Latest / America's Why Project / Episode 17: Hard Jobs – Generation Z and Preparing for What’s Next

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Episode 17: Hard Jobs – Generation Z and Preparing for What’s Next · America's Why Project

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: People should really understand how much work we're putting into standing out in the job market, and adults should understand that there's only so much we can do and still enjoy our years of the in childhood or teenage years and young adult years.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the America's Why Podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm your host, Matt Levinger.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is part two of our Hard Jobs series.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've given it the title Full-Time Job, Part-Time Life: The College Experience in America.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was produced by Lakshmi Dev, who's our digital media manager at the America's Why Project.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lakshmi herself is starting her second year as an undergraduate at George Washington University, right in the heart of Washington, D.C.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a really compelling episode that breaks what I would say is perhaps a stereotype that some people in my generation have of people in Lakshmi's generation, namely, you're all a bunch of slackers.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Lakshmi, that's that's not what you found.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_05: No, that's definitely what not what I found.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: Students are some of the most hardworking people in today's world.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_05: They have so many things to navigate in the world with such a weird political climate and global warming, the difficult job market, and so many things that are happening, and do all that while they're also attending classes and keeping up their grades and gaining experience for when they have to enter the job market and filling up their resume.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_05: So there's a lot of things students have to do, and they can't afford to be slackers today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things you told me when we were preparing for this conversation is that on your first day on campus last year, your sophomore orientation leader said to you, getting a hilternship is a rite of passage at George Washington University.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what's a hilternship?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: A Hilternship is a Capitol Hill internship.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um it's when you intern on uh Capitol Hill in either the House of Representatives or the Senate.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: And so they've just shortened Capitol Hill internship to a Hillternship.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell And why is it a rite of passage?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Well, when you attend a school like George Washington or even Georgetown or American UMD, these schools that are that have access to the DC Metro system and live so close to Capitol Hill in the heart of D.C., it feels like you've failed if you haven't taken the opportunity and taken advantage of the proximity you have to Capitol Hill and not had an internship on the Hill.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_05: And so it ha it being a rite of passage is like you doing what's expected of you to actually take advantage of that opportunity and have a Hill turnship when you're attending a school in DC.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell One of the things I found really poignant and a bit disturbing in some of your interviews was, if you will, a kind of quiet sense of desperation that one of the people you interview says, if I haven't gotten a Hill turnship by my sophomore year in college, I will never get a job.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's a thought that's kind of implanted into students these days, where if you haven't had an internship by the time you're this age or in this year of college, you don't have enough things to put on your resume for when you're applying for jobs when you graduate.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_05: And if you don't have enough things to put on your resume, no one will like you.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_05: No company will want you.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it's a little bit of fear-mongering when you think about it, is you're forcing these students to be afraid of what might happen if they don't have enough experience when they graduate.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: And so that fear forces them to kind of apply for jobs and apply for internships starting even before they've entered college, so that they have that stacked resume for when they're applying for jobs.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_05: And it is a desperation.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_05: It's a desperation for a better life, a better future, or at least the same life that they've paid their parents were able to lead.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_05: And if they don't have enough things to put on their resume, then they won't be able to achieve that is the thought that they're having.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_05: Our reality of the world is, I would think, I would say a part of where that fear comes from.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_05: Just the reality of how how bad the job market is today, the unemployment, the um just the way in which the world is going, kind of the fear-mongering that comes from the media as well, with like all the reporting of kind of the bad things that are going around around the world.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: And so this there is a this kind of desperation where it's you want to at least live a little bit of a good life, even though the world around you is so, for the lack of a better word, bad.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think that's where that kind of desperation comes from.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think these interviews say about the broader experience of Americans in our country today?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_05: I think the student experience is very reflective of the American experience because I mean every person in America, every person I would say in the world has been a student, at least in some capacity before, whether it's public school, high school, college, uh in some way.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_05: So these students who are graduating from college are going out into the world and they're getting jobs, and how they live is reflective of their college experience.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: So I think the pressure that students at college are experiencing to be able to get a good job, to be able to live a better life is very reflective of what I think everyday Americans are also experiencing, which is trying their best to just lead a good life, regardless of all the bad things that are happening around them, all the pressures that they're going through.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: They're just trying to fight it out and live it out so that they can achieve a better life for themselves and for their kids in the future.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: And it's very similar to what college students are experiencing, which is just, let me just thug it out through these classes and through these internships so that someday I'll be able to get a job and have a good life for myself and my kids.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that gave me hope in listening to your episode was how seriously the people with whom you spoke took their work and and took their sense of personal mission.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what gave you hope as you listened to the to these representatives of the younger generation?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's not as reflective in their interviews since I know these people personally, but I know all three of them are people who definitely value their personal time and their social time.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_05: And they're very hard workers, definitely.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: You'll hear that in their interviews.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: They've done internships, they've had had jobs, and they're very well versed in their academics, but they still take that time for themselves.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_05: And they try their best to find that time for themselves for some downtime and some social time with their friends, whether it's going to events, going to parties occasionally, that they are trying their best to still enjoy that college experience, enjoy their youth while also keeping up with these pressures that they're being forced to experience.