Part-Time Job Guide

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

I have still got no idea about what kind of "part-time" job that I should do. Now, I think I should also think about myself next-time instead of others especially when I am not yet established. I bet that everybody hates to go again and again for interviews and having to change the resume all the time looking for new job. The employers do not like to see over-qualified employees because they are afraid of the commitment of the job-seeker. And the job-seeker needs quick money to move on.

I get to know that there is an advertisement for part-time jobs everywhere but I am thinking on how should I apply the job? Should I give out my resume? It is frustrating to change over and over and I did the resume for serious job and I end up having to give up the job to be a companion for my depressed mother. I quit to give way for her to join her old citizen activities either at the mosque or in the neighborhood society while I have a paralyzed "stroke" father to be taken care. My sisters refuse to give up their life and I have to be the "Jesus" for them... "Crucified" in trade for their life. This is real life facts. I tried to do researches before getting any job to avoid losses in term of time and doing things in vanity.  I have no one to refer to so I have to do the research and trial an error.

My mother had introduced me to a Quranic society which is an NGO but I cannot go on with the society because I do not take tithe as my sustenance and I need financial support to keep the maintenance of our house, to pay for the national loan because my parents did not help me to pay for my undergraduate fees like my younger sister's, to move on to the next level of my life while I am reaching 30 years old and for my parents. I had explained many times to my mother that our paternal clan could not receive anything related to tithe as not to commit the sins of the "priests" but my mother do not understand it. She introduced me to the job because she think that I would be close to her while my sisters are off with their life. I have to live in disguise as a public as according to our vows and not to appear in public as "religious" figure in order to be equal with the laymen. It is not easy to live in a women-dominated space and most of the times people do not understand the "functions" of different genders! Male and female function differently... Many of our people fail to frame the explanations of the technical terms such as the "fitrah" and the "sunnatullah" that makes the world go haywire. These involves mystical explanations as well as the technical ones.  

Questions for Part-Time Job

Examples roughly look like these....

Q: What days/hours are you available to work?

• I am available during school hours while my children are at school, maybe at 9:00-15:00, Monday through Friday and I can work some weekends.
• If you are a student, you will need to share the class schedule, any labs, to avoid confusion for supervisor, "I have classes Tuesday and Thursday until 16:00 and a lab that meets every other Wednesday from 17:00-19:00, but I am flexible about working any other hours you have available".
• I am flexible and available just about any time you need me to work.
• I have another commitment each Monday, but I am available the rest of the week.
• I am available after school and evenings and weekends.

Q: Do you have any activities that would prevent you from working your schedule?

Employers want to know, especially with part time employees who have other commitments, whether you will be able to work your scheduled hours. The interview question "Do you have any activities that would prevent you from working your schedule?" A way to verify that you have the time to commit.

It's important to be be honest about what your availability is. If you have activities what come up suddenly - a commitment as a substitute teacher or bus driver for example, you should be honest about that. Otherwise, this is an opportunity to show that you plan things well in advance.

• I participate every year in a 10K run to raise money for my favorite charity, but I will know the date well in advance, and would let you know I need that day off.
• I am on the crew team at school, but our practices are typically early in the morning or later in the day, so they should not impact my schedule.
• I spend a week during the winter vacationing with my family in Florida every year, but I can schedule that based on the busy times at work.
• I volunteer at the hospital every Saturday morning from 9:00 - noon, other than that my schedule is flexible.

Q: Would you prefer full-time employment to part-time if a job were available?

Would you prefer full-time employment to part-time if a job were available? Can be a tricky interview question. 

On the one hand, if you are hoping that the job will turn into a full-time position, you want your prospective employer to consider you first should the opportunity arise.

On the other hand, you do not want to raise the doubt that should a full-time position present itself, you would walk out of your part-time commitment.

Be cautious when you respond and keep your answer general, so you are not committing to one type of employment or the other.

• Right now, my education/family/children prevent me from considering full-time employment, but I would not rule it out at some point in the future.
• What is important to me is that I enjoy the work and the people I am working with. I have many interests, and having a part-time job allows me the time to pursue them.

