I met with my accountant yesterday.  During tax time, he meets with his Connecticut clientele and hears concerns about their financial decision.  He’s interested in my work as a career counselor and relayed that many of his clients are very worried about both college cost and the college investment.

Many Connecticut parents are spending $100-$300,000 on college education per child.  That’s a significant investment, even for those in the leafy Fairfield County suburbs.  The challenge is a strange paradox.  Without a college degree, young adults – outside of the trades – are unemployable for most jobs that will give them financial independence.  The college degree is now what a high school degree was a few decades ago.  It is a simple screening mechanism that many organizations use to sort applicants.  But… with a college degree, poor choice of college major, and lack of career focus… many college graduates are also unemployed and they or their parents are in debt or just spent a lot of money wastefully.

One solution, as self-serving as it sounds, invest in a couple hours of career counseling. This work is a passion business for me, as I’ve been fortunate that my large company, The Learning Consultants, has provided wonderfully well enough to enable the development of Career Counseling Connecticut.   A few hours for a smarter investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars has made our clients very happy.