Whether it’s fast food, retail, or babysitting, why is it so hard to find a job while in college?
Adults, or rather people who are older than college-aged adults, are always saying that there is a constant plethora of places hiring. WHERE? As a student at JMU, I have only had two jobs throughout my four years: one babysitting gig and a job at JMU’s on-campus Panera that lasted 2 months due to poor working conditions. While I know that I personally have different work criteria from others (which may be partly why I have only had two jobs during my school years at JMU), I have still had other friends who either have not gotten jobs, have not been able to find a job, or have worked for a very short period before being let go because of their school schedule clashing with their work schedule. There may be a ton of places hiring, but not for people in college. Due to our schedules or the stigmas around college “kids,” it feels impossible to get a job and maintain it.
Another issue is the older generations calling college kids “lazy” for not working. As I said before, it’s not always the students’ fault for not working during school. Companies will not hire us for various reasons, but at the end of day, we are called lazy for not having jobs or being “proactive” in our job search.
It is so frustrating to be a student in college with no money, incapable of securing a job, and having everyone say it’s your own fault. As someone who has been searching for a job during the school year for over a year and a half, it’s not fair to generalize a whole group of people you know nothing about. At the end of the day, it’s hard to be a student and having everyone’s unsolicited scrutiny does not help either. Hopefully, in the future, businesses will be more likely to ditch the stigma and hire college students, and the older generations will finally learn what the word “lazy” means and where it really applies.