I think I just left my longest comment ever in someone's blog. It was so long that I just decided to give it some additional exposure in my own blog.

The premise of the blog post was that with the Information Age upon us -- benefiting everyone around the world who has access to the Internet -- more people are learning and connecting online than ever before. 

He stated that 8 out of 10 people don't use the college degree they earned and that the 20% who do are in jobs that require the highest level of education, such as doctors, attorneys, engineers, etc. He wondered why so many people have so many jobs in a short time frame, whether the system was broken or people just don't like their jobs, and what one is looking for when one changes jobs so often.

Following are my thoughts:

When I was in college in the late 1970s, Fortune, Forbes, and Money magazines all reported that 80% of college graduates did not have a job in their degreed profession within five years of college graduation. I think that's where I learned the 80/20 rule.

I don't find it unusual since I think it is pretty difficult at the age of 18 to get started on something, stay with it for four (five? six?) years -- many students change majors multiple times -- and then expect to be in that same profession 5, 10, 20, or 30 years later. Times change, conditions change, interests change, just like in marriage where 50% end in divorce.

Quite often (80% of the time?), the attitude of a person is far more important than the technical know-how, so a young college graduate might make some contacts in different industries as he's growing and maturing. With a good attitude, one can do just about anything because learning really isn't that difficult.

I'm a little different in that I've been playing the piano all my life, and both my bachelor's and master's degrees are in piano performance. However, when I graduated, it was pretty obvious that I was not going to be the next Martha Argerich because my hands are just too small to be able to play well all the music that should be in the traditional pianist's repertoire. One cannot make a living on Bach alone.

I've also been working with a major bookstore since high school -- almost 30 years now. I did not quit them in May 2005 when I became a Realtor because health insurance is so expensive. I needed to keep my group health insurance through the bookstore since the difference in premiums was about $800 a month for a family of two, not to mention the cost of possible prescription medicines, hospitalization, vision, and dental health. It's difficult to compete with a group health plan as an individual or two.

I think, though, that jobs now are like owning a house. My mom has lived in her house for 40 years. Can you name anyone in the current generation, whatever it's called (Gen X?), that has lived in his home for more than five years?

Therein, I think, is part of the problem with our society. Everyone started thinking that real estate was like a savings account -- live in it for two years and then take the money and run. People don't live in houses in order to raise families, retire, and die anymore because children don't stay around to help with maintenance. Thus, empty nester moms and dads have to downsize into a condo or an assisted living facility.

A mobile society (cars, planes) and a global economy (American companies moving their work forces overseas and overseas citizens coming to America for, of all things, an American college education before going back to their home country -- sometimes staying) makes for people moving around and changing jobs because they make contacts with many more people than they did 30 years ago.

I've heard it said many times that there are three types of employment:

1. VOLUNTEER -- here you don't get paid, such as a volunteer at the local animal shelter
2. JOBS -- according to business reports each year, this is 80% of the American work force. Why? Because of familiarity. People don't like to get out of their comfort zones, so once they find a job that they can handle, is convenient, and that pays reasonably well for their current needs, they stay. These, however, are typically your hourly employees, your blue-collar workers, your second household wage earners. I know them as clock watchers for two reasons: (1) they don't like their jobs so they come in on time and leave on time, and/or (2) they can't come in early or leave late because they don't get paid overtime and California doesn't allow a paid employee to work for free at any time during the day.
3. CAREERS -- these jobs typically pay more, but they also require more -- getting up at 6:00 a.m. to meet a Client at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast and coffee; skipping lunch to meet a Client at the airport; going to some evening event in order to network. These jobs often require 8, 10, 12, even 14 hours of work a day, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week.

In addition to being a full-time Realtor, I'm currently a Manager at a major bookstore. Even as a Manager, we are paid hourly and are not allowed to work overtime. Some times (some times?) it's difficult because there is work to do but we're not allowed to do it because the 8-hour day is at an end. So we get further and further behind. The only thing to do is to go in on one's day off and take that day off at some other time of the week.

I would much rather work 14 hours a day for myself, do what needs to be done to be successful each and every day -- persistently and consistently -- rather than work for someone else. Unfortunately, as long as insurance costs remain so high (go Obama and Daschle -- here's rootin' for ya!), I'm probably going to be at the bookstore for a long time.

I love the bookstore because I love books and music, and I also get good employee discounts, but if I lucked out with helping a rich Client buy a $25 million home on the Del Mar beach, I suspect I'd quit the bookstore, spend all my day working real estate, pay the higher insurance premiums, and do without the employee books and music discounts. I could afford it, and it's all relative.

Loyalty is something else that is not taught in today's world. Many of today's Baby Boomer generation worked for the same company "out of loyalty" that their moms and dads worked for. Family farms were in the same family for generation after generation after generation. Those times came to an end with mobility because people realized that they didn't have to stay home for the rest of their lives. Inheritance taxes and mergers also helped put an end to loyalty.

It seems the only loyalty left is with unions, but unions might be on their way out. They seemed to have existed to protect the family that grew up and stayed in town, but now, with mobility and a global economy, if you don't like your job anymore, or even your career, you can pick up everything and easily move to take a better job or establish a new career.

As someone I know dearly said, "If you want to stay the same, you have to change." So true, especially in a mobile, global world.

Added after the fact with edit: Thanks to Tony Toto of Gurnee, Illinois, for the idea for this post.

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Some of Jim's blog entries

1. Wow! Nice underwear
2. Your digital camera can do so much more than just take pictures
3. Are you a food label reader?
4. Excessive furnishings and storage create fire hazards
5. Holding an open house with fleas
6. Home safety for children: Why let them be injured or killed?
7. If you needed to hide from someone, could you do it in today's world?
8. Make every Friday "Backup Friday"
9. Please help me identify this type of architecture. Craftsman? Victorian? Modern?
10. Private, gated, fenced, coded subdivisions
11. 10 ways to get rich, courtesy of Warren Buffett
12. Tuesday laugh session with the "treadmill kitty cats"
13. What's in a name?