 The Graduation Speech I Never Gave
(Here's the text of the graduation speech I was never asked to deliver to the current crop of 2011 grads. For the audio, listen here.)
Congratulation graduates! You're saying goodbye to four years of academic challenge and entering the new world of work.
Don't shudder--this is going to be great! And we need you. Really. (I'll tell you why in a minute.) But we need you to know a few other things first--things they didn't tell you in college.
1. We need you to stop believing that there are no jobs out there.
That's a construct of the media, designed to capture our attention and keep us watching, reading, listening, frozen. It's like when a storm is coming and every media outlet gives it a name like "Storm of the Century" or "Snowmageddon." It's never just raining hard or blowing anymore--we play in the extremes.
Hey--I'm not knocking the media, so lay off, you Medill grads. It is absolutely true that our national unemployment rate is high compared to recent history. It is absolutely true that there are still too many college-educated, talented, valuable people at all ages still looking for good work. And it's absolutely true that many companies are still hiring conservatively, cautious of what the future will bring based on the surprises that hit them the past few years.
But here's what's also true. The reality is that the unemployment rate is much lower for college-educated people like you. The reality is that many companies are hungry for the right talent and creative thinking that will help them move forward. The reality is that there are more problems than ever in America and the world, and each problem to solve is one job (or a hundred) for someone to create.
We want you to know is that there IS a job for you. What it is, I can't tell you. That's now your mission not-impossible, your journey, your quest. (What, you thought you'd just be handed one straight out of the campus career center? Sorry, dude.)
To vault into that quest, here's the second thing you need to know. . .
Read the rest here at my blog, RedCapeRevolution.com!
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