Cuen – English 110

Daniella Cuen

4/30/19

Professor Lewenstein

Eng 001A

College Gradation: When the Expected Becomes the Unexpected

Giovany, he is a man who thought college was supposed to bring him success, but in the end, it failed him. He was unable to find the career he had majored in, which lead him to the unexpected. Luckily, he did not let one minor set back, ruin him. He still keeps on getting up every morning at four and goes to work focused upon his goal.

My boyfriend Giovany Flores can be described as a hard working, kind and outgoing. I can also describe him as my biggest influence because I can learn from his advice. One aspect that stands out the most from him, is how he matured very quickly, I believe the reason why is because he chose to work when he was 15 years old and has not stopped. He is from Brawley, CA, but when he entered high school he moved to the Coachella Valley and graduated from, C.V. High School. Right after high school, he attended a vocational school called Center for Employment Training (C.E.T) to get his adult life started. He went to study air conditioning and received his diploma in 2016/2017.

Sadly, months after graduation he could not find a job in air conditioning because no employer wanted to hire an inexperienced person. With me, Giovany explained how he does not work as a A.C repairman; instead, he works as factory worker called, Forager Project which makes organic beverages. His position is operating a machine that processes the ingredients and forms the liquid to make the organic beverage. He explains how he did not pursue the career he went to school for because the lack of assistance he received heading towards graduation.

Giovany is not an isolated case. Many college graduates do not always pursue the career they went to school for. According to the Washington Post, It states that the “average college graduate can take up to three to six months to secure employment after graduation, but only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major (Selingo).” Another example would be an article from, StudyBreaks.com, that conveys, grads lack critical thinking, attention to detail, communication and writing skills (Ikaiddi).” I personally believe that this is not always true because many college grads do try their hardest to find a career, even though they have all the important skills and still no luck. Most college graduates do not always find a career as expected, but eventually the unexpected can result in to something better.

According to this article the statistics show that “43% of recent college graduates are underemployed in their first job out of college. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Of those, two-thirds are still underemployed after five years.” Preston also conveys that “Colleges can start to tackle underemployment by pushing students to choose fields of study that are more in demand in the workforce,” to prevent any expected turns.” If this particular situation were to happen to me, I would be very upset and depressed because I wasted so much time, effort and money and in the end, to not become what I went to school for. I believe that all college students should be prepared for anything that comes to them in the future. What would help to prevent mistakes from happening would probably be, doing research on the particular career you chose and see if in five years from now, will it be available for employment? or how many employees do they hire a year?

In Giovany’s experience with C.E.T, what surprised him the most was that he did not get a job in air conditioning as expected. I asked him if he would like to go back in time and change his major, just to see if he can get a job with what he studied for and he said, “well yes, I would change my major, to Quality Control Manager. He explains that a Quality Control Manager is a person who is in charge of making sure their employer's products meet acceptable quality standards.” His main obstacles he had to face was getting up and going to work everyday to a job he did not really want, he says, “I guess accepting the fact that it wasn't a job I studied for. Another example of his obstacles were older coworkers, most of the time they would tell him, as to why he did not go to college, even though he did go. He would explain to them that, “finding a job was difficult for me because in the employer's eyes I was too young, and an inexperienced teen who was fresh out of school.” Other obstacles were his parents not starting a college savings for him when he was small, so when it time for college, he had no money to go to the university he was originally accepted to go, which was Chico State University. He explains if he had gone to the university he might have had a different career choice.

The most important thing he learned throughout his working experience is to, “be happy with what you do, then to only chase the money and not want to get up in the morning.” What I hope my readers will learn from my essay is to always be aware that the expected can become the unexpected.

Work Cited

Bernick, Michael. “It Doesn't Matter Where You Go To

College.” Time Magazine. 10 April 2014. Web.

Accessed, 28 March 2019. http://time.com/. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

54342itdosent (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.-matter-where-you-go to-college/.

Cooper, Preston. “Underemployment Persists Throughout College Graduates Careers.” Forbes.

08 June 2018. Web. Accessed, 23 April 2019.

https://www.forbes.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

sitesprestoncoope2/2018/06/08/underemployment- (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

persiststhrought-college-graduates-careers/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

#1bde00c27490 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Ikaiddi, Uwanna. “The Top 5 Skills Employers Say