Confessions of an ex-Overachiever
Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I went out for brunch with his sister. She’s in her freshman year, and she’s considering dropping out of her fashion and marketing course to start freelancing for clients. At 18, she understands the freedom of creating any kind of career, given that we live in an information age where you can learn almost everything on the Internet for free (YouTube is my personal favorite) and have hundreds of tools at our disposal — without taking a $40k loan for completing a four-year college degree. For some degrees in the U.S, this amount can rise up to $100,000 or even $200,000.
We’re welcoming a new generation of students and young people who are deeply questioning the value of a college degree. The path to having a successful career isn’t as straightforward as it used to be. Gen Z understand that the old career model that used to work for the Boomers, which was if you go to a good college, then you’ll be guaranteed a job that will help you pay off the mortgage and put your two kids in a good school. But now, a college degree from a semi-prestigious institution doesn’t even guarantee you a job. With frequent headlines of mass layoffs in the news and the advent of new AI tools, white-collared workers across the globe don’t feel that they can trust their own workplace, due to the terrifying possibility of being replaced by a chatbot or a younger (or more…
