What Makes You Qualified?

I've starting thinking a lot more on what makes a person qualified. Rather what makes a person employable? Is the level of education they received? The amount of experience they have on their resume? Perhaps the skills they possess that's deemed useful to the job in which they seek? Or is it a combination of all or nothing?

In my recent job searches, I have found myself combing over the "Qualifications and Requirements" section in these job adds. When reading them, I hope to find some sense of satisfaction that the job I want to pursue is available to me. I was told over and over again by teachers, professionals, and my parents that if I go to college, get good grades, and get a degree, that finding a job would be easy. So I went to school, I have work experience, and I willing and eager to learn. Yet time and time again, I leave the job add feeling worse about my qualifications than the previous add. So what gives?

What gives is that your parents were mislead. Don't get me wrong, they had the best intentions, but what they should have said is go to college, get good grades, make sure you work in the field you want while you study it, pursue the degree most common in said field, make connections, work even more jobs to have even more experience, and finally graduate. Perhaps then you will be deemed "qualified". Or perhaps not because if your like me, you could be relatively qualified for any sort of job, but you're also competing with everyone else looking for meaningful and gainful work in this ongoing pandemic.

I read an article the other day from CBS News that "over half of 2020 college graduates are still looking for a job"(Picchi, Aimee). This article was written in May of 2021. I graduated college that same month. So not only was I competing with graduates of my college year, but the previous year as well. This all to say, what made me less qualified than my peers? Is there something I could be doing to make myself stand out in the resume pool? Is my degree not the right one? Do I not have enough work experience? Please somebody tell me! I also find it ironic that 2021/2022 are starting to be classified as the Great Resignation. So there are jobs available, just only to the "qualified" individuals.

I know hiring new and fresh people takes a lot of time and money, but how are we ever going to learn if we are never given the chance to begin with? It's a vicious cycle and I know I'm not the first, nor last, to comment on it but I'm at a loss. I know that it might sound like a lot of complaining, but I genuinely want to know. I want a job, a steady income, be able to afford health insurance, a car, and kids someday (if I so choose). So, if I'm not "qualified" to industry standards, how do I become so?