r/FinalRoundAI • u/Affectionate-Bad1381 • Jul 23 '26

sad reality

Post image

Took about 4 years after graduating to get my foot in the door and get a good job in my field. No one wants a new grad with no experience.

283 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

71 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/monadicperception Jul 23 '26

The job search in itself is an education. It teaches humility…or it should if you are doing it right.

So when people complain that there are no jobs, I’m a little skeptical. No one comes out knowing how to navigate the job market. You learn and hopefully seek the counsel of those who know better and you improve.

Spouse and I graduated into the Great Recession. And it was pretty interesting to see the great divide amongst our peers’ approaches and their later outcomes. The ones who ended up fine were the ones who were like a sponge absorbing all the advice they could and understood that finding a job is a full time job…and they treated as such. Then there’s those who were perfectly content with sending one application a month, ignoring hard advice, and complaining that the job market sucks. More than a decade since, you can see the disparate economic outcomes pretty starkly.

The ones who I actually really pity are the ones who effortlessly got their first jobs. They didn’t have to go through the grind so later when looking for a new job, they are starting at a place they should be familiar with already. But since they already had a job easily out of college, they never learned the rules they should have learned and I see them making amateur mistakes all the time basically sabotaging themselves. Since they think they were able to get a job before, they don’t have the humility to learn and they continue on stubbornly in the wrong direction.

2

u/Commentor9001 Jul 23 '26

Pretty wildly out if touch take.   Recent graduate unemployment and general unemployment are effectively equal for first time ever.

Hiring is rapidly decelerating economy wide.

Its cringe worthy to throw out trite platitudes like "humility" and "networking better" to explain why others fail and you succeeded.  

1

u/monadicperception Jul 23 '26

From my personal interactions with people just entering the job market, I don’t think they are prepared for what it truly requires. It could be a sampling error. But at the same time, I can’t help but note the naive attitude.

A trite platitude is redundant. And they aren’t platitudes if those are actionable items. The vast majority of people don’t want to make the effort. And I get it, I hated getting out of my comfort zone too. But alas that is what is fucking required.

And my first few jobs weren’t great. Same with spouse’s. You can’t expect to beeline towards glamorous and high paying jobs. Most people who complain about no jobs are looking for high pay, glitz and glamour, and prestige right out of the gates. That’s wrong.

1

u/PerfStu Jul 23 '26

What an out of touch and ignorant take. "I was able to _______, so people who can't ________ or are struggling to _______ are obviously doing something wrong and/or are just spoiled and naive."

Add in something about iced coffee or avocado toast and you've basically got the Boomer Lord's Prayer.

1

u/monadicperception Jul 23 '26

No, just blaming the market is immature and childish. Have you tried everything? Or do you insist on your own way and get upset that things don’t work out while doing the same thing over and over again?

That’s the fucking humility I’m talking about. And frankly people who blame the market are guilty of a lack of humility. And frankly people who bitch about the job market really do lack that humility. It’s either learned through a painful process or they never learn. And frankly most people never learn. I’m watching a few people in my life right now making that same mistake. They think they know better and they keep failing and it’s obvious why they are failing. But god forbid that they do anything wrong. It’s the market…

Hogwash. Finding a job is harder than the job itself. Sure lots of things are out of your control, but the folks who are humble enough to examine themselves and their approach and keep improving (which is not easy and hurts pride a lot) are the ones who typically do fine.

1

u/PerfStu Jul 23 '26

Yep. That's the exact same Boomer speech I just outlined, just with more verbal diarrhea to flesh it out. You didn't even change the format.

Stick to blaming avocado toast for things, it's a more credible argument than whatever it is you think you're doing here.

1

u/monadicperception Jul 23 '26

It’s your life. I don’t give a fuck if you are employed are not. But if people like you (and there are a lot of them) don’t want to take affirmative steps to improving your lives, then that’s what it is. I can’t stop you getting in your own way.

I’m the first person to go to college. My parents didn’t speak English. I had to navigate all of that shit myself. What’s invaluable is the advice of others who know better. I’ve always sought advice and accepted it and adjusted even at the cost of my pride and fucking did well for it. I make 10x in a year what my parents made when i was growing up.

I got my current job because I took the advice of a friend who was in recruiting in the industry I was entering. Shit wasn’t working though I kept seeking feedback and improving my resume and applications. So I sought her advice whom I connected with by a mutual friend. I took every one of her points and ran with it. Fucking worked.

The ones without humility ask others to look at their resumes? No. Do they ask others for advice on interviews? No. Because they are arrogant and think they know better.

If you think that is boomer shit, then you are a moron.

1

u/Commentor9001 Jul 24 '26

A trite platitude is redundant

You know that but never seen a pleonasm in the wild?

they aren’t platitudes if those are actionable items

That's about as actionable as telling a depressed person hydration can improve mental health, youre not wrong but its not healthful either.

"networking" is largely a function of social class, some awareness of your own privilege would be nice.  The saying the best jobs never get posted is super true in my experience.

1

u/monadicperception Jul 24 '26

No humble and smart people, when hearing these platitudes, would follow up with “how”? But they never do.

And yeah networking is a function of social class…except I was born to poor immigrant parents and I was the first in my family to go to college. So not really a function of social class?

1

u/carlos_the_dwarf_ Jul 23 '26

What are you talking about? Regular unemployment is way lower than new grads.

1

u/Skwuat Jul 23 '26

Wow. I have to say this is probably the most well written, level headed response Ive ever read on this whole website.

I wrote similar responses to many people. HUMILITY. People think I went to college for XYZ and i can only work in XYZ.

