Never Mind, Harvard, Job Seekers Will Do Just Fine Without You

It's been a tough job market for much of the past 20 years, making a grim landscape for workers and contributing to a world of haves and have-nots. Now the have-nots are finally getting their shot.

Young people had become resigned to the idea that landing their dream job in high-paying industries like tech or finance meant going to the most prestigious college possible no matter the cost or student debt you had to accumulate. It was an expensive crapshoot at best, and resulted in a lot of stress and investment in education on the part of parents and students.

Today, prospects for workers are much brighter. By a lot of measures the labor market is at least as strong now as it was before the onset of the pandemic. And while it seems innately true that a stronger labor market is better for a broader swath of the workforce, it’s never been quite that simple when it comes to what young people need to do to give themselves the best start. Strategies that worked a decade ago won't necessarily be the only ones that work in our current economy.

Here’s the biggest shift: For the last generation of workers, pressure was intense to get the best possible education in the hopes of landing a prized job in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street. But young workers also need to think in terms of return on investment — getting a good job without spending so much time and money that it’s counterproductive. In that context, today’s winners can afford to be more cost-conscious. There are now more positions opening up than there are workers with expensive college degrees to fill them, forcing companies to be less picky and allowing students to choose more affordable options for their educations.