The dead end kids.

reply to post by geo1066


I agree, you don't understand.

You don't understand because there's always been work to be had for you. You don't understand because you're singing the blues about having changed careers a couple of times. On average I change jobs every 3-6 months and change careers every year or two, and that's without one pink slip- that's all on layoffs, me moving on to better careers, or me quitting because my employer couldn't or wouldn't pay me. In my generation, the guys who get one career and stick to it all work in retail and food service. By no means do I consider myself above that, I just know you can't build a life on it, so I've busted my butt and gone anywhere and everywhere I had to in order to find better things.

I'm 26 years old and I've already been a security officer with 3 different companies, a towtruck dispatcher, an independent computer teacher, an operating engineer with at least 6 different companies, a Marine, a Carpenter with something like 5 different companies, a college student, an English tutor, a salesman, and there are probably a few I'm forgetting about. Getting a job has clearly never been a problem for me. Granted I don't stay put very well even when I find a job that isn't laying people off, but that was my perogative when times were good. Now I work any job I can get until I get laid off again, but even a guy like me, having been through literally dozens of successful job interviews in my life, can't stand out among these kinds of crowds. Not when there's a line outside the super's trailer before he even shows up to the job on most construction sites.

'life is easy'... man you need to come take a little walk in the real world with me. I'll show you a place where the police rape your mother and when she can't be blackmailed into keeping it quiet, your family ends up leaving town in the middle of the night. I'll show you a place where nobody makes their kids go inside just because there are sirens or gunfire or screams up the block. I'll show you a place where one by one your friends die in police chases, go to jail, or get found chopped up in trashbags because McDonalds ain't hiring but the meth cooks are.

And if you're feeling attacked, you don't know what it is to be under attack. You're wrong because you haven't had enough life experience to know any better, and that's being sheltered, not being attacked.

You hit the nail on the head. Where I work, we received hundreds of applications for a part-time clerical position that opened up that $12 an hour with no benefits. People with MBA degrees were applying. Eventually, the job went to the boss's 18 year-old niece. Even though I work at a large university, not a mom and pop shop, nepotism is the rule and not the exception. I'm only working there because I started out as a temp and a permanent position opened up. There's no other way I would have been able to get my foot through the door.

Originally posted by traphouse

Originally posted by silent thunder

Originally posted by zorgon
One thing that is really different in this economy that makes a HUGE difference in getting jobs...

ONLINE APPLICATIONS.

Things are so bad right now here's how it goes. Burger King gets one cash register opening and they put up an online ad. They get 4,652 applications in their email "inbox," all of which they delete. They get 549 paper applications, 90% of which they randomly toss in the trash. They then go through the 50 or so remaining paper-and-stamp apps and either choose the people with the Ivy League educations to come in for a face-to-face, or they simply call up their cousin and ask if his daughter is still looking for a job because one just opened up.

LOL. That's the funniest thing i've heard all day.

I am 29 so somewhat older than the ages in this study, but I still consider myself a young american.
I had been running a small business from home but with the economy the way it is my product just doesn't do well.

So i have been looking and looking for a job. After months of only getting calls back about things like door to door vacuum sales and selling medical discount plans to seniors I finally found a job at a local cafe.

I am getting drinks, being a cashier and doing whatever else needs to be done to run the place.

I am college educated but was still glad to find this 7.50 an hour job because it is a job quite frankly.

They have had a now hiring sign up for two weeks, and many people have come in to apply, but they show up looking a mess, not wanting to work weekends, or wanting 10+ an hour to start, or they show up to a lunch restaurant in the middle of the rush and want an interview

Out of over a hundred application there were maybe one or two people who were actually appealing as a new hire.

The problem is two fold in my opinion, there are very few jobs, but it truly seems that the people just a few years younger than me have no clue how to present themselves to a prospective employer.

reply to post by grayhawkz1


kudos! Well thought out and addressed.

How to control:

In education, reduce the curriculum to only what is needed to become good factory workers or order takers.

Slowly take away all education funding so that when things go bad and young people get desperate and their family is economically impacted by their using the resources so much faster that the only general option is the military.

Don't laugh. These are long term and pervasive planning concepts.

The military ranks will be filled with people who cannot find jobs and will do anything for some sort of survival and to send money back to their family.

We have taken creativity out of the learning process with the lack of arts and now sports for personal achievement and leadership. Now we have people who have no ideas, no training on implementing new ideas and leading others to the call to change the system.

All our potentially brilliant youth are left with is a dim future, no opportunities and anger and resentment that might come out in violent emotional modalities. When that happens, it plays into the need to implement marshal law and military enforcement of the public.

If you are in the military or decide to join, you will believe you are in the advantage to survive the changes. In fact, you go from the frying pan to the fire, where you are then completely under the control of the architects of the whole plan, and will be managed with all that comes to military service, including inoculations and hazardous duty in controlling the masses of good abandoned regular people in need to merely survive.

Not to mention the many decades old deep programming that is done in military training to assure you can kill on an order. Despite your hearts better judgment. Be ready to kill your brothers and sisters.

