Five myths you had better get over, fast
By Chaz Kyser
For the St. Louis American
All college graduates end up asking the question. It’s just a matter of when. It may be our fifth month on the job, or perhaps our fifth year, but sooner or later we begin to wonder why someone didn’t tell us that life after college isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
We were told many things about how life after college would be, and some of these things can hurt us in the long run if we cling to them because they keep us from looking at the real world realistically and carrying ourselves accordingly. The following are five myths that belong in a fairytale.
Myth #1: Your Degree Guarantees You a Great Job. Your degree will get you into interviews a high school diploma can’t and will make you more likely to land a great job and build an impressive career. But a college degree shouldn’t be mistaken for a magic wand. There are plenty of college graduates who go for months and sometimes years waiting for that great job and career. They’ll be the first ones to tell you that a degree can be overrated. And if a degree is the only thing you’ve got going for you, then you’d better have a dozen of them. It’s your hard work and ambition, combined with your degree, that will unlock doors for you.
Myth # 2: Your Degree Guarantees You a Great Salary. We are led to assume that a degree equates to lots and lots of money, so it’s not surprising that some college graduates think they’re on Candid Camera when they’re offered a job that pays a little over $10 an hour. They start to feel like they wasted their time getting a degree, and that’s not it at all. They should have been told that their salary would depend on the type of degree they received, the career they chose, the company they worked for, the city they lived in, their experience, and a dozen other factors.
Myth # 3: Do What You Love and You’ll Never Have To Work. This is a catchy little phrase, but unfortunately it’s just not true. Even positions we feel blessed to have will irk us sometimes, give us headaches and possibly make us want to quit. You may be doing what you love in a position and still dislike certain aspects of your job. That’s life, and that’s work. If you start your dream job thinking it’s going to be absolutely perfect, you’ll lose the excitement and commitment you had for it when all of your expectations aren’t met.
Myth #4: Workplace Racism Doesn’t Exist Anymore. Though this sounds like a blatant lie to most working African Americans, some do believe this myth. It’s true that workplace racism is definitely not as blatant as it was forty or even twenty years ago. It’s also true that African Americans and other minorities have more opportunities than ever before. But it’s unwise to think that everyone will judge you based on merit and the “content of your character.” Discrimination takes place throughout America on a daily basis, from people not hiring someone because of their ethnicity, to people treating someone differently once they are hired because of their ethnicity. If you believe otherwise, you’ll think it’s just your bad luck if you get passed over for multiple promotions you deserved, are getting paid far less than everyone else, and are stuck with menial work on the job that no one else has to do. Just because you’ve never been called the N-word at work doesn’t mean that workplace racism is a thing of the past.
Myth #5: Workplace Sexism Doesn’t Exist Anymore. Just because Oprah’s kicking butt and taking names in her industry, doesn’t mean that everyone is going to appreciate and welcome a strong sistah in yours. We live and work in a male-dominated society. Some men really do believe women can’t or shouldn’t compete with them in the workplace, and will let women know this bluntly or on the sly. Don’t get duped into believing that all men see women as their equal.
Chaz Kyser is a journalism instructor and newspaper advisor at Langston University. This column is taken from her book “Embracing the Real World: The Black Woman’s Guide to Life After College.” Questions/comments can be emailed to chazkyser@hotmail.com.