Continued....

Al-Waẓifah

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

What we encounter today, hahaha... Sometimes it is on the luck based on time and space. When the time is not there yet then we would be here in this phase of life. Just appreciate the time that we have... We would not get it back once it flows...

 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

New Job

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Hurm... I do not know where to begin with. I went for an interview in an intergovernmental organization in Kuala Lumpur around July and I expected nothing, hehe. I just went there to try my luck and you know this ancient Indian phrase which means "moving the machine" is actually related to the actions. I am just translating everything into English rather than using Pali or Sanskrit words so everyone could see what we understood from our previous experience being a student of Buddhism, Brahmanism and other ancient Indian philosophies.

I applied for an entree position in the organization as I had a missing line in my resume related to the years of working experience. I went to further my studies because of various thoughts. Basically, I understood the rules in seeking the job where famous companies or organizations would basically looking at our experience of working in certain field of job because they do not want to waste their time and capitals in training new employees. Talents and others would be screened later. For that, I would have to apply for an entry position and planning my career again. I actually wanted to study Islam and returning to the unfinished task which I had to pursue last time. That was my highest responsibility or what is known as the fardh al-kifayah for me. But, it seems like this is just a dream that is far from the reach. It is kicking me far from itself and it was my fault. I cried and always blaming my wretched self for this.    

I did not go for the test in the Malaysian Books' Translation Institute in Wangsa Maju. I know that we are not valued anywhere in the country other than what can we do with Malay? We cannot survive as Malay translators because nobody respect the language. I had read about what happened to Abdullah Munsyi from Malacca. That guy is a Yemenite from a Tamil mother. He translated New Testament: Matthew into Classical Malay and was stamped as a Christian priest by locals. I had seen his other translations in our university library last time. He also translated the Panchatantram into Classical Malay as well as other books. Some of his notes such as about Kelantan perhaps were quite bias because he was not traveling so much nor mingling with the Eastern Coast people much but I think we should do researches with clear mind before throwing out our perceptions. Anyway, my father though a Yemenite by descent but he is a staunch Malay language supporter. He wrote poems, expressing his feelings and articles in Malay. It is the only mother tongue that he knows. Arabic only serve as our liturgical language like what happened to other Arab or even Jewish diasporas across the world. It is still vaguely spoken by our elders but becoming an alien language once they passed away.

I also have large corpus of materials related to Judeo-Christian literature and Christian apocrypha. I translated them into Malay just after I read them few times together with Islamic and other philosophical readings either from English or Arabic while I did nothing. However, they are not for public release and I will never release them to people. They simply serve as exercises for mind and personal references for me. Sometimes I released them by accident and I always regret myself and trying to erase them before others could read them. Now, because of this I would like brothers and sisters who know me out there to know. I did not mingle so much with you as I love you. I do not want you to misunderstood anything which comes out of my mouth or my mind. Especially, when you are just mingling with people of the same group or way of thinking. I am not a person who conform to normal social norm. I have my own standard.

By the way, I am going to be a contract staff again for another six months beginning next Monday. I quit from the post of Public Relations Trainee in the Corporate Communications Unit in the Prime Minister's Department. My payment there was on daily basis at the rank of N17 clerk though I had to also do the jobs of my superiors. I am not quitting from the post because of the low payment. I am thankful to them for the opportunities given to prove myself and for offering me the letter to continue my contract. Especially to my boss and my supervisor. They were late to announce that I would be promoted into the M41 rank with two years contract as I received the call from the new work place asking my confirmation to accept the post earlier than that.

I am just curious about the the new job and men always have to get involved with risky things and challenges, right? My new office would be in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Well, it is only a contract based job but I could apply for other posts in the system once I am an internal person. What concerns me now is that I live far from my work place. I would have to plan my driving route and time.... How could I perform my obligations such as salat services when I am working there.... My responsibility as a son to a bed-ridden father... 

