A lot of shampoo went into where I wanted to go with today's post.
Mundane little tasks, like shampooing or conditioning, brushing my teeth, or washing dishes are where I take the time to process things because the task at hand takes no real brain power. Folding laundry cannot be included in this list, because I hate that and every braincell is thinking about how much I hate it.
Anyway, I've got a lot of ideas I'm trying to string together, so hopefully it makes sense by the end.
I had it confirmed to me last week that if you want to get a job in this market, it needs to be about who you know. To the credit of all y'all, you've been stepping up. You've sent me job postings, reviewed my resume, offered to be references, connected me with people, passed my resume on, and more. What little sanity I have left in this process would be long gone without you.
But... why hasn't it gone anywhere?
I can't help but think that part of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people my age-ish might be responsible for teams or budgets, but don't have hiring power. This is not a slight! I have interviewed a lot of people in my time, but I have had very little direct power in suggesting who actually gets a position. In fact, in my last position, I wasn't even included in any interviews! I suspect, although I can't be certain, that this is the case for a lot of my network.
How did this happen? I'm personally in my late 30s, a solid Millennial. When I talk to the generations ahead of me, they wonder why we don't make more money.
This is where my web gets a little tangled, but we want to make more money. Who doesn't? I know people hate to hear Millennials whining, but truly, the issues are coming at us come from every direction.
Technology develops quickly. The jobs that existed when we finished college probably didn't exist when we started college, and those didn't exist when we started high school, etc. We are the generation that went from having a single computer lab of brightly colored Macs in our schools to each needing our own laptops for college. We have great computer and media literacy, but it comes with constantly needing to be on top of what already exists while being prepared to pivot to the next big thing whenever that shows up, and hope our skills are transferable.
We graduated college right before, during, or right after the 2007-2008 recession. The Great Recession. If you had a job, you might have gotten laid off since you were the newest. If you didn't have a job, you struggled to find one, even a part-time one, since so many people were looking for one. If you're wondering what happened to teenagers in fast food restaurants or the few remaining cashier lines at the grocery store, it was this era. Adults who were let go needed something, anything, so they took what was available. I happened to graduate right after the recession, but it depressed wages. Wages hadn't increased during that time, so we left college with mounds of student loan debt, because we had been told it would be worth it, only to enter a job market where the rate of pay hadn't kept up with inflation because of a recession. Some of us went to grad school because we didn't know where to get jobs; plus, a master's degree must be better, right? The ones that did find jobs were not making the equivalent of other generations.
The market is now flooded with people with bachelor's degrees, and now that it is so common, it is a basic requirement. Need proof? I applied to two jobs just this week that pay $50,000/year, and they are master's degree preferred. $50,000 won't even cover what I have left in student loans.
But the problems aren't just stemming from the bottom. The older generations are living longer, which means their retirement funds aren't lasting as far into retirement as they need. This means that people are either delaying leaving the job market, or coming back into it. When people delay leaving the job market, the opportunity for leadership positions at the top of a company to open up are delayed. Plus, if you have been following the tariff drama, you know that there is a good chance your 401k on any given day is up 549388472% or in the red. How can anyone plan to retire with a lack of stability?
Maybe you see where I'm going with this. If there isn't movement at the top of a company for people to move up into, how can younger generations find themselves in positions of power? Frankly, they can't.
It's giving... the haves and have-nots. It isn't quite that, but I don't have another term for it. In my opinion, that's also why the stock market isn't a good reflection of how our economy is doing. Maybe we need a better indicator, like total eggs sold week over week, because not enough of the country owns stock or even has a 401k to make the stock market a worthwhile economic indicator.
This is going to maybe freak some people out as I write this, but my husband and I don't have much of a retirement account right now. He liquidated his for the downpayment on this house in 2019. Then in December 2023, he liquidated it again because he was leaving corporate and striking out in a different direction. I liquidated mine in February 2024 because he had already been let go by his new job and was going to try and start his own business. We used mine to pay off the loan for our roof and for my car, and still had to buy a second car because he worked out of the house now. When we did our taxes for 2024, we owed money because the amount of money we took in from our 401ks bumped us into the next tax bracket, which totally makes sense, because if you are liquidating your 401k before you turn 60, it just screams "financial security." But alas, America. Anyway, if you're following along on the timeline, my husband owns his own company, and I worked for a whole 18 months at my new job before being let go. That 401k didn't have a lot of time to grow.
I'm being vulnerable here, but I suspect I'm not the only one in this position. I know people who are underemployed, or one spouse is staying home with the kids, or whatever. There are any number of us out there who are out here underemployed, unemployed, no retirement to speak of even if we have a 401k because we need every cent possible in our paychecks because of student loans and rent and groceries, or without health insurance because our company doesn't offer it or it's too expensive in the marketplace, etc etc etc.
Ok, I'm finally going to wrap up my musings, but hopefully you followed my train of thought here. All of this to say that it seems like an uphill battle to "rely on your network" when my network isn't in a position of power. They aren't in a position to hire someone, are also unemployed, or are striking out on their own and/or in the gig economy. It's like telling someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they don't even have boots! Which, who can afford new ones in this economy?!?
They are stepping up for me, but where is it a step to?
(Disclaimer: I hope you know I appreciate you all! This is not an "ugh, they are unreliable" post, but more a "ugh, burn the whole system down and rebuild it" post. Please keep sending me job openings.)
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