Career Undermatching: The Higher Ed Issue You Need to Know About

Today I’m coining a new phrase, career undermatching. My goal is to start a serious conversation about ways to launch talented, educated, low-income young adults into good jobs. Without the right language, that conversation can’t happen.

Career undermatching describes the phenomenon in which talented, college graduates from low-income families wind up in jobs that don’t match their abilities or ambitions. Instead, they work in jobs that are less stimulating than they want, below their skill set and qualifications, offer lower pay scales and provide fewer opportunities for advancement.

You may already know about college undermatching, the phenomenon in which talented, low-income students attend less competitive colleges than their academically equivalent peers. That phrase burst onto the scene in the 2009 book Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities. Since then, it has triggered widespread discussions, research projects and experimental initiatives all aimed at fully understanding and solving the problem. Funders, universities, nonprofits, and federal and state governments all have invested millions of dollars, sometimes with promising results.

Career undermatching is a different challenge.

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