This is just a small part of a much bigger plan. All is going well for the controllers now. TV and Pop Culture finishes the job with angry dislocated and sociopath behavior programming. Such makes good killers and gears for the machine.

Watch the ranks of the military expand with angry, power-addicted, scared and uneducated young, who have no other options.

For those whom see and watch the socio-cultural grazing pastures, we see the clearly demarcated razor-wire fences leading our young into the service of the anti-life mechanistic structures of control.

Teach cooperative and community. It is where all the power is in this and every other nation on Earth. They don't want you to know this.

Take care of each other, and avoid placing our youth in the soulless machine. If there is an Antichrist, this will be it. A machine without a soul or a spirit. Just a need to control for more power.

ZG

Originally posted by traphouse
Well, I'm a long time reader on ATS and this is my first post. This one in particular got to me and caught my attention. I'm 22 and I know what it's like to be broke and unemployed and feel like a piece of worthless # in the process in this cold world.

The only advice I can give if you want to work on your own time and make good money is by playing poker.

I have built up enough skill and experience to see a nice steady profit.. (averaging about $2800 a month.) I taught myself until i got better and better. (I didn't read any books or anything) Since I was laid off a year ago, I figured I would give poker my undivided attention and so far it hasn't let me down. If anyone is interested in getting in on the poker scene and needs lessons, just shoot me an email. I'm on the computer almost everyday

Hey, how are you doing? I was wondering if you could help me with poker? You mentioned under the "The Dead End Kids" thread that you could help? Please, email me: [email protected]

Stay strong.

[edit on 28-9-2009 by DalJigsaw]

Originally posted by mattifikation
Regarding the Wal-Mart thing, the job itself might not be hard but a lot of the older folks who shop there are genuinely grateful when you can help them out. Helping people, even if it's just helping them pick out a computer or find their grandson's favorite CD, is actually personally rewarding.

I worked there for 5 years. I hated it by the end, but I wouldn't call it a "dead-end" job. You do have to be a certain type of person to move up... a good leader, you have to have great people skills, and you have to be able to work under stress (holidays are killer.) But if you do, the managers there make a ton of money. (I lacked the people skills, and in the end I just couldn't fake it anymore.)

Anyways, the point that I'm vaguely getting at is that even the most "lowly" jobs can give you reasons to be proud. You just have to do the job and figure out what it is. Frankly, I think simply being self-sustaining and not getting stuck in the welfare system is something to be proud of.

I'm 27. I just got hired at a gas station and my first day is tomorrow. I'm proud because I'm not mooching off my parents and I'm willing to work, despite the easier route of welfare being an option. Some young people need to swallow their pride and take the crappy jobs, and if it really bothers them then they should shoot for management positions.

Great points! I work at Old Navy and in all honesty, I do not mind it. I'm a Fiction writer. I work at Old Navy and think of things I can write about, or I write in my head and then come home and write it all down.

Originally posted by xenchan`
jobs have been bad here in Oregon for all ages i see people with family's on the street holding signs bagging for money heck at my nearest McDonald's its all older people 50+ ive seen young adults walk in and ask for for work and be turned down even trying to get resumes and they get told sorry its bad ware we live we moved to a cheaper area to live but theirs no work all taken by people who have lived there all of there life's

haha i'm from oregon and mcdonalds is just like that here. there seems to be no hope here

reply to post by ZeroGhost




Good points, I know I've considered joining the marines for hope of stability and a possible career option, not because it's my life long dream or anything, or even that I believe in the war were currently in, just the longing for stability.

Originally posted by useless eaters
reply to post by loam

 

I agree, how totally sad. To work and provide a living for yourself goes hand in hand with self respect. To loose self respect at such a young age has powerful implications. Nice thread!

Over the past 2 years since I have graduated from high school, I have had a couple of jobs. Mostly working for family friends and a few odd jobs. This summer I struggled hard trying to find a decent job. Had no luck so tried to get a crappy job....... NO LUCK! I was competing with people for a part-time dishwashing JOB!!! $6.50/hour!!! I can't even find slave labor at this point. And yes it very much has had a negative impact on my self-respect. I'm freaking 20 years old, and I really do feel like an adult now. Yet I'm still living with my parents... Odd jobs cant pay rent... too risky! Thinking about college but I dunno what to study! what should I do guys? please give me some advice before I lose my mind!

Thanks, Omni

Edit: spelling

[edit on 28-9-2009 by InfiniteOmnipresence]

Originally posted by sisgood

I'm seeing a different group of kids than I saw 10 years ago. These kids today are beginning to realize that, no, it won't be "out there" for them when they finish growing up. It's a different world today and only growing more alien. I also think the younger adults of today 19-35 are getting a rude awakening themselves. (I'm in that age group) Jobs are drying up rapidly. I was unlucky enough to be one of the millions that has been laid off. It's tough.

hmmmm ... would you say Generation Z begins in 1991 and ends in say 2002?

Hah! try to live on long island..

