Job search, part 1

Recent checklist: 

     -Graduation? Done

     -Move? Done

     -Help out a friend (which I'd been promising for years)? Done

     -Settled into the new place? Done

     -Job? ....... well........

     There's something horribly depression about looking for a job, and it's not just that the current economy is pretty nasty. It seems like, no matter how many times you have to do it, and regardless of what new level of education/ experience/ skill set you have, job hunting is mentally and emotionally wearing. When I was younger, I figured that it was just due to lack of skills and experience, and it would get easier as I got older. Then before I went to college, I figured it was a lack of that pretty little paper saying you're horribly in debt (no, I'm not cynical at all), because the most random jobs were looking for it. Want to be an insurance agent? Need a diploma. Want to be a delivery person? Need a diploma. Want to wash elephant feet after parades? Need a diploma. Really? Wow.

     But now, having that precious piece of paper, I'm still not finding it any easier to locate a job. Well, I should say, a job that justifies having gone through four years of debt and "basic foundations of knowledge" classes. Everything that I'm looking for that relates to my degrees requires at least 3 years of experience. Everything that I look at that doesn't relate to my degree (think elephant leg-washing), also wants experience, or a degree in elephant leg-washing. This post is a pretty accurate example of the current trend: 

Entry-level! But wait! Must have experience! So how does that make it entry-level? We must have redefined that term at some point while I wasn't looking.

     I will devote only a small paragraph to the issue of pay, because I know that millions- possibly billions- of people have commented on it before. Most of the jobs that require only experience, or are entry-level, or targeted for "recent grads" show a starting salary of $11-12/ hr. Maybe. If you're lucky, you might find one that goes as high as $14, but that's stretching it (and probably requires prior experience in lunar shuttle repair). Let's do some quick math here: 

$11/ hr * 40 hrs/ week *52 weeks/ year = $22,880/ year. 

Minus roughly 30% for taxes, medicare, medicaid, social security, etc etc (insert cynical comment about the likelihood of any of that being available for post-baby-boomer generations):

$22,880/ year * 70% = $16,016/ year

I did my best to keep my expenses low during college, and only take credits that applied to my degrees,  but I still walked out of college with over $50k in loans (not counting another $20k that I paid for personally in order to do study abroad during the summer, as I was advised that it was highly desirable for language students). According to the exit loan counseling I was required to do before graduation, I am expected to pay $500/ month, starting 6 months from now until I die (that might be a slight exaggeration, but only slight). So let's subtract that from the above figure:

$16,016/ year - ($500/ month * 12 months/ year) = $10,016/ year. 

Hm. Not looking so good, is it? Well, no worries, at least you're not.. below...

Well, crap. So I paid $50k (not counting various grants and scholarships) in order to live below the poverty line for the next decade or so. 

     It's not that I don't want a job flipping burgers, it's that I was told, when I was growing up, that if I went to college, I wouldn't have to take a job flipping burgers. It was the punishment that was reserved for people who didn't apply themselves, who didn't make every effort possible to improve their station in life, and yet now it's supposed to be an honor to do so and live in poverty, while the degree molders on your wall. 

     Now, I'm not saying that all hope is lost, and that I intend to give up and live that way. I'm just saying that it certainly adds a piquant note of necessity to an already demanding and degrading task. The next post will focus on that task; this one was more sort of background, sorry. Cheers!