I end my working hour early today without attending the farewell party which was held together with Eid al-Fitri feast for the office because I simply do not know what else to say. I said everything to my boss just before I quit today. And I wrote another note on my station (desk) saying thanks to everyone besides apologizing on my shortcomings before leaving. It was in English and I feel sorry for not respecting the national language but I use to think and write in English. I still have four remaining days as according to the previous contract. But I had given the resignation and handing-tasks letters to the boss since last week. I have no one to train so lucky me, haha... I would have to hand in my documents to the new office at their human resource on this Friday, 6th September 2013.

Oh, yeah just after I walked out from my office I took a bus to the shopping mall. I went to the temporary musalla and performing the Dzuhr service. Then I went to have some noodles. After that, I went down and randomly bought a ticket in the cinema. I watched a movie titled Mortal Instruments: the City of Bones alone. It was not so much impressive but I could say that it is just a nice movie with some Gothic elements in the settings. The movie ends around 17:00 something and I went to the musalla performing 'Asr service. I bought some rice and ate them before returning home. 

I performed Maghrib and 'Isya prayer services at the musalla near home. Not walking up the hill like always. I am not sure whether I could regularly go there when I am going to start with my new job. I am going to miss the mosque up there : (

Sealed with prayer for mercy, peace and love, amin!      

If the Doors are Locked

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Long time haven't check this site. I went for a training at the KL Airport Services Sdn. Bhd. for two weeks before resigning because I found that I have problem with the security pass. It is quite complicated because I worked in the airport in 2005 and I quit from the service with the department there without returning my security pass to the security department. I just sent everything including the security pass to my employer at the Malaysian Airport Berhad building.  They did not help me but maybe dumping everything because they do not like our colleagues. Let me explain clearly so everyone know what happened in 2005-2006 at some department in KLIA. Well, not only some but from every departments, haha...

I was a Mandarin Chinese translator and interpreter before being a student in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as respected brothers and sisters had seen in few posts earlier. Most of my colleagues which formed the group of translators there were of Chinese descent and they are non-Muslims. Only I am a Muslim and a "non-Chinese" ethnic in the group but because I did not mingle with those officers so they assumed that I am a Chinese and a non-Muslim.  Well, actually tried to talk with them but they seem like cocky so I just stay in the boundary that I had.

I always think it is weird for people to think that I look like a Chinese. I am more to a Central Asian in my appearance than to Oriental looking. I also speak in Northern Malay dialect fluently and Southern Thai language. Even I know how to curse people in both of the languages, hehe. That is the specialty of people who are born in the Northern Malayan states. 

When we finished our term, those silly workers in the department were so happy because they were afraid that we would be competing with them if we filled the SPA8 form to be permanent worker. For me, I have the STPM (A-Level) certificate which would elevate me to higher office if I apply for the permanent position. One of my colleague, Mr. Saw applied for the permanent position but at that time he was 24 years old and already with a Business Management degree from the Universiti Malaya. He was elevated to the M34 position in government service and sent to the federal territory office. Lucky him, haha... I did not know that I could still continue my study even when working as a government officer so I accepted the offer to further for a bachelor degree in humanity department at the school of translation and interpretation in the Universiti Sains Malaysia. Mr. Saw had tried to persuade me to be a co-partner with him but I was not smart enough at that time. I thought that education matters since I had seen those O-Level "officers" behave like immature little kids. Well, yeah they joined the department just after schooling times because their parents work there. Kabel banyak dema itu, so they could secure a job... Tanya sana itu saya punya bapa, tanya sini itu saya punya mak cik, hehe...

