Hey fellow millennials! 🙋♂️ Have you ever felt like you were fed a big, fat lie when it comes to finding success in today’s world? Let me tell you a little story. Back in 2009 when I graduated, my teachers and counselors were all like, “You need to go to college or get a trade job or you’ll be stuck in an apartment for the rest of your life.” Guess what? I took their advice, went to college, got a degree, and now I’m still struggling to make ends meet working in retail.
I mean, seriously, I don’t need a million dollars or anything extravagant. All I want is to be able to pay my rent, utilities, and put food on the table. But here I am, barely scraping by. And don’t even get me started on the whole trade job situation. Like, I just don’t have the skills or brainpower for that kind of work.
So, my question to you is – have you ever felt like you’ve been lied to as a millennial when it comes to finding success and financial stability? Let’s chat about our experiences and maybe even come up with some solutions together. Sound good? 🤔💭 #RealTalk #MillennialProblems
Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Let’s keep this conversation going! 💬✨
If you’re just want to vent, ignore this.
This is bullshit. We should all have healthcare and earn a living wage. That said, you live in the reality where that’s not the case, so I will ask if you’ve considered going into commission sales. If you’re working with customers all day anyway, why not make a lot more money doing it? The easiest type to get into is going to be something home based. Go for something people need but not too difficult to sell. Appliances are relatively easy. Mattresses. Easy to learn the differences and easy to upsell. Heavy and difficult to move enough that there’s still a market for it in person. Avoid jewelry, cars, boats, or anything else that’s high priced but very difficult to sell and very competitive. You can make more money, but it’s a pain in the ass and not a good entry level sales job. Sales sucks but no more than retail unless you have a cushy mom and pop retail job or something, and most people can make $60kish per year (that’s CA numbers so adjust that as needed) or more if they put in the effort.
You don’t need prior skills to learn a trade. Please look into registered apprenticeships, there’s a .gov website that lists legit ones from all over the country. That or learn about the different unions and what kind of work they do, they all have apprenticeships. It’s no guarantee certainly. My brother was working retail and warehouses and is now in the laborers union but work has been slow so he’s mainly just learning and keeping up with his warehouse job for now.
15 years in retail, maybe time to try something new
You can absolutely do a trade. I guarantee there are current journeymen who are dumber than you
You probably have just been out of education for a long time and maybe you didn’t succeed very well in an educational setting as it was provided to you. This doesn’t mean you are inherently dumb, I would find it more likely that the classes you took in school were a mixture of uninteresting to you and poorly taught. You maybe also internalised the idea that you aren’t good at learning because when you were a literal child you wanted to maybe play, have fun or socialise instead of focusing on education.
Stop being so hard on yourself and if you want to learn a trade learn a trade. I’m sure you can do it.
It’s honestly ok to not find something you want to do for the rest of your life that you can also monetise. Many people are similar to you – they work to live. Joiners make a lot of money but I bet not all of them are passionate about joining. I bet they do joining to fund their livelihoods and hobbies outside of work that give them fulfilment.
Wait till you realize how most people in higher positions lack brainpower and skills.
Kinda sounds like you were told the truth…
The people telling OP to get more skills or whatever are missing the point. Anybody working a full-time jon should not have to live on the streets. The words working-poor shouldn’t exist next to each other in real life.
I feel lied to as well. I went to college and got a trade job. I make more money than I ever have in my career and I’m still paycheck to paycheck.
Now I’m so burned out on trade work, riddled with injuries from it, and I just gotta get up and do it anyways.
What was the point of all the effort of college and gettin my trade if I’m just a broke blue collar worker.
When we were pushed to trades. The trades then offered so much money it was a worth the troubles. Now its not even middle class to deal with this shit.
39 an hour 20 years ago would have been amazing. Now it’s just scrapping the bottom of middle class.
We were lied to and abused by the system
It’s not the lack of education or being in a trade; it was the working in retail part.
My sister and BIL have worked retail all their lives and gripe how bad it is. When my niece was looking for work I implored her to use her great drawing skills and set her up with an interview at a local animation studio I know a lot of people at because I used to work for Disney.
She said she’s not good enough and didn’t go to the interview. Instead took a job at Target. Hated it. Quit. And now works at a fabric store. Hates it too.
The odd thing is that she is hands down way better at drawing than a lot of the entry level story boarding people I’ve worked with. I just don’t get it. It’s 100% a confidence problem in her case and I feel the same vibe from your post.
Don’t forget going into trades, speaking as a fellow ‘09 grad, was near impossible after high school thank to the housing and economic crash of ‘08, so trades were out.
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you mentally/physically disabled? If so, totally get it. If not, you need to help yourself instead of wallowing. We’re all here because we hate the systems that indentured us, but at the end of the day we need to eat.
Listen, we all felt lied to as millenials. I have a useless Bachelors degree. If you aren’t mentally or physically impaired and have some control over your ego, you CAN find a career that pays over minimum wage. You’ve been in retail for a long time. Public transit companies LOVE that customer service experience. Start there for above minimum wage jobs, great benefits, and consistency. DM me if you want to talk.
One of the most important skills in IT/helpdesk are customer service. Everything else can be taught on the job. Certifications can come later.
I got a 6 month online customs certification and went from barely making minimum wage in food service to starting salary at 55k
I’m willing to put in effort but my body is not. Everything hurts all the time so I can’t really do anything too difficult and it makes people think I’m lazy.
FWIW, most people who got into trades or finished college are struggling to get by too.
Don’t feel bad, because even those your age who got degrees basically struggling just as much, so we can all woulda coulda shoulda but at the end of the day, how were millennials supposed to enter the middle class when it doesn’t even exist anymore?
