How much of persons' future success is related to choices they make during and after college? Isn't getting ahead in life all about good grades in school and hoping you were born with a high IQ? (Answer: No!):
Read Lex Borghans et al.'s "What Grades and Achievement Tests Measure," The four authors of this study include a Nobel Prize winning economist. They examine several datasets, but the most interesting analyses use a British sample of >17,000 individuals whose IQ, schooling, test scores, and life outcomes have been examined since 1970.
The regression models summarized in Figure 1 tell us that IQ and most of a person's core personality traits are quite poor predictors of grades and most academic outcomes. Knowing someone's IQ, for example, only explains only about 10% of difference in grades British students earn. The data in figure 3 show the same thing but with evidence coming from a large sample of American students.
Figure 2 summarizes regression models predicting several quality-of-life indicators, including wages and life satisfaction. Knowing persons' IQ, school grades, and various psychological traits collectively explains less than 10% of the variation that these individuals have in their wages and less than 5% of the variation in their life satisfaction.
In short, doing well in life involves a lot more than hoping you emerge from early childhood with a high IQ and then going on to earn high grades in high school and college. Your choices now and after college can make a world of difference in how your professional life will unfold.
How well do political science, international relations, and other college majors do in the labor market?
Read Gregory B. Lewis, "Do Political Science
Majors Succeed in the Labor Market?" (PS-Political
Science and Politics, 2017). This article's results
group political science and international relations
majors, but data from the same source below show similar
outcomes for INR majors.
In Table 4, the median salary column
lists the best measure of a typical salary for different
majors (in 2016 dollars), by removing the effects of a
small minority of individuals who have ended up with
atypically large salaries.
In Table 5, model 3 (the third column)
reports how much higher or lower--in percentages--the
typical salary is for people with college majors other
than political science. These are regression model
estimates that assume we are talking about individuals who
are the same with respect to whether or not they have
earned a graduate degree as well as taking into
consideration any effects on salary connected to age,
race, and gender. Of the
28 most common college majors, 17 of them have salaries
that are at least 10% lower than what is typical for
political scientist alumni, and the only graduates who
typically do much better than political scientists
(i.e., at least five percent higher median salaries) are
engineering, math, computer science, and economics
graduates. It is important to note that for most college graduates,
the salary differences among individuals with the same
major (e.g., what the top quartile of a majors alumni
earn versus the bottom quartile) will be greater than
the salary differences between individuals with
different majors.
Also, take a look at data from Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings (Center on Education and the Workforce, 2013). The data reported in this document are drawn from the US Census Agency's American Communities Survey for 2010 and 2011 (a sample of about 4 million households), a period in which professional unemployment rates were still close to recession-peak levels. Although the data are older than what is reported in the article above, it is useful to know which majors have faired best during severe economic slowdowns:
pg. 8 (compare unemployment rates by academic area and note the differences by area for experienced college graduates and those just entering their professional lives)
pg. 9 (compare the average annual salary by area and note the difference for college graduates who are experienced in their field)
pg. 15 (compare the typical salaries and recession-period unemployment rates for different social science majors, depending on whether they are a new graduate or an experienced employee)
What occupations and industries hire most political science and international majors?
Gregory B. Lewis, "Do Political Science
Majors Succeed in the Labor Market?" (PS-Political
Science and Politics, 2017) addresses this topic,
too. Look at Table 3. The table lists typical
salaries earned by political science alumni working in
different professional fields, depending on what their
highest degree is.
Also check out: What's It Worth: The Economic Value
of College Majors (Social Science Tables, Center on
Education and the Workforce, 2012) . The
first chart looks at the distributions of salaries within
different social science majors; the second identifies the
most common professional roles held by college graduates
with INR and PSC majors (undergrad majors only); and the
third identifies the types of industries that most
commonly hire INR and PSC graduates. If you search for and
download the larger document from which this out-take
originates, you will see similar data for a large number
of other majors.
