I'm 22 and have no life. No car, no job, no money, and no future as I can see. I'm stuck in a rut and don't know how to get out. I'm really tech savvy (no degree unfortunately; money took care of that one for me; I seriously tried and tried and tried.)and i'm an aspiring programmer and producer/audio engineer and I can't find work ANYWHERE. I live in a town called Yakima, WA. and all it consists of is fast food chains, big box retail stores and the extreme use of drugs. I've tried over and over again to find a job and save some money so I can move or get out of this hell hole; but to no avail have I come closer to what I want. To just be O.K. for once. The last two years of my life have been hell and I can't seem to straighten things out. I've moved across the country only to be taken advantage of by family, I've been homeless, and I'm scared. I don't exactly know why i'm posting this, in all honesty I don't really have that many friends or people to talk to. I just don't know what to do anymore.
22 and no life
1–10 of 193 posts
Re: 22 and no life
#2Just share more about yourself. People will be able to help you.
Re: 22 and no life
#3 Why do you think you're going to find a job there? My wife used to teach in eastern Washington, there is nothing there.
You don't need money to get a degree. That's the point of student loans. Are you in-state in Washington? If you can take the SAT's you should be able to get into a decent, cheap state school. You can get a fee waiver for that, btw.
Re: 22 and no life
#4start a company
Re: 22 and no life
#5Just get really good at something. If you're already tech savvy, be great at developing software that delivers value to businesses.
I'm personally a high school drop out and work as a developer in an up and coming startup. Prove that you're a good developer and you don't need a degree.
Re: 22 and no life
#6Dude go get some work. If you are tech savvy then put yourself out there. I have less than a year of programming experience and I turn down more work than I take on. I don't even market myself beyond an odesk profile and a blog/resume. It is really that easy, but if you just sit there and feel sorry for yourself, you'll be in the same spot in a year. Go send quotes for 20 feelance gigs in the next week. Work for 15/hr if you have to... in a few months that will be 50/hr and more work than you can handle.
Re: 22 and no life
#7Here's what I'd do if I were you and were really backed into a corner with no support:
1) Get a job at a call center, this will suck but you can at least pay for rent off of this.
2) Make flyers and/or find a place that will hire you on to clean Bonsai Buddy off of grandmas computer. If the job pans out enough you can quit the call center.
3) Save up all the money you can.
4) Move to Southern California or anywhere with a growing tech scene. Rent an apartment / room in a cheap part of town (Oakland, parts of LA) that you can use public transit initially.
5) If necessary repeat steps 1 or 2 until you can get a job doing something more. In this time attend meetups to meet other people in the industry you want to be in.
Re: 22 and no life
#8GTFO of Yakima!
Re: 22 and no life
#9Start turkin'
Re: 22 and no life
#10Hey there, for what its worth: Try and start building a portfolio if you're having trouble finding a job. You're 22 years old - don't worry if it involved bi*chwork; the best thing you can do is ditch any sense of entitlement, and I'm not saying you have any! I worked in customer service for almost a year before saving enough money to train as a programmer.. it wasn't easy but with the right attitude it was a blast. You are in no hole - you are 22 years old with a passion to make your skill awesome! Hope this helps and work hard - feel free to contact me off list. Just remember, nothing comes easy, we all have issues attaining our perceived goals.
Best of luck to you.