Really Frustrated Post Graduation from College

[bamboobam]

You did great! You don't have to start over...but you do have to start on the first rung of the career ladder. And to do that you have to be focused and tenacious!

 

Pick a field of interest and search out first level positions that use you skill set: writing, analysis, communication.

 

If you want to be a paralegal...take the courses. Sending a resume for that position with no background or course work is pie in the sky.

 

Getting started is hard work. Maybe go to a temp agency and see what kind of work you can get in a field you are interested in.

 

Thanks. A coworker told me of temp agencies being a good place to look. I felt kinda against looking there since any job I applied for besides Craigslist and my schools database, I never got a response. So I stopped applying for jobs that were placed online with those dumb questionnaire and applications that take over an hour. I will try some temp agencies though.

[SophieGrace]

I am someone who hires (I work in media and I majored in communications), and I would hire a person for an entry level position who has a great attitude and seems bright and eager to learn over someone who has more experience on their resume but appears to have a negative chip on their shoulder or entitlement issues. A positive attitude and willingness to learn goes incredibly far when it comes to people your age, which is why I choose those candidates over someone less enthusiastic with a couple of jobs in the field. In fact, I just hired a friendly waitress (who had waited on my table on several occasions) who has never worked in media and studied physical therapy, and she's doing a fantastic job. And I got my first media job by working for a temp agency that paired me up with a record company where I stayed late without being asked and smilingly did my job, including answering calls and taking messages. The boss' girlfriend got me an interview with a media company, all because I was friendly and efficient with her on the phone.

 

So that's my advice - be positive and "can do" in all work situations, potential or actual, including the one you abhor now. You never know who will help you or hire you... or introduce you to someone who will connect you to someone in your field.

[bamboobam]

I will try temp agencies now and I will also get my resume checked over by the career center at my school. They cant really help with anything else since their only advice is to look online for jobs.

[bamboobam]

Holy cow! maybe you need to adjust your attitude so at the very least you can enjoy some of the time you are at work. Unless these people are absolutely vile, Evil creatures, then to say that it is the last thing you would do is pretty over the top.

 

If you drop the defensiveness and judgment of them, you may find that they drop their walls too.

 

I realize that and I have always been a friendly person. You are right all of them aren't vile and evil.but as I said I do not fit I the culture of the employees. Also, just this morn I was walking into the work with my hands full, the president saw me and said nothing. I am in my office and he walks in to put something on my boss's desk and said nothing as usual and I said good morn loudly so I know he heard. His response was "Oh hey! Good morn I was trying to say good morn to ya out in the parking lot." That was a straight up lie lol. Idk I don't think he likes me for whatever reason though I was always polite and he was the one that lied about the finders fee that I mentioned before. So, I think with that attitude that's why my coworkers probably act indifferent and talk way too much because they allow it to happen with no consequences. You are right though I will still be polite anyway until I get out of here.

[superfan]

I want to say "welcome to the real world" but feel like that isn't productive. I will say that this is literally the case for almost every single person graduating in this particular generation. The problem is that it doesn't matter how good your credentials are - the job market is crap right now for almost everybody. Full time jobs are disappearing and in it's place are contract positions, part time, and temp jobs with little to no benefits.

 

The fact that you have a full time job that pays $12/hour in this economy is amazing. You also have very little debt compared to most people. The average person graduating has $20-30 000 in debt by the time they are finished. I myself have $50 000 worth of debt (for two degrees) and I don't make $12/hour.

 

I am not trying to dishearten you, but rather to get you to look at the positives of your situation. You HAVE a full time job. It might not be the perfect job culture, but it is better than what most people have. You can use that job to gain experience and to start looking for other positions in other areas without worrying about the rent being paid.

 

It's ridiculously hard for almost everyone right now. 6 months after graduation is nothing. I am 7 years after graduation and still have not managed to make enough to start paying down my student debt. It's the nature of the beast right now.

