By Darren Johnson
Campus News
I have taught lots of courses over the years. Often, I have upper level sections and students about to graduate. By this time in the spring, as the weather brightens, their minds are elsewhere – thinking of caps and gowns, or their next college or about getting a “real” job, and I allow that, not burdening them with mundane multiple-choice tests or other busy work. Instead, I try to give them sage advice for this point in their lives. We go over their resumes and LinkedIn presences. Everything is about to change radically for them.
At this point in my life, things have been about the same for a while. My radical changes happened 26 years ago, when, I, too, was a graduating student. I’d be the veritable Mr. Chips – in it for the long haul – if the colleges I’d taught for were more financially secure and not in radical transitions themselves; or, at least, if I’d been luckier. But I’ve pretty much had the same job for the past two decades, just at different colleges.
Toward the end of a spring semester with students about to leave the college, I tell them: “I will follow you on Facebook, or LinkedIn, or whatever social media will be in vogue in the years ahead.”
It probably won’t be Facebook. But I will follow them. I do follow them after they leave my class and the college. Hopefully the next big social media company will allow me to transfer my contacts smoothly from Facebook and LinkedIn.
Students I taught 20 years ago now are mid-career. They look more like me now than actual traditional age students of today. They may have school-age kids. They usually have mortgages. They may be contemplating trips to Disney World. They have late-model reliable cars. Usually the jobs they have are relatively secure, though with boring titles – not the stereotypical jobs we people in academia think you’ll land. For example, you thought you’d be a journalist – plain and simple – but you’re an associate account manager for a mid-sized brokerage firm. Fine, just who could have predicted that?
Students I advised 10 years ago may or may not have babies. Their posts become less and less light-hearted in their 20s. They aren’t having as much fun anymore. I notice far fewer group photos, of them with people their age. They are turning into professionals, and they will work a lot.
Some former students meander a bit through their 20s, still posting about video games and baby goats, still happy-go-lucky, and then something clicks in their mid- to late-20s and all of a sudden they have a job that looks rather interesting. They move from Facebook to LinkedIn. I hit “congrats.”
All of these students end up just fine. They join the struggle. The years start to go by faster and faster. There are setbacks. Parents pass away. Divorces. But there also are births/adoptions for those who choose to have children, and their social media lights up again, but in a different way.
In retrospect, the sage wisdom I gave them in their final days at the college was kind of silly. In reality, they are the ones moving – playing the game – and I’m watching from the sidelines at this point. Having learned my humble lesson, I won’t pontificate anymore. I should just say, “Have fun!”
And I should try to take that advice, as well. After a couple of decades of hard work, I want to have fun, too, instead of playing the role of wannabe sage. But the problem is, if one has too much fun – and posts it on social media – they may get fired from the job that gives them the money to have fun. That’s not good. So, perhaps that’s why my former students’ posts have become sedate.
If you are one of those students about to move on, I won’t offer you any sage wisdom. It turns out, aside from the subject matter I teach, I don’t know much. What I have realized is by completing your education, you now can move on to a much more complicated phase in your life, and you will end up fine, sooner, or later. When you are ready. Just don’t … wait, scratch that. I was about to pontificate. …
… Just have fun.
Darren Johnson hopes you’ll follow him via LinkedIn.
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