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The Parnassa Dilemma, The Rise of Community Colleges
from WhereWhatWhen
“What are you going to do for parnassa?” Parents like to ask this question, and young people worry about how to answer it.

© By Nama Schabb

“What are you going to do for parnassa?” Parents like to ask this question, and young people worry about how to answer it. This article is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles about options for young and not-so-young frum people in doing just that: earning a living. It has been inspired by the work done by Dr. Moshay Cooper and her team at Bais Yaakov in organizing career days, where students visit a business of interest for a day, and career fairs, where professionals are available in booths to talk about their work.

We live in a time where our economy is going through drastic changes. Today, the top one percent income bracket owns proportionately more of the country’s wealth than ever before, and increasing numbers of dead-end jobs are being offered up to those entering the job market. It’s a tough time to make a living; it is no longer enough to “get a good education and find a good job” for life. Showing up at work and doing your job is no guarantee of a professional future. And yet, Hashem expects us to go through a reasonable hishtadlus (effort) to arrive at the blessing He has prepared. It seems to me that independent-minded, thoughtful research and networking among all the members of our community can give us more useful answers than simply relying on conventional wisdom.

What Kind of Work?

The goal of these articles is to identify ways that young people can do something productive and interesting right out of high school, or with a minimum amount of training, as well as to identify college courses that actually offer productive professional careers.

For the post-high school, quick education careers, I chose fields where I have detailed experience as a consumer or producer of business services: bookkeeping with QuickBooks, internet software development, graphic design, and writing. There are also many promising new careers in health care, as well as opportunities for paralegals, mortgage processors, sales, and many other occupations, but they are beyond my knowledge. Hopefully, this series will inspire professionals familiar with other fields to offer similar reviews to help guide students in these choices. In the meantime, I’ll be interviewing many savvy young people who have found exciting college opportunities, many of which are completely subsidized by the State of Maryland.

I write in an era when we do, fortunately, have the luxury of choice. As Malka Weintraub, a popular vocational counselor, explains, “Work, today, is more than just parnassa. Work can help a person achieve his or her higher purpose, the reason G-d put them here. If you can find work that fits, it can be a really big blessing. It’s a great joy to be living your purpose and contributing support for your family and, ultimately, your community, as you give tzedaka from the funds you receive for your work.”

The question these articles will address is this: What kind of jobs can students find that will pay them for the aptitude they already possess, give them the satisfaction of self-expression, and at the same time train them for a future of greater responsibility and professional growth?

College Degree: No Guarantee of Success

When the curriculum of a bachelor’s degree was developed, as early as the 16th century, it was intended to educate the children of the elite in cultural history and critical thinking. In the 1950s, college funding for veterans of WW II moved hundreds of thousands of American Jews (along with so many immigrant groups) out of the working class and into professional opportunities that no one in their families had ever dreamed possible. The upheavals of the 1960s changed the direction of most universities. The emphasis became a general questioning and overturning of established moral values of the past. By the 70s, perhaps because the U.S. government offered such generous college loans, college had become a place where liberal thinking about morality seemed to be the primary topic. This, along with a general lack of practical focus, caused many frum communities to look for alternatives to the B.A.; often, this was by creating our own college programs.

We were both lucky and smart to be skeptical of the traditional, four-year stint at a live-in college. There was a time when college was the entry point for virtually every white-collar career. That time is past. Today there are many, many people questioning the value of paying a $40,000 per year tuition for a degree that, at best, prepares the student to study for yet another degree – a master’s or doctorate – with more debt and further delay in entering the job market. A Princeton economics professor, giving a talk on health care economics, remarked, “University education has not yet been disciplined by the market.” In the meantime, students and parents are on their own in figuring out how to make the most out of their educational dollars.

Looking at Alternatives

I’m not writing this article to convince anyone to forgo getting a bachelor’s degree. The job picture is still better in the long run for people who complete some kind of B.A., and we have our own Orthodox institutions that will help us get them with minimum exposure to the negatives of the college environment. But, since many members of our community marry before or during their undergraduate years and have large families, I want to be realistic. I’m looking at jobs and careers that can be started instead of, or before, working on a B.A. And, since many of our young people, both male and female, want part-time jobs to facilitate learning or parenting, I looked for jobs that offer time flexibility and part-time work.

I’m also focusing on careers where students can get their start within frum businesses that are looking for workers at the entry level. These jobs can provide a buffer during the early years, as young people build skills and confidence. Some of the fields I’m discussing also have the potential to be developed into an independent business after a few years of working for others. Alternatively, they can be used as a way by which a single or a young family is able to finance training for the “gold standard” jobs, such as accountant, lawyer, doctor, dentist, nurse, psychologist, social worker, or engineer. Having skills outside the career track can often make the difference in surviving the long educational journey, even when a student is quite clear about his or her goals for higher education.