 

Continue to look for opportunities, but I would highly suggest not leaving a paying job for an internship that may or may not end up going anywhere.

[Doc Blaze]

some of these comments make me cringe seriously..i would not be able to make it where i live at 12 or anywhere near that....

[jimthzz]

I've had very good luck with linkedin. I limit my connections there to just people i have worked with or know professionally. There is a job opportunities section that is really good. If you use it right, it is not just a social network like FB where you trade cat videos.

[bamboobam]

some of these comments make me cringe seriously..i would not be able to make it where i live at 12 or anywhere near that....

 

Me too. I was always the kind of person that strived for the better. I mean for an example the very first job I picked up was not exactly min. wage of $7.25 but it paid $8 and so forth. Yes, it was still low paying but you get the point. I wasn't just settling for that so I always worked hard. I think that if you spent blood, sweat, and tears in higher education, there should be some promise at the end, but reality doesn't work like that for many young people unfortunately.

[bamboobam]

I know it wasn't this hard for young people in past generations. It also frustrates me that cases like yours actually happen. Its disgusting how much higher education has sky rocketed. With your debt you can rent an apartment for many years, make a down payment on a home, a car, and etc. It doesn't make any sense and its ridiculous it has gotten this bad that those who are trying the hardest are let down the most.

[towardfuture]

^^^^ This is the response to read here. Here's my story of woe:

 

I have a graduate level degree from a top university and a pretty massive amount of debt (around 100k). 3 years out I am making 11/hr in a position that doesn't use my degree, partly because I graduated in 2012 which was deemed at the time to be 'the worst year in american history to graduate from college'. That year only 17% of college grads had a job coming out of school. And I consider myself to be somewhat LUCKY because my job is full time and is at a company where I could potentially get a position which uses my degree in the future if I play my cards right and make the right contacts. Full time, health insurance.

 

Everyone I know who's doing *really* well was super popular in high school, went to a great school and/or studied computer science/mechanical engineering at the right time (don't bother to do that now though -- go where the line's forming, not where the line IS. When I was growing up people were saying the same stuff about LAW that they say about engineering today. And if I studied law at that time I'd have graduated with double the debt I have in a field where it's almost impossible to get a job unless you're in the top 10% of graduates nationwide). But honestly *popular in high school* is the biggest indicator of whether someone has a good job or not, from my experience, despite what your parents told you to make you feel good at the time.

 

Let me give this advice millennial to millennial -- don't compare yourself to the tiny fraction of very successful, attractive people you'll see on linkedin. Or anyone, actually. Just do you. Put one foot in front of the other and focus on what you can control. Don't listen to career advice from older people they have no idea what they're talking about. 90% of their advice no longer applies. For instance, my dad always tells me to try to work at google even though getting a job at google, in reality, is ten times more selective than *goldman sachs* and 100 times more selective than *harvard* link removed . Another piece of bad advice I get from older people is to turn in your resume in person, etc. That has never worked for me, at best it's been not effective and at worst it's *annoyed them* as a breach of protocol, like trying to cut in line. Actually the only things I've had true success with are a personal friend tipping off a hiring manager to me, and cold messaging random people on linkedin. Applying online is a joke. I don't want to say don't bother, but no matter how good your resume is, think about this from the HR person's perspective: 500 people apply to their (****tty) job, 200 make it through the auto resume screening software. They separate out the ones with references (maybe 10-15), end up kind of looking at about 50 resumes from the stack, and then hire the company director's brother who has no experience and is currently a dishwasher or something. If you aren't getting responses from applying online, honestly, to respectfully disagree with what another poster said (that it indicates you have a weak resume), it's because that's *almost a complete waste of time*. Barely anyone gets a response to applying online, and no one gets rejection letters anymore, or feedback, because all the protected social classes and political correctness-generated 'right to never be offended by anyone anywhere' BS means they're *terrified of being sued by you*.

