If you're considering college, don't go for a bachelor's in science unless it's computer science or engineering, otherwise you'll go thousands in debt for a company that won't pay you anywhere near a decent wage despite making millions of dollars a year.
I decided that I had enough at my current job (made $22 hourly, but now make $19 after a pay cut while also expected to do more work) so I've been job searching. Given my degree and a year's worth of experience after just having graduated undergrad last year, I was expecting to find something that could at least match $22. I've applied to work in government jobs as an introductory forensic technician, haven't heard back. In a medical lab as a histology technician, haven't heard back.
ONE job did reach out and asked what I was looking for, so I told them something that at least matched my old job at $22 an hour, but given now I have a year's worth of experience, I'd expect more. Being an analytical chemist SHOULD pay a good amount, right? That's a very important job to help the pharmaceutical and chemical industries which we rely on so much. I hear back a whole week later after pestering their HR for an update and was told that “I'd need more experience to earn more, and that there are no positions currently able to match my desired wage”.
The fuck is that? A year's worth of experience in a technical laboratory field where you need a Bachelors degree to even apply for, and you won't even pay me more than a position that doesn't have all these barriers. I could work at Amazon with no qualifications and make $22.50 hourly. I could work at the Apple store downtown and make $22. More than half of Costco workers actually make $25 or more hourly as of right now.
What is it with corporate science jobs being so incredibly stingy when they rely on their severely underpaid and overworked slaves to do the work that gets them millions of dollars in revenue yearly? I'm this close to just applying to anything I can find that can pay me more and treat me better than science jobs. I love science, but I cannot go back to school to further my education at this time because I lack the necessary funding.