Entry-Level Jobs that require bachelor's degrees

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In Australia there's been a mass exodus of young people from small rural towns seeking work in big cities like Melbourne Brisbane and Sydney. Its so large that regional internal migrants are technically the largest minority group in cities. A lot of them do get culture shock.

Now I feel bad for everyone.

People.

there's a funny side-story to all this. Despite the influx of young regional aussies into cities, the reverse is happening with older folk.

Even before COVID, older Australians who are winding down and preparing for the last 10-15 years before they retire, are selling up and moving to the country. Various reasons, land is cheaper but also issues like lower crime and having local community who know each other makes people feel inclined to move back to a rural/country lifestyle.

Many older people crave rest and peace. Those are often found in the countryside. A place to savor beauty and being alive.

^THIS^

My first jobs were all bottom of the barrel jobs, but at each job, I learned basic skills that would be useful at other jobs. I also took the jobs seriously, and did my best to get good at them, and learn all they could teach me.

It has been my experience, that experience without degrees or certificates, carries more weight than degrees or certificates without experience - even if the degree is relevant. Not all degrees are created equal.

Depends on the job. A lot of professions have accreditation bodies and you need a basic level of certification/degree before you would be allowed to set foot in a workplace.

While technically true, it is more the exception than the rule. But it doesn't sound like anybody in this conversation is applying for jobs as a lawyer or a doctor. Even then, if that's the case, there's usually an experience requirement along with the credential requirement. This is made evident by the OP lamenting about the lack of jobs that require a degree, but don't require experience.

Generally speaking tho, experience w/o awards counts more than awards w/o experience. If you're already good enough at what you do, some places will help you get the credential in order to meet the job requirement, and still hire you despite not having it, under the agreement that you will get said credential within X amount of time.

Having said that, your point is a handy reminder that a degree or award or certificate or credential or w/e, has to be relevant to the job being applied for. A bachelor's degree in theology isn't gonna count for much when trying to get a job as an accountant, for example.

^^^ All true.

Also the employment landscape is fast changing, especially in areas around infotech. A Harvard graduate whose only exposure is to lecturers who might never have worked in the private sector and textbooks which are already out of date are hardly going to get recruiters in tech companies as excited as self-driven self-educated experienced self-certified software coder who can seamlessly join a team.

Artificial intelligence remains a unknown factor in the job market of the future.

If you have a Harvard degree folks will often give you an opportunity as they want to see what an Ivy League graduate can do.

Harvard recently announced free tuition for families making under $200,000 per year!

"Ivy league" opens doors in some sectors in getting an interview. Same applies here in Aussie land. But recruiters are becoming more discerning on getting enamoured with paper qualification > experience (at least in software engineering anyway).

Exactly so. A degree means you (hopefully) know what you're talking about - but work experience demonstrates that you can actually DO the work. Similarly, a person might be able to name all the parts of an engine, and be able to explain how it operates - but that still doesn't mean they can take one apart, fix it, and put it back together successfully.

A degree from a big-name school like Harvard might get you in the door, but if you aren't any good at what you're doing, they will likely show you right back out the door. Getting the job is not the same as keeping the job.

Yeah, I think there's been a number of threads over the years on this topic, but the biggest value of an Ivy league degree is networking. Status is a big attraction because a lot of employers were also graduates from the same schools/departments so naturally they feel obliged to support their own Alma Mata. It's a no brainer. Also the entrance scores to get into our equivalent of ivy league universities (Sydney, Melbourne and University of Queensland) is much higher so the quality of student is likely to be (on average) slightly better.

Also in theory more $$ goes to support infrastructure from wealthy alumni/benefactors + grants so facilities and equipment/technology/best researchers are much better. Overall package gives Ivy league students an edge

Although this has been a common point of "wisdom" over the years, research has found this to be less true than people think.

Foremost, a business is in business to make money, and very few businesses are willing to sacrifice the ability to make money simply to exercise the fraternal bro-code. A sane CEO doesn't care if you went to the same school in the same town and both of your mothers are named "Martha". If you can't do the job, you don't stick around. Although nepotism does sometimes occur, no successful business is built upon it.

At the end of the day, the higher standards of a top tier school might lead one to believe that one has greater ability - but at the end of the day, they're still going to be tasked with doing a job, and if they can't do it, they don't normally stick around for very long. Who-you-know might help you get in the door, but it's one's ability that keeps them there.

Also, I remember my classmates. Not all of them were the kinda person I'd wanna hire, despite having graduated. I don't know that I'd hire someone just cos they went to the same school as me.

And realistically, that assumption has been found to be fairly untrue - highly successful individuals in all manner of fields, have come from a wide variety of schools and backgrounds, with no correlation found related to what school they went to. Basically, science seems to indicate that you have the same odds of being successful, regardless of having gone to a community college, or an ivy league institution.

Isn't it natural that young adults move to where they can make money and retirees move to where their money will last the longest?

^^^ All true

Fraternity bonds are stronger than that. Internships are often given to frat brothers/sisters. A law firm whose partners are all from Harvard are unlikely to give entry roles to a community college grad. Even for government and larger firms there is a filtration process conducted by HR recruitment. I know first hand what criteria they use to filter out a majority of applicants. Simply not logistically feasible to vet every single application when you have 1000 applications for a single job.