Taking the slow path through the B.A. and other advanced degrees can help students make a more realistic assessment of the cost of acquiring these careers relative to their pay scale. Most of the high-level white-collar jobs require taking on debt in order to finish. Often, long apprenticeships or internships are degree requirements. During these apprenticeships, the pay scale is quite low or nonexistent, requiring more debt. Interns in accounting, engineering, psychology, medicine, and social work may find that they are in a full time, underpaid or unpaid job following the completion of a long degree.

Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Maalot, and Binah Institute make the college journey somewhat shorter by accepting credits for Torah studies to fulfill some of the B.A. requirements. There are many of these schools around the world. Their innovation is in explaining the Judaica curriculum to university standards committees and convincing them that critical thinking and general study skills can be acquired by learning Torah. These schools tend to be flexible, responsive, and open to adding new courses if the students and parents want them. They are not, however, in business to transform higher education. They make no claim that Judaic studies is a trade school or career training process, except where Jewish education is concerned.

The place where vocational education – how to do specific jobs – has really blossomed is in community colleges.

The Rise of Community Colleges

When I was in college, 30 years ago, the bright and promising students did not consider community colleges. Direct vocational training was viewed as something one did because he could not make it in college. As the traditional, residential B.A. programs have lost their appeal, however, community colleges have moved in to fill the gap. Community colleges offering two-year degrees or simple certification programs have created courses of study that are short, affordable, and lead directly to identifiable jobs. These credits can also be accumulated and transferred to a four-year college that grants the B.A.

Today we see more and more frum students in Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) and the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) at Catonsville. They are learning specific skills that qualify them for specific jobs for which they can apply as soon as they are finished, while also accumulating credits toward the B.A. Significantly, unlike the residential colleges, community colleges do not see themselves as a place for social networking and meeting the “important connections” that will drive your career. Teachers in community colleges are much less interested in teaching liberal values. They know that their job is to teach their students how to write an intelligible sentence, study for a test, or pass prerequisite courses like statistics, math, or physics. Contrary to the impression that the four-year institutions sometimes provide, community college course work isn’t easier, and it’s not an intellectual sell-out; it’s simply more focused.

It is interesting to note, in this context, that the so-called “gold standard” of evaluating colleges, the U.S. News and World Report annual survey, is completely enslaved to the existing, four-year college elite system. They rank schools based on the impressions of their peers, other four-year college presidents. Recently, it was reported in the New York Times that, even though a new system of evaluation has been created – a system created by community colleges, based on students’ feedback of whether the courses were helpful and the teachers good – it has been rejected by the educational elite.

To make it more complicated, there is an entire system of “for-profit” colleges that engage in aggressive selling and tuition collection with absolutely no regulation by any body. According to the university-based experts I consulted, these schools are predators and should be avoided.

We’re very lucky that Maryland’s universities have an excellent system that helps students know if a particular community college course can be transferred to a four-year Maryland university. Called ARTSYS (http://artweb.usmd.edu), this computerized, online database indicates whether the course is transferable and, if so, what is the receiving institution’s equivalent course number, and what is its applicability towards elective credits. It also indicates which general education area is applicable to the course. By using ARTSYS, a student can take classes that are immediately useful, as well as work toward a degree, instead of taking a variety of general courses with no particular goal.

The Blessing of Options

As difficult as the economy might be today, we are blessed to have a choice. Rabbi Berel Wein often mentions in his history of Eastern European Jewry that, due to anti-Semitic laws, unemployment was as high as 40 percent among the men in the Jewish community. The many shul-based jobs – with multiple gaba’im, shamasim, and behelfers (who transported children to school), etc. – were often designed to maintain dignity for men who could not find alternative jobs, even if their families desperately needed the income.

We live in an era when the American Orthodox community is respected and there is minimal discrimination, allowing frum people to enter virtually every kind of career. Even halachic requirements are no longer an impediment to a job in the general marketplace. Many jobs allow for flexible schedules, permitting Shabbos and Yom Tov observance and time for parenting.

We’ve come a long way since the ghetto and the shtetl. While many of our best and brightest students are still choosing Jewish communal careers – becoming teachers, rabbis, shochtim, sofrim, or mohelim – now they have a choice. If they remain in the yeshiva world, it can be for idealistic reasons, not because the outside world offers no opportunities. Whether a young person goes into a Jewish occupation or works in the broader society – each can choose work that expresses his or her talents and values and allows for a life of fulfillment and an honorable parnassa.
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Opportunities in Bookkeeping
from WhereWhatWhen
My quest for occupations that are in demand, provide a decent parnassa, and are quickly learned

© By Nama Schabb
In my quest for occupations that are in demand, provide a decent parnassa, and are quickly learned, I chose to look at bookkeeping first because it’s so vital to every business. No one can be successful without keeping track of his or her money. Once that’s taken care of, most business owners can do much better spending their time plying their trade, whether it is auto mechanic or lawyer. Many successful professionals are great at the work they do but really weak at keeping the books.

