Features

America’s college graduates are entering the worst job market in 20 years. With few good jobs on the horizon, many graduating seniors think it is time to get an advanced degree. They should think again.  

Applications to both medical and law schools increased this year, while more people than ever are taking the standardized tests for graduate school. Those who can borrow or whose parents can afford it probably figure another degree is worth the cost and will win them a better-paying job when the economy turns up.  

But the market value of advanced degrees is unlikely to rise enough to make the investments worth it, especially after the supply of people with such degrees expands. Even before the economy foundered, the median take-home pay of lawyers and doctors was dropping, and many newly minted Ph.D.s couldn’t find university appointments.  

Many college graduates would do better to lower their sights in the short term and take a “go-for” job (as in “go for coffee”) in an industry or profession that interests them. Even if the job doesn’t pay much, it can provide a window on to that particular world of work. 

If they can afford to go without a paycheck for six months or a year, they might consider taking an internship or volunteering. Teaching in a poor rural or inner-city school, for example, offers more hard-won lessons about planning, leadership and marketing than any business school. And more teachers will be needed in the next decade than in the last.  

The major benefit is not academic or professional knowledge so much as self-knowledge. Do you thrive in a hard-charging atmosphere or need quiet and stability? How important is it for you to believe passionately in a cause? 

College graduates are more likely to discover these sorts of things by working full time than by getting another degree. Once they learn them, they will have a better chance of finding work they love when the economy rebounds.  

Robert B. Reich served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor during President Clinton’s first term.