B.A., J.D., M.B.A., B.S. -- sign up here for Hustle 101

Markets were hit this morning by a disappointing jobs report, one that suggests hiring by private firms is running at about a quarter or less where people had hoped.

This is a monthly statistic, not to be overstated. Still, I think there is something deeper going on. Especially considering, it's May -- graduation month -- a rite of passage -- and it's a time when many firms do start looking around at the new crop of young people to see which ones they want to snap up before someone else does.

So here it is, summer is afoot, all the college kids are out -- hopeful, optimistic, bushy-tailed and bright-eyed, and some, if I may say so, a little arrogant.

A lot of them are frustrated, because they have just spent $100,000 to $500,000 on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees -- but suddenly are finding that those suffixes after their name are not attracting the kind of job offers some of them feel entitled to, and many of them hoped for and expected when they borrowed money from the education bureaucracy....  because, as we all know, having a college degree is the key, the requirement, the sine que non of success.

Now they're getting out, and the pot of gold isn't visible at the end of the rainbow.  More than anything else, I think this "graduate disappointment" factor was weighing on U.S. stocks today.

In our shop, we value education -- or to be more precise, learning, and a spirit of willingness to learn, which are not necessarily the same things -- and certainly don't hold it against someone if they have a college degree. It might even be a point in their favor... but it's not the only thing we value.

Indeed, we value those two or three initials after someone's name perhaps a little less than the attributes that should inherently accompany them -- but sadly, too often, don't.

I'm talking about basic intelligence. Problem-solving. Mental focus. Thinking on your feet; surmounting obstacles. Perhaps that most precious of all commodities, common sense. In a word, hustle. Initiative. Drive. Energy.

But no -- the word I keep coming back to is hustle.

Hustle 101.

Are there any courses in this? From the recent job interviews I've had, sadly, there must not be. Or if there are, maybe it's not something you can put into a course.  Perhaps you just have to learn it in life. Mark Twain said he always tried not to let his schooling get in the way of his education. Have we forgotten that wisdom? Are we, despite all our Schooling, failing to Learn?

I'm not writing this piece so much to criticize what goes on in our universities or our high schools, though such a critique is probably needed.

I'm writing it more to commiserate with all the young people, and their parents and grandparents, who are out there watching with frustration as the $85,000 a year job offers just don't roll in; as the government, which is so profligate with everyone else's money, starts demanding repayment of those massive loans; as they sit by the pool, like Dustin Hoffman.... but Mrs. Robinson simply isn't going by the pool any more.

I wish I could tell you your dreams are about to come true -- but they aren't. Not in the way you were hoping.

And yet, they very may well come true. You may start a business -- something where customers may care less about your credentials than they do about what you deliver, and the price. Mind you, you won't be getting hired "because" you have a degree, and a degree equals a job. You'll be working because of what you can do.

You may become an inventor or author or innovator. Once again, if something you learned in college helps you, you may thank your university. But people who buy your music, or your process, won't give you a leg up or a special premium because you have a BA or a JD or a BS.

That's my own advice to the class of 2011, or, if you will, any new enrollees in the Damon Vickers School of Hard Knocks.

Get out there and learn, or teach yourself, a few basics in Hustle 101. And try, like Mark Twain, not to let your university degree get in the way.

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