A Revolution Called QuickBooks

Specific software, by the name of QuickBooks, from Intuit, is so commonly used it isn’t even necessary to discuss the many other, more specialized accounting packages. Becoming a bookkeeper means learning QuickBooks, almost without exception. (Intuit also puts out the popular home bookkeeping system called Quicken.) QuickBooks has become the standard tool by which bookkeepers ensure the accuracy and clarity of the information that business owners use.

I bought my first copy of QB in the late 80s and found that, within months, I was saving money. My bookkeeper and accountant were spending substantially less time on my books, with far better results. My bookkeeper was very soon able to service four or five clients in the same amount of time that she had been using to take care of my books alone.

What Is Bookkeeping?

Let’s begin with the big picture: All business owners need to keep a set of books, in which they keep track of what they pay for, from office supplies to payroll to the materials they use to manufacture the end product. They have to track the money collected from their customers or clients in fees or sales of all kinds. All of these interactions have to be checked for accuracy. When that work is done, then, at the end of every quarter and again once every year, businesses have to report to the government and pay taxes on their earnings.

Before QuickBooks was invented, bookkeepers used to learn something called double entry bookkeeping. They wrote down income and expenses in such a way that they all fit together to show a balance sheet giving a picture of the total worth of the business, including real estate, equipment values, and a profit-and-loss statement. Arithmetic used to be very important in these systems, because if you made errors, the whole system would not balance. The time it took to create all these records meant that businesses could not get an immediate look at the big picture of their entire business.

Today all that has changed. The computer does the math quickly. Immediate profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets provide accurate numbers that help business owners to make decisions about what to order, whom to hire, and how much to charge for their product/services, based on intelligent, clear, fact-based analysis.

Even though computers will do the math for you, however, and quickly show the relationships between the numbers, they can’t think. Computers can only help if they receive the right information in the right way. Only with accurate data entry, reported in the correct category, can the numerical pictures that makes for successful business be painted for the owners. My first bookkeeper was so good at QuickBooks that years would pass before I realized just how much confusion this software can create when someone uses it incorrectly. A business that takes a penny-wise-pound-foolish, do-it-yourself approach may end up paying dearly at tax time.

Bookkeeper or Accountant?

Typically, bookkeepers and/or business owners will work with the business’s accountant. A Certified Public Accountant is licensed by the government and is responsible to make sure that his or her client pays payroll and taxes, and reports all operating expenses honestly. He or she is paid by the client but is ultimately accountable to the government.

Bookkeepers keep track of day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month business. No license is required; the accountant and the owner are the best judge of the bookkeeper’s work. Accountants use the basic figures to help understand the big picture. They are responsible to advise their clients about important issues like which expenses are tax deductible. Should the business buy new machinery? Should more people be working in the factory? Should they raise or lower their prices?

Virtually every business needs an accountant, at least at tax time. However, accountants’ work and advice is meaningless if the numbers that they analyze are inaccurate and unreliable. Day-to-day accuracy is the basic nutritional requirement of good business numbers. Accountants can fix errors in bookkeeping, but often their hourly rates are so high that it is not cost effective for them to pick up the pieces. For that reason, bookkeepers frequently consult with accountants to make sure that everything is set up properly.

As a way of thinking about the value of using a bookkeeper as opposed to the more professional-sounding accountant, I heard an interesting metaphor from Beth Tenenbaum, who, until two years ago, did the bookkeeping for about 10 clients in the U.S. and Israel, working from her home. As a young mom, Beth wanted her doctor, the “expert,” to give her child injections. The nurse pointed out to Beth that while she, the nurse, gave dozens even hundreds of shots daily, the doctor’s last experience could have been months ago. “He has broader knowledge and gets a bigger paycheck, but I’m more qualified to do this job of injections, by far,” explained the nurse.

The bookkeeper in this example is the nurse and the accountant the doctor. The women interviewed for this article found their bookkeeping work fascinating and wouldn’t think of becoming an accountant. They love their work, they learn more every day, and their clients place an enormous responsibility, well-deserved, on their shoulders.

From the career-candidate’s point of view, becoming a bookkeeper rather than an accountant has certain advantages. Beth worked as a bookkeeper because she valued the time flexibility it provided for her as a mother with young children. “I didn’t take any jobs that were time bound,” she explains. “That was my choice, to be home with my kids. Obviously, payroll and taxes have deadlines, but that doesn’t mean that I had to show up at 9 a.m. on every day. I may have had to make a phone call during the day, but the majority of my work at that stage of my life was done in the evenings.”

