Pondering college? It’s best to have goals first
Americans want to believe that we all have the chance to explore our individual brands of limitless potential. We tell young people, “Do what you love, and the money will follow.” We say they should take the time to discover who they really are and pick a career that will match.
As you might have heard, college isn’t cheap. Increasingly, only those whose families have the resources or willingness to take on student loan debt can afford to enroll in a four-year college, explore existential questions and hope they’ll get a fulfilling, well-paying career.
“So everybody’s kind of on their own, and it means the advantaged kids get to be Hamlet and the disadvantaged kids don’t,” says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
If considering what to do after high school or counseling someone who is, here’s how to navigate the options for achieving your very own American dream.
Some college is needed
Despite the cost, college has become more and more compulsory. Automation has increased the demand for high-skilled workers, and jobs in the fastest-growing industries — like health care, education and finance — often require education beyond high school.
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce defines good jobs as those that pay at least $35,000 a year for workers under age 45 and $45,000 for workers over 45. In 1991, about 40 percent of those jobs required a bachelor’s degree; by 2015, 55 percent did.
That means you should plan to continue on in school. And don’t wait too long, especially if your family isn’t in the top 20 percent to 25 percent of earners. In that case, “every year you don’t go to college increases the chance you’ll never go by almost 25 percent,” Carnevale says.
Choose career path first
It will be easier to choose a postsecondary path if you have a career in mind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook is a good place to start. Search potential careers by pay, level of education, growth rate and more.
The average bachelor’s degree recipient earns 168 percent of a high school diploma holder’s salary, according to the Hamilton Project, a policy initiative affiliated with the Brookings Institution. But a bachelor’s isn’t the only path to good pay. Aircraft mechanics, for instance, enjoy median earnings of about $60,000 a year with a mechanic’s certificate and 18 months of experience, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, the bureau says that’s also how much teachers, social workers and nutritionists make with a four-year degree.
A career, of course, isn’t just about making money. The most fulfilling jobs offer autonomy, variety and chances for on-thejob training and advancement, says James Rosenbaum, professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University.
Consider small steps
Carnevale and Rosenbaum advocate incremental education, especially for students who lack money to pay for a four-year education outright or fear not graduating on time. Try alternatives: Start with a one- or twoyear certificate at a trade school or community college, get a job someplace that offers tuition aid and seek an associate or bachelor’s degree while you work.
“It used to be pretty easy: If you didn’t want to go to college, you didn’t; you could do just fine if you didn’t,” Carnevale says. “Now you’ve got to go on to some kind of postsecondary ed.”
Taking on Amazon isn’t so easy, even for one the world’s mightiest retailers.
This is not to say superstore kingpin Walmart won’t eventually give the Seattle-based e-commerce giant a serious run for the online money, but it isn’t there yet. Far from it. Walmart’s fourth quarter e-commerce sales grew 23 percent, down from a 50 percent hike in the previous quarter, the company said last week. In contrast, Amazon’s net sales were up 38 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with 34 percent the quarter before. That translates to $60.5 billion in quarterly sales and more than 5 billion items shipped.
Walmart’s stumble comes as a surprise, especially since it was expected to step up its game against Amazon during last year’s crucial holiday buying season, giving shoppers greater online choice and selection.
Instead, the superstore chain’s lackluster e-commerce sales were brought on, in part, from operational snafus including unanticipated inventory shortages of basic products like toilet paper and toothpaste.
That has some worried Walmart could become the online retailer that can’t shoot straight. The company’s stock price plunged after Walmart announced its e-commerce sales.
“We experienced some operational challenges that negatively impacted growth,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO and president.
Right now, Walmart is scrambling to regain its online mojo in hopes of achieving 40 percent e-commerce sales growth for this year.
Recurring customer gripes about Walmart.com include unhappiness about faulty or slow product delivery and confusion over its return policies, according to a spot check of online customer complaints posted on ConsumerAffairs.com, which tracks reviews of many retail sites.
What’s more, the sheen is coming off the chain’s much-heralded, $3 billion acquisition of online consumer products seller Jet. com. Purchased in 2016, that site accounted for the lion’s share of the company’s e-commerce sales boom last year but now is showing signs of leveling off.
Jet.com does well in major metropolitan areas ripe with millennials, like Chicago and New York, selling stylish and trendy products from Bonobos, Modcloth and Moosejaw, online sites Walmart acquired in recent years for a total of $175 million. Now Walmart wants to reassert its e-commerce connection with Middle America, a customer base that’s also a staple of its massive bricks-and-mortar Walmart superstore empire.
The Arkansas-based retailer is going to put more resources behind its namesake Walmart. com site, McMillon told analysts. That push includes the springtime launch of a Lord & Taylor landing page on Walmart.com.
Even with the added attraction of a well-known apparel retailer, Walmart.com’s emphasis will be on selling an expanding array of consumer products that compete more directly with Amazon’s wares.
This year, much of the Amazon versus Walmart battle will also be waged in the food aisles.
McMillon stresses his company is expanding ways e-commerce customers can order groceries online along with speedy customer pickup at the stores. This strategy is designed to beat back a similar “click and collect” tactic that Amazon is putting into place at its Whole Foods unit, which has over 400 stores.
Walmart intends to add 1,000 stores to the estimated 1,100 it already has providing online grocery sales and distribution, according to the company.
With revenues of $482 billion, Walmart has the financial firepower to be a formidable rival to Amazon, which tallied $177 billion in 2017 revenues.
“We believe Walmart is poised to be one of the few retailers that can compete in the e-commerce space and stay relevant over the next decade” wrote John Brick, a Morningstar equity analyst.