Thank GOD my dad got me a job.

reply to post by Perplexity


As a Marine, I urge you NOT to join the United States Marine Corps in search of stability. You should be aware that the smaller size, lower funding, and generally high demand for placement in the USMC makes the Marine Corps a more competitive environment than other services in some cases.

If you see the military as a road to a career, that is entirely possible, HOWEVER, what you want to do is the following:

1. Take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and also the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test. Take the MBTI through a local school or a paid service, not just a web site.

2. After having used those two tools to identify a short list of careers which suit both your aptitudes and your personal preferences, go to a local library and find recently printed career outlooks. I strongly advise using 2008 and 2009 editions- anything that predates the economic slowdown is suspect. Even recent editions should be double-checked by contacting corporate recruiters, employers, or career counselors with specific familiarity in your prospective career paths.

3. Talk to recruiters from EVERY ONE of the armed forces (do NOT overlook either the Coast Guard or the National Guard) it's not about machismo, it's about accomplishing the life you want for yourself. Your country WILL benefit from your service, and you WILL be placed head and shoulders above the competition, as long you give it everything you've got, regardless of what service you are in.

Do not be afraid to be standoffish with recruiters, although you should treat them with respect. This means that it is OK to ask for official documentation of anything they tell you, and to refuse any pressure they may put upon you for an immediate commitment. You should pay particular attention to stop-losses (a high incidence of stoploss, if not due to undesireable conditions in the military, can be indicative of high demand both in military and civilian sectors), promotion cut-off scores for the Military Occupational Specialty corresponding to your chosen career, and enlistment bonuses, as these are strong indicators of demand for the field in question. Furthermore you should ask both educational institutions and corporate recruiters about the outlook for a vetran entering the field.

4. IF you can identify a career option which matches your abilities and preferences, AND which is demand in the military, AND which the private sector prefers military personel for, THEN go for it, but make sure you take FULL advantage of ALL educational programs.

There is a serious problem with laziness among the current generation; I've seen it, I'm one of them. (I'm 27)

I have an electrical engineering degree, and I've seen how university works, too. Most of my classmates were completely incompetent and didn't do any work. Why? Because they came from families that already had lots of money, gave little Timmy a car, laptop, his own place, and paid for his tuition, and then got him a job because they knew the vice president of such and such company, while the people with a good work ethic struggled to complete their degree while paying for it themselves cannot find anything because we have no connections.

Could I get a job and work at McDonalds or something? Yeah, probably. I'd likely kill myself, though. And no, I'm not joking. I don't usually tell people this, but about 8 years ago I went through a bout of depression due to a combination of the school difficulties mentioned above, menial work, and my dad almost dying, and I know if I ever let myself feel like I did back then, there is a very real chance I'd decide it wasn't worth going on.

So what do I do? I hunt for the few entry level engineering jobs around, apply, and wait for the calls that never come, while I wonder if there is something I could be doing differently. Then I read a thread like this and see people just like me, and then I wonder why it's like this, how it got that way, and how do we get out of it?

I'm 18. Just started my job hunt today for a full time job. I'll post here if I get anything with in the next week or two.

A quote I'd like to post in here, but cannot remember the person who first said it, it may have been Bill Hicks or George Carlin:

There are only three classes of people:
The wealthy class, born into money, never have to work a day in their life.
The middle class, who work for a living, also supplement their income with investments.
The impoverished class, whose sole existence in life is to keep the middle class in perpetual fear of becoming like them!

This is a long but interesting thread, with a lot of personal stories and experiences. They each help to shed a very big light on the situation in this country as far as the economy goes. And valuable advice can be gleaned from almost every post on this thread.

I wish ATS had more quality threads like this!

Originally posted by gluetrap
I am 29 so somewhat older than the ages in this study, but I still consider myself a young american.
I had been running a small business from home but with the economy the way it is my product just doesn't do well.

So i have been looking and looking for a job. After months of only getting calls back about things like door to door vacuum sales and selling medical discount plans to seniors I finally found a job at a local cafe.

I am getting drinks, being a cashier and doing whatever else needs to be done to run the place.

I am college educated but was still glad to find this 7.50 an hour job because it is a job quite frankly.

They have had a now hiring sign up for two weeks, and many people have come in to apply, but they show up looking a mess, not wanting to work weekends, or wanting 10+ an hour to start, or they show up to a lunch restaurant in the middle of the rush and want an interview

Out of over a hundred application there were maybe one or two people who were actually appealing as a new hire.

The problem is two fold in my opinion, there are very few jobs, but it truly seems that the people just a few years younger than me have no clue how to present themselves to a prospective employer.

I have to applaud and agree with your post. Star.

yes i agree but where could this all be coming from?

[SNIP]

Post removed due to several drug references.

2e.i) Narcotics and illicit mind-altering substances: Due to abuse of the subject matter by some (promoting various aspects of personal use, and discussing actual personal use), no new topics on this subject are allowed in any form.

[edit on 29-9-2009 by Gemwolf]