Paraphrasing Thomas Friedman, author of the world is flatwho paraphrased Bill Gates:

Twenty years ago, from a purely financial career perspective, if I had the choice of being a “B” student from Brooklyn or an “A” student from Bombay, I would choose the former because America’s economic dominance was so complete that opportunities They were plentiful even for our average students.

Today, however, many would choose to be Bombay’s “A” student.

Why?

The power of the Internet has created an interconnected world that outsources many knowledge-based jobs.

In the 1980s, many manufacturing economies did not see the challenge of outsourcing until their cities began to close.

Many children of manufacturing workers were “educated” with the expectation that they would be working at the local plant when they reached adulthood. Consequently, many parents did not put much emphasis on getting a college education. Subsequently, their adult children suffered, as there were fewer jobs waiting for unskilled workers.

There is a similar phenomenon taking place in the low to mid level white collar world.

Those who have jobs that can be done for a fraction of the cost by an English-speaking worker from a different country (India being the most notable) are losing their jobs at a rapid rate. Perhaps most significantly, those who graduate with the expectation of plenty of entry-level white-collar jobs awaiting them will be sorely disappointed.

To give just one example, H&R Bloch, the well-known tax preparation company, no longer hires thousands of recent American graduates with accounting degrees to prepare basic tax returns. Instead, most of the work is done by Indian accountants who work cheaper (and many would say better and harder) than the average new accountant at an average American college.

There is hope. Conceptually challenging work will still be required. And, while there is no doubt that Indians, among others, are quite capable of doing such work, high-end work is much more difficult to outsource. For example, corporations and high net worth individuals with complicated tax returns still need urgent in-person discussion and issue management. Those who can perform such work will continue to be in demand.

Metaphorically, those hired for the most conceptually challenging job will be the “A” students, not necessarily the “B” students, and definitely not the “C” students.

The metaphorical challenge is not as significant as the literal challenge.

Despite the Great Recession, many parents still have the world economic domination mentality of the 1980s and 1990s, where jobs were enough for any student at any university.

They and many of the high school students we know in Southeastern, CT do not fully understand that getting better grades will have a direct impact on their college choices which, in turn, will have a direct impact on their job prospects.

Occasionally, we meet well-intentioned but misguided parents who seem to think that it doesn’t matter which college a student goes to.

From a life experience level, this may be true. And, to be clear, for certain career paths that don’t require a high-level pedigree, this is also true.

But for those hoping to improve the entry-level options their child-students will have in the future, college level does make a difference. This is not a value statement. This is “just as it is”. It’s easier to get a job coming from Harvard than it is from Little Known U.

A few years ago, before the Wall St. accident, we worked with a student from Essex, CT. He had trouble turning in his homework on time.

However, he had high ambitions for his career. He wanted to make a “ton of money on Wall St.”

His grades, however, were constantly doomed by his attitude toward homework.

We met him when he was a senior in high school in Southeastern, CT. It was too late to change his college admissions chances (a 2.5 GPA wouldn’t impress many admissions officers!). He was admitted to a non-prestigious university in New England with no history of sending its graduates to Wall St. or other forms of significant financial income.

We are still working with him as a virtual tutor as he hopes to get top marks to increase his job prospects. However, it would have been much better if he had understood the connection between grades and potential college options years ago.

There are many wonderful opportunities presented by the new world of work. But those who are not prepared with a solid academic background may suffer the same fate as industrial workers in the late 20th century.

Our company, The Learning Consultants, http://www.learningconsultantsgroup.com provides the tools to help you get top grades and navigate the new world of work.