I've been job hunting for months. I thought getting a bachelor's and graduating with highest honors would be my Willy Wonka ticket to the middle class; yet my $30k in student loan debt to the government hangs albatross style as I live on credit. Being bilingual is a plus, but apparently is too common among Millennials to be marketable, just like my 4-year degree.
The application process is brutal. I've never struggled like this to find a job in the past; things have changed drastically since I entered the work force 15 years ago. Every job I apply to has dozens if not hundreds of applicants, and the resumes are filtered by AI that scans for keywords and phrases. If you manage to get an interview, be prepared to spend the next 1-3 months rigorously following up on them all, doing additional interviews, only to be told they filled the position, or encouraging you to apply to a different position within their company.
The jobs I'm applying for are mainly “administrative assistants,” which is essentially data entry, customer service, AP/AR, scheduling, and whatever office tasks they need done. Finally, I realized the Big Con, and the false sense of feminist accomplishment of our generation as the wage gap closes:
Millennial women are getting the same basic secretary gigs as their mothers, just with a fancy title to justify requiring degrees and extra skills. I'm sure they have done this across the spectrum, including male-dominated fields – let me know in the comments where you've seen it. Employers want us to feel like we have Big Girl/Boy jobs, but it's a bougie facade. My Gen X mom who barely graduated high school worked as a secretary for years, and she was literally smoking crack at the time. Meanwhile, in 2023 I have to complete Indeed assessments, write a cover letter, have a bachelor's degree, provide three professional references and maybe a writing sample, be bilingual, and conduct multiple interviews. Just to make $18-$20 hourly! For context, my age group wages 2021:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cba#4
If a male high school graduate (25-34) makes a MEDIAN of $42k, and a female college grad $56k, why are all these employers requiring bachelor's and yet offering BELOW what the average guy who graduated high school makes? What in the wage gap is going on here?? The same thing with teaching jobs. They are typically about $42-$44k around here to start, but not only do you need a college degree, you need a separate teaching certificate. Though it doesn't affect me personally, the race by education wage gap is, like the gender gap, quite noticeable. People say, well the money is in STEM, it's just that women/POC more often work in industries that pay less overall. I think it's pretty obvious that those industries pay less BECAUSE those jobs are female or POC dominated, not the other way around.
This future feels like the Barbie Movie mashed up with Black Mirror, and I hate it. Our mainstream media acts like there's a powerful feminist wave sweeping America. Reality check, we lost Roe v. Wade, after we graduated college to make median male HS grad wages. Men and women alike are getting their resumes filtered by robots, without a person even looking at it. The unemployment rate is historically low, yet it's harder than ever to make a living wage. The job market is oversaturated with degrees, while housing and food inflation pushes even middle class people deeper into credit card debt. And boomers expect us to pop out kids in this economy…with a single income??
A man can't support a family on $42k (probably doing hard manual labor to boot). No wonder the suicide and overdose rates have exploded. The only winners are the 1%, who have not earned it. Any random dude from this comment section is probably more intelligent and conscientious than Elon Musk and most of Congress. Yes, you.
Your wage/title is not your worth. The system is broken. Millennials are now the largest demographic in the workforce, and it's time for change. Down with the oligarchy! Keep striking, unionizing, and voting. ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! This is the shred of hope that I have for our country.
Thanks for reading. Maybe I'll submit this as a writing sample on my next job app, lolol