I recently participated in an outreach program at SUNY Brockport in which alumni spoke to business students about the world outside the college campus. In this career-focused program we educated the students about a variety of topics such as professional requirements, entrepreneurship, and economics.

No issue, though, was more important to them at a personal level than that of what their expectations should be of the post-college job market. This topic addressed the primary reason for their college lives: they are there solely for the creation of marketable career-worthy skills sets. That’s why I felt so bad when I, not one to mince words, really let the kids know what the Real World is like.

These students - as many others across the state - have been misled by their peers, professors, and some media sources about the financial rewards that are available upon graduation. Many seem to believe a college degree will bring in a $40,000 annual salary coming right out of school. That may be attainable in quite a few regions around the US but it is almost completely unrealistic in Upstate New York, the stomping ground of most of the students of this regional college. The median household income in Niagara County, for example, is just over $40,100. This is a staggering 12% below the national average. Adding to the damnation of this statistic, household income may represent two breadwinners and definitely includes the wages of workers who have been employed for decades and therefore are at the top end of their career niche. This was a downer for the students especially after the other panelists told them the Upstate economy would serve up $30,000, at best, for a raw, fresh-faced college kid.

As if that wasn’t depressing enough, I let them know that not only are jobs far from the highest paying in NY, but they are few and far between as well. Once again using Niagara County as the upstate snapshot, the number of employers decreased by 5% from 2000 to 2005 while some of the larger employers - like Delphi - shrunk considerably. It was from this analysis the kids were told they may have to tear up their roots, follow their migratory peers and seek opportunity elsewhere. This is what people are pretty much forced to do nowadays: According to the Brookings Institute the total exodus from Upstate New York from 1990 to 2002 amounted to 1.7 million people. In 2005 alone 9,200 people left the eight-county WNY region.

One student must have put two and two together about the economic depression and asked the question, "do politics and government influence business and the economy?" This, of course, led into my stating the insipid Upstate economy is the direct result of heavy-handed governance and bloated bureaucracy, amounting to the tune of a 4% to 5% disadvantage for NY businesses versus their competition from the rest of the US. The size of New York’s government and its economy (and availability of quality careers) share an inverse relationship.

My cohorts and I pretty much burst the students’ bubbles, denouncing mistruths and telling them the cold, hard facts about their futures. Even so, we were quite hopeful that the reality of which we spoke has reinvigorated their approach to schooling. Many of them became quite attentive and began to ask many questions during our visit, showing true concern.

Regardless of such impact, during the ride home I reflected at length about what I told the students. My emotions and thoughts alternated between saddened (for the predicament of these kids and their families who might have to bid them adieu) and enraged (towards the deviant political climate which has brought about this situation), for as much effort as these kids may put into making themselves better New York’s "leadership" hasn’t and won’t. It seems that our "leadership" is almost indifferent to the economic disaster that is Upstate New York. And, because of that, more and more of our youth will continue to leave the state when they come of age because, quite frankly, there’s nothing here for them.

Welcome to the real world, kids.