College seniors grapple with work-life issues
In the coming weeks, bevies of graduating seniors will leave the cozy nest of campus life and emerge into the tough reality of the working world. Do they worry about work-life balance? Should they?
They are a generation of savvy jugglers, a tribe all too familiar with time droughts, multitasking, eating on the fly. As the children of dual-earners, most have been schooled early in rushing from this to that commitment. Downtime is a rare treat.
Still, this year's graduates do value balance, having grown up hearing talk about it at the supper table and juggling through their school years. College seniors say they want it all: Family, career, community work, hiking in the Himalayas -- and balance, too. And yet, amid their confidence and idealism, many wonder, how will I do it?
"One of the questions I get often is, 'how do you get balance,' " says Lindsey Pollak, author of "Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World" (2007) and a frequent speaker on campuses around the country. "I graduated 10 years ago, and this wasn't on my mind."
Many have already gotten a taste of adult-style working lives -- and how they can go awry -- because more students work than in the past. Half of full-time college students age 16 to 24 were employed in 2005, up from 34 percent in 1970, according to the government's National Center for Education Statistics.
Alanna Wong, a Boston College senior from Brighton, last fall tried shouldering 22 hours a week waitressing, six classes, and extracurriculars, but cut back to a 12-hour-weekly campus office job because she was "being more of a waitress than a student" and missing out on time with friends. The fiasco, however, taught her a lot.
"It made me realize that I can't do everything," says Wong, a philosophy major who will begin graduate studies in international affairs next year. "To have that realization early on is way better than when you have three kids and you're trying to work 40 hours and you have a mental breakdown trying to do it all."
BC senior Nick Noel has endured an especially tough balancing act -- studying, part-time waitering, going home twice weekly to Brockton to help his ailing mother. In retrospect, he feels lucky that he learned to plan ahead, prioritize, and strike a balance early, with lots of university support. Still, the real world is a bit daunting.
"My biggest worry next year is that I don't know where to go when things get overwhelming," says Noel, who chose to work next year as a fixed-income analyst at a Wall Street bank, partly because he'll be able to travel home on weekends if he's needed. "School is one thing and a job is another, especially on Wall Street."
Such concerns are one reason why graduating students value benefits that pertain to balance almost as highly as those that bolster their finances. Students and recent alumni rate flextime, family-friendly benefits, and more than two weeks vacation nearly as highly as insurance, 401(k) plans, and annual pay hikes, according to a 2006 survey by the nonprofit National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Some schools are doing more to help students look ahead. At the Dental Hygiene school of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, teachers recently have been trying to alert students to career options, such as teaching or corporate work, that can offer more flexibility than traditional dental office jobs, says associate professor Christine Dominick. Dominick adds that a mandatory course on patient health "turns the tables" and discusses clinician health and balance. "We're planting the seeds that this is something to strive for," she says.
"My teachers talk about it all the time -- the different paths you can go down, whether it's teaching or sales and marketing or working in an office," says graduating hygienist Jill DiOrio of Lynnfield.
Juggling experience, good benefits, career planning help -- what more do busy new graduates need to attain balance, now and in future? Time for reflection, agree experts. This generation needs to learn how to hit the pause button on their lives and put away their minute-by-minute planbooks.
"I want to say to them, 'just relax, you never know where the offer is going to come from. You never know what job is going to ignite your passion,' " says Elizabeth Bracher, who works with dozens of senior peer leaders as assistant director of Boston College's first-year experience program. That message is articulated often at the Jesuit school through its emphasis on contemplation, she says.
Mike Stone has spent lots of time thinking about his future as he graduates from Tufts University and looks for a job in documentary films. He knows he wants a flexible employer with a culture that fits his style, and a job that suits his passions. College, he's realized, taught him how to juggle, but not spread himself too thin.
"Unless you take a step back to reflect, a lot of times it's hard to figure out what your individual needs are," says Stone, of Weston.
Balancing Acts appears every other week. Maggie Jackson can be reached at maggie.jackson@att.net. 