Three Years Experience Necessary

The whole reason I'm writing this blog is because I'm currently unemployed. Unemployment aside I wanted to discuss what has always drove me crazy when looking at job listings. I'm talking about the disappearance of entry level jobs. People will argue furiously about this topic and point the finger at the individual not "succeeding" however I don't think it is usually because of a lack of effort. You go to school and have an interest in the sciences. You got great grades in high school but didn't come from a family with thousands of dollars in the pink piggy bank. You apply for some scholarships and grants but they only cover a fraction of your tuition costs. If only you had that shotgun marriage in high school or got knocked up your college expenses would be oh so less of a burden. Wait how much native American do you have in you? Oh so sorry not quite enough nice try though.

So you go to school you continue to get exceedingly good grades and you pop out into the world a newborn science major. You are proud, ambitious and in debt. You scoff at the rich kid who sat next to you in whatever advanced class for the fourth time because his parents had a direct deposit set up with the school's bank account to let him keep taking the same class until the professor actually felt sorry for him. You can't afford to go to grad school so you play the job market. Who knows maybe your employer will pay your tuition later on down the road. You always hear people talking about that. If you want to retain your mental sanity you know you can't live with your parents for very long. So you take a retail job to limp by and afford a cheap place while you apply for a "real" job. As your looking the same two words of "Must have..." keep popping out at you. You have some of this and some of that but the puzzle piece never really fits quite right. Perhaps the job title of "Assistant" was a typo because you had always thought being an assistant to someone else meant learning the trade and a good entry level position to get your foot in the door. Not quite.

Where do you get the three years WORKING experience using x,y, and z software? Where do you get the WORKING experience using program languages a,b,c nevermind you have been tooling around with a and b for several years now on your own time. How do you take the 2 years of graduate level courses at $400 dollars a credit HOUR when you can only get a crappy job. In the garbage bin your resume goes!

So where is a newborn graduate to go? Well perhaps you take the admin or data entry job for $10-$13 figuring you'll get your foot in the door and something will open up. However upon arriving you find there are many others within the organization waiting and plotting as well. At this rate you'll be waiting a few years just to get a chance to get that entry level position. You know if they trained you for 2 weeks you'd have it down flat. So will everyone else though. Welcome to life. Lets hope in a few years time when you are at a respectable enough position you won't be so burnt out that you'll still have enough drive and motivation to get back into school at the age of 30. Maybe then you'll be able to get that entry level position in something you actually enjoy.

I've been accused of whining a lot but this isn't my story. This is the story of most people I know and went to school with. Perhaps this is an accurate view of what many are going through out there. Perhaps I need to get more upstanding friends.