I went to university and graduated a year ago. Basically did everything that you're supposed to do. I loved school and have no regrets going. I've been looking for a job for over a year now, but in the meantime took a 9-5 corporate job while I continued my search. It's not the industry or career title I ultimately want to be in, but I figured I could make some money, get some transferable skills, and not have a resume gap while I continued my search. Well maybe that was actually a terrible idea.
What was meant to be super temporary has now turned into something I am desperately trying to escape.
I am paid less than a McDonald's employee, have learned nothing, and commute 2 hours a day. Only pro is that I don't have to really talk to anyone, which has been a relief since I despised food service.
I later found out that I was hired for this job because the man in charge of the company purposefully wanted to hire “young ladies”, in particular, fresh out of college to underpay them. This was confirmed by the HR lady who has since quit. Thankfully I was already applying for new jobs before I even found this out, but this information just added fuel to the fire.
A year into looking, I finally got a job offer at another company, only for them to want to pay even LESS than what I currently am making. I honestly was shocked especially because it is insanely below market average for that job title and experience level. I declined it because I don't want to repeat the past.
I honestly don't know what to do anymore. 9-5 isn't for me, I am exhausted, and have no idea what I am even doing with my life. I feel like post-college corporate work has destroyed my sense of who I am as a person. It doesn't help that I am still looking for a job. But now, I not only have being a young college graduate working against me, but I also now have experience in a totally different field than what I am interested in, so I am now treated as someone trying to make a “career change” (which imo doesn't make sense because I was always under the impression your first job out of college didn't have to be perfect?) I don't know what to do anymore.