See also:
PSC majors also should read: https://www.apsanet.org/PScareers
(2pp).
INR majors should be familiar
with the resources at the APSIA
website (see especially:
https://apsia.org/careers/international-career-guide/).
PSC and INR majors should also be familiar with the
American
Why are political science and international relations majors (as well as many other liberal arts majors) able to pursue careers in so many professional fields beyond those obviously linked to their major? Why are political science and international majors doing as well or better than, say, business majors?
Take a look at: https://marksetzler.org/generalissues/ProfessionalDevelopment/AACUEmployerReport2021.pdf (just review the charts in the first 10 pages quickly). The data come from a 2021 survey of professional firms who were asked about which skills that they need most in their employees. You should prepare now knowing that your future employers require and expect to hire college graduates with excellent analytical, problem solving, qualitative reasoning, and writing skills, all of which are emphasized in our department's programs.
Why should political science and international relations majors be prepared to go to graduate school even if they have no intention of doing so right after college?
Review the charts on pages 178 and 180
(pdf pgs. 3 and 5) of What's Its Worth. The key
point in those tables: U.S. Census Bureau statistics
report that 47 percent
of Americans who have a college major in either
political science or international relations go on to
earn a graduate degree (although many do not do
so directly).
The typical political science major who has a
graduate degree earns 62% more each year, on average,
than individuals holding only the bachelor degree.
The gain is virtually identical for international
relations graduates with an advanced degree. As a basis of
comparison, consider that the average American with a
college degree typically makes about 75% more than someone
with no college degree.
At HPU, a majority of the PSC and INR alumni go on to earn advanced degrees within a few years of graduating. Some go to law school, but many others pursue advanced degrees in international affairs, public policy, public administration, political science, secondary education, business, and theology. Among students who want to go to law school nationally, PSC and INR majors have unusually high LSAT scores and acceptance rates, and political science is the most common degree held by first-year law students.
Why will your transition to the professional work environment benefit from internships in college even if the structure of the contemporary internship is not always very friendly?
Read:
https://www.economist.com/news/international/21615612-temporary-unregulated-and-often-unpaid-internship-has-become-route.
(Or here, if there is an issue with the
link). Pay attention to the data regarding the central
role that unpaid internships play in gaining entry-level
jobs in many professions. The bottom line is that many organizations want to
have a good sense of how you will function in a
professional environment before they will ever consider
hiring you. An internship isn't just about adding
a line on your resume; rather it is often an essential
step as you start to build your professional reputation
(good or bad, so you need to perform as well in your
internship as you will in your paid work).
Why do things seem tougher for you than what your parents experienced when they were your age?
Part of the feeling that you
are facing "new," unfair challenges not faced by previous
generations is related to how you (and most other
people) think about the past. In general, people have a
cognitive bias--rosy retrospection--that leaves us
inclined to judge the past more positively than the
present.
However, there is something to
the idea that the transition from college to professional
life is in some ways more challenging today than what
recent generations experienced. Here are a few of the
biggest differences:
(1) The trajectory of wage
growth in America is increasingly bleak for individuals
who lack highly specialized, in-demand skills: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/which-side-of-the-barricade-are-you-on-100302/
(just take a close look at the charts on (1) income
inequality change over time; (2) that compare GDP,
productivity, employment and median household incomes; and
(3) that compare the incomes of individuals over time by
educational attainment (all of these statistics control
for the rate of inflation over time). Another article that
is very similar, but with more details and personal
stories is: Harold Meyer, "The Forty Year Slump"
(American Prospect, 2014). While things have gotten a
little better since the end of the "great" recession that
started in the late 2000s, the overall pattern remains the
same: America's productivity, inequality, and GDP continue
to grow while wages stay flat: https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/.
