After battling through those harsh nap times in kindergarten, bullies in middle school, and stereotypes in high school, you find yourself finally at a place where you have the utmost freedom. Those school lunches are long gone, your schedule can be made by yourself now, and you even get to pick which classes you want! Just four years of this luxurious academic style, and you’ll be able to find yourself in a pool of opportunities. You’ll be able to pick if you either want to pursue higher education and receive your masters, or dive right into the workforce. Sounds ideal, right? Wrong.

According to Richard A. Cherwitz and Charlotte A. Sullivan in their article, “Intellectual Entrepreneurship,” this situation is not so ideal as it sounds because it brings tensions about “if they (the graduate students) possess the qualifications and flexibility to succeed as academic professionals in the decades ahead.” It is also mentioned in the article that, the main reason graduate students lose sleep at night is because they are “lamenting their prospects for employment and professional achievement following graduation.” Why is that happening in our society? You’d think that after years of higher education, the graduates would be more confident in their decisions, but it seems that they are not prepared – and the reason lies on the graduate programs.

Graduate programs at most schools are rigorous and academic based — focusing little or none at the professional developmental aspect of a student. A student is taught various things according to their interest, some examples including how to handle business, do surgery, and even create things from scratch – but little to no stress management or people skills are being taught. To conquer this issue, programs such as “Intellectual Entrepreneurship” are being created. This program in the University of Texas at Austin allows their students to receive the support system they need after they’ve graduated. It is a phenomena that states education is beyond just college; professional growth and development are the pillars behind this system.

While reading the article, I could not help but think of my future. As an aspiring surgeon, I began to wonder if anything I have learned so far would help me in my career path, and I came to the conclusion that though I have gained a lot of knowledge academically, there still lacks an understanding of graduate programs on my part. I had the epiphany that a degree is simply a paper that qualifies you for a career – it does not mean you are ready for one. Actually, one week of job training could overtake four years of college education. In that one week, a person is exposed to the job environment and description that they will foster upon for the rest of the time there. Four years of college will only expand your knowledge in various fields – some of which you won’t even use or apply in the future. A light bulb switch went off in my head and I had the ‘aha’ moment where I realized, though college is a great experience, it is not effective when looking at the bigger picture.

Programs like ‘Intellectual Entrepreneurship’ should be implemented in more universities because they provide graduates with the guidance that could result in better prepared employees in the workforce. As a community that depends on one another, I think that it is important to have skilled and reliable workers. The job market is now more demanding than ever – a student not only has to excel in academics but must have experience with leadership and internships. However, a lot of talented students are unable to receive the job they deserve because they lack experience in such fields. This is not to be blamed on the student – but in our education system that says “do everything” but does not show how to. If we had programs such as this, students would be more well rounded – resulting in a generation that continuously produces more efficient results, no matter what the job may be.

Because college does not teach one about loans, taxes, or even budgeting money, students that come right out of college are underprepared for the real world. Due to this, many students are in debt or struggling to support themselves. After spending thousands in college, they still find themselves spending more than earning after jobs. These expenses include rent, food, bills, gas, etc. There should be no reason for someone with a degree to be struggling with such simple things. Four years of hard work trying to get to the ‘right’ lifestyle, results in more years trying to figure out what is going wrong. The foundation is what is causing such stressful environments – if we had programs, such as this one, that taught us how to plan our future to receive the best living conditions, then we would have students excited for their careers, instead of dreading it.

Going back to my own future, this article was super eye opening and has given me the incentive to go out on my way to find ways to further my professional development. Our University does not provide us with such program that can guide us, but it does have career centers and advisors. Thus, I have enrolled myself into an advising course called “Preparing for Medical School” to have an idea of what to expect. I sincerely hope that there are more courses and programs such as these to better assist students with their career paths to eventually create an economic system that blooms with skilled employees. For now, I think we should all try focusing not only an academics, but in life skills because the bigger picture is what matters.