Gawker's Unemployment Stories

[MadImmortalMan]

http://gawker.com/hello-from-the-underclass/

Take the education bubble and toss in some shareholder value. Shake vigorously and top off with a big spoonful of disfunctionality.

    I am a twenty-five year old woman living in Michigan and I don't see the point in living. I did everything I was supposed to do: I graduated from high school, I went to university. I got my bachelors and I worked hard. I love to work, I have a strong ethic for it, and I'm at my best when I'm busy. But there is so little decent employment out there and I wonder what all that time and money spent on school was worth.

    I got my degree in Film just when movies were starting to get big in my state. "The Hollywood of the Midwest," I heard it called. The timing was serendipitous and like most young people I felt I was destined for great things. But those film jobs were scarce and competitive— hiring only so many people in state— and no one seemed interested in a fresh grad.

    It has been many months since and after an internship and a deferred paying job I didn't see a cent for, I'm back living with my folks. I'd go elsewhere for work, but I honestly can't afford it. I'd take the terrible, boring jobs so many of my contemporaries accept without complaint, but I'm so depressed over my state in life I can't seem to find the energy to care enough to survive. I have been so very lucky and blessed to have parents that support me both financially (though I wish so hard I could finally be totally independent) and emotionally. But my dad (very reasonably) said he won't continue to help after I turn 26. I know it's supposed to give me initiative to get my life together, but even with this date looming I just can't find the energy to care about self-preservation.

    Lately the guilt sends me combing the web in the wee hours, searching for a soothing solidarity... so finding these volumes of Unemployment Stories is like a hand reaching out to grab hold of. But I still feel worthless. Useless. A waste of space and life. And the response to my bemoaning is almost always some variant of "I have no sympathy for you." It's like no one wants to listen and frankly I'm inclined to simply disappear into silence.

This is not my unemployment story, but the toll that my daughter's unemployment has taken on me and her. I was lucky. I got a master's degree and had job security for life. A job in 30 days after graduating. My daughter has a master" degree in Library Science and is underemployed at a library that seems to be hell bent on proving that no one who works there and then earns the degree will get anywhere. She works part time. She has been working on a computer certificate and is in an internship for web design but still no offers of employment or any recognition from her employer. It is disheartening to hear more fortunate family members behave as if she is not trying hard enough. One member told me"well she isn't getting any younger." She must apply to 20 jobs a week for the past 3 years. It has made me depressed an anxious about her future to the extent that I can barely sleep some nights. I think about the waste of her talent. She graduated with honors from college and a high GPA from high school even with learning disabilities and ADHD. She was bullied throughout grade school but still fought her way through. Still no reward only criticism. I want to avoid family and friends whose children have had more luck. One friend especially rubs it in. I have lost faith in America. My father was a WWII vet disabled in the Battle of the Bulge (but he still worked all his life) and why did he do that - so his granddaughter could be treated like scum and passed over for employment.

[garbon]

Gawker?

[garbon]

Also those two stories?

I did everything I was supposed to do except major in a good paying field with available jobs.

[HVC]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

[Grey Fox]

It's like America doesn't have any trade person. Plumbing & Electricity has anyone heard of those things? There's good money in them.

[Razgovory]

Maybe she's really ugly.

[Ed Anger]

It's like America doesn't have any trade person. Plumbing & Electricity has anyone heard of those things? There's good money in them.

Tell us Mike Holmes about these 'trades'.

[Neil]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

Yeah, but that was supposed to be good enough.  Still, the world needs ditch diggers too.  Going to college is usually a mistake in the US.

[Grey Fox]

It's like America doesn't have any trade person. Plumbing & Electricity has anyone heard of those things? There's good money in them.

Tell us Mike Holmes about these 'trades'.

Oh man, oh man, oh man. Tear it down. 60 000$ renovation, let's rewire everything!

[Razgovory]

It's like America doesn't have any trade person. Plumbing & Electricity has anyone heard of those things? There's good money in them.

My cousin was an electrician.  Now he's a state Senator.

[CountDeMoney]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

Funny how everybody with jobs suddenly turn into judgmental Baby Boomers and garbon.

[garbon]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

Funny how everybody with jobs suddenly turn into judgmental Baby Boomers and garbon.

Oh honey, I was like this even when I was collecting my disability money.

[CountDeMoney]

That doesn't surprise me 

[HVC]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

Funny how everybody with jobs suddenly turn into judgmental Baby Boomers and garbon.

I'm a judgemental Gen Xer who dropped out of something i knoew wouldn't give me a career and took something else. They get no pity from me for going into debt taking a degree that will do nothing for them.

I have turned into Ed. I am: old.

[HVC]

I've read some. most start "i went to school for art... " and i tune out.

Yeah, but that was supposed to be good enough.  Still, the world needs ditch diggers too.  Going to college is usually a mistake in the US.

It was never good enough. I remember Arts degree = McDonalds job being a meme since i was in grade school, so no doubt it's older.