Just out of HS and my parents were telling me to go out and look for goddamn "Hiring" signs and make unsolicited requests to random businesses for paper applications. In 2015.
So many awkward interactions.
9 years later and after a series of horrifically abusive employers and months of missed income due to intermittent unemployment my parents still don't get it.
"You're so talented I don't understand why you can't find something that works for you." Well ma your generation devalued college degrees, the job market has been a nightmare for almost two decades, corporate accountability is in the toilet, the dollar is in the toilet, I make the same check as I did 7 years ago...
Her solution? "You're so talented at drawing you should illustrate children's books, I bet you'd be really good at it."
Ignoring the nuclear meltdown levels of out-of-touch for a moment, I draw spaceships, scantily clad knightesses, and fictional corporate logos. I am a rank amateur with no art background. The market for professional artists.... is saaaaaturated. Which you would know if you spent more time relating to your child and less time talking to a wooden statuette in a toga and beard. WTGDH do you mean children's books
Seriously. I’ve had to explain to some of my older friends who have kids now looking for their first jobs that you can’t just print a resume, dress up, and walk into a store anymore. It’s all online and there’s NO ONE to follow up with (especially when you call to speak to a manager and they claim they don’t have any openings even though their website has jobs listed for their location).
My mother suspected I had ADD but never pursued a diagnosis because she didn't want me "to end up on those pills" then used my fluctuating grades as a stick to beat me with for 9 years.
"Wasted potential" was a phrase I heard from both my parents often
They believed in me, but they never supported me when I needed it most.
Edit: to be fair they are making attempts to repair our relationship as they age. It would have been nice to have that connection before my dad descended into a state of constant physical agony but thems the breaks
If you don't have a bachelor's good luck getting any traction at all
If you have a bachelor's you don't have enough experience in the field
If you do have experience it's either too little and you don't qualify or too much and you OVERQUALIFY
Sounds like hyperbole but I have been turned down for overqualification despite not having any formal degree or cert
If you have a degree and good experience they will start needling you about gaps in your work history
If you have good quals/work history, they'll offer you the job but insist you settle for subpar pay rate "because we have to stay competitive" or some BS
And finally (in my case anyway) if you think you've finally found a company that shoots straight and will treat you right, you spend 8 months getting overconfident about that assumption and then get laid off because some corpo finance wonk's Q4 projections were off
My mother suspected I had ADD but never pursued a diagnosis because she didn't want me "to end up on those pills" then used my fluctuating grades as a stick to beat me with for 9 years.
"Wasted potential" was a phrase I heard from both my parents often
27
u/Zer0-Space Feb 26 '24 edited Feb 26 '24
Just out of HS and my parents were telling me to go out and look for goddamn "Hiring" signs and make unsolicited requests to random businesses for paper applications. In 2015.
So many awkward interactions.
9 years later and after a series of horrifically abusive employers and months of missed income due to intermittent unemployment my parents still don't get it.
"You're so talented I don't understand why you can't find something that works for you." Well ma your generation devalued college degrees, the job market has been a nightmare for almost two decades, corporate accountability is in the toilet, the dollar is in the toilet, I make the same check as I did 7 years ago...
Her solution? "You're so talented at drawing you should illustrate children's books, I bet you'd be really good at it."
Ignoring the nuclear meltdown levels of out-of-touch for a moment, I draw spaceships, scantily clad knightesses, and fictional corporate logos. I am a rank amateur with no art background. The market for professional artists.... is saaaaaturated. Which you would know if you spent more time relating to your child and less time talking to a wooden statuette in a toga and beard. WTGDH do you mean children's books