Thursday, November 05, 2009
Young workers will prove themselves worthy
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Nada T. King
King lives in Elliston.
Recently, I had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the graduations of two of my daughters, both having completed their education in a medical field: one as a lab technician, another in hospital administration. But as the time passed and I watched them going about placing their applications and résumés, diligently seeking employment in their fields of study, I've seen discouragement, disappointment and their hopes go dim.
That cuts deeply at a parent's heart. They both had to take jobs that do not pertain to their skills, or even require a high school education.
It's not that the jobs for their skills are not out there, because they are being posted almost daily, but the jobs posted are asking for people with experience, and those who have worked so hard to put themselves through school are left out in the cold.
So, I would like all the noble, upstanding businesses and those who are in positions of deciding who will be hired for their companies to ask themselves: What chance do those who have worked so hard and put in all they've got, anticipating the rewards of their hard work in studies, what chance do they have to prove that they can live up to, and even beyond, what a company would expect of them, if they were given a job to put their skills to use, and prove their talents and abilities?
I think it is a shameful thing that our business institutions and so much of our corporate system's mentality is so closed and narrow-minded not to want to expand their horizons to probe and check out the possibilities of stepping out of their shell. They may even find that the energetic, enthusiastic young graduates might bring some life and sunshine into their closed and often stale environments.
And although the inspiration to write this letter came about through what I've watched my own family members go through, I am aware that there are many people in the same situation, so this letter is also on their behalf.
There was a commercial some years ago that said, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Our businesses need to examine their corporate conscience and allow some flexibility. They might be the cause of many young, talented and promising minds going to waste, by shutting them out and not allowing them to grow and become what they worked so hard to become, having their hopes grow dimmer as time passes because no one thought their efforts to educate themselves were proof enough that they were worthy of a chance to prove themselves.