 

My advice is this: figure out what you want to do, and put yourself in a position where you can get face-time with those people and develop a personal connection. That's the only way to not be resume #4330 in the resume stack that just gets tossed.

 

Of course, I'm struggling too so take that with a grain of salt. But at least I didn't grow up in the generation that paid their way through college working summers in fast food and thinks for some reason this is still possible. By the by, another thing to make you feel better, the average age of a fast food worker is now TWENTY NINE

[bamboobam]

Reading this really did open my eyes even more. Why isn't anything being done about this issue nationally? Anyway, I totally agree that things are obviously different than the past. Hell, for an example, my mom moved out when she was still a teen. You rarely see that happen now unless they go off to college, or stay working until they have enough to move out, or wait until they are done with college and save up then move. Either way, it is a lot harder to get on your own two feet. Automation of jobs will start replacing actual human workers is another big thing that's coming soon which will increase the job crunch.

 

Basically, all of this is a scary thought. If less majors besides engineering, accounting, business, health, and computer science are getting hired, that spells a true danger to higher education. I mean, if more of a focus is solely on technology and business, other realms of our lives will be dimished (such as the ability for students to read and write intelligently). That has already decreased dramatically as technology takes over. Moreover, as an English major in college who at times helped other majors with papers, it was clear that their writing skills were not that good. It's sad to see that skills you would think are important aren't really pushed anymore.

 

I agree that since everything has moved online, employers distance themselves from applicants since the volume is so huge. Many keep phone calls about positions very short and brief and don't really explain anything. I would rather see an e-mail saying, "I am sorry you didn't get the job" but I also understand that they would have to send that same message to possibly hundreds of applicants which would take too much time. Anyway, that does suck never knowing that moment they rejected you since it feels like they don't care.

 

As you have said, it is true that older people are now working fast food. Back in the day, you mostly saw really young people and managers were usually the older one. I never even got a response applying to fast food places as a teen after graduating high school and I graduated # 6 in my class. Idk what the future holds for us but in a way, I guess a lot of us are going through our own versions of being in a recession (underemployed with no prospects) or in a depression (underemployed/unemployed with massive debt). *Prayers for all*

[mhowe]

Did any of the posters...as they entered college...actually think about future job prospects and the economy? Because blaming the world for a choice of majors that has zero job prospects in reality is counter indicated.

 

There hasn't been a job booming economy for college graduates in decades. More people.got to college than ever before in the history of the US. Only a select few who worked their tail off graduate in the top 10%. The rest need to find a job and begin the climb.

 

And if the first job you get isn't the one you "want", then you keep looking in your non working hours. Until you find a better fit.

[bamboobam]

Did any of the posters...as they entered college...actually think about future job prospects and the economy? Because blaming the world for a choice of majors that has zero job prospects in reality is counter indicated.

 

There hasn't been a job booming economy for college graduates in decades. More people.got to college than ever before in the history of the US. Only a select few who worked their tail off graduate in the top 10%. The rest need to find a job and begin the climb.

 

And if the first job you get isn't the one you "want", then you keep looking in your non working hours. Until you find a better fit.

 

You can't blame the student... I've read several articles that show many of those top tier majors are the same ones that lack other skills that majors like the humanities have. As you should know as an English major yourself at the age of 54, it was obviously a lot more easier/accessible/less technology oriented ways to getting a job. That is totally different now a days. Even industries such as accounting are going into automation soon due to technology and you can even look that up. Yea, it's not disappearing now, but as technology advances more and more, then it will. The climate of our society is changing, yet society can not keep up since so many are left behind/ have thousands in debt. Imagine if everyone was an engineering, math, business, or accounting major, then there would be no jobs then either since the market would be over saturated. Everyone is not the same and is not going to qualify for the same jobs. That is literally impossible, so it is necessary to have other kinds of jobs as well. It keeps the world going 'round.

[Doc Blaze]

You kinda have to be aware of what you are getting yourself into..i saw that graphci design/ art was on the decline so i switched...

