General Discussion

I slipped into decent work when the dotcom was launching, and companies would hire and overpay people with a pulse.

Moved up, at the expense of a social life. So I have what most techie people would consider a fantastic job, but put in too many hours without OT pay. Too many hours means what's left is spent sleeping. I have to take a day off of work to get a haircut since they're not open at 9PM or 2AM. Hard to meet folks when you're recovering at home.

I was raised on the same diet of "you can do it!" and got incredibly lucky to be able to find work in the industry that matched my interests. I had to drop out of college to jump on it while I could get in without a degree. Then 12 years later when the big company had decided they didn't want US Citizens doing work at US sites supporting US customers, my job was sent to India by some manager 8 levels up that I'd never met. Once again, lucked out that I got a severance to use to finish my degree. Which got me bupkus for job offers that first two years. Ended up having to move hundreds of miles away from everyone I knew to get a job title that I could use to get a job back home a year and a half later. Being single can have its advantages as I was able to uproot without wrecking my wife or kids' life to find work.

I see your problem first hand at work every day. I work with 60-70 year olds that actually have amazing pensions, and they won't leave because they're afraid of not having more income to live on. So the high end jobs stay blocked, so the middle jobs stay blocked, so we can't bring in entry folks. I'd kill for an apprentice. Somebody that could learn what I do, handle the menial crap which is how you learn what breaks, how to find out and how to fix it. Then in a few years I could move on out of the way, and they'd be set. But no, I work with a guy who just lost his 50 year old son. How f'ing horrible is that? Every part of that sentence breaks my heart. To have a 50 year old son, you are probably at least 64, but probably 67+. The last thing you should have to deal with at that age is corporate bullshit. But there he was on Thursday asking me to help with something. His son died 3 days earlier, and he came in to fix some f'ing data problem because HE can't have an apprentice.

So I wish you luck, and you're definitely not alone. You should not have job prospects just because you graduate from high school in the right year. How many kids graduated from college in 2000 and jumped right in, and how many graduated in 2005-2010 and can't find shit?

It sucks. Massively.