Lack of self-confidence for college-age students is definitely exploited by high-status companies, i.e. the only ones who can afford to pay $$$ to recruit on-campus. They offer an easy answer to the decision fatigue of carving your own path by narrowing the world down into a handful of legible options (tech, consulting, etc) while promising you the optionality to do whatever you want "later" in life. Of course, there are tradeoffs to how long you defer that decision…
Really well-articulated! I think for some (including me), it's hard to imagine the bigger picture when there's gnawing feeling of financial insecurity at the base of Maslow's hierarchy (https://kzhai.substack.com/p/061-examining-the-purpose-of-knowledge).
Lack of self-confidence for college-age students is definitely exploited by high-status companies, i.e. the only ones who can afford to pay $$$ to recruit on-campus. They offer an easy answer to the decision fatigue of carving your own path by narrowing the world down into a handful of legible options (tech, consulting, etc) while promising you the optionality to do whatever you want "later" in life. Of course, there are tradeoffs to how long you defer that decision…