Back to the quitting job story, I was kicked to several places just because of the security pass issue. The old office that housed me as their employer said that the administration system there was changed few years ago and the old chief is now retired. I would have to go to the federal territory and asking for the letter of resignation because I left the department without any resignation letter. Well, I did not know about that. I was 19 years old at that time. Nobody gives me any training about the job and my rights as an employee. It is not easy to go though all the bureaucracy in the Ministry of Home Affairs so I just wrote the letter of resignation and apologized to the company for their willingness to hire me though for only two weeks and without any payment. Maybe I am not lucky, that's all. Just after I quit I was so depressed because I think that I can not move on with life like this. My father is still there, a paralyzed stroke person could be in that condition for several years to go. It is painful not only to him but also to those besides him, i.e me and my mother. I also have to sacrifice myself though I am a male who supposed to go to work and maintaining the family. 

Owh yeah, before I went to the job offer as the Customer Service Agent at the airport services office, I applied for steward job in a hotel and was called for interview but my elder sister said that it is too low for me. Washing the dishes is not suitable to an undergraduate. Then, what should I do? I actually did not care about that because I simply wanted to maintain a "healthy life". Being jobless actually is not healthy because we have no mobility and it is almost no different to those in the dark alley looking for some money to move on. When we do not go to work, many people say things to us because they do not analyze the factors that make an undergraduate have got no job. Sometimes, it depends on our luck too and nobody wants to know the reasons when we are interviewed because they just wanted to know whether we are useful for the company or not. They should not boast to people simply because they have secured a job and talking like there is no Supreme Lord or the God. 

One of my acquaintance had tried to help me in term of financial but I refused. I just told him to make some donation around or to anyone that he see supposed to be helped and just imagine that he is donating to me. Right now, I am jobless again and trying to study Usuluddin, Sharia, Arabic and Persian with materials that I already have. Besides I am also learning the tenets of Shi'a Muslim belief and practices but not because I am interested to be a Shi'a Muslim. I am a very loyal Sunnah Muslim and a proud Hashemite where I keep the dignity of our larger clan for prophet Muhammad s.a.w as our earthly leader.

It is simply as a sign of good will to them as a brother in Islam and humanity.  I do not like to entertain the blogs written with hatred posts to others because I believe that Allah the Highest is protecting His Divine Path. It is not the job of human-being to act like a false god. Writing or talking to approve or to disprove others are not the way to unite people. It is just a way to show off and getting attention so that we would be recognized as scholar though people would say, maa'shaAllah... subhanAllah... you're right brother... you're right sister.... This is what has been mentioned in the al-Ghazali's literature known by the title, Ihya' 'Ulumuddin as lying in the name of the God. It is also a breach of Covenant with the God where ones speaking the Name of the God in vanity.

At this time I suppose to walk to the mosque and bringing with me my Quran. I try to memorize the Quran again and afraid that some surats that I had memorized will be erased from my heart. If I can not be a practicing missionary, I could still be a qadhi or a decision-maker. Maybe there would be some silver lining for me in the future only the God knows.

It reminds me to this line of poem by an honorable Yemenite Jewish Rabbi, Maran Shalom Shabazi in Judeo-Babylon Aramaic and Yemenite Arabic though he is a non-Muslim which means: "If the doors of the fortunate is locked to you, but the doors of the Heaven is always open. The Creator reigns Supreme and is higher than the angels and all with His wind will rise"... It means if there is no mercy left in this world, but the Lord is still there observing us....

Maybe I should write again this poem for fun and thank you for viewing. I am sorry if I did not respond to some emails but I appreciate my brothers and sisters love here, hehe : )

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!         

New Phase

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

How is everyone doing? It has been long that I haven't check this side. To tell the truth, I miss beloved brothers and sisters though I have never seen all of you. I consider that I am in a spiritual circle and communicating with brothers and sisters before the God. Thank you for patiently reading this site. I wish that I could offer sacrifices as offers for brothers and sisters may brothers and sisters enjoy the Love of the God and being protected in this very life and the hereafter.

Beginning this 1st of April 2013, I will officially becoming a staff with the airport services. Again, I am going to be a worker in the airport. I am not trying to be negative but I don't like that place. For this three months to come, I would be on training for the specific job and task in the ground handling division of the services.  The salary offered for me is at the level of O-Level students which is about RM900 or equal to USD 290.93. Well, I consider it as fair for one who has no continuous working record. Just be patient maybe I could work over the time and gain more. I should only make the salary as the tool for me to liberate me from worldly concerns though money is also a worldly thing. 