Same, but 1999 flavor.
I promise you the trades are far better than working retail
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I was working retail as well. At 34, I said, “This sucks, I don’t want to do this anymore,” and went back to school. I received the pell grant and an opportunity grant in my state, so everything was paid for.
I graduated with my A.S. in business 8 quarters later ( took a year and a half) and am about to start on my B.S for economics.
I went from making 43k a year to 65k+ and routinely interviewing for jobs at 80k+ that never would have been possible.
The degree helped, and what I learned helped, especially interpersonal communication when it comes to interviews and just daily interactions with people. You’ll be amazed at how poorly people communicate when you start studying communication ( gives you a huge advantage).
That’s my story, and it doesn’t have to be yours, but like I said in the very first sentence, nothing changes if nothing changes.
Figure out what you want to be and go, be it, don’t waste any more time and don’t doubt the process.
You weren’t lied to, you chose to lie to yourself. Your counselors all told you to focus on future, not present. And you say you don’t want to work. That is a choice provided only to the privileged. Truth be told, no one wants to work, but a degree and good financial knowledge would make that future a lot closer. You don’t like retail, yet you’re working- if that’s the case why not get a trade degree and work.
So exactly what “they” told you 15 years ago is true? You have wasted time doing a dead end job and NOT doing what only you can do: make a decision, get some training and get the fuck on with life.
No one has a magic wand, bags of money, or a castle in the Emerald City.
You’re 33ish, and whining about being lied to is just more wasting time.
Your halfway competent writing and punctuation tell me you are smarter than 80% of the tradesmen I know. You can do a trade.
You can’t just *have* a skill. You develop a skill. Listen it doesn’t take a genius to join two pieces of wood or metal or to strap on a tool belt and learn how to use them. Learning a trade can be repetitive and monotonous but so is retail. The difference is a whole lot more money.
Yeah but we don’t live in “should”. We can vote for what we think should happen, but we still live in reality. I worked retail for 10 years but I was still making an escape plan the whole time.
No one working 40 hours a week should struggle to live.
people should be able to support themselves on their job’s wage, but why do u feel lied to? from the post it seems you were told exactly what would happen
So how did they lie to you? What they told you came true. You didn’t go to college and you didn’t learn a trade so here you are earning the bare minimum barely getting by. Just like they told you you would
Wait so your school told you that if you didn’t get further education, you would be in a bad situation… You decided not to listen and that exact situation came true.. and now you feel lied to?
Hey, I’m a gen z and was told the same thing, go to college and you’ll get a good job. Then covid happened at the end of my college years and fucked everything up. A college degree means nothing now, it’s treated like a high school diploma. You just end up with a huge amount of debt. Don’t chase your passion for work, that’s a rose colored lie. Find something that you’re good at and that can give you a stable job. But even then, the job market right now is so atrocious and the corporate world just blames “nobody wants to work” which is completely false.
Boomers were able to go to college and get a good job if they were smart, but now obviously things have DRASTICALLY changed since the 70s and 80s and the laws haven’t changed with it. Just a bunch of out of touch boomers that made the world a worse place for every generation after them and they want to cry that their social security isn’t as much as they thought it would be meanwhile everyone else younger is struggling.
I’m curious where the lie was in this story? Like I don’t disagree with you that working 40 hours doing anything should mean you aren’t borderline homeless but for there to have been a lie here I feel like you’d have needed to either go to college or have taken up a trade and been borderline homeless in order to have been lied to.
Or am I missing something here? Either way I wish you well.
Hell, I was born in the 70s and I feel lied to.
I became a teacher and don’t make enough to cover basic living expenses with a bachelors and masters. I’m pissed. I’m not a math person so the higher paying jobs are not available to me. I guess if you’re not good at math then fuck you.
No because same. I’m in my mid-30s, have a Masters degree and work in the mental health field and have had to fight my way to a halfway decent salary. My profession in general can have absolutely huge pay disparities (easily $20k or more) despite people having dual degrees and needing regular education credits to maintain their license.
It’s *bad* out here. I’m barely any further along than I was when I graduated 8 years ago and I have over $100k in student loans. If I’d waited and tried to pay for my education I’d still be in school and not able to start my career given licensure requirements.
We were all lied to. I’m a 70s child & we were told that we would have robots, hover boots & a short working week (because the robots would be doing all the work). My entire generation grew up bitter as a result. Looking at you Tomorrow’s World…
lol spoiler alert: I have a degree, making more than I was before covid, and I’m back to paycheck-to-paycheck AND I have student loans I’m still paying off. I got injured at work, workers comp declined my case so I had to ask my parents for money for surgery. If I didn’t have a spouse with a second income I’d be homeless rn.
Seriously people don’t get it my mother as a waitress and my father as a factory worker. They were able to buy multiple houses and rental properties in the late 70s and early 90s they never worked more than 40 a week. I know that because they told me
MANY
times growing up I just need any job work 40 a week and I can own multiple properties as well along with a growing family like they did.
I make 125/ year now and I CANT afford a house in my area.
Nobody ever feels they want more if they have what they think will improve their lives. If you didn’t have a job or apartment you’d prob say if you had a job that just about covers your rent you wouldn’t want anything else.
WHEN you find a job that covers all your bills, human nature is going to take over and you’ll want more. It’s natural
They told us that shit as Gen X in the ‘80s too. It’s just boomerthink, left over from the ‘60s.
Do what you’re good at, and figure out how to get paid for it.
I work an office job handling 401k loans and distributions.
I didn’t even finish high school.