When I went to Luther College in Iowa, my professors would always talk about a phenomenon that they called the "Luther Bubble". Basically, this phrase was used to remind students that the world they were studying in--an environment of 2,500 students in a town of 8,000, in the upper northeastern corner of Iowa and over 1 hour by car from a major city--was a special atmosphere that they were unlikely to encounter anywhere else.
We studied, worked and interacted in a fairly-safe, forgiving world during our years at Luther. The professors wanted us to be aware of this so we weren't too surprised by the real world after we graduated.
Yet although Luther is indeed an incredible setting, I doubt that its students are the only one feeling sticker-shock when they leave the predictable college environment. As students we have more freedom to be irresponsible, more time for leisure, more latitude to study subjects that interest us (and therefore do projects that are more of our choosing), and we can even sometimes get away with wearing pajamas to class. In the real world, we have to be on time, do the projects we're given, and especially get up early enough to put together a professional appearance for every work day.
Of course, we expect our situation to change like that when we graduate. However, as the world has become more globalized, there is another consequence of our protected college lives. Although as a student at Luther, I heard about the increasing competition for jobs from workers from abroad, I didn't think it would apply to me.
I was going to college, I was getting my degree, I was doing everything I was supposed to do to ensure I would be able to get a decent-paying job in the business workplace when I graduated. C'mon, I was right in the middle of the USA--the strongest economic country in the world--what did I have to fear from globalization?
Turns out, there's a lot we need to know!
Like the fact that the previously-closed economies of China and India both opened to global competition in the late 1990s. And the fact that new technology has made it possible for people on the other side of the world to communicate instantly with American companies, effectively making the distance between employer and employee unimportant. And the fact that companies are now offshoring white college jobs--the ones you and I are qualified for--as well as factory jobs.
I was shocked to discover in my research how interconnected the workplaces of the world are becoming today. I was further surprised to hear people I met during my job actually talking about sending work overseas as though it was the most normal thing in the world. I had no idea it was this common.
When we're studying in college, we're busy and often don't have time to stay current on what is happening in the world outside our protected little bubble. Getting a good grade on the next test or assignment can seem a lot more important than learning about developments in the business world. But the world outside is changing rapidly and it's important that we are aware of the changes that will affect our future.
My objective for this website is to make it easy for students and prospective students such as yourself to learn about the changes happening in the workplace that will affect them. Since I wrote my thesis on the subject, I've already done a lot of reading about it! My goal is to pick out the relevant pieces of information so you don't have to spend hours looking through books (and searching through hundreds of articles) in order to find out the information that is relevant to you.
So, enjoy your moment in your college bubble because it's a wonderful time and keep checking back here for my frequently-updated Cliff Notes on how the workplace is changing!
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