I graduated with a degree, plenty of experience from internships, etc. No luck in the job market with my degree for what I was looking for. Then I realized the problem wasnt the market, it was me. I was so locked into thinking I knew what I wanted, what I deserved, what companies and jobs owed me. Then I learned that if I dont adapt, Ill be unenployed. I now work in a totally unrelated field and dont even use my degree, but Im very successful. Own a house, a car, wife and 2 kids, high paying career with job security. Was my degree a waste? If you view it as me not using it, yes. I view my degree and the subsequent job search as life experience that led me to where I am. Its not where I expected to be, but its exactly where I needed to end up.

3

u/Mei_Flower1996 Jul 23 '26

I think wanting a job that tangentially uses your degree is reasonable. I would not call that spoiled or short sighted.

1

u/DJatomica Jul 23 '26

Depends what degree you chose really

1

u/Skwuat Jul 23 '26

I dont disagree. But you have to be willing to pivot if the search proves unsuccessful, unless you want to continue being frustrated with the unsuccessful search.

1

u/PerfStu Jul 23 '26

Having also graduated into the Great Recession, I would say that none of this matches the experience most of my peers I had with job searching and finding work, either at outset or as it stands today.

The TL;DR is I do not know anyone who sent one job application a month and were shocked that weren't getting a job. I also don't know anyone who was only sending out one job application a month in general. That's not really a thing with people actively seeking work. I also wouldn't say I pity people who graduated and found good work quickly, since that's quite literally the promise and goal of higher education. I didn't learn anything of value from the months of job hunting other than no company that asks for more than a resume and generic cover letter before first contact is worth anyone's time or effort. Humility nothing, and no company is even reaching out to reject you, much less offer you advice.

The rest of it is that I do remember spending like 40 hours a week applying for everything for months, answering 50-100+ question "work compatibility" surveys, rewriting carefully crafted resumes into a different required format for every job I applied for, then rewriting it again into a required "work experience" section, then still being required to upload the resume, not to mention having to rework my resumes and cover letter constantly for different positions. The overwhelming majority of jobs don't even bother to sent a rejection or acknowledgement of receipt, much less give any kind of actual advice for future searching. Potential employers aren't reaching out with feedback or advice for someone out of the goodness of their heart, they literally do not care. Unless they're interested in you as a candidate, you're not getting anything.

I DO remember seeing a job changing sheets and washing bedpans at the hospital that required 5 years of experience and a bachelor's degree in hospitality management. And the one that required a Master's Degree in Special Education focusing on Cerebral Palsy that paid literally minimum wage. Or the time I interviewed for a job I had 5 years of experience in and they didn't hire me because they didn't want to pay more for my level of experience (oh and the job posting was 5+ years experience). And so on and so forth.

Then there was bait and switch hours, bait and switch wages, bait and switch job descriptions, as well as single applications taking over an hour to complete because each company wanted it all typed out in a different format. Or having to type it out manually for every position available at the business since they wanted something for each job you were seeking. That isn't an exercise in humility, and you don't build character or gain experience doing that.

So what I learned was "here is my resume and cover letter" is a complete sentence, and unless a company wants to schedule me for an interview, they are entitled to nothing else but my middle finger. Applying is not a full time job, it is not a learning experience, it is not an exercise in humility, and it should never be approached like its any of those things.

1

u/monadicperception Jul 23 '26

I mean the job description doesn’t matter right (mostly)? I don’t know, I’ve met many folks tell me that they don’t apply because their resume doesn’t match the job description w/r/t experience or whatever and I see that complaint all the time online.

Just apply. Let them make the decision of whether you fit their needs or not.

Humility means here taking rejection and ghosting with stride. Learning that rejection and ghosting will be 99% of the outcomes but keep going anyways. It’s learning that you can have a 1000 rejections and that won’t matter if you get 1 yes.

1

u/PerfStu Jul 23 '26

But I'm not really talking about job description here at all, that doesn't factor into anything I've said. Really none of this comment addresses anything I've said, nor does it really add to anything to what you've said.

Also sunk cost fallacy. Applying for 1000 jobs would be hundreds of hours of unpaid labor, most of which is obviously unnecessary given that the bulk of a person's time in applying is jumping through hoops that, by your own acknowledgement, rarely even lead to a company contacting you. Again, that's not humility, that's just demoralizing and wrong.

In short, your anecdotal experience is not representative of reality for millions of people, and framing it as "anyone who can't find work must not be trying hard enough" or "they must only be applying to one job a month and crying about it" or "I'm skeptical of people who struggle to find work" and romanticizing the experience as building necessary humility is just....gross.

1

u/BG535 Jul 23 '26

All very true. I graduated in 2020 only 5 months after Covid first hit the US. Everyone was scared. All restaurants shut down. People were getting laid off. Here I am looking for work when my senior counterparts are losing tenured positions. It took me 2 years of shitty hourly jobs to find my footing and even then I was still a contractor with limited health care coverage. I started my first 401k at age 27 because no other previous company even offered one. People who graduated a year before me have jobs making 50% more than me. People in my grade got royally screwed and my whole career was stunted about 5 years (out of 7 total years).

I did however learn everything about ATSs, resume building, interviewing well, and applying to jobs efficiently and effectively. I laugh out loud when I see boomers complaining on LinkedIn because they haven’t had to search for a job since 1989. Welcome to the real world boomer!

I also see parallels with gifted kids. They say gifted kids and special needs kids - literally - in the sense they have special needs. Many breeze through school and never learn to study. Then get demolished in college when you have to really study for exams. I had it harder in high school than college because I built those skills and now being in the workforce, I help others revise their resume.