Let me start off by saying this article isn’t going to be super motivational and, in many ways, may even be slightly depressing. This is more so my way of telling you you’re not alone in your seemingly never-ending search to find a job in 2024.
What’s baffling to me is the push for people our age to go to college. They told us it was the best way to secure a decently high-paying job and live comfortably. Well, here I am four years later, and honestly, I’m not so sure I believe them anymore. Every job that pays even slightly above a living wage requests candidates to have “3-5 years experience” despite categorizing their position as entry-level. It seems like every day I scroll on LinkedIn at the shockingly low number of job listings around my hometown that I have to move back to because no matter how many dinner dates I turned down to save money in college, I will never be enough to afford to live on my own.
I have seen on social media people post about their experiences with scam job listings. They will go through the whole application process and even interview a real-life human, only to find out that the job is fake and the company doesn’t even exist. Some people even say they’ve been tricked into working at MLMs or pyramid schemes because of scam job listings. Knowing this, I am anxious to apply for jobs that seem too good to be true, so I lowball myself as a sort of defense against the scammers online, leading to even less opportunity.
I have plans, big plans, many of which involve traveling the world, driving fancy cars, and buying a house with a pool. Forget about buying a house anytime soon (and by soon, I mean ever) because apparently, the housing market will never recover from this terrible inflation. All I am trying to do is get a job that will pay my phone bill, the absurdly cheap rent my parents are charging me, food, and maybe a drink or two at the bar because I certainly need it after this impossible job hunt is completed.