Discussion Title: Does A College Degree Guarantee A Job?

1. A college degree leads to a job.
1.1. Con: Graduates are not entitled to do better than anyone at a job just because of a piece of paper. It's all about results.
1.2. Pro: More people are getting degrees, which shows people believe it will get them a job \(as they see successes of previous people\).
1.2.1. Con: That people believe something, doesn't mean it's true. And I don't think people think their college degree will guarantee them a job, they are taught it will increase their chances. That part it true, incidentally. But that's not the thesis.
1.2.2. Con: Graduation rates are steadily [declining](https://hechingerreport.org/despite-efforts-to-increase-them-university-graduation-rates-fall/).
1.3. Pro: [Studies show](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2017/01/23/dispelling-the-myth-of-underemployed-college-graduates/) that unemployment rates of college degree holders are low and consists mostly of those who are between jobs \(frictional unemployment\), instead of never being employed. Unemployment for them occur mainly after having a job, instead of no job at all.
1.4. Con: Economic factors influence whether or not a person can find a job.
1.4.1. Pro: If the demand for a specific job is low, a college grad may not be able to find a job in their field of study.
1.4.2. Pro: A college degree does not prevent graduates from being affected by external factors in the job market.
1.4.2.1. Pro: Automation is taking over jobs once provided to those with a degree.
1.4.2.1.1. Con: With automation comes training for automation-related jobs.
1.4.2.2. Pro: The lack of jobs is so great that the "[job guarantee](https://www.kialo.com/a-job-guarantee-is-an-interesting-prospect-6314/6314.0=6314.1/=6314.1)" concept is gaining strength.
1.4.2.3. Pro: The [job market changes](https://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/05/can-your-college-major-guarantee-a-job.html) while a person is in college. A field that had jobs at the start of the pursuit might not have any when they get out. That could make a person with the degree not have a job at the end \(a.k.a. graduating and looking for a job\).
1.4.2.3.1. Pro: Some colleges just try to keep students attending to get more money. This can cause students to be less capable of getting a job \(especially being unproductive in graduating and being out of the job market for so long\), rather than more capable.
1.4.2.4. Pro: The reason it doesn't is because recently, there has been a [boon of unemployment across the country](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-adds-healthy-213000-jobs-in-june-but-unemployment-rate-backs-up-to-4-2018-07-06?). If many adults who actually have work experience can't get a job in this day and age, college students will not have much of a better chance \(especially with no experience\).
1.4.2.4.1. Pro: Unfortunately, they might think they have a better chance, as their diploma may give students a sense of entitlement that they'll be hired right on the spot. This issue might lead to bigger disappointment, which could lead to greater unemployment \(as people can find difficulties working when upset\).
1.5. Con: There are better qualifications than a degree for a job.
1.5.1. Pro: Having the 'know-how' on surviving financially \(like knowing how to get a decent job\) is more crucial to getting a job than what knowledge a person has.
1.5.1.1. Con: A person may need a degree to know where to look and how to negotiate a job though.
1.5.1.2. Pro: A job offer leads to a job, but sometimes that offer was bought by someone, as with [visas](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/employment/temporary-worker-visas.html).
1.5.1.2.1. Pro: Scholars have no idea how to get you a job.
1.5.1.2.1.1. Pro: Even in the case that scholars have a suggestion of how or what job to get \(eg, mathematicians suggest you could be an actuary or “wall street quant” or “data scientist”\) — they have no idea how to apply for or do the job, and the jobs may not exist—certainly these 3 examples do not exist in numbers sufficient to employ everyone who can integrate an exponential function.
1.5.1.2.2. Pro: Even if colleges spend lavishly on their career guidance offices, *career counselors* have no idea how to get you a job. Career counselors are like life coaches: they get paid but don't help in the end.
1.5.2. Pro: One could have a well-paying career without a degree, so a degree is not needed for a job guarantee.
1.5.2.1. Pro: College degrees do not always guarantee you getting a well paying job. Many people believe that you have to go to college to get a well paying job. Nearly [50%](http://www.valuesandcapitalism.com/is-a-college-degree-necessary-for-a-good-job-not-always/) of students who start a bachelor’s degree never finish. And the average student loan debt for students in America is [$30,000](http://www.valuesandcapitalism.com/is-a-college-degree-necessary-for-a-good-job-not-always/). [62%](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2015/08/12/six-reasons-why-your-college-major-doesnt-matter/#71e6d59535a0) of recent college graduates are working in jobs that require a degree, and only [27%](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2015/08/12/six-reasons-why-your-college-major-doesnt-matter/#71e6d59535a0) of college graduates are working in a job that even relates to what they majored in in college.
1.5.2.1.1. Pro: One requirement to getting a job is having money. The money spent on the college degree would better be spent on a job if that is a person's intent. A college degree can make a person broke, which would hinder their capabilities of getting a job \(purpose: make money, especially without it\) instead of encouraging them.
