Unemployed Yet Again

It came to my attention yesterday that my accountant had made an error on my taxes. He did not count me as my parents’ dependent, nor did he count me as my own dependent. Which leads me to conclude something I had always suspected…

I don’t actually exist.

A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much

It’s worth remembering that to some extent, these accusations of laziness and narcissism in “kids these days” are nothing new — they’ve been levied against Generation X, Baby Boomers and many generations before them. Even Aristotle and Plato were said to have expressed similar feelings about the slacker youth of their times.

I usually don’t like anything that generalizes about a generation of people as if they’re all the same person - but at least this article is a little more sympathetic to Gen Y grads who are just getting out of college. There are so many articles about how “young people today are so entitled/spoiled/lazy, blah blah blah”…yet, it’s been PROVEN that this country is experiencing a recession. Naturally, new grads will find it extremely difficult to find jobs, and naturally, people will be frustrated by this!

(btw, I was also sad to realize that I don’t even fit into this category anymore! I’m in my late 20s now…this article is referring mainly to 16-24 yr old, apparently. but i happened to get my mba in ‘09, the “worst year for grads,” which was also true for people graduating with advanced degrees.)

(via jjlouis)

Source:

Because one day, a long time ago, you were really bored and thought that it might be fun to try. Years went by, and though you knew deep down that it wasn’t really improving your life, you kept doing it anyway. It wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t going to help you become a self-sufficient adult (whatever that is), but it was all you had. Then you woke up and found yourself broke, friendless, and barely able to function. But this can’t be you, right? You’re a respectable middle-class type person. It must be someone else.

Companies that thrive in a recession:

KMart/Wal-Mart/etc.

TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc. (btw, I loved TJ Maxx long before the recession. As far as I’m concerned, their expansion is the best thing that came out of this crappy economy!)

The Dollar Store

McDonald’s

The makers of Ramen noodles and other cheap food

The makers of Ambien (who can sleep anymore?)

Any others?

(not a scientific study, just for your entertainment)

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(I’ll save you the time - no, they usually aren’t)
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and later:

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and on and on…

Don’t you just hate it when someone at work tells you, “oh, on Monday we’re all going to have lunch [paid for by the company] in the office to celebrate someone’s birthday…” and Monday rolls around, and it’s never mentioned, and everyone goes out to buy their own lunch as usual, and you feel stupid for believing them?

Yeah, I hate that too.

(The worst part is when you’re left alone to think “did I imagine it, or did someone tell me that we were all having lunch today?? I don’t think that I was hallucinating…”)

Unpaid jobs: The new normal?

yeah “pay off” for the company! Just another way for companies to make more money while not paying their workers (interns are people too; if someone goes to a workplace and does work, they are a worker!).

I love the part where the business owners complain about how they had unpaid interns who were unreliable due to having to balance other paying work. Umm, how the hell do you expect people to live otherwise? They need money! And how could this possibly be the new normal? Unpaid jobs often DON’T lead to paying jobs. No one can be a career intern. No one will survive this way…

existentialistmumbojumbo:

While businesses are generally wary of the risks of using unpaid labor, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.

FORTUNE — With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten so desperate that they’re willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.

• Question: When did you graduate with your MBA? I graduated in 2005 with my degree and have been looking for stability ever since. Have you considered teaching? It's okay if you rage over that question. I know people ask me that and quite frankly I feel like bitch slapping them. Not sure why having a Masters in anything equals teaching. - gizmosandnoodles
• Answer:

  Ha ha, if you had asked me that 2 years ago, I probably would have gotten pissed, but I’ve mellowed out since then! Yes, quite a few people have made that suggestion to me, and I don’t know why. One classmate told me that an MBA qualifies you to teach community college. I looked into it once, and I’m not sure if that’s right. Either way, I didn’t see any positions at any local schools that would fit my background. For teaching business, it seems like sometimes schools hire profs with more work experience in their field and fewer academic credentials. I def know many people with a variety of degrees who are asked about teaching - and they are equally confused!

  I got my degree in 2009. What have you been doing since you graduated? (I hate that question with a passion, but I don’t have another way to phrase it.) On interviews, I always say that I was temping. In reality, I had one temp job that lasted a week. Other than that, I’ve been applying for jobs, interviewing, blogging, and writing a screenplay.

  Thanks for your message:) Write back anytime!

• Question: Hihi! I'm completely considering your post about regrets and taking it to heart, but what if it's just these couple of years that people regret their grad degrees with this job market and all? What if in a few years you'll be glad you have an MBA? - aplacefornegativity
• Answer:

  Hi!

  Well, it’s tough to predict, but right now (unfortunately), that looks pretty unlikely. Since tons of people are going to grad school right now, by the time the economy gets better, companies will probably be hiring those grads, not people who graduated years ago and have been unemployed long-term. There have also been a lot of articles lately about companies that don’t even want to interview unemployed people (um, yeah, as if that makes sense), and how HR people assume that “if someone’s been unemployed longer than six months, there’s a reason for it and they’re unemployable.” I read that exact quote in an article recently.

  The other issue with certain degrees (such as getting an MBA vs. becoming a teacher or a CPA - b/c those degrees can help you get a license that is a specific credential) is that getting a job is really based on when you graduate. In the past, MBA grads usually got jobs through on-campus recruiting, where companies came to the school to interview candidates and choose several to hire. By the time I graduated business school, on-campus recruiting was basically non-existent. My school’s website mainly has a few random ads posted, but not really typical MBA-level jobs. It’s usually a handful of p/t internships (unpaid, naturally), campus office assistant jobs, and positions that require 8-10 years of very specific experience, often with accounting/taxation.

  Anyway, I know that I’m pretty negative about the whole thing, but maybe some people had a better experience than I did. I know people who went to my school and used their MBA to make a career change, so I assume that they’re happy about that. They graduated in 2007 though. Anyone I know who graduated later than that didn’t really seem to find a job that required an MBA, or a master’s degree. I’d be happy if I found some use for my MBA, but somehow I don’t see that happening…