The Gen X Career Meltdown

Born in 79 so I'm either X or millenial - don't really care. I'm nostalgic about the times when tech was sought out and less pervasive. This recent article[1] really made me nostalic about the "goold ole days".

The "boring" days.

Anyways, I feel less sorry for myself and more empathy for younger generations.

Growing up has always been challenging, before school shootings, and online bullying..

Now you can't escape the call(s) without it implicitly being interpretted as ghosting.

/r

[1]https://www.scottsmitelli.com/articles/take-oncall-and-shove...

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#6

Post by ohnoitsahuman » Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 3:22 AM UTC

Gen X here. This author found the marginally productive people who can't read the room and adjust.

Us punk kids who photocopied their 'zines are doing just fine because we paid attention and moved on and then moved on again.

And the kids say: "skill issue, get gud"

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#7

Post by forgetfreeman » Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 3:28 AM UTC

newfocogi wrote: post #3

Gen X spent their youth rejecting their parents’ world—only to watch it vanish and get replaced by something even emptier.

At the time it seemed like a solid bet. It was in no way apparent that there was any way to shoehorn even more bullshit into the status quo. We grew up with Ronald Reagan as president and grown-ass adults convinced Dungeons and Dragons was the pinnacle of devil worship (meanwhile satanists were dismayed to find out it was just math and improv). Important people thought Lee Iacocca was a good pick to run a car company. Reasonable people concluded that this had to be the nadir of society and culture.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#8

Post by mixmastamyk » Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

Wild. I've heard of the end of e.g. journalism for years, since Craigslist... but as a software developer I thought I'd be immune to these kinds of shifts. Never thought the (career) reaper would come for me, haha.

I have some friends in Hollywood... they say there's nothing left, and not even a side-gig in Albuquerque left to pay the bills.

Been looking for a job, but in this downturn there's nothing available. After the economy recovers I have ageism and LLMs to look forward to. My own career mistakes as well—they were teaching fortran in school and I wanted to hack on Netscape for pay instead. ;-) Seemed like the right call at the time, but turned out dead wrong.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#9

Post by aledalgrande » Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 3:35 AM UTC

Am I the only one that finds these generation-related articles really stupid? Gen meltdown. There are stupid people in every generation. There are smart people in every generation. If the writer was in the second group, they would stop generalizing and sensationalizing.

Re: The Gen X Career Meltdown

#10

Post by gjsman-1000 » Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 3:36 AM UTC

aledalgrande wrote: post #9

Am I the only one that finds these generation-related articles really stupid? Gen meltdown. There are stupid people in every generation. There are smart people in every generation. If the writer was in the second group, they would stop generalizing and sensationalizing.

If that were true; why are recruiters going out of their way to avoid hiring Gen Z without at least 5 years' experience?

Some generations are in a messier shape than others, in different ways. Even Gen Z managers describe their own generation as the worst.