Miles to Go Before I Sleep

I quite enjoy having this blog so I can rant and write someplace... My rant today is about the job market and educational systems. It is beyond frustrating to be a twenty something female in today's job market. I have an undergraduate degree of which I had a pretty decent GPA. Yet, those 4 and half years I spent pouring over scholarly articles, staying up until all hours to write papers, working menial jobs that afforded me the ability to have to reuse teabags more than twice because I could only afford hot water, and basically disregarding a social life but for June-August, finding full-time employment that will pay me enough to function normally in society is elusive. I am not jaded enough to think that my degree will get me a job in my field...no, that has gone far out the window, but I had assumed that I could get even a lowly administrative job (that is not to rag on admin jobs, because I have a part time one and it is pretty decent work, just low on the pay scale). Admin jobs often do not even require post-secondary education at all. In fact, it seems to me that experience is the most important aspect to acquiring a job. I completely understand that. It makes sense that someone who understands the ins and outs of a position would be hired. BUT, my generation was told with great vigour that college/university education was almost mandatory for being in the working world someday. So now there is a large group of educated young people who are being overlooked for jobs in their field or otherwise for experienced professionals. So a lot of us realize that we have a slim chance of getting into the working world with a decent job, so we go back to school to gain more credentials because, well, what else is there for us to do? That's great for now, but when these experienced professionals are looking to retire or change jobs we're going to be left with a generation of over-educated under-experienced workers. How are we to gain said experience? It seems as though there are some innovative companies who understand the need for experienced people AS well as the fresh minds of educated younger people. Those companies are elusive to me, nonetheless because I am having one heck of a time getting out of part time employment, as are a lot of my friends who have a plethora of varying undergraduate degrees. The ones that do have jobs are ALL employed in reception, admin, or part-time work. It is disheartening to think that my education has been for naught. I get that you can't take education away from someone and learning is good for other things besides getting a job, but when you have to pay $300.00 plus just to get some freaking glasses, you really wish you had a job that paid benefits.


 Signed, educated and underpaid.