Parent to parent: What will they do after college?

By John Corrigan

No one sweats it freshman year. For a sophomore, it may come up in a casual way. Then your son or daughter is a junior, and suddenly you and everyone else over 40 is asking the same question: "So, what are you going to do when you finish school?"

In a sputtering economy that’s shedding jobs, it may seem like a reasonable thing to ask. But be careful — for a lot of young people, this line of inquiry can verge on cruelty.

Many students, of course, know exactly what they plan to do after college. They tend to be the ones majoring in chemical engineering or astrophysics.

But for a liberal arts major — or, heaven forbid, an actual arts major — career paths may not be defined by their course load. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Learning how to think

When I was 8 or 9, a wise woman summed up the college experience for me this way: College doesn’t teach you what to think; it teaches you how to think.

It’s an oversimplification, but there’s also a lot of truth in that. Working on projects with classmates, conducting research for a paper, preparing for a test — all these endeavors provide opportunities for students to learn how to succeed in the task-oriented, results-driven environment they will confront in the workplace.

This point was driven home to me a few weeks ago when I spoke with Joe Lamond, president of the trade group for manufacturers and retailers of musical instruments, for an article I was writing.

Not surprisingly, the trade group wants to see music education returned to public schools. That would be good for instrument sales, of course, but Lamond pointed out that there are other benefits as well.

Music teaches young people to be creative, and to work together, he noted. Aren’t those the kinds of skills employers are looking for these days?

Skills for a lifetime

Much of the specific facts and formulas we learn in college will either be forgotten or eclipsed by newer developments. The Internet came along while many of us parents were in our 30s or older, and we can bet that today’s students will confront similar technologies that they weren’t specifically prepared for in college.

Your student may well know what he or she will be doing after college. If so, enjoy it.

If not, don’t push the question too hard. They’re not in college so much to get a job, as to gain the intellectual skills and tools they will need for a lifetime.