A lot of this comes from being lied to their whole lives. How many of these people were told (in many different ways, some subtle, some not) while growing up that school and college and grad school were important and the key to a meaningful life? Sorry, but in reality, there is no universal shortcut to having a meaningful life. There was nothing special about the structure you've gotten used to in two decades of schooling. You have to accept this and move on. This part of the crisis has gotten much worse in the last half-century or so -- the unquestioned faith many middle-class urbanites now have in schools and colleges.
Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis
61–65 of 65 posts
Re: Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Can't get work, or won't accept work she considers beneath her, there's a big difference. I'm fairly sure finding a job as a waitress just about anywhere is rather easy.
Have you ever tried applying to somewhere considered 'low' when you have some questionably spectacular mentions on your resume? Most anywhere will at best consider you a joke and at worst suspect. You really have to dumb down your skills and experience if you're trying to move to a new location or get a temporary job for those with education/experience in a location that does not have the job areas your resume reflec…
Your entire rebuttal rant still hinges on the selfishness with that "what I want attitude". It doesn't matter what you want, it matters what you have to do to survive. If you have to trim your resume then you do it, if you have to take a job completely unrelated to what you have training in then you do it.
That's life, that's what every previous generation had to deal with and it's what your generation has to deal with and the discomfort is not caused by the situation, but but the false expectations educated youth seem to have about life being about what "they want". Poor uneducated youth don't have this problem, they've been in the real world and know life ain't fair and young people get shit on. That's just the world, nothings changed.
Re: Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
> my GF is one of those educated young people who cant get work. Can't get work, or won't accept work she considers beneath her, there's a big difference. I'm fairly sure finding a job as a waitress just about anywhere is rather easy.
I graduated in 2002 and got a "crappy" programming job for 38k. I mentioned I only made that to a friend who said she had worked for 30 years and never made that much money. A few years later I was unemployed for 6 months and I still made far more money that year than she did. It's not that we can't get waitress just so much as it's a drop in the bucket. Heck, my unemployment check paid more than an entry level job f…
And programming is one of those area's where skill alone can land you really good money, but it's the exception, not the rule. It's just really fucking hard compared to what most people can do so like all things, skills bring money. The fact is most people work as unskilled labor. If you can learn to do a job sufficiently in a couple of months, you're an unskilled laborer.
For those people, numbers like 38k, 40k, and 50k sound absolutely fucking HUGE. People often work a decade or more to get numbers like that. Programmers really are just ridiculously spoiled.
Re: Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You can't get a decent job without a decent education. So, what makes you think a decent job is a right, because it isn't. Most people don't go to college, most people get low paying and/or manual labor or service jobs. Welcome to the real world. > Kids these days are finishing school much later than their parents, and they don't have a choice. They have every choice, they can choose to not bury themselves in debt…
I think the point is comparison to parents/grandparents. Most of our parents never went to college - but could still have Dad work a blue-collar job - and still have a nice (small) house in the suburbs with a picket fence. I think part of the issue/trend is the fact that this generation might end up worse off than their parents.. that hasn't happened all that much historically (that I can think of at least)
Also, your Dad wasn't blowing his money on cell phones and video games. Kids these days have a much harder time living within their means than their parents did, they're spoiled.
Re: Welcome to Your Quarter Life Crisis
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Way too many people go to college. They'd be freed from the debt & infantilizing lifestyle and generally would better off if they didn't go to college. "Everyone should go to college" is like a giant, farcical real-world existential play about the Lake Wobegon fallacy.
And that brings us back to the article - you're left with countless college grads with a near-useless degree who are faced with three choices: - somehow "rise above the rest" - which, by definition, not everyone can do - wallow in a career and lifestyle which is unfulfilling and doesn't live up to their expectations (as described in the article) - suck it up, cut their losses, "settle" for a "lesser" job, and live ha…
If you're not exceptionally talented, it is a mistake to measure your life and set your expectations to have a successful career.
You can certainly take pleasure in purposeful work (from a non-profit to chopping wood). But don't expect the same praises you might have received in an easy college class.
They should suck it up and focus on something more interesting than work, like making or consuming some creative content, travel, sports, etc.
The 4 hour work week was made for people who can't excel in a career.