<p>Re: #7</p>
<p>The problem is, much of job market success is just being lucky or unlucky at the right time. During an economic downturn, a mediocre employee at a company that manages to do well enough to avoid layoffs often does better than a great employee at a company that goes out of business, leaving the great employee unemployed with poor chances of finding a job in the near future (and a record of long term unemployment when the economy or industry turns back up).</p>
<p>It is also known that the timing of when someone enters the labor force (i.e. graduation from school) has a significant effect on job success and pay levels even a decade beyond. A college senior may be able to somewhat manage that risk by applying to funded graduate degree programs as well as jobs, hoping to hide out in funded graduate school if the economy or industry goes down when s/he graduates.</p>