My father is now paralyzed in his other part of the body too. He could only move his head, his face and his left hand. Poor dad... Sometimes he would be stricken with high fever and shivering all over his body. I have to find the job and accept anything that come across because of financial problem. It is not wise to just collecting tin cans and selling thrashes. I am pretty sure the proper House of Sciences would never accept me since I am over the 25 years old requirement. I can't just be a muballigh but maybe have to opt for a mujtaheed who derives legal edicts through Quranic, Sunnah and the Wisdom of the Ahl Bayt sources. I would have to stress more on Arabic and Persian.

First thing that I need to put into my diary is the necessity to settle down the national loan that I had made in the university for my first degree and to set up a saving for my mother. It is for her safety because I am not sure whether I would be leaving her after two years to serve the Path. For the time-being maybe I need to observe on how I could maintain my lifestyle with regard the worship and sacrifices for Him while working. It is not as easy as studying because I had this experience of working just after my A-Level studies too.

I feel that I made a mistake too when accepting the undergraduate studies offer in the university. I should just repeat the paper for Islamic Legal studies and getting the Quranic memorization iqamat. The linguistic, translation and interpretation studies are just a little part in Islamic Path studies. It's ok, whatever happened has already happened. I need to check on what I could do now in order to fix my mistakes as a human-being who only realizes everything after encountering incidents in life. 

I just photocopied some forms and the contract that I am signing before being passed down to the human resource department. It's not wise to xerox papers in the Tafaz Maju department store cause it is a waste. They charged the paper and the current for the machine while the shop assistant can only speak in Tamil. Maybe he just arrived.  

It is very hard for me to apply for the zakat since our family lineage forbids us from applying it although it is to study the Islamic studies that I wanted to return to very badly because of the sinful feeling for breaking the spiritual chain and the prayers of our elders. Though I am a Hanbali by jurisprudence school in most of my worship acts but the Shafie orthodox jurisprudence based from the al-Umm by Imam Abu Idris al-Shafie is still deeply rooted in ourselves. We only could accept the khums or one fifth of the fund specifically dedicated to the Hashemite clan. This was introduced by Abu Taleb the father of our imam Ali r.a. I am not sure about the zakat system in our country right now whether I could apply it. I checked in every terms of national jurisprudence school but I can't find any mention about khums as stated in al-Umm. I never have any courage to apply it. I tried to tell my family members but they are not aware about this. Other people may not understand us because they are just aware about their selfish needs in this temporary world. I can do nothing because the Power controlling everything only belongs to Him. So, what I could do is just to keep my mouth shut and try to fix everything for myself with prayers to Him may He assist me on my course to return to Him and to repent.    

Whatever it is, I must remember to hold with the wisdom within the right hand, the sunnah within the left hand and the Quran within the heart and soul. Al-Fatehah and salawat for the soul of noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w, the Ahl Bayt, the preceding noble prophets, the saints, the faithful servants, myself and for the soul of His creatures hidden and seen may His Mercy-Compassionate Love protecting everyone from the tests of the end of the time.

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!         

One in Two New Graduates are Jobless or Underemployed

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely. While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so.

Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he got financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. "There is not much out there, it seems," he said.

His situation highlights a widening but little-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more than ever, the choices that young adults make earlier in life — level of schooling, academic field and training, where to attend college, how to pay for it — are having long-lasting financial impact.

"You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it's not true for everybody," says Harvard economist Richard Freeman, noting the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion. "If you're not sure what you're going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college."

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who analyzed the numbers, said many people with a bachelor's degree face a double whammy of rising tuition and poor job outcomes. "Simply put, we're failing kids coming out of college," he said, emphasizing that when it comes to jobs, a college major can make all the difference. "We're going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow."

By region, the Mountain West was most likely to have young college graduates jobless or underemployed — roughly 3 in 5. It was followed by the more rural southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Pacific region, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, also was high on the list.