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Laxmi, thanks for your work and we're looking forward to listening to your episode.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: When people think of college students, they often picture classes, football games, late night study sessions, and figuring out adulthood.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_05: But for many students today, college isn't just about learning.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's also about working.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_05: Students are balancing classes with jobs, internships, research positions, leadership roles, volunteer work, and career preparation.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_05: And increasingly, they're doing it because they feel they have to.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_05: The cost of education continues to rise.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_05: Employers often expect experience before graduation.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: In some fields, students feel pressure to begin building resumes before they even arrive on campus.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_05: So, what does that actually look like?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_05: For this episode, in our hard jobs series, I spoke with three students at different stages of that journey.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_05: Their stories reveal not just how much students are doing, but why they feel they need to do it.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_05: First, I spoke with Amelia Bandy, a freshman at the George Washington University, studying international affairs.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_05: Like many students, her schedule extends far beyond the classroom.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: So as a student, my day typically consists of classes.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll have about three classes a day.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, then once a week I go to work.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: I work at an elementary school with inliteracy intervention.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um then uh I also have extracurriculars, so I'm involved in debate and I also do uh dance org.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and then on weekends I'm usually away at debate tournaments.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: On top of being a full-time student, Amelia commutes across Washington, DC to work with elementary school students.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: The job is meaningful to her, but it also helps pay the bills.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I do it um partially out of necessity um to, you know, make money, have an income, but secondarily as a way to like further my career.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm interested in working with kids in the future.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: So that's one way that I get experience early.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_05: When I asked Amelia why students are working so early in life, she pointed to something many young people recognize immediately.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_05: The definition of entry level seems to have changed.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: In today's job market, it's really becoming a necessity to have relevant experience on your resume.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: And this starts, I think, even before college.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think the type of positions that you are getting once you start college are not even entry-level anymore in this, like in today's workforce.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, for example, the job that I have as a literacy tutor, I was able to get because I had previously worked as a camp counselor and as a tutor in my high school.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: That pressure can shape how students choose to spend their time, not just whether they work, but what kinds of jobs they pursue.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: There is definitely a sort of pressure, if you do need a job for financial reasons, that you should get a job that is also relevant for your career.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I think there's a lot of stigma around having a I guess non-relevant job, like working at a coffee shop, for example, um, which I think can be really harmful because oftentimes the more lucrative jobs like a hill turnship are very difficult to get and they're highly competitive.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: And especially people who are in a more privileged financial position can have the leeway to sort of to go for the unpaid internship that is like more relevant for their career.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas people like me who need a paycheck over the summer can't pursue those types of jobs.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: So then we're at more of a disadvantage later in life.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so yeah, I think it definitely creates this pressure where if you don't have an internship by sophomore year, like your career is over, like you're never gonna get a job.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_05: Balancing everything comes with trade-offs.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_05: And often the first thing sacrificed isn't grades, it's personal time.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: I think it it comes down to a time management question, and usually the first thing to go is just personal time.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I might I mentioned my commute to work, that's usually when I'm doing readings for class while on the metro and just using all of my downtime to its maximum extent, or like things like social activities usually get put on the back burner.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_05: Amelia's experience reflects what many current college students are navigating, balancing education, finances, and the pressure to build a future all at the same time.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: But what happens when college ends?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: What does that transition into the workforce actually feel like?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: For that perspective, I spoke with Satya Van Gur.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_05: Satya graduated from the George Washington University just days before our interview.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_05: After studying economics and public policy, she's preparing to move to Wisconsin for her first full-time job.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_05: For students who are approaching graduation, the challenge isn't just finding a job.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's figuring out whether they've done enough to even get one.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: Many students arrive at college expecting to spend four years learning.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: Instead, they quickly realize that they're also expected to be building a professional track record.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_04: So there was a lot of pressure there, and it was a bit of a struggle because I'm someone who prioritizes like, okay, let me get my classes done, let me make some friends, and let me work on my extracurriculars.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_04: So having that added pressure was really intense.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um by the end of my freshman year, I hadn't had an internship and I felt like I'd failed at something.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know what, but I felt like I'd failed at something.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_05: What's striking is that Satya hadn't actually failed.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_05: She was succeeding academically and was very involved on campus.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yet the absence of a single internship made her feel like she was falling behind.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_05: That feeling came up repeatedly throughout these conversations.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_05: The sense that everyone else is somehow further ahead.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_05: In many ways, that's the paradox students face today.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_05: They're told to enjoy college, explore their interests, and discover who they are.