This is not true for accountants, who must invest at least two years as an auditor, working grueling hours for low pay, pass a complex examination, and in most cases, expect to be at the office 16 hours a day throughout tax season. (Of course, some people choose another path. I know an energetic mother who has worked out a system with her husband that allows her to work the necessary long hours; plus, she found a family-friendly firm to work for. Her income is much greater as a result.)

Beth is now COO of ExamPro, a company that offers board review courses for doctors. Although, at this point, bookkeeping is only a small part of her job, it is significant that she got her start in this company as a result of doing their bookkeeping.

Do You Have the Aptitude?

Several businesses serve the bookkeeping needs of our community’s many, many small businesses. The ones that were interviewed for this article have hired frum employees almost exclusively, after determining that a student has the right personal traits for success. These businesses would be good places for someone to get started in a paying position that offers growth and advancement.

I asked the bookkeepers, all of whom learned QuickBooks on the job, a few basic questions: How do you spot a person who has the aptitude for bookkeeping? What skills are required to get the first job? How much does a bookkeeper earn in Baltimore? How is the day spent?

Oddly enough, none of the bookkeepers put experience with QuickBooks at the top of the list of requirements for being a bookkeeper. They all agree that employees can learn it on the job. Rather, because accuracy and organization are critical, these are the traits that a good bookkeeper needs. Beth Tenenbaum notes, “At the end of the day, everything has to balance and match to the penny. If you’re not the kind of person who cares if it matches, bookkeeping is not for you.” You can’t learn attention to detail. You either have it or you don’t.” This is what the vocational counselor would call aptitude.

Ariella Letaw Levin, of Baltimore’s Best Bookkeeper, focuses on skills that can come through general computer training. “For me it’s computer literacy that counts in hiring.” She asks, “Do you have experience communicating via Internet, do you know how to get around on Word and Excel and to grasp the rules of computer data entry?” She continues, “The job requires good organization skills. As you advance in your work, though, I’ve found that creativity is important. Bookkeeping is like putting together a vast, complex puzzle.”

For Beth it was also confidence with computers and a feeling for programming logic that stood out in her mind. When she taught as a substitute in Bais Yaakov High School’s QB class, the point was brought home to her in vivid terms. “Students who were just there to pass the test did not make the effort to learn the software. It’s learning the software that has to be your ultimate goal, not simply following instructions.

“Many of the personality traits needed also depend on what the client is expecting,” Beth adds. “If your job includes billing the customers and making calls if they don’t pay, the job will demand tact in working with the public.” She observes further, “If your role is to ensure the accuracy of vendor invoices, research skills and conflict resolution abilities come into play.” Vocational counselor Malka Weintraub would describe these as social skills and learning to fit into the organization of your employer.

Shifra Nissel, owner of AccuBusiness Solutions, Inc., provides more depth to the picture when she describes her ideal employee as needing self-esteem and the ability to multitask. Shifra has three people working in her home-based business, serving approximately 40 clients at any given time. “Of course, we look for reliability and meticulousness. When there are many clients to serve, all of whom need their answers quickly at times, everyone must be able to keep track of the many and varying needs of each client.”

How They Got Started

Beth got started in bookkeeping by working for Peter Wollner at Compucare in the 80s. Ironically, even though she had expertise with computers, when she took over the books for her synagogue, way back in the 80s, her first step was to return to manual bookkeeping. “In those days, a system crash could destroy all your data, and we were small enough to do it the old-fashioned way,” she explains. “Later, when QuickBooks provided a more reliable system, I put our shul books on QuickBooks. At that time, I set up back-up procedures and lots of quality control measures to make sure that our numbers made sense. My client list eventually included a business run from Eretz Yisrael, a caterer, a law firm, and other kinds of businesses. I found that the same principles apply whether keeping track of $10,000 or 3 million. I’ve done both.”

Ariella Letaw-Levin learned bookkeeping the family business in the 80s. “After I finished college with a degree in theatre and psychology, I went back to a community college to learn double entry so that I could be more helpful in the office. Later, we moved the family business onto QuickBooks. Even though my clients use some part of other industry-specific software on occasion, most of them are running QuickBooks.”

Shifra Nissel, of AccuBusiness Solutions, learned QuickBooks as the director of operations for Advanced Medical Concepts, a medical equipment company. “As an office manager, I spent my career managing other people’s businesses. Then, one summer, all my children were in camp for an entire month, and I decided it was time for me to create something for myself, for the next phase of life,” explains Shifra. “The difference between my business and most of the others is that I spend about 30 percent of my time training people to use QB. I’m a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor, and I train with QuickBooks Intuit on all of the new features every year.”

