When I graduated, everyone seemed to think that they were owed something, like they would walk into a senior role instantly.
Sadly this is a very serious problem and it saddens me greatly to see young people coming out of education with such a poor grasp on the realities of employment and their value to an employer. I've interviewed many graduates over the last 15 years, perhaps longer and it has become a bigger and bigger problem each year. I've had cockiness, chippyness, arrogance, ignorance, poor language, poor presentation, terrible personal hygiene, total lack of preparation, lack of research and worse, crying (women AND men) in interviews and it is really depressing to see, it is no longer funny.
I don't lay all the blame at the individuals here, there is a lack of preparation for work that is obvious and the whole system needs a major shake up. I was having dinner with some people the other week and a couple of the people were responsible for preparing their students (one of the top universities) for work. They asked the question of me and a few others there about what was wrong and it amazed me that they knew most if not all of the problems yet seemed unable to put their finger on why. However, then they went on to explain how they prepare students for work and it all became blindingly obvious, they were using team building approaches to coach, it was utterly abysmal and beyond embarrassing for them when they got our barrels shot back at them. "It is your bloody fault you are wasting out time with these students" was the VERY simplistic summary of the discussion.
Unless they involve business people at a much broader level in the students education it will continue to be a **** up of monumental proportions and the irony is most business people would LOVE to help. Of course there are some exceptional young people coming out of education but they really are in a very small minority and this is why in an interview if you can listen, speak and question effectively, are polite and well presented and show ambition you will progress because most of the other people in the waiting room will only do some of that or more likely, none of it!