The post-college job search and how we’re kinda screwed.
So in the week I’ve been back I’ve been sending off resumes and cover letters like mad, milking my connections, and bemoaned a life of poverty because I wasn’t getting any bites.
Yes, I realize I obsessed for no reason, considering I just got a new freelance writer/reporter job at HollywoodLife.com where I stalk report and post stuff about celebs. Kardashians, Beyonce, Zac Efron…cream of the crop. Check out mah articles!
That’s me! Except not blonde and I usually write on a computer. (Completely unrelated actually—I drew that for my cousin Eunice’s robotics team and thought I should re-purpose it ‘cause it’s suuper cuuute.)
Work, in the two days I’ve been at the HollywoodLife office, is fast-paced, crazy long, and I find myself thinking that I should have applied for that part-time barista gig at the local cafe instead. Regular hours and a 5-minute walking commute seem amazing at this point. Like right now, my dream situation would be to play with puppies all day and have a 401k, have time to write what I want, be able to watch my favorite TV shows when I get home from work, and occasionally see my friends and family. Um, yeah, I just woke the fuck up from that dream after finishing my 8:15am-7pm shift yesterday.
Everyone I know is either stuck with perma-lancing, with jobs they hate, with jobs they like but pay piddlings, or with no jobs at all. Is it always the case that your post-college 20s are supposed to be really, ridiculously difficult especially with the job front? And with the recession, people are extra stuck—nothing like having dire poverty looming over your shoulders. I feel like companies poach on young people because they’re virile, can work absurd hours, and, if they are under 26, companies don’t need to provide healthcare because the younguns are still covered by their parents (unfortunately I just fell off that boat). I don’t know anyone in his or her 20s who has hit the trifecta of good pay, good job, good social life. And if you do, screw you.
I mean, most of us don’t have anything to complain about really. I’m sittin’ pretty right now compared to many. I’ve been spoiled and I feel guilty for my entitlement. I’ve never faced real hardship or had to walk 10 miles to school in the snow or like fucking run for my life from communists (another reason why my grandparents are awesome). Work is hard because I’m a middle class American who has had it easy my whole life. My mom had to drive a big rig cross-country in her 20s to make ends meet. I own a MacBook Air.
I feel like this is our generation’s Great Discontent—it’s the shock of Real Life after our parents stop spoon feeding us. But is it our fault we’ve been spoiled our whole lives and don’t know what to do once we’re on our own?
Now that I’m out of school I have to think about tax returns, health insurance, and repaying my giant loans. When I’m sick, Mom can’t just make me soup, or I can’t just walk to the student health center. I just have to cross my fingers that I stay healthy. Real life is freaking me out!
If college is supposed to prepare you for the real world, why don’t they teach useful things? I took a class on Cryptography…fascinating stuff but not very useful at the end of the month when rent’s due. Why don’t they teach us how to fill out IT-201s—or teach us what it is in the first place? Or why didn’t they go, “Hey, it’s a GOOD thing to have a positive balance on your bank accounts, you should definitely try that!” It seems obvious to not spend more than you have, but was I just supposed to know that? I’m too busy studying English lit.
Anyway, these painstaking hours have gotta be worth it. It’ll pay off right? ONE DAY — a career. A home. Stability.
Gotta start as Bottom Bitch before you’re Big Mama…I watch too much South Park.
