Column by Joy Priest. E-mail [email protected].

A mind is an expensive thing to buy, and as college students we seem to mindlessly purchase.

We jump at the chance to stand hours in line and sell our souls for the newest smart technology, yet we rarely match this same intensity when it comes to the effort we put into our futures.

Students who fret, fight and foam at the mouth over the latest wave of Apple products may not find a job like Steve Jobs’ attainable.

As participants in a university setting, we may put an exceptional amount of time and money into institutional education, but often with no true results.

We don’t value our skills enough and sometimes lack the general ambition required to get to the level of the techno-moguls that sit at the head of the technological empires we so admire. This lies in a lack of preparation.

According to a recent CNN report, the once-abundant office cubicle is shrinking in size and in some companies being eliminated all together.

Since 1994, the size of an office cubicle has shrunk from 90 square feet to 75 square feet due to technological advancements and a lack of need for cubicle space that once housed oversized office apparatus. Technology is purging the need for employees to stay at a desk all day to complete work assignments, according to the report.

The more technology we consume, the more cubicle space will decline as manual labor and space become less and less important. Being savvy about the latest technology isn’t a crime. In fact, it’s important to stay up-to-date in an ever-evolving economy.

But let’s focus more on being the inventors and controllers of said technology and landing above a cubicle position after college transit.

Not far from days thick with economic turmoil, we as the latest class awaiting deployment into a real market battlefield must train more for the role of producer rather than consumer.

With major company CEOs stepping down, leadership revolutionizing and employee office spaces shrinking, we must take a proactive role in preparing for post-graduation.

I know far too many degree-holders that sit, day after day, in these “shrinking cubicles,” letting the world and advancing technology pass them by. This isn’t the outcome we spend so much time and money to achieve.

As undergrads, we need to be thinking up the next inventive, technological contribution, preparing to land a post-grad position past the dwindling cubicle and focusing more on having a job like Jobs.

A mind is an expensive thing to buy. So let’s make the best of our investment.