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_05: But they're also constantly reminded to think about what comes next.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_05: By graduation, those questions can shape major life decisions.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then even in terms of when I was applying to jobs and whatnot, the job I ended up taking the job that I have now, not necessarily because I was like, oh yes, I'm so pumped to do this, but because I was like, at least I'll have a backup plan and I'll have guaranteed money for next year.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because a big worry for me was by deciding not to go to grad school, I was worried that I would end up somehow sitting at home without a job and then have no money.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_05: The pressures Amelia and Satya described are often associated with college.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_05: But increasingly, students begin feeling them long before they even step on to a college campus.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_05: I spoke next with Meeda Murikurti, a recent high school graduate and an incoming freshman at Case Western Reserve University studying neuroscience.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_05: She plans to pursue medicine, but she's already spent years building experience through volunteer work, hospital service, and jobs in pharmacies.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I've worked at Walgreens and CVS.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm currently working at Walgreens, and in both places, I was a pharmacy tech.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, I fill medications and then I give them to customers, and I answer customers' dats at insurance about their prescriptions, and answer like some prescribers' dots as well.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_05: Maeda's story highlights how career preparation has shifted earlier and earlier.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: For students pursuing competitive fields, building a resume often begins before college even starts.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, I think it's because everyone has like the college mindset.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like you need to do certain things to get into good colleges.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it is like good experience building for college.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you people come in with a lot of experience, they're more well prepped.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of it that's being done is also like specific steps you have to take to get into a good college, like especially my prima track.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_05: One theme that emerged throughout these interviews was comparison.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_05: Students aren't just measuring themselves against admissions requirements or job descriptions.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: They're measuring themselves against each other.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, coming from Stevenson, which is already really competitive.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like talking with my friends and seeing what they're doing forced me to start early as well.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, for example, my volunteering one.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: I started that because my friend told me she was doing it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I know I was the reason that other people also started it.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think just how competitive Stevenson was put some pressure on me to start doing stuff as early as possible to be on par with my peers.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_05: For Mayda, the next milestone isn't a first job after college.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_05: It's medical school.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yet even before beginning her freshman year in undergrad, she's already thinking several steps ahead.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's because medical school is more competitive than general college applications.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm already like preparing by like looking like, oh, what kind of research can I do?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of clubs should I join?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: What type of classes to pick?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like the earlier start, the better it will be for my future.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_05: What stood out to me wasn't just how much planning was involved, it was how normal it sounded.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_05: The idea of mapping out research opportunities, extracurriculars, and future applications before the first day of college has become routine for many students across America.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_05: That may be the biggest takeaway from all three conversations.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_05: Whether it's a freshman balancing classes and a job, a graduate entering the workforce, or a student preparing for college, the pressure to constantly prepare for the next step seems to arrive earlier every year.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_05: When I asked Meida what she wished people understood about students her age, she pointed to the cost of that constant pressure.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: I would say that people should really understand how much work we're putting into standing out in the job market and for future positions, especially since people from high school itself are like volunteering, shadowing, researching, taking on jobs, and just showing that they're well-prepped and well-rounded for colleges, and then undergrad students are doing so much more.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like adults should like understand that there's only so much we can do and still enjoy our years in childhood or teenage years and young adult years.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_05: Listening to these conversations, I kept coming back to one question.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_05: When did preparing for the future become a full-time job?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_05: None of the students I spoke with complained about working hard.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_05: In fact, each of them spoke with pride about what they were doing and the goals they were working toward.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_05: What stood out instead was how early those pressures begin and how quickly they become normal.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_05: Working through college isn't new, neither is preparing for a career.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_05: What's different is how many expectations students are trying to meet all at once, and how much of that preparation now starts before college has even begun.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_05: It's easy to look at a resume and see internships, leadership positions, research, volunteer work, and jobs as accomplishments.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_05: But behind every line is time.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_05: Time that could have been spent resting, exploring new interests, or simply being young.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: As students race to keep up with rising costs and an increasingly competitive job market, those trade-offs often become invisible.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_05: That's why conversations like these matter.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_05: For those of us who are living this reality, they remind us that we're not alone in feeling these pressures.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_05: And for those whose college years looked different, they offer a chance to hear directly from students about how the experience has changed.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_05: The America's Why Project is built on the idea that understanding begins with listening.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_05: By hearing these stories in students' own words, we move beyond assumptions and statistics and begin to understand what this generation is really navigating.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the America's Why Podcast.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Our music is by James Fernando.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: For more information and to join the conversation, please visit our website at America's Why Project.com.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: See you next week.