[mhowe]

I am not blaming the individual... but their choice. And if every job now takes more computer knowledge and savy, then one needs to learn those skills. I didn't graduate college knowing PowerPoint or Excel...I damn sure didn't enter grad school without learning them.

 

There will always be need for human beings in the world. Automan in factories eliminates u ion jobs. And created jobs for technicians, mechanical engineers, software engineers.

 

Products don't sell themselves. Books don't write themselves.

 

If you don't want to listen to advice from your parents or folks over 40...call up a successful classmate and ask how they did it. Read about success in your own generation and look how they did it. The answer for every generation is the same.

 

Tenacity, perseverance, networking...and a vision of where they wanted to be. Very few college graduates "change the world", "find fulfillment" in their first job. Because all college really does is hone your thinking and maturity process. What you do is up to you...and how willing you are to take "sorry...no thanks" for an answer.

[bamboobam]

You kinda have to be aware of what you are getting yourself into..i saw that graphci design/ art was on the decline so i switched...

 

I honestly thought graphic design was on the rise due to it being mostly digital now which is true. It's very competitive for sure!

[bamboobam]

Yea, do you know how much has changed in the past 10 years alone? For me, learning technology means learning a lot of math formulas which I simply can not do that well. I was never math oriented and made c's in really hard math classes in college though I did try my best and asked for help. So, I stuck with what my strength always was. I am sure you did the same. So, yea I might have to work harder, so be it. I was aware of that as an English major, but I didn't imagine it would be this hard along with having 2 internships. Still, it is still a lot harder to get where you want to be today. It's a simple fact.

[mhowe]

Its an opinion and you are welcome to it.

[Doc Blaze]

unemployment is 11.2 for recent grads...Forbes ranks it the 8th worst major

 

english is 9th.

[bamboobam]

Its an opinion and you are welcome to it.

Alrighty, no need for the sass. Lol.

[bamboobam]

unemployment is 11.2 for recent grads...Forbes ranks it the 8th worst major

 

english is 9th.

Was is/was the major you decided to do again?

[jimthzz]

OK, I don't want to belabor a point with you. But you state your impressions as fact. Learning technology is not necessarily about learning math formulas. A specific application or a method you are programming, yeah.

 

But as an information architect or a graphic artist? No way.

 

There are many parts to the elephant--blindman. Find the one you can learn about.

[bamboobam]

OK, I don't want to belabor a point with you. But you state your impressions as fact. Learning technology is not necessarily about learning math formulas. A specific application or a method you are programming, yeah.

 

But as an information architect or a graphic artist? No way.

 

There are many parts to the elephant--blindman. Find the one you can learn about.

You know what? That is not what I want to do and I don't want to be a sheep just for protection. Yea, it's hard, but I don't want to work in an industry I am not that interested in honestly. For an example, my brother knows a lot more about technology than me (actual programs that deal with code and such) and when he tries to explain things as such to me, it is really hard to understand. So, why would I want to get into something that is 1)Hard for me to understand and 2) Something I would not enjoy.

 

Now, if my prospects did run short, I wouldn't mind being a physical therapy assistant since I like helping people, it's a physical job which I like, my mom used to care for handicapped people so I know what that's like, and it's in the health field which does have a higher employment numbers. I know my local community college has that since I didn't think about doing that before.

[jimthzz]

OK, that is a completely sideways response and an odd comment. "Sheep for protection"? I'm done.

[mhowe]

To do what you want to do...your ultimate goal...you have to plan out the steps to get there. No one is opening the doors on the 3rs floor if you haven't already gone through the first two.

 

Right now you have a job that pays the bills and you hate it. Fair enough.

Your outside job is to keep saving money and looking --all the time--- for that crack at the first step on to the path of what you want. It should be your consuming passion to find the first step because all other opportunities forward will spring from that.

 

Tell everyone and their cousin what you want to do...you never know who is listening.