<p>It makes me wonder how people survived in the old days before it became every person’s “right” to have a college education. Success could still come if you had the right combination of ambition, drive, some common sense, a willingness to learn, a little luck, and the ability to pick yourself up after a failure, learn from it and get back in the game. It still holds true today even for people with college educations. </p>
<p>The best career advice to my daughter was given by a successful businessman who sat next to us during a long Amtrak journey. He said that of the people he hires, not all of them have degrees in economics, math or business. You can still major in something that interests you so long as you show some marketable skills or minor concentrations. English major? A minor in accounting will help. Philosophy major? But you were the student manager of the on-campus coffeehouse that turned a good profit on your watch. I think a lot of the problems of today’s graduates is that they have been duped into thinking that all you need is an expensive college education as the only qualification needed to scoring the good life; that job offers will still come rolling in after majoring in something like “'Peace Studies”, or “Astrobiology”. Even STEM subjects won’t necessarily help you land a job if you don’t have the skills to market yourself.</p>