(2) You will have to transition to full professional productivity expectations quickly because employers are coming up with all kinds of new ways to test whether you have the skills that really matter: Eliza Gray, "Do You Know Why Stars Twinkle?" (Time, 2015). It is harder than it once was to "fake it until you make it," and many employers are only going to hire folks whose skills they can confirm first via internships, "training programs," or temporary-firm placements.
(3)
Once you are hired, employers will have a much better
sense about what you are doing at work than once was the
case. The vast resources now available to employers
to observe and assess performance and efficiency are
leaving leave less room to make serous mistakes or slowly
develop. Take a look at the main arguments and evidence in
Don Peck, "They're Watching You at
Work" (The
Atlantic, 2013) and "Yes, Your Employer Knows Exactly What
You're Doing Online" (Money 2017). And just in case
that last article's title wasn't clear enough, assume that
your post-college employer will have perfectly legal
systems in place to track what you are doing whenever you
are on your work computer. This oversight includes what is in your
e-mail, what you are posting to third-party sites, and
tracking time spent shopping, etc. If you want some
privacy on-line, you need to be on your own device,
working on your own time, and either connected with your
own network or using a private VPN service whenever
connecting through a public wifi network.
Beyond building solid communication, critical thinking, and analytical skills, what are some of the choices you can make now to begin launching a rewarding career while you are still in college?
(1) Consistently pay
attention to how your social media presence as a whole
will shape how employers see you. Be aware of
artificial intelligence technologies that compile all
kinds of information about you beyond what any individual
picture or individual social media site entry says. (See:
Drew Harwell, "Wanted: The 'Perfect
Babysitter.' Must Pass AI Scan for Respect and Attitude"
(Washington Post 2018). If you aren't going to be a
negative, petty, overly judgmental person at work, try not
to create that impression of yourself on-line.
(2) Prepare to work in an
environment that will treat you much differently than
what is typical from your relationship with faculty in
college: You may well be going from this: Megan G. Oprea, "Study: College Students
Spend Far More Time Playing Than Studying" (The
Federalist 2016).
To this: Elizabeth Anderson, "How bosses are
(literally) like dictators (Americans think they live in
a democracy. But their workplaces are small tyrannies)"
(Atlantic, 2017).
(3) Start researching career and networking opportunities in the community where you want to live after college. The early years of a career typically have the most potential for rapid upward professional advancement, so your first moves after college matter a lot. One of the most important choices you will make is where you choose to live after college, since there are big differences among communities' opportunities for recent graduates. See: Richard Florida "The Boom Towns and Ghost Towns of the New Economy" (The Atlantic, 2013). The bottom line is that just shy of half of all the college graduates who live in US urban areas now live in just 20 diverse, cosmopolitan metro areas.
(4) Start building the
financial skills, savings, and self-discipline
that will increase your freedom to do the kind of
professional work you want over the long run. Borrowing,
spending, saving, and investment choices in your 20s and
early 30s can play a profound role in how financially
secure or insecure you will be over time. Financial
choices, in turn, will seriously influence how much
flexibility you have in the time you commit to work and
what types of jobs are open to you. If you have some work
to do in building your financial literacy, here are a
couple of resources to get you going:
One book that is helpful for getting a broad overview about decisions you can make now that will shape your financial future is: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties (by Beth Kobliner). Your instructor read the first edition of this book when he was in his 20s.
If you are interested in knowing more about how a high dose of fiscal discipline right after college can open up many doors to a less-stressful life later on, you should read through some blog entries that seem interesting at: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com
You will probably find the "start here" and "MMM classics" entries to be the most interesting and useful; the more recent entries tend to be much narrower in focus and targeted at folks who already embrace a relatively frugal lifestyle.
As you think about career and early-life financial choices, it is also worth contemplating the motivations behind your long-term financial goals and how these motivations can shape your happiness over the long run. Two interesting perspectives are:
Daniel Markovits's "How Life Became an Endless, Terrible Competition" (Atlantic 2019)
and Derek Thompson's "Workism Is Making Americans Miserable" (Atlantic 2019).
