There is a myth that must be dispelled. Having a college degree will not necessarily land you a job. Many people have thought this for many years, but many young recent college graduates are finding out the truth - the hard way.

There are very few public resources that are available to help the best of the best in terms of educational attainment. The thought has been that they do not need help finding a job. They have a degree. That is not true.

Additionally, you have a massive number of recent graduates who have degrees without any billable skill sets. What I mean by billable skill sets is will a for-profit entity make money off of you with your time and skill sets? Degrees in communication, psychology, political science, marketing, management, art and others find it more difficult to land a professional-level job, however that is defined.

However, we see in our region more and more young adults who want to stay in the region, despite not having the billable skill sets, but are taking jobs in which they are underemployed to live in the area they desire. This underemployment can be viewed as good or bad depending on your perspective.

College and universities must communicate this more clearly and advise students to enter more curriculum that have better job opportunities, which are in demand in the local economy like accounting, engineering, information technology, health care, etc.

These students are investing a lot of money in this education and the return on investment to break even is taking much longer. 

There are jobs to be had for non-billable skill set majors and degrees, but the competition is stiff and therefore, candidates must differentiate themselves. Many times young adults do not know how to do this, but it starts with having effective networking skills.

All of this said, more education is better, but at certain stages, people must know the true story and not be brainwashed by the myth that a college degree equals a guaranteed job.

The benefit concert last night in Lane Stadium provided a snapshot of what type of music mecca the Roanoke and New River Valley could be as over 50,000 people piled into Lane Stadium to hear an assortment of artists most notably the Dave Matthews Band who jammed for over 2.5 hours. Most of the attendees were college students and young adults not only from Virginia Tech, but from many other colleges from around the state.

If these 60,000 + college students within a 50-mile radius of Roanoke (excluding Lynchburg students) could come together once a year in Lane Stadium for a concert, perhaps more musical acts would come to the region throughout the year. Perceptions would change about "things to do" in the region, and perhaps, more of these young people will find a way to stick around after college.

As was commented last night, the spirit of this region is addicting as people draw closer to one another in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Of course, many will leave when their college days are up, but more than a few will stay. This concert and hopefully more like it in the future will make folks realize this region has more to offer than initially perceived.    

A wonderful NY Time article explaining what young professionals want…

This is yet another article and study showing that the job is not the end all of Generation X and Y…

young at art is having its season kickoff tomorrow Thursday evening 5:30 pm at McGraw Fine Art. This organization — affiliated with the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge — is trying to enahnce audience development for the arts in the Roanoke region by creating events for young professionals to attend as a group. Their schedule is posted on their website and it offers a lot of options.

The following text is from a native of Roanoke who decided to return not because of a job, but because of the following quality of life reasons:

"Basically when choosing to come back to Roanoke, other than the position I accepted in the area, the main factors I considered: (1) cost of living,  (2) weekend night life potential in Roanoke and Blacksburg, (3) proximity to other larger cities for weekend excursions every now and then, and (4) the amount of friends in the area as well as within about a 4-5 hour drive.

I had some job offers in Manhattan, Washington, DC/Northern Virginia, Philadelphia and Roanoke. New York and Washington, DC are very expensive cities and the pay would have actually been less than the job in Roanoke. After talking to some friends in DC, for me to live in the required area(my job offer required me to live in my territory), I was looking at a minimum of $1200/month in rent alone. In Philadelphia I would have earned a little more, but the cost of living there is also significantly higher than Roanoke, probably $800-$900 in rent. In Roanoke I have done some research and for a very upscale, nice apartment you’re looking at maybe $500.

Roanoke is within 4 hour drives of DC, Raleigh, and Richmond. Charlotte, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Asheville are maybe a few hours longer. 99% of my friends live within 6 hours of Roanoke, which is a huge plus for me. But really the main thing came down to quality of life on the weekends and the ability to get out and meet people. Sure in NYC, etc. Mon-Thurs. nights you can always find a happening bar or club…definitely not in Roanoke on those nights. But in reality, I lived in Chicago for a year, so I know from experience, that if you have to get up early for work you really could care less about going out to bars and clubs on a week night. From experience I know between downtown Roanoke and Blacksburg there will always be somewhere to go for a good time on the weekends.

Maybe Roanoke doesn’t have a Tyson’s Corner or a King of Prussia mega-mall, or an NBA team, or big name concerts every weekend, but that is what weekend trips to those places are for. You can save so much money in Roanoke that you can afford to go to all of those events probably many more times than someone living in the area. On my interview in NYC I mentioned something to my interviewer about the cost of living there and he said that it costs so much that living there you find yourself only being able to stay there for vacation time because you can’t afford to buy plane tickets to travel somewhere else. Living in Roanoke, I’m planning on taking some great vacations down in Mexico or the Carribbean which will be expensive, but because of the low cost of the area, I will still have plenty of money left over."

It seems this young lad has thoroughly analyzed the situation and has come to his own conclusion that Roanoke is the ideal location for young professionals for a variety of reasons.