Dear graduates 2010

Parents, teachers and distinguished members of the Class of 2010:

Congratulations on your accomplishments over the past 4 years, give or take a few semesters. The time you’ve spent studying, cramming, sweating, taking tests and planning — not to mention the small fortune you’ve spent — has yielded you this coveted diploma.

Frame it, hang it, move on.

The world you face once you leave this campus is not one for which we have adequately prepared you. It has changed dramatically since you entered these halls as freshmen.

We did not mean to leave you so woefully out of touch with the economy, the enterprises and the advances of 2010. It’s merely a reflection of how out of touch we’ve been all along.

As you’ve grown up, we’ve told you to study hard and to work hard, that such efforts would be rewarded. But as business moves faster and faster, you must rely on your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. The skills you possess now may be outdated soon, or already obsolete. The job you longed for as a child may not exist in the same way you imagined.

The traditional world of work still exists. We still need plumbers to install new pipes and fix the broken ones. You can go to trade school or apprentice for 2,000 hours. And voila, you’re a plumber.

The other world, the one many of you will work in, is the world of information. How well you gather, analyze, report, share and sell data will determine your value to the market.

Sounds dreary, doesn’t it?

But if you understand it and embrace it, you can conquer it. You might even make a respectable living at it.

But if you work hard, you may end up nowhere. If you are loyal to a company, it may still toss you out on your bum. Your degree is your past.

Your ingenuity is your future.

Thank you, congratulations, and God bless you.

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