And, if you are trying to figure out the relationship between work and happiness (or what choices more generally correlate to long-term happiness), take a look at Arthur Brooks's many contributions to the Atlantic on research about happiness.
Finally, what are some useful professional development projects you can be working on over the summer and breaks while you are still in college? Here are five things to start on now:
(1) Create a polished LinkedIn page that emphasizes only your professional materials and accomplishments. Here are some things to think about:
From day one, put a note on your calendar reminding you every four months or so to verify that your information on that site is up-to-date and fits where you are professionally at the moment. As with any on-line venue, you should not post any personal information on LinkedIn that will make you more susceptible to fraud.
Emphasize your
skills and demonstrated professional achievements rather
than your status as a student. Your "Headline" will be
more effective if it says something like "Aspiring
Political Campaign Manager" or "Strategist
| Advocate | Political Professional" rather than
"High Point University Political Science Major."
For people to be able search for and read your
LinkedIn page, you need to have the privacy settings appropriately set
so lots of folks who you don't know can access your
page. Instead of making it hard for people
you would like to join your professional network and
would-be employers to access your site, instead
protect your professional reputation by being smart
about what you choose to post in the first place,
checking what is on your page frequently, and
appropriately protecting your log-in information.
As you approach your senior year of college, consider asking folks on
your network to provide feedback on your skills and
politely soliciting recommendations from previous
supervisors who know your work especially
well and are sure to provide a positive review (which
you will be able to pull down if you have concerns).
For the "Skills
& Endorsements" section of your page, you can
edit which skills will be listed and in what
specific order; ideally, you want your
communication, analytical, and professional skills to
be profiled rather than basic things like proficiency
with MS Office that should apply to any college
graduate. The higher you prioritize a particular
skill, the more likely it is other people will endorse
your ability on that skill, assuming that this is
actually a strength. As in other aspects of life, you
are more likely to have others take the time to
endorse your skills if you also are doing the same for
them.
If you are willing to stick with it over the long run, you might also consider periodically linking to materials and stories that are particularly relevant to your desired career path and making insightful comments about them. Be sure to proof any LinkedIn postings as carefully as you would a cover letter.
(2) Create a
professional website that has your resume and
sample professional work. The idea is to have a place with
more resources that can reference in your resume, cover
letters, business cards, and LinkedIn. You can create a
website in less than an hour using the free services at
several different website providers. In the past, I have
used Weebly at www.weebly.com. Here is an example
of my Weebly site:
https://marksetzler.weebly.com, which I built
several years ago, primarily so that no one else could
claim "my" space should I ever want to use it for
something else. The theme used for my Weebly site is "Clean Lines," and I used that
theme for inspiration as I created the template for the
website you are presently reading. For a graduating
student, it would make sense to create separate web pages
on a small website with your resume, contact information,
and sample student work that can be downloaded in pdf,
jpeg, or video files depending on the type of work.
(3) Begin compiling a list of websites that list openings related to your career interests. Not only will this speed a job search up later on, but also, it will help you to identify right now any holes in your resume now while you still have time to fix things.
(4) Schedule several informational interviews each summer and over any long break. An informational interview (follow this link and this one for some good tips) is simply a short (15-20 minute) meeting with a professional in a field where you might want to work after college. HPU's experiential learning and career service staff or your professors can talk to you about how to make the most of this kind of experience. Consider taking advantage of virtual conferencing services as an option when you ask for a meeting. You may find that someone who is reluctant to carve out time to join you for a coffee or deal with you in their office will be happy enough to meet with you for a 25-20 minute meeting on Zoom.
(5) Consider completing low-cost, online training modules to develop and demonstrate your mastery of skills that will come in handy no-matter what you do next. A good place to start is by beefing up your Excel skills (and having that mastery certified). If you have time in your schedule, Note: HPU offers a two-course Excel sequence (one 2-credit class in the fall and the second one in the spring).
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