How They Work

Approaches to training and billing represent a major difference among the firms. Ariella, of Baltimore’s Best Bookkeeper, has found that most of her clients do not do well in keeping their own books, so her pricing policies actively discourage this process. Each client receives a detailed proposal with a scope of work customized to their needs and a flat monthly fee. Only on the odd occasions when a unique situation takes her out of the pre-determined scope does she bill by the hour.

Most of Nissel’s clients at AccuBusiness Solutions are billed by the hour. And as many as 30 percent are strictly training clients, who receive initial setup and training as well as telephone support but whose books Nissel does not manage on an ongoing basis.

All of the bookkeepers I spoke with work with clients in their own bookkeeping office. “With very few exceptions, my clients have gotten used to the idea that vital financial data is going to leave the office,” says Ariella. “We use messenger services to exchange packages. Many of my clients are receiving live data as soon as we get it entered through the Internet. There is only one client for whom I do all of the work in her office.” Tenenbaum agrees, “It’s a comfort level and a geographical issue when it comes to taking the records off site.”

Of course, not every business owner wants to take financial records outside the office. Many prefer an in-house bookkeeper, and these businesses are another source of employment. Indeed, I have run across at least 10 companies who employ bookkeepers trained in Bais Yaakov or in one of the bookkeeping businesses mentioned here. Many of these companies will hire a beginning level QuickBooks user.

Then there are the companies that still prefer to have the accountant do it all. They might not realize that their accountants often use a bookkeeper. Tenenbaum had accountant clients who hired her to clean up their clients’ mistakes. “It’s much more cost-effective for an accounting firm to give a bookkeeper the books their client has created. Sometimes, I started completely from scratch. Other times, I gave the accountant a list of questions about the entries that don’t make sense. This kind of client doesn’t even know they have an offsite bookkeeper, they just know they have an accountant.”

What Can You Earn?

The government’s Occupational Handbook projects good growth in jobs for bookkeepers, including many opportunities for temporary and part-time work. Certified Bookkeepers (CBs) and those with several years of experience have the best job prospects.

A beginning bookkeeping assistant earns about $10 per hour. As they grow in their work, employers will reward their employees for bringing in business and increase their hourly compensation. Salaries range from $22,000 per year to about $40,000. According to Ariella, $50,000 a year is the maximum compensation an employee can hope to earn in the most successful business. “If you’re generating that kind of revenue, you should be looking at becoming a partner in a bookkeeping firm,” she says.

Learning QuickBooks

Bais Yaakov offers a beginning QuickBooks class as an elective. Parents aware of this can play a role in advising their daughters. Young women who want to marry at 20 and support their families while their husbands learn would be well advised to take this class, as well as any other opportunity to learn something practical while still in high school.

Intuit offers courses in every city in the U.S. on a schedule that is aggressively promoted to every licensed product owner. Most of the community colleges offer QuickBooks courses as well.

A uniquely attractive training program is provided by Dr. Andrew Schiff, who is also on the faculty at Towson University. His private program on York Road not only trains bookkeepers but offers them the skills, the contacts, and the marketing tools to start a business. When Ariella wanted to move into a more aggressive stage of business as her children completed high school, she attended this program, which she felt was superior to any class she’d attended. It is uniquely suited for students who really want to avoid the diversity of the campus experience and want a highly focused training program. For more information, see Dr. Schiff’s website, learnaccountingnow.com, or call him at 410-828-1902.

An Internet search will also turn up literally dozens of providers who are teaching QuickBooks through TV, audio, and classes of all kinds, often based on an industry specialty. There is no shortage of places to learn to use the software on any schedule at all. As always, however, let the buyer beware.
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Thoughts on the Parnassa Dilemma
from WhereWhatWhen
I also would like to see frum yeshiva students get good jobs. I am dealing with young people who are short on time and money. Yet I want to focus on the student who may be willing to make a handful of calculated decisions in order to set him or her self up for long-term career success.

© By Matt Bernstein

In the last issue’s article, “The Parnassa Dilemma,” Nama Schabb speaks to the individual who wants to find a job that is quickly learned, in demand, and provides a decent parnassa. Down the road, this individual may also want to work part- or full-time, with a schedule flexible enough to accommodate parenting and/or learning. Being a bookkeeper most certainly fulfills these requirements. I commend Mrs. Schabb for assessing a need within our community and for her pertinent employment suggestion.

With this said, I want to supplement Ms. Schabb’s advice by speaking to a different need within our community – and, I want to make a different suggestion about career paths. In the six years I have spent counseling yeshiva students in Silver Spring, Maryland, I have found many gaps in their understanding of career issues: what jobs are available, what jobs suit them, and how to prepare for those jobs. What is even sadder is that many of them have been led to believe that their seminary- and yeshiva-aided BAs qualify them to enter the world of work, only to find, when they apply for jobs, that they lack the qualities employers are looking for.