On the other end of the scale, the southern U.S., anchored by Texas, was most likely to have young college graduates in higher-skill jobs.

The figures are based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers and supplemented with material from Paul Harrington, an economist at Drexel University, and the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor's degrees who were "underemployed."

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.

Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.

Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less.

In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 versus 90,000). There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163,000 versus 100,000). More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125,000 versus 80,000).

According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving,  jobs which aren't easily replaced by computers.

College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level; those with nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science degrees were among the most likely.

In Nevada, where unemployment is the highest in the nation, Class of 2012 college seniors recently expressed feelings ranging from anxiety and fear to cautious optimism about what lies ahead.

With the state's economy languishing in an extended housing bust, a lot of young graduates have shown up at job placement centers in tears. Many have been squeezed out of jobs by more experienced workers, job counselors said, and are now having to explain to prospective employers the time gaps in their resumes.

"It's kind of scary," said Cameron Bawden, 22, who is graduating from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in December with a business degree. His family has warned him for years about the job market, so he has been building his resume by working part time on the Las Vegas Strip as a food runner and doing a marketing internship with a local airline.

Bawden said his friends who have graduated are either unemployed or working along the Vegas Strip in service jobs that don't require degrees. "There are so few jobs and it's a small city," he said. "It's all about who you know."

Any job gains are going mostly to workers at the top and bottom of the wage scale, at the expense of middle-income jobs commonly held by bachelor's degree holders. By some studies, up to 95 percent of positions lost during the economic recovery occurred in middle-income occupations such as bank tellers, the type of job not expected to return in a more high-tech age.

David Neumark, an economist at the University of California-Irvine, said a bachelor's degree can have benefits that aren't fully reflected in the government's labor data. He said even for lower-skilled jobs such as waitress or cashier, employers tend to value bachelor's degree-holders more highly than high-school graduates, paying them more for the same work and offering promotions.

In addition, U.S. workers increasingly may need to consider their position in a global economy, where they must compete with educated foreign-born residents for jobs. Longer-term government projections also may fail to consider "degree inflation," a growing ubiquity of bachelor's degrees that could make them more commonplace in lower-wage jobs but inadequate for higher-wage ones.

That future may be now for Kelman Edwards Jr., 24, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who is waiting to see the returns on his college education.

After earning a biology degree last May, the only job he could find was as a construction worker for five months before he quit to focus on finding a job in his academic field. He applied for positions in laboratories but was told they were looking for people with specialized certifications.

"I thought that me having a biology degree was a gold ticket for me getting into places, but every other job wants you to have previous history in the field," he said. Edwards, who has about $5,500 in student debt, recently met with a career counselor at Middle Tennessee State University. The counselor's main advice: Pursue further education.

"Everyone is always telling you, 'Go to college,'" Edwards said. "But when you graduate, it's kind of an empty cliff."

___

Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Seattle; Travis Loller in Nashville, Tenn.; Cristina Silva in Las Vegas; and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report (Yahoo News).

P.S: This is what teachers in schools should talk about when talking to pupils and students. Don't just telling about going to university and people could get away with it. Man, this is just the same situation most of us here facing too. It's just a waste for me taking national study loan and now stuck in postgraduate, leaving behind my Lord. I should just continue working or applying to be absorbed into government service or simply working in factories as operator just after I finished my O-Level or A-Level around 2003-2005. I guess it's a global phenomenon and s.t.f up those who simply get good jobs or position out there after they graduated. They are just fortunate because the "time" and etc was just siding with them and now telling people to do this and that!!!! Dear young graduating brothers and sisters out there, I am just reminding you people to be prepared. I'm not trying to put you people down, but trying to be a good brother to all of you. If I am trying to put people down I would simply laugh at people who are unfortunate but I can't since I am also among those who are unfortunate, lol. This is the fact of the world. May the justice rise up, may the Truth rise up, amin! 

Sealed with prayer for mercy, peace and love, amin!