A Study Says Working A Job You’re Overqualified For Could Cost You $10,000 A Year For Life… Here’s Why

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Remember that time your parents convinced 18-year-old you that you should take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to get a college education? Remember when they said it was the best path to take in order to ensure you’d get a job out of school on your way to a successful career? Based on recent evidence, it appears they might have just been having a goof.

At some point, society decided it would be a good idea to make teenagers pick a topic they might come to hate after taking half of the prerequisites required for their major, but even if you graduate with a degree in your field of choice, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to land a job in a world that’s skeptical of liberal arts majors and millennials in general.

An English major working as a barista has become the cliché of choice, but every year, people are forced to take jobs they’re overqualified for in order to meet ends meet. Unfortunately, a recent study has shown that such a decision can be costly— to the tune of $10,000 a year for the rest of your life.

According to Time, the concisely-named Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Burning Glass Technologies dug into the data using 4 million résumés to track the career paths of college graduates. The result proved if you’re currently working in a job below your pay grade, the price can add up over the years.

Here are the biggest takeaways according to researcher Michelle Weise:

“We tend to rationalize this experience as a rite of passage in moving towards a career. But underemployment is not at all a short-term problem. Once you start out behind you stay behind.”

The trap of underemployment has serious financial implications: Underemployed graduates earn about $10,000 less per year than those in jobs that match their credentials.

To this I say:

its always sunny job tree

GIFER


When Charlie Kelly is the voice of reason, you know something has gone terribly wrong.

 

Connor Toole avatar and headshot for BroBible
Connor Toole is the Deputy Editor at BroBible. He is a New England native who went to Boston College and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Frequently described as "freakishly tall," he once used his 6'10" frame to sneak in the NBA Draft and convince people he was a member of the Utah Jazz.