Like Mrs. Schabb, I would like to see frum young people get good jobs. And like her, I am dealing with young people who are short on time and money. Yet I want to focus on the student who may be willing to make a handful of calculated decisions in order to set him or her self up for long-term career success.

Let me present a scenario of how the “other half” does this. Serious public and private high school students know that getting a good education is crucial for their future. They work hard for good grades. They study for the SATs. They participate in as many extracurricular activities as they can, and they seek internships or jobs during the summer that often relate to a field of work they are considering. Then there is the long process of researching and applying to schools and searching for financial aid. Once they get into the college that will give them the best education, they work hard in school and continue to seek meaningful work experiences. During the senior year, there are job fairs, where top employers – ranging from PricewaterhouseCoopers to Procter & Gamble – come to pluck the best candidates and bring them into their companies. Most university graduates apply to other top companies and receive job offers with strong career paths from these organizations.

For the most part, our community is cut off from this process. We think of college as a means to acquire a “trade,” like an accountant or lawyer. But a whole world of jobs exists for which the job requirements are less specific. The top companies in America are not looking for a piece of paper or a cobbled-together degree. They are looking for bright, eager young people with a global “good education.” They want impressive employees who have demonstrated the ability to work hard, work smart, and behave ethically. These companies find such young people in the top universities (like Stanford and Princeton), the top small, liberal-arts colleges (like Williams and Middlebury), and at the top state schools (like the University of California-Berkeley and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). They also find these job candidates in middle-tier colleges and universities. When they find such people, they bring them into their organizations and train and mentor them to rise within the company.

We all know that our children are smart, hardworking, socially capable, ethical, and more; they are 100 percent capable of getting and thriving within a quality job. But they don’t have access to these kinds of jobs that drive America, because we don’t participate in the process. Of course, there is good reason for rejecting attendance at residential universities, as it comes with a host of social and religious/moral problems.

The question I hope to answer in this article, therefore, is can we, as frum Jews, compete for these same jobs without making sacrifices with relation to our Torah values? The answer is, most certainly, yes. With that said, there is work and real effort involved.

Taking Action

In vocational matters, as in so many things in life, decisions made early on have the potential to reap enormous benefits in the long term. Those benefits are many. Essentially, we would be opening up a source of parnassa to the members of the next generation that would allow them to more than comfortably provide for their families, reduce the daily stress in the home due to money issues, and work at jobs that are intellectually and emotionally stimulating.

It bears repeating, however, that in order to attain these desirable careers, the individual needs to take action. High school students need to make a calculated and determined decision to get a real quality education and obtain real work experience. Trying to fake an education and job experience is futile. Indeed, the most frustrating part of career counseling, for me, has to do with our shortcut mentality toward secular education and parnassa. The pervasive thinking goes like this: How do I do the least and get the most? In addition, there is an enormous amount of fear of going outside the accepted norms.

By the time I meet with kids at age 19, 20, and 21 to talk to them about their careers, it is already late in the game. They have not applied themselves to their secular studies. Typically, they were not even taught using the latest teaching methodologies or expected to achieve on a high level. They have not taken relevant summer jobs and internships. On one occasion, I was speaking with a 22-year-old boy who realized that he had not been properly advised and prepared for his impending career, and he started openly weeping. His job options were painfully limited, and, for all intents and purposes, he had to start all over again.

To change this state of affairs, we, as a community, need to guide our young people more effectively. Anyone who has been out in the world fighting the parnassa battle knows that there are better jobs and there are worse jobs. Yet, to many of the young men and women I have spoken with, most jobs “sound pretty good.” Young people are not always the best judges of what is a better and what is a worse job, especially since they are often looking at the job from a short-term perspective. That is why they definitely need guidance when selecting a career.

The key to creating a relevant career path is finding a mentor who is knowledgeable about the enormous spectrum of jobs and careers open to our frum children, as well as insightful when learning about these children. He or she should also be creative and interested in helping a young person find the career that is best suited to that unique individual. We need more such mentors in our communities.

It is also very important that young people be involved in selecting their career path. The self-fulfillment they will experience, G-d willing, as they progress in their careers should be experienced at some level during these initial career discussions. Ideally, they should experience their career path as a path of self-discovery. And the first step on this path is picturing a point on the horizon that is appropriate for b’nai Torah, as well as financially viable and inspiring. We should settle for nothing less.

A Quality Education

Baltimore City Community College and the Community College of Baltimore County (Catonsville, etc.) can be strong options for getting an education both inexpensively and quickly. Similarly, young men and women can learn QuickBooks quickly and inexpensively from numerous resources. With that said, BCCC and other community colleges may not always be the best option for a young man or woman who is looking to make a strategic, long-term career move.

