Grads looking for a job?

No, this isn't a classifieds site, but I wouldn't be surprised if a whole swath of university graduates and potential graduates end up thinking it is.

The economic crisis is hitting the North American labour markets hard. People are losing jobs right, left and centre. But it's not just those who are losing jobs that are in trouble. The university and college grads that have just committed many years of their life to education in order to get a good job when they come out may find that there is very little for them. And the Baby Boomers (whose work we're supposed to take over) don't want to retire yet, especially since their RRSPs have gone down the toilet. Shit.

So what to do? Maybe you'll find that job that you were looking for, but you'll certainly face stiffer competition to actually get the job.

With limited jobs out there, employers may be looking for only the top candidates for jobs. You might have been able to get that job with your undergrad degree before, but with so few jobs, you might need an additional degree or certificate to boost yourself above the rest. Uh oh, that could be costly.

Alternatively, you could shoot lower. With an undergrad degree, maybe it's far more appropriate to look for the jobs that only require a high school diploma or some years of post-secondary training, putting yourself above the rest with your qualifications. The pay would probably be less than other jobs, but at least it would be better than EI.

Then again, you could always go back to school. If employers are looking for that extra nudge, school might be the way to go. Maybe grab yourself a Master's degree or short-term college diploma. If you want job security, take a look at professional schools. Just don't wade too far into those fancy-schmancy business schools. Yet. The financial sector has taken a beating, and the first to go are the new people. And the financial pain is far from over.

But school costs money. Some people simply can't afford going back. And there's no guarantee that throwing $8000 at a Master's degree will help you get a job. And getting into schools might be tough, too. Not only will more people be tempted to take this root (making it tougher to get in), universities have been hit financially too, resulting in higher tuition fees, lower quality of education and an apprehension to expand university services. You could go back to school, but it might be crap. Is it really worth it?

Us upper years are in a tough spot, especially those who are about to enter the job market. I would say that the government should provide help for these people in the way of jobs, but at least us youngens have the benefit of time to build ourselves. The people who are losing their jobs right now may have mortgages, kids and other expenses. They need more help right now.

The biggest recommendation I could give to the government is to extend to interest-rate freeze period on student loans. As far as I understand, the banks come a bitin' six months after graduation. That period of time needs to be extended significantly so that recent grads don't end up declaring bankruptcy in their twenties.

Dear Facebook: You're no longer my BFF...

OK, so FB and I were never BFFs, but I think mine is a common sentiment among people who are beginning to realize that our relationship to FB may be a little too close.

Over the past few months I've been gradually trimming down my footprint on FB. Information regarding personal interests and whatnot was removed, then silly applications and the piece that seemed to grab the most attention: my relationship status. I had been listed as 'single', but I just removed the status altogether. But, FB notifies everyone that I 'am no longer listed as single'. Needless to say, messages came flowing in asking who my new lover was. Sorry, my real relationship status never changed.

Today I went on a greater rampage. Most personal information was removed, including my birthday (darn, I won't be receiving FB birthday messages anymore...) and work experience. I'm now one of those lame FBers who provides very little information about themself. Sorry, kids. I even elected to remove over 100 'friends'. Do I talk to them? No. Have I ever had a real frienship with them? Maybe, but not really anymore. Do I really want to know what's going on in their lives, let alone they know what's going on in my life? Not particularly. What a strange thing to do, but it's done.

So why did I do such a thing? Why am I shutting myself off from the world of FB?

I've mentioned the future risks of FB before. Photos could come back to bite us in 30 years when we're running this world; potential employers can peruse our profiles at their will; and stuff about us could get out there that we really don't need spread over the internet. These risks played a part, but it's really the present nature of FB that bothers me.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day regarding FB and we discussed how bizarre FB is. Yes, having 'friends' is strange, especially when we trust them to have a full-blown view of us. Posting our photo albums online for everyone to see is similar to inviting all these people to your home and going through your photo albums. That's kind of weird.

I have found that certain friendships have become de-personalized, whereby phone and lengthy email dialogue has now been replaced by 'wall posts'. What a shame. Sure, it's great for quick messages, but when it becomes the norm, the seriousness of the friendship degrades.

I do enjoy aspects of FB. I can look at pictures, advertise my blogs and keep in touch with some people who may not use email or phone. But that's about it.

Perhaps I'm crazy and am just trying to stop the inevitable. Maybe FB will one day swallow us all up. But I'm not the only one doing this, and I doubt I'll be the last.

Oops, CERN snags again...

It's been awhile since I mentioned the Large Hadron-Collider located in Europe, spanning over two countries deep underground. You may remember that I mentioned several risks associated with the giant underground magnet, including its potential to create a black hole that could eventually swallow the entire Earth and perhaps the universe.

You may also remember it was supposed to get going during the past summer. The world is still here, so everything must have gone right, eh? Well, not quite. Back in September, a simple electrical fault shut the whole thing down just after it finally got going. The repairs (estimated at $26 million) are taking longer than anticipated and the new restart date has been postponed until September, 2009.

In my last post on this topic I recalled a conversation I had with my cousin, where we discussed the development of the CERN project as being a litmus test for intelligent life in the universe. If the project has the potential to destroy the universe, surely those uber-intelligent lifeforms will try to stop us from getting the machine going.

Strangely, these unexpected shutdowns have occurred before anything really dangerous has taken place. Maybe the alien theory is too far fetched. You never know...