Generation Stuck

Twelve 20-somethings chronicle their lives for WBUR. Learn more.

Question 4

Are you in your position because of your actions or the economy?

By Nathan Brin

Photo prompt #4: Use ten objects to illustrate how much of your current situation you attribute to your own actions and how much to the economy. On the left: your actions; on the right: the economy.

Growing up, it sounded like if I went to college, then doors would just be opened for me left and right. I would have many different jobs to pick from and I would never have to worry about money.

Now, with a mountain of debt and with job offers for $12 an hour, which is the pay rate I would expect if I didn’t have a degree in my field, I don’t expect much. I served jury duty a while back and one of the employees down there made a joke about, “Well, does anyone really want a government job right now? Ha ha, no pension.”

I just sat there stewing, thinking “Pension? How about medical benefits? How about putting food on my table?”

I think no one is hiring anyone in my age bracket because they feel, “You’re young, you’ll get a job somewhere else.” But in actuality, EVERYONE is thinking that. No one is hiring young people because they don’t want to train them to do the jobs anymore.

They want someone with ten years experience and then when they can’t find it, they just pay the people they have overtime, rather than finding someone and dealing with the fact that they’ll take a little while to get up to speed.

Entitled, hardly.

One comment:

Anonymous at 3:14 pm, October 19, 2012

Honestly, all of your posts are very angry, negative, self
pity, pessimistic etc… Now, I know your response would be that you are
frustrated, your situation sucks, isn’t fair and that you are fed up. I get it.
I am not questioning that you feel frustrated, negative, angry etc… However, if
just from your writing I picture you as a very
negative person, imagine what you put out there. Just realize how you
come across if you do have phone or live interviews, or when you are
networking. It might not be something you are conscious of, but remember that
people make snap judgments based on immediate impressions. It might not be
fair, but that’s life.

A large part of finding in a job in such a crowded
marketplace is being able to interview and present yourself well. I’ve done
hiring for entry level positions and the amount of people that are hot messes
in interviews is staggering. They will have a hard time getting a job. And if
all you put out there is negative energy, it will reflect back on you. Just
reading your posts I am put off by your negativity. There are ways to express
your feelings in more productive way. Some of your fellow Generation Stuckers
that are also frustrated still infuse positivity into their outlook, which in
turn will reflect on how others see them.