In today’s Roanoke Times, Jenny Boone did a fantastic job telling the story of one job seeker, Alex Ballin, and is proactive approach of doing something different and unique to make himself stand out among everyone else by standing on a street corner in Roanoke with a sign asking people to hire him.

This type of creativity is exactly what is needed, especially since he is a recent graduate with a social science degree who quite frankly does not have billable skill sets that are in demand in the local regional economy. Although, he does have good skill sets as seen in the story, and as a result, he is doing exactly what he must do to get noticed. Ultimately, this act will propel him in a position and his career will eventually take off.

Congratualtions Alex!

The common saying among knowledge base workers is “there are no jobs in Roanoke and that is why I move to larger metro areas”. However, if the place you live is more important than your job or profession, then perhaps one would have seen the demand for skill sets in the region before deciding on a plan of study. Instead of saying there are no jobs in Roanoke, which is a myth and inaccurate, the true response should be, “what are you doing to make yourself employable in the Roanoke labor market?” There are plenty of companies with a lot of jobs to fill, but what skill sets does a job seeker bring to the company? A job of $40,000 a year is not an entitlement for a college graduate. Recent college graduates have been fooled by society that a degree will automatically result in a job, and that is not necessarily the case, especially with degrees in non-billable skills.  

  So if you do not have a billable skill yet want to stay in Roanoke, where do you work? If in the short-term money is important to you because of student loan repayments, and other cost of living expenses, then a job in food services may be appealing to you. You can earn more money as a server with flexible hours than working for less money with more rigid hours trying to establish a career in your field of study. There is certainly nothing wrong with a career in food service, but most college graduates do not say I am going to college so when I graduate I can be a server at a local restaurant. This UNDERemployment workforce is operating in a short-term mentality and eventually will catch up with them to the point they are cast to a specific industry. The next time you go to a local restaurant and the server is younger ask them if they are a college graduate, you will be surprised.  

Having a management undergraduate degree at 21 years old does not produce immediate billable skills. These college graduates may have good skill sets, but not billable skill sets – and billable skill sets are the primary reason an employer is going to hire a person in the private sector because they want to make a return on their investment. In other words, employers want to make money off their employee’s time and skills. You cannot bill management skills at 21 years old. This statement hurts, but it is reality. If you are young and inexperienced with a degree in communication, political science, management, marketing, psychology, history, philosophy, physical education, art history one will struggle in finding suitable employment in the local economy. It’s not the common refrain, “there are no jobs in Roanoke”, but it is employees do not have the skill sets to become employable in the regional economy. If you are in engineering, health care, information technology, accounting, architecture, trades, then you will have a much easier time finding adequate employment. If you are struggling with one of these degrees, then your job search strategy is flawed or you simply are not trying hard enough.