A well-known statistic indicates that there is a direct correlation between education level and income – that is, the more educated an individual, the more money he or she will make. It also holds true, statistically, that the Stanford University graduate will make more money than the community college graduate. The cynic may scoff and claim that the graduates of the top four-year colleges get paid more due to superficial reasons, including an overrated diploma. There may be some truth to these statements. Nonetheless, the name of a top four-year college, a graduate degree, etc. carries weight on your resume. Moreover, this weight is directly correlated to the actual quality of education at these schools. Statistically, the graduates of a top four-year college are better educated than the graduates of a community college, due primarily to the acceptance standards as well as the quality of education within the walls of the school.

The top four-year colleges are not judged as better schools because the U.S. News and World Report and the educationally elite say they are. The top four-year colleges are judged as better schools because, objectively, they are better schools. They have better facilities, better services (e.g. career development), better teachers, better students, better curriculum and coursework, better teaching methodologies, etc.

That said, a student can compensate for not going to a top four-year college. At the top, in terms of importance, is the ability to read and write critically. Knowing how to write well is crucial. A basic understanding of computers (e.g. Microsoft Office) is important. So, for that matter, are math, history, science, social sciences, and more. It certainly doesn’t hurt to take coursework that relates to one’s preferred parnassa, but the key is getting a good general education. Other factors that determine success include networking, hard work, and good mazal, but a quality education is a big piece of this parnassa puzzle.

College the Frum Way

This takes us back to our original conundrum: Not everyone can afford the time and money associated with four years of college. And again, we need to be careful about our children’s exposure to the social atmosphere that permeates most of the top four-year schools. To overcome these problems, as frum Jews, we get creative. We take AP classes in high school in order to qualify out of college courses. We take college courses in Eretz Yisrael that we transfer into four-year colleges. We go to school at night. We quickly and easily get an undergraduate degree from an online university and channel our limited time and money into a two-year master’s program

These strategies are creative and can be effective. Again, the key is to make sure you’re really getting an education. To rationalize getting a “fake degree” – a college or university degree where you’ve received a BA, BS, and/or MA yet learned little, if anything – is a mistake. Those with yeshiva BAs will struggle to get good jobs, because they lack real work experience and a real education, which is what 90 percent of employers are looking for.

Our children need to be able to compete academically with the rest of the children in America. At the very least, they need a level of competency that is commensurate with a quality high school education. While many of our yeshivas and schools offer such an education, not always do the students get that education. Many of our students have the unfortunate attitude that secular studies don’t count. Could this be why yeshivas with “top-notch general studies programs” graduate far too many students who are reading and writing at a level that is far below the academic standards necessary to perform at a professional level? If our students cannot clear this lowest hurdle of educational competency, they will have to play catch-up, or suffer real consequences as their careers progress.

Creating Economic Value

A fundamental fact that I try to convey when counseling a young person is that most everyone works within a business. A business is any organization where money is going in and out and people are making a living. Some are standard businesses that provide goods or services, while others are not-for-profit organizations. The essence of business is the creation of economic value, or profit.

How does the creation of economic value relate to careers? With few exceptions, an employee’s salary directly correlates with the economic value that employee creates within the business. In grossly simplified terms, if I pay this new, young employee who is “learning the business” $50,000 per year for the next three years, will he or she develop into a worker who will make me $50,001 or more during that third year?

Employers don’t pay employees salaries. Employers invest in employees. An employer may be patient and wait for an employee/investment to “turn around,” but, in the long term, all rational employers will seek to acquire good investments and divest themselves of bad ones.

Mrs. Schabb mentioned in her article that “doing your job is no guarantee of a professional future.” This is absolutely true. Creating economic value is the best – if not the only – guarantee of your economic future. Let me give an example: Mrs. Schabb correctly points out that accountants can’t do their job well unless a bookkeeper provides them with accurate data. However, this is much the same as CEOs who can’t do their job well unless a receptionist screens their calls. The accountant position is more than “more professional sounding”; it is qualitatively different than that of the bookkeeper, because the accountant is in a position to drive profitability, while the bookkeeper is not. In a large business, an accountant can make a suggestion that increases revenues or cuts costs – causing the business to profit by tens of millions of dollars. As a consequence, this same accountant will receive an increased salary, a bonus, or a promotion to reward the economic value he created. As proof, many senior employees are former accountants.

What about the employee who does not create value for the business? This type of employee might be called a “necessary cost.” For example, a receptionist is a necessary cost. No matter how fantastically a receptionist says, “Hello, may I help you?” when she answers the phone, she will add little, if any, economic value to the business. The $35,000 you pay this receptionist is not a good or a bad investment; it’s simply a necessary cost.

The fair market price for most jobs of this ilk is not high. While employers are literally investing in some employees via business training, corporate seminars, and other educational and career growth experiences, the “necessary cost” employees are quietly doing their jobs. They receive minimal pay raises and infrequent promotions. ”Necessary cost” positions include secretaries, bookkeepers, computer programmers, network administrators, etc.

