Common Ground

Seth Godin had some advice yesterday for unemployed college graduates.

How about a post-graduate year doing some combination of the following (not just one, how about all):

• Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
• Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery. [Clarification: I know you can't become a master programmer of all these in a year. I used the word mastery to distinguish it from 'familiarity' which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books. I would hope you could write code that solves problems, works and is reasonably clear, not that you can program well enough to work for Joel Spolsky. Sorry if I ruffled feathers.]
• Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
• Start, run and grow an online community.
• Give a speech a week to local organizations.
• Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
• Learn a foreign language fluently.
• Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
• Self-publish a book.
• Run a marathon.

Seth’s underlying message is simply the missed opportunity for many who would rather sulk when dealt the blow of unemployment. While those employed might have the steady income, those not employed do possess something their counterparts don’t have — time. And while it’s not time that can be spent vacationing per se, it is time that is still valuable, given the plethora of opportunities Godin provides above.

Of course, there are some who are unemployed who simply do not have the resources needed to do some of the above. But this is where community resources like the library come into play — it’s free, and it offers the resources needed to do many of the above (computers, books on foreign languages, how to write business plans, etc.).

While I hope the government realizes the poor plight of today’s college grads and delivers some helpful policy prescriptions, I also hope in the meantime that young people don’t give up on themselves and their potential. The extra time on their hands is a hidden treasure.