I don't know if this belongs here, but I figured I might as well ask. The question is what it says on the tin, but if you'd like more context as to why I'm even asking this, then keep reading.
I graduated from college with a degree in accounting a year ago. I have a friend who graduated at the same time that I did. He had connections, I did not. He immediately found work at one of the Big 4. I interviewed for the same position but got nothing. I was genuinely happy for him. But then, about a month ago, I went in for an interview as an insurance underwriter and I haven't heard back since. Fine, whatever. But then I noticed that my friend's Linkedin status changed from working at that big 4 organization to working at the company that I had just interviewed at for the same job position. I feel bad to admit this, but now I feel resentful towards my friend. I know he's not purposely stealing these positions from me, but I've worked with him long enough to know I'm the stronger candidate. He cheated off me in exams, didn't contribute during group projects, didn't apply himself, was on academic probation, and scraped by with a 2.0 GPA. On the other hand, I know grades aren't everything but I threw everything that I had at my education because it meant a lot to me, and I figured it'd give me a bit of an advantage if I graduated with honors. To me, the worst part is that I asked my friend why he left the big 4 company and he said “I don't give a shit anymore.” Like, I would have killed for that job. I would still kill for that job.
But I digress… Out of post secondary and heading into the start of the pandemic, the most important thing for me to do was to land any job as soon as possible. 14 months and about 600+ applications later, retail wouldn't touch me because I assume that I have a degree and had been out of work for 4 years to get it. Problem is, I wasn't getting callbacks for entry level accounting/bookkeeping positions either. I assume this is because I don't have 5+ years of experience while many other candidates do. So, I took off my degree and replaced it with 4 years of retail in a store that had closed during the pandemic. Almost immediately, I started getting calls and within two weeks, I was hired at a call center. I've been there for almost a year now. This is a minimum wage job, and thankfully there are almost no expectations or anything… The boss is a nice guy, a bit aloof and hands off but I respect him and he makes my job bearable. This is the kind of job that would have been perfect for me when I was 20… But, our software is pretty much automated. For about 8 hours a day, my job is to have stupid people scream at me for issues that are their own mistake, and then hit two buttons to input their information which is already in the system 9 out of 10 times. It's not a good job for smart people and I'm horribly bored to the extent where I can't stand it any longer. I wasn't planning on being there for as long as I have been, and now that I'm already coming up on a year, it feels already like I have been there for far too long.
I'm thinking about my friend, and I strongly suspect that the whole reason he has been so fortunate is that he has experience already working in these fields (one thing to mention is that while he was in post secondary, he landed summer part time jobs doing bookkeeping at the same company). Me? I have now, 17 years of retail hell experience that no one gives a fuck about. I am sick to death of retail and I would give nearly anything to get out of it so that I can finally get an actual career going. I suspect that being in retail for so long has kept me in retail.
Of course, I know to be smart about it. But I'm unsure of myself because I'm no longer applying for minimum wage retail positions… I'm applying for entry level positions in a more professional environment and so I assume more checks are involved. I know not to put down that I was the CFO of a fortune 500 or anything I know I can't do… But, I could say that while I was attending collage, I did a little bookkeeping on the side during the summer months. With the pandemic, many businesses have closed down and so it wouldn't be hard to do a bit of research and replace my call center job with another organization in my field of study, and add on another year to close the gap of job searching. How could the employer check references for a place that has gone out of business? There's no one to call. And my 600+ applications taught me just how many job ads are lying about the position. Why should I have to be so honest then?
Anyway. I'm looking for thoughts and opinions. I don't really want to do this if I don't have to, but I honestly can't stand to work another day in retail either. It could be that this is the stupidest idea ever, but maybe this is what everyone else is doing