Please realize that these are not dead-end positions, nor are they bad jobs. They are merely jobs with limited salary and career growth opportunities (even if you do occasionally find an ambitious and able “necessary investment” employee leaving his or her job to become the COO of a small entrepreneurial business).

Young frum men and women should be aware that the quick, easy career that is tempting in the short term may result in the loss of innumerable long-term opportunities – opportunities for promotions, salary increases, and career growth that is commensurate with their true potential. While pursuing such careers as finance, brand management, management consulting, and a plethora of other careers may take longer and may earn less money in the short-term, the long-term possibilities are endless.

And if these careers are unfamiliar, it is because most of us have a very limited vision of what is an appropriate career for a frum Jew. Actually, the spectrum of such careers is enormous. And, there are numerous new careers being created. What’s important to recognize is that there is a plethora of great jobs in the world that are unequivocally not antithetical to our Torah values and that are ours to compete for and win. A real education and real job experience are the keys to attaining these positions.

Growth Careers

Growth careers are sometimes found in unexpected places. For example, one might say that being a teacher is a growth job. In the best high schools in America, teachers are mentored and supported. Eventually, they become chaired faculty, department heads, deans, headmasters, etc. Often, they move over into business. But, you need to be teaching in the right school. Many schools are far from a meritocracy, especially, private Jewish schools.

Law can be a growth job. A very high number of yeshiva boys are well prepared for the field. But it is competitive. If you didn’t graduate from a good law school in the top 10 percent, you’ll be a lawyer, but your first job, or jobs, will most likely not be very high paying.

Sales is a great growth job, but not a sales job that is paid by commission only. The good sales jobs are with large companies, who hire new college graduates and often train them for a full six months before they are allowed to call a single client. They are paid a substantial base salary plus commission, and they have an employer with a vested interest in preparing them to be a top-notch salesperson and sales manager. For this kind of job, you can’t fake it.

Another job that frum boys, and even girls, go into is being an entrepreneur. This is the ultimate growth job, but being an entrepreneur with limited education (and job experience) can be a bad idea. Most frum entrepreneurs are not making it big. The vast majority struggle. With a proper education, this isn’t necessary. What do they learn in business school that prevents failure? you might ask. While nothing guarantees entrepreneurial success, a good education can give you the tools to minimize the risks. Some of the subjects you study in business school are best practices within the fields of organizational behavior, marketing, operations, etc.

Science, engineering, and IT have as much potential as any career choice, although what aspect of them one chooses to pursue and how you navigate the course of the career is critical. Occupational and speech therapy, popular choices among girls, are good jobs – well-paying and flexible. They are great for women who have made a personal decision to be mothers primarily. What they are not are jobs with a “career path.”

The Hiring Process

As mentioned above, most employers are looking for “good investments” to be the future leaders and economic drivers of their business. Like any investor, the employer looks at the individual’s past performance in order to speculate about future performance. In order to accomplish this, the hiring process typically consists of a gradual weeding out process. Of the numerous resumes an employer receives, only a handful will be selected for interviews. Of that handful, one is selected for the job.

In order to move from the resume stage to the interview stage, our children need to impress potential employers with their resume. Our children don’t need a Nobel Prize in economics, as those they are competing against also don’t have a Nobel Prize in economics. But, our children do need examples, if not a track record, of past successes. Typically, these successes fall under the categories of employment history, education history, and other interests and accomplishments. Our children therefore do an enormous service to their careers by having jobs, going to schools, and being involved in extracurricular activities that demonstrate the capabilities we know they possess. Unless they have demonstrated their unique talents and abilities – and created a resume that documents them – it will be difficult for them to get an interview for a quality job.

The Parnassa Dilemma Revisited

After reading this article, as well as Mrs. Schabb’s, it will be obvious that there are different ways to approach the parnassa dilemma within the frum world. It is an important discussion for us to have. The suggestions I have made in this article speak to solving the parnassa dilemma through certain principles. Again, they are: 1) Take action early. The first few moves in a chess game seem simple enough, yet they set the tone for the entire game and, more often than not, directly lead to the final outcome of the match. 2) Get support and guidance in finding a career path that, for both the short and long term, is Torah-appropriate and career-appropriate, as well as inspiring for the individual young man or woman. 3) Be proactive while at yeshiva, during the summer, and wherever you can, in order to have a “track record of successes” for your resume. 4) While at yeshiva or college, make sure to attain both a diploma and an education. An education is not a superficial experience, and there are few better ways to sabotage a budding career than to be inadequately prepared educationally.

These simple actions can reap enormous benefits. I hope the points outlined above can help interested frum men and women attain these career goals. Hatzlacha.
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Know Idea

[Kinan]