Comment by pedalpete

I've mentioned this in on other posts, but I think there are a few things that are getting missed here, and this is how we're hopefully helping grads and students in our start-up.

We have the duality of people complaining that there aren't enough good jobs, while at the same time suggesting that as boomers are retiring, there aren't enough people to fill the jobs they are leaving.

Good senior people are very expensive. Often worth their costs, but when we look at software engineering, there is also the ageism of hiring older developers.

So, everyone is screwed??

We're a bootstrapped neurotech start-up, and we quite frankly can't afford to hire senior people, yet we've had a bunch of university students (our office is at USyd) and graduates ask to come work for us.

In some cases, like marketing, though I have experience in marketing, it was ages ago, and so I don't feel I'm the best person to mentor a junior marketing person.

We're contracting with more experienced marketers who have time in the schedule to work with us part-time and guide the junior. We can't afford the more experienced person anyway, and they've got a more stable job, or young kids at home, and so they don't want the full-time work.

I suspect, and somewhat hope, this trend continues. Even for myself, I don't see myself "retiring" in the next 20 years (I'm 50), I'm sure I'd like to stay active, but perhaps not full time, and I could very much see myself enjoying engaging with the next generation and helping them transition into exciting work.

Having said that, as someone without a university degree, I also think the term "graduates" is loaded in this article. What the article doesn't discuss is that we've assumed that a university degree is necessary to enter the workforce. I am fortunate I had very few walls thrown up in front of me for not having a degree, but it did happen.