However, I've got a friend from college (history major) who's about to turn 26. She's ensconced in grad school now, but previously had a string of temp/secretarial jobs. She wrote this lately:
"What's really got me bugged is the possibility that I might do everything right, I might have been a good student, good friend, good worker, good citizen, and still might not ever have a home or a family. That I might have done everything a "successful" person does, yet end up with none of the things I truly wanted most. It's not that I have a specific image of that "picket-fence" life. I'm not worried about "having it all"; it's the fact that I might not be able to swing any of it.
"If I knew this in high school, I'd have done more drugs."
It seems like one's success in today's world is directly proportional to your ability to believe that all your elders are lying to you. I was always pretty contemptuous of authority, so I did the end run around all my teachers and school administrators and taught myself stuff - stuff that was useful outside of school, not just inside the academic bubble.
Perhaps this is as it should be - I remember in one upper-level physics class, the professor said "You should be getting most of this out of the textbook" and a student helpfully added "Or in class." The teacher said, "No. If you're only learning from class, you're in trouble. I should be mostly superfluous." The students were basically flabbergasted.
But if your success is proportional to how much you believe authority figures are lying to you, what does that mean for the authority figures? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." What happens to the social structure when people realize their leaders are basically lying, cheating, and stealing from them?
Rather than outright lying, much of it is due to the generation gap. Parents and other elders are just suggesting what worked for them. Doing everything right by being a good student, good worker, and good citizen was almost a surefire way to a successful, stable life until "Generation X" started to come of age.
Put another way, I study CS and I've never had a hard time finding work...and I don't owe it to mistrust of my elders.
My 24 year old brother just recently quit his job and is currently riding out the crisis in the UK programming for some of the community projects he likes online.
Welcome! I hope all the paperwork goes smoothly and you get settled well.
Looking at trying an experiment at the end of the year and 'going homeless' for three months after my lease expires. The worst case is I find out that it's hard and I don't like it, but it'll cut my monthly expenses down to nothing for a few months. Will look at buying a home in a few years, as I plan to turn into a traveling hacker for a year or two once my full-time gig is up.
I have zero sympathy for liberal arts majors who spent years in school, sans job, and now can't find a employment because they lack both marketable skills and the gumption to start a company.
I never attended college, so I was able to forgo college debt.
No plans to buy a house (yet) - but have plans to start a company in late 09' or 10'.
(Not to generally say which is a better city for startups, but just curious to your reasoning).
1) Works for a library/museum-centric non-profit (degree unknown)
2) Works for a political campaign, expensive degree from private university (BU)
3) Works for local government (degree unknown)
4) Left job with architecture firm due to move, current job unknown
5) No job, MA in English, can't afford to get desired PhD in Literature/Women's Studies (sob!)
So basically, not a single person (bar possibly #4) willing to get their hands dirty in the private-sector business world. Also, not a single male. What exactly are we supposed to take from this?
Since then I've had 3 jobs, started a business, saved up a bit for retirement and for a rainy day, and built the business up to where it could be the day job if I needed it to be.
So I'm looking at my 27th birthday in a few weeks not exactly feeling the crushing weight of the great depression on my shoulders.
I suspect there are more than a few people like me in my generation. We don't talk to reporters because we understand that college-educated Americans should not snivel about how hard they have it.
It's fortunate you aren't immediately bound by the debt of school, take advantage of it. But the debt does still exist.
The debt doesn't exist if there is no debt.
If, for example, the CC got the first 2 years of core credits out of the way cheap & the state school had good incentives for locals, & the parents had a small college fund.
Not everyone does things the same, you know.
I can't say I'm enjoying the economic climate and watching all layoffs (At my day job and with my friends and family) but Its motivated me to take some hobbies and work that normally took a lot of energy and figure out how to do more with them. I can now go from sales/brainstorming to invoicing a lot faster and easier then I could even just a few months ago. I think that will pay off in the long run.
Also, saving now, and putting into my 401k and roth/IRA's should help a lot when I'm older. I'm glad I can put money in markets now when they're low! (and I'm lucky I got confused and pulled out about 2 months before markets crashed! They weren't making any sense to me.)
24, married, no kids, 1 dog. We're both planning on quitting our jobs in the summer with no direct plans for seeking employment. Quite an interesting situation.
I've got my products released and am working on some bizdev leads that have a high probability to go through.
We have been looking for jobs in our new location; however, it's been our experience that it's a much higher probability of success to start a business than go kissing ass and submitting resumes.
So we're at a big inflection point. We're either going to be living with one set of parents (which we have discussed and are prepared for) or we won't have to worry about money for the next several years.
I've always thrived on volatility, and my wife and dog are just along for the ride.
Girlfriend and I are moving to a different city (Montreal) in July. I leave my job in June but gave huge advanced notice.
Everyone around me keeps asking if I've found a job yet and they always cringe when I say "No." To be fair, I haven't sent out TOO many resumes but I'm starting to pick up the pace.
One side of me just wants to forget about senidng out the resumes and try my hand at freelance work, consulting, and whatever else I can think of to make money. Work from home and try something totally new and exciting. I have savings an the GF will be going to school so the government (loans for university) + part time job will keep her money in check.
It's definitely scary I'll say. Like the one comment said, you could have done everything right but in the current situation you may not get anything that you could have 5 years ago. I say forget about all that and just go full force into trying it out.
We twentsomethings are young and we can always bounce back a few times before we end up on the streets :)
Sure, lots of laid off folks truly did generate value. Not all are like the people I described. But there are lots of them, on both sides (employer & employee).