1.5.2.2. Pro: There are many successful entrepreneurs without a college degree.
1.5.2.3. Pro: Some people work a job until they elevate in the company without a degree.
1.5.3. Pro: A degree may even take away from a person's qualifications to the point it is a 'negative qualification' \(a quality that makes a person likely to not be hired rather than hired\).
1.5.3.1. Pro: An employer may feel that school taught them useless information that they cannot use at work.
1.5.3.1.1. Pro: Engineers, for example, don’t use many of the theorems taught in school on the job.
1.5.3.2. Pro: Employers may feel that school taught them skills that detract from the job itself, so employers would need to undo what school taught employees and train/retrain in what the job requires. This may be too much effort, time, and money for an employer, in which they would rather take a person who did not go school would save them from.
1.5.4. Pro: In today's era college degrees are just the base qualification for students. More and more colleges especially management schools are creating [specialization programs](https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/iims-roll-out-specific-post-graduate-programmes-in-business-data-analytics-119100700538_1.html) for students in different industries. For example analytics programs have further specialization into [business analytics programs](https://mileseducation.com/analytics/IIM-Lucknow) and [analytics for finance and accounting](https://mileseducation.com/finance/IIM-Lucknow-Analytics) professionals.
1.5.5. Pro: Soft skills like character and value, not taught in school, are critical in the job market.
1.5.5.1. Pro: One has better chances to get a job with good soft skills but no degree, than with a degree but bad soft skills.
1.5.5.2. Pro: Communication skills are important in any job that involves communicating with customers or business partners.
1.5.5.3. Pro: Professional manners and determination are keys to a successful career.
1.5.5.4. Pro: In most job interviews they will [evaluate the soft skills](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/08/graduate-careers-employability-skills) more than the knowledge learned at school.
1.5.6. Pro: The ability to show up on time and do the job are better than a degree that teaches specialization of one particular field, which is limiting to the number of jobs they could get \(if those are around\).
1.5.6.1. Con: In many cases the "ability to do the job" only comes with studying and getting a degree.
1.5.7. Con: None of these factors guarantees a job either. Not even all combined. There is no one factor and no set of factors that absolutely guarantees a job. At least none that are up to any one individual. A national job guarantee plus ability and willingness to work plus citizenship plus ability of the government to actually enforce the job guarantee law would work. But that's not up to any one individual.
1.5.8. Pro: A college degree doesn't always guarantee a job. People who interview candidates look for who best suits the job like experience or how well of a worker the person is. Then they look at what degree they have and it can help if the degree matches. So it could be a small advantage yet it also couldn't be.
1.5.8.1. Con: Bosses read books on how to build a great workplace, company culture, how to hire well, etc. they wouldn’t do this if they knew what they want in a candidate.
1.5.8.2. Con: Human resources have no idea how to hire creative or talented people [example: interview with F Ross Johnson saying as much](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPRUhnlesOk) , [example: investment banker saying as much](http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-fine-disregard-for-rules.html),, as they don’t even make the product.
1.5.8.3. Con: Google publicly admitted they don’t know what they should look for in an employee, despite spending a lot of resource studying and [measuring](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html) the issue.
1.6. Pro: Some jobs with high responsibilities, such as in the health sector, strictly require a degree. Having that degree allows you access to some jobs that ungraduated people can't access.
1.6.1. Con: On occasions graduates are considered over qualified for the only positions available.
1.6.2. Pro: A degree illustrates that whilst the candidate's qualification may not be applicable to the vacant position, they have the discipline and ability to apply themselves to study as well as absorbing and retaining information.
1.6.3. Con: Even with this degree, it does not guarantee the graduate will find and be hired for a job within the health field.
1.6.4. Con: A degree could allow a person to access those jobs, but then there would be many years before a graduate's career becomes profitable with all the debt and the waiting to graduate. The lack of profit makes one question whether the job is really a job or just volunteer work.
1.6.5. Con: Certification, licensure, and concentrated training—online notably; examines the -entire- variability; the rate in which an individual absorbs, self-accelerates, and implements their affordability as well as status with all the accoutrements; tech, tuition, time divided by outside duties. At the end of the day, even quantum theory is easy to access freely online. We do not all learn at the same speeds. Yet, some if not all, are still contingent upon the affordability in evidencing the diploma.
1.7. Pro: Some jobs are very strict on their requirements because they require a degree. Since there is less competition for those jobs \(as not everyone has a degree\), some of them will have no applicants and the person with the degree will be hired guaranteed due to a lack of competition.
1.7.1. Con: Just because there are fewer people completing for jobs, doesn't mean there are jobs to fill for all of the applicants, especially if the number of applicants outweighs the number of jobs available \(like dropping from 20 to 10 applicants won't help if there's only 5 jobs available\).
