The world is a dark and lonely place at 5:41 a.m. in Metuchen, N.J. Last week I rode up and down NJ Transit with a friend, taking pictures of calm and quiet commuters going to work. (See video at left.) Dozens of polite and comfortably dressed passengers patiently stood in the cold at funnily named stations like Rahway, Linden and Secaucus. Somewhere in the ocean of blazers and three-piece suits I felt the pull of adulthood and the job market like an undertow. I wondered if the commuters had felt the same pull at my age.
After starting at 5 a.m., I was exhausted by the time I got back to campus at 10 a.m. When I sat down to jot down some notes, I was shocked by the observations I made during my brief and accidental foray into the working world. More surprising than the commuters' relative alertness at such an ungodly hour were their blanched and disconnected faces. It was as if they did not know how they had arrived at the train station or boarded the train.
Before I settle into a routine, I like to greet and meet people; however, few of the travelers so much as acknowledged each other. The train was full of adults ensconced in the cold glow of Blackberries, iPhones and a host of other technological distractions.
Sitting back and thinking about that chilly morning, I wonder how people chose careers and jobs. The term job market implies that there is a large group of workers collected in a warehouse. I imagine employers sort through employees like consumers sort through oranges at a supermarket, picking only the best ones.
Though there are not any warehouses stacked with the unemployed, employers share the same problems as a shopper buying fruit. How does one differentiate between good, better and great oranges? How can any employer really know a prospective worker's potential? Plenty of people look good on paper or learn how to ace interviews with vague yet seemingly insightful answers (are any Princeton students as good as their applications?).
Employers have long since realized the difficulty of sorting through masses of slick, well-prepared applicants and supplanted a long interview process with small, close-knit networks that give preferential treatment to certain applicants. The "old boy's network" was a rational response to determine qualified applicants based on shared experiences like family, community or education. Princeton's alumni network is a keen example.
Businesses openly proclaim their close relationship with the Princeton campus, presumably to the exclusion of others. By sidestepping a meritocracy, firms avoid the complex hiring process and rely on friends, family members and schoolmates. The result on campus is not only increased job choices but also a limit on the perceived choices for recent graduates.
In spite of an endless number of possible careers, many Princeton students feel that their best job prospects are in the narrow and obscure fields of investment banking or consulting. For the Class of 2008, of the 36 percent who immediately accepted full time employment after graduation, 40 percent went into "financial services." One need only look at the litany of articles, columns and features in The Daily Princetonian since the financial services meltdown to gauge the campus concern.
The perceived importance of corporate work is compounded by weekly e-mails about info sessions for consulting firms and stacks of flyers littered outside of dorm rooms advertising high pay and job security. Where are the e-mails and info sessions for the State Department's exciting travel or job experience gained through working on a tight budget for a small NGO?
What if Princeton's alumni network and Career Services had a varied offering of jobs ranging from public service and journalism to NGO work or small start-ups in new and exciting fields? The combined strengths of the alumni network and Career Services should provide opportunities from a large and varied pool of jobs.
I would like to see career services and the Pace Center help steer students toward public service, NGOs and a host of other alternative careers in a campaign akin to the "Major Choices" crusade. The effort should not rely solely on Princeton. The federal government would do well to simplify and streamline the job application process. With a page of "Standard Forms" that lists 63 possible forms, reducing the amount of paperwork one has to sort through would help reduce confusion and increase competitiveness. To compete with financial services alternative employers should host info sessions and lunches on Nassau Street to attract students.
How does one become a silent, iPod-watching, newspaper-reading morning commuter? It seems you get picked. I would like to see Princeton working with NGO' and government agencies in planting the seeds for alternative career paths.
Michael Collins is a sophomore from Glastonbury, Conn. He can be reached at mjcollin@princeton.edu.
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