http://phoenixandolivebranch.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/open-letter-from-a-millennial-quit-telling-us-were-not-special/
Lem posted this in the IRC and I thought I'd share with you guys.

This whole letter kind of hits the nail on the head... call it a lack of focus right now, but I'm not entirely sure what to think

Fighter_McWarrior wrote:

When we complain about how we can't get jobs and how we're never going get the same guarantees that our parents did, it's not because we feel like we're special. It's because we're frustrated. And why shouldn't we be frustrated that all of our years in college and student loan debt were for nothing because the generation before us ruined the economy before we had a chance to jump in it? Or that the government that we helped pay for can't help us out in our time of need because it's too busy going broke paying for the elderly comforts of the Baby Boomers? We didn't create the mess the world's in; we inherited it. We don't need to be told we're not special. The fact that most of us spent our first year of adulthood working some shitty service job while begging for a real one killed that notion. And wasn't it Gen X that told us that only losers "flipped burgers" for a living? Because a lot of us had to for a while, even after working hard to get through school.

When I was a kid growing up I can probably quote 100 people in my life saying "Do you want to end up at McDonald's flipping burgers for the rest of your life?"
Hell no I don't (not that I flip burgers, I make smoothies) I want to get out of food service, if my boss made me like a regional manager for his other stores I could see staying in it, assuming I was getting paid a living wage. My boss is a great guy, and he keeps hinting at something like that (he owns like 8 stores, so it's possible though I just don't see it happening)

But at the same time I've spent whole nights looking at classifieds trying to find anything that'll pay decently, I've emailed company after company and I found a computer company that was hiring at $10/hour starting, but a friend of mine who works for the government as a network admin told me that particular company has a high rate of firings and people quitting (like 90% I think, quitting) due to being treated like crap.

A friend of mine took a job soldering circuit boards at $12 an hour, she pretty much had a career and she left it a month in to go to college.

On a side note I see plenty of my friends getting into colleges, and then dropping out a few months later because they either can't find what they want, or what they do want is useless because everyone wants that.

I feel like if I do go to college I'll get my Cisco certs, get a really good degree, and then get out there and find out that there's nowhere to work. Or anywhere I can work will pay me a very low wage that'll force me to room with people

Hell I've talked with friends about getting an apartment together, and they're all worried that'll be their only option for getting out of the house.

Simply put I don't see the huge demand for people with degrees, I see a demand for people who need to service those people with degrees, and even that's low.


... Fuck maybe I'll study a trade as a fall back if computers doesn't work out. Be a locksmith or some shit. Or hell even open up a store, I've seen the success my boss has had with his stores, though I wouldn't know where to start. He was given his first Subway by his dad, so I doubt he can give me some good advice in that direction.

Klimbatize wrote:

Hack, shut up and make my smoothie.

... I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh when I saw that.


EDIT: While I'm at it, let's talk about the education we get. Yes, it may be cheaper than public schooling in other countries, but it is by no means free. My parents and I probably spent more than several thousand on different assignments (not just in highschool, everything from preschool to my senior year), and all those classes that were required in high school. Book fees, gym clothes (sold BY the school), class fees (it was like $100 to take drivers ed), and then there's the money spent on required projects. Hell and if we wanted to do a sport, it was like we spent $100 for each sport each year.
My high school was horrid, my junior year I pretty much bombed the state testing in math and science because I didn't learn shit during the year, and then my senior year I took everything into my own hands and ended up having my lowest grade be a "B" I got in programming because I didn't do the term final. I worked my ass off to get those A's and I did it while doing a whole year of swimming, and a daily 6-8 hour computer internship all so I could look good for a college. Hell that year I got more school awards than half my class because I worked my ass off. Not only did I get all those A's, but I did over 160 hours in my internship, completed the requirements for two pathways (basically an award for completing a certain group of classes. For me it was computers), graduated from Academy of Information Technology (AOIT), and all those fucking A's I got in 3rd and 4th term I did while being banned from the computers because I fucked up and copied something I shouldn't have, and those computer classes were year long classes and there was no way to switch out.

I worked my ass off because I was told that it'd pay off in the future and it'd get me a good job.
Well here I am, graduated, can't find a job that isn't fast food and college is out of my reach without finding a boatload of scholarships, or taking out student loans.

Fighter_McWarrior wrote:

I know what you mean. I spent my first year out of college moving back into my parents' house and stocking shelves at my local Wal-Mart. One year later, I'm the manager of a political campaign and now looking to hire people to work under me. I worked my ass off to get where I am now, but I'll always remember that year at Wal-Mart when people say "Do you want to spend your life flipping burgers?" There's no shame in doing what you have to, and you're not selfish for wanting something more. We've all been programmed to feel both.

Well I hope that all this ass workary I'm doing pays off. I don't want much, just a living wage that'll let me have a computer, internet, and a touch of spending money beyond food and necessities

EDIT: I've said this before, and I'll say it again. If I can get that and skip college, I'll take the easy route thank you.

Fighter_McWarrior wrote:

From personal experience, I promise that it does. When I was hired to the consulting firm that got me out of Wal-Mart, I was told by the owner that one of the most attractive things about me as a hire was that I had worked a "real job" instead of just having been shuffled between agencies because I knew people. He said it proved I was willing to get my back into my living, to quote the Who.

That's actually pretty amazing.
I've had two jobs, I don't think either of them counts as a real job but I hope the first helps me out.
I started as a bagger then got moved up to a cashier, and 4 months in they promoted me to the meat department where I worked 8 hour days starting at 5 AM dealing with fish, and then ordering food for the isle I had to stock (that included shoving it into the freezer, and then moving the pallets around). Then when thanksgiving hit I was doing all that in 8 hour shifts three days a week, but my boss rationalized that because i did the frozen stuff I could handle all the turkeys. So I got my work load doubled, which meant in those 3 days I had to do what I was doing in half the time, and then after my usual work I had to go stack 60 pound boxes higher than my head and wheel them over to the meat department where I'd throw them on a scale and slap a tag on each one. While my boss sat on his ass all shift playing on his phone.
... I hated that guy so much. He'd be lazy as fuck, and then he'd call me in and be like "I've been here all day and we're slammed, come in and help" and then when i got there he'd stay for 20 minutes and then go "Well you guys seem to have everything under control, even though i still have 4 hours left I'll leave"

Klimbatize wrote:

Hacker wrote: Well I hope that all this ass workary I'm doing pays off. I don't want much, just a living wage that'll let me have a computer, internet, and a touch of spending money beyond food and necessities EDIT: I've said this before, and I'll say it again. If I can get that and skip college, I'll take the easy route thank you. LOL. Way to transcend the perception you're bitching about the older generation having of you.

Well when the other route means debt for years to come, and then getting a piece of paper that won't help me, I'll skip the years of debt.

I've seen too many of my friends dropping out of college because they can either no longer afford it, or the job market is too closed, and have a huge amount of debt to actually think it's a good idea. If a trade is easier, so be it.

at the same time I love computers, I want to get a good decent job with computers, but I can't seem to find anything in the field I want to study, I don't want to go prepare myself for a field, find out that there's nothing there, have a bunch of debt, and be right back where I started