1.8. Pro: Going to a college with a "[guaranteed job program](https://www.thomas.edu/about-thomas/thomas-guarantees/guaranteed-job-program/)" would set a person up for that.
1.8.1. Con: If there was a job guarantee, a college degree wouldn't make a difference in that particular regard.
1.8.2. Con: Going to a school with a guaranteed job program is not available or applicable to all seeking a college education.
1.9. Con: Having a degree may certainly open up more opportunities for jobs as there may be a requirement for a degree which eliminates those who do not. It does not guarantee a job but then that is solely reliant on applicant doing well in an interview and showing more than exam techniques.
1.9.1. Pro: People with degrees have [less unemployment and higher pay](https://classroom.synonym.com/college-education-really-guarantee-better-job-15236.html) on average than those without one.
1.9.1.1. Pro: In 2017, the [unemployment rate](https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/unemployment-rate-2-point-5-percent-for-college-grads-7-point-7-percent-for-high-school-dropouts-january-2017.htm) of college graduates was 2.5%; which is lower than the 7.7% high school dropout rate.
1.9.1.2. Con: Although low, that there is unemployment shows that a college degree does not guarantee a job.
1.10. Con: Some people with a college education do not have a job.
1.10.1. Pro: The burden of proof that "A college education leads to a well-paying career" falls on the claimant. State it this way X leads to Y. Since this con gives an example of at least one instance where this is not true - Some X have no Y. Therefore X is not sufficient for Y.
1.10.2. Con: Uneducated people are [four times more likely](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uneducated-are-four-times-more-likely-to-be-jobless-f26bhfq59) to be jobless than those who have a degree.
1.10.3. Pro: The [unemployment rate](https://www.epi.org/publication/class-of-2016/) for young college graduates is 5.6 percent.
1.10.4. Con: There are many factors that can influence a graduate not having a job that has nothing to do with a degree.
1.10.4.1. Pro: The job market may already be saturated in their field.
1.10.4.1.1. Con: More than [80%](https://careersblog.warwick.ac.uk/2017/02/28/the-graduate-job-market-in-2017-eight-inconvenient-truths/) of graduate recruiters don't mind what degree a graduate has studies, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters.
1.10.4.1.2. Pro: The NUS called for more jobs since [graduates saturated](https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/news/nus-calls-for-more-jobs-after-claims-of-graduate-over-saturation/) the non-degree employment sector in the UK. This was a result of graduate-level positions being saturated.
1.10.4.2. Pro: The graduate may lack the motivation to find a job.
1.10.4.3. Pro: The graduate may not be good at interviewing for a position, and thus not getting a call back.
1.10.4.3.1. Con: Interviewing skills can be improved to obtain a job instead.
1.10.4.3.1.1. Pro: If this is a weak spot, one can practice interviewing with friends or take an interactive class that will help.
1.11. Con: College degrees do not always lead to getting a job when there is a mismatch of major to profession.
1.11.1. Pro: Trying to 'squeeze' into the ideals of matching a degree's requirements could only hold a person back from flexibility of matching oneself to any profession. When a person diverts their focus from industry in order to finish pursuing a degree \('accepting mental atrophy'\), they start to become a mismatch for their profession when they come out \(because the knowledge to get the degree diverges from the original intents of getting a degree for a specific job\).
1.11.1.1. Pro: The evidence that schools sidetrack people away from being relevant \(i.e. majors being a mismatch to current industries\) is real. Barely over [1/4](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-study-shows-careers-and-college-majors-often-dont-match/) of graduates end up achieving their degree's goal. Clearly schools need to keep up, match 100%, and teach people in industries they will face as a graduate for their degree to guarantee them a job in their field.
1.11.1.1.1. Pro: People who left the university once it inspired/taught them enough \(like [Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1988080,00.html)\) are ones who succeed better \(Steve Jobs created the [most successful company in history](https://www.computerworld.com/article/2883747/why-apple-is-the-most-successful-company-in-history.html)\) and became more relevant to their industry than those who continue \(as those end up being researchers and just stay in academia\).
1.11.1.2. Pro: Some people get stuck in degrees they are not meant for \(like their natural abilities do not match the degree they are in\), so they do not build skills they are good at and instead build skills they do not like. This process could lead to unemployment at graduation, as those graduates do not want to use their college-taught skills and their natural skills are underdeveloped for jobs, which places them 'between a rock and a hard place'.
1.11.1.3. Con: A degree could let potential, talent, and passion shine through and be clear and upfront to employers \(especially on a resume that lists the college and major\). There are greater difficulties in describing and showing personal talents without physical proof \(like a diploma\) to show employers that the qualifications are met for hiring.
1.11.2. Pro: Some people who do have college degrees have a hard time finding a job because jobs only want a certain kind of people with a certain kind of education.