I’m so tired of getting rejected by entry level positions because I don’t have enough experience. How am I supposed to get the experience?
The majority of internships are unpaid, those that are paid are only accepting current students. I worked full time at a restaurant and grocery store through college to afford to stay alive, so I had no extra time for unpaid internships while I was a student. I have done several unpaid internships and contract jobs since graduating, on top of working full time at the grocery store. Each of those jobs gave me valuable experience, but not enough to get a full time position anywhere.
I am working at a dead end job that I have no interest in. I am the only full timer in my department. I show up and perform every day, 5am-1:30pm. I am usually the only person in the department from 5-11, which means my first break and lunch aren’t really breaks. Sometimes I’m too busy to take them.
This job is at a huge, corporate grocery chain. This means I get barked at when the metrics are in the red and I never hear any good feedback when they’re in the green, which is the vast majority of the time.
If I come in and work really hard to get ahead so I have a little down time (to spend applying to other jobs), I get dinged for standing on my phone. So I have learned to do exactly what is asked of me in the allotted time frame, which is mind-meltingly boring and sad. This is a job, but not a respected one. After a 40 hour work week, I still feel like an unaccomplished loser.
When I get off at 1:30, I spend the rest of the day until my fiancé gets home at 5 looking for other work or doing chores. I feel so guilty if I take time for hobbies, or to just relax.
I’m trying to save up to afford to marry the love of my life, whom I’ve have been dating since high school. Every month, after the bills are paid, I break even and have just enough to survive until the next paycheck. I have no savings for emergencies, so I’m in a constant state of fear about that.
We meal prep. We use coupons. We don’t buy things we don’t need. We don’t go out to drink or party. We go to work, then sit at home, every night, and eat a meal we cooked, watch tv, then go to bed. Rinse and repeat. Groundhog Day.
I am trying. I am doing my best. But, at 24 years old, I am very burnt out and I feel like my life is just wasting away.
Peace and love to everyone out there who is in a similar or worse position. Here’s hoping things change for the better one day. Never give up hope and always remember to appreciate the things that truly matter in life, whatever those things may be for you. Always take a moment to breathe deep and remember how small we are, and how we (and everything we have ever built, all our problems, etc) only exist in a tiny blip in the grand stretch of time on Earth, or this galaxy, or this universe, on and on forever.
I have found great comfort in that.