Overqualified and Underemployed

While this topic doesn't relate to my musical theme throughout my past blog posts I feel that overqualification and underemployment are issues in our society today. This whole concept came to my attention the other day when I was at Subway purchasing a breakfast sandwich (I was taking advantage of Subway's April deal of buy a 6 inch sub before 9am and get a 6 inch sub of equal or lesser value for free. So like you get breakfast and lunch for the price of one sub! Unfortunately like I said this is for April only, so... It's over now.) . The lady working at Subway seemed to be in her late 30s to early 40s or so. Now I do not know anything about this lady or her background, but I thought to myself, "Is this the best place you could be working?". I have noticed this trend other places as well; mainly fast food restaurants ( if the can even be called restaurants). I have noticed older people, middle-aged people, working at places such as fast food restaurants and Walmart. Now like I said, I know little about these people, so maybe they only have a high school diploma and no college education, but nevertheless, I would think there are better jobs that these adults would be better qualified for so they are not underemployed in a job that they are potentially overqualified for.

Now this whole underemployment thing could be a result of the whole economic thing and the recession, after all I have felt the affects of the recession myself with my father having been laid off and out of work for an extended period of time. My dad has even been turned down jobs he has applied for because the hirer felt that he was overqualified for the position. Is this really what the world is coming to? Adults in their 40s working minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants? That's just depressing... And what does that mean for us kids in college at the moment? What will the job market look like when it comes time for us graduates to find a job? Luckily for me I'm planning to be a mechanical engineer, which are in demand, as most other engineering fields. Underemployment has become so common today that last year a new TV series was introduced called Underemployed. This show revolves around 5 recent college graduates unable to find work in their field of study.

I feel that many people are underemployed, me included. I am not trying yo say I am a genius or anything, but I think my brain could be better put to use than it is at my current job, not that I have anything against my current job. Last summer I had an internship at a paint and coating manufacturing company working in their research and development lab. While that was a wonderful experience, I am partially to my regular summer job working at Portage Country Club. Nonetheless, like I stated before, I just feel that my mind could be better utilized at a better job rather than a minimum wage job; but I suppose there are plenty of college aged kids out there to snatch up the minimum wage jobs.

And also I have noticed a lot more pan-handlers begging for money on the side of the streets in downtown Akron on my way to and from school (I'm one of the many AkronU commuters). Is it really that hard get cleaned up and to find a minimum wage job? I feel like there's always someone hiring, even if it is minimum wage. As much as I feel bad for the pan-handlers I feel like they should spend time looking for a job rather than standing on the side of the road begging with signs such as 'Fiance and I expecting".

If anything noticing older adults working minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants has given me motivation to do well in school and work hard to complete college. I do not think I will have a problem finding a job when I graduate.