Two 29-Year-Old Canadians Talk About Jobs
In The Globe And Mail last year, an anonymous 29-year-old wrote in to describe the difficulty he’s had finding a well-paid, stable career in a corporate environment and has been getting by on short-term marketing contract jobs. After his letter was published, a few corporate recruiters got in touch with the letter writer and helped him with his resume, which has led to … more contract jobs. From last week’s followup by the Globe:
How was turning 30?
Awful. I didn’t think I’d be here at 30. I thought I’d be a little more settled. By the time my parents were 30, they had kids, they had their first place and they had their careers reasonably settled on. That’s not really the case with me.
Where are you right now?
I’ve done more contract work with various marketing and promo companies. It’s been awesome as far as gaining experience and more contacts.
Are you on a contract as we speak?
No, I’m between contracts.
In response to the letter, Tom Smith, another 29-year-old who works at an advertising agency, wrote in to the Globe to offer his perspective as someone who has worked a steady job he enjoys:
This is hard to swallow, but the people who will get their dream jobs are already doing their dream jobs before they get hired. You wanna be an accountant? Start doing your friends’ taxes. You wanna work in an ad agency? Make spec ads for your friends’ and family’s small businesses. Wanna be a journalist? Start making YouTube videos. Mechanic? Fix some cars. Teacher? Tutor poor kids. Yeah, you gotta make money. So sling coffee. And be darn well passionate about it. Find a coffee shop you love and pitch yourself to them, so you can make a few bucks an hour to support your weekends of doing your dream job for free. That’s how economies work. People do things. Real things in the real world with grease and sweat and moving parts and grit. Your credentials are theory. Familiarize yourself with the concept “necessary but not sufficient.” The suit does not make the (wo)man.
I think Smith’s advice here is a little simplistic, but agree that people who are passionate about what they do, and find ways to continue to do the thing they love, even if it’s on the side, are digging in the right direction. But passion alone doesn’t always cut it. Having a mentor helps a lot—I can’t stress this enough. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the mentors I’ve had in my life, and I have two young people I’m mentoring now who I’m happy to offer advice to any time day or night. And having all the passion in the world won’t do you much if you’re not actually good at what you do, so honing those skills are important. Lastly, for the sake of the original letter writer, we shouldn’t discount that Gen Y entered the job market during one of the worst recessions in history, and that many of them are saddled with massive amounts of education debt. It’s easy to dish out advice, but we should also provide some context.
(Thanks to Ashleigh for sending the Globe story!)
Photo: Alex Indigo
It’s easy to be sympathetic to the general underemployed/overeducated in an unstable job market cohort, but it’s hard in particular to be sympathetic to this guy: “I wanted the tailored suits, the chance at a high income, the BMW, the prestige, the respect, and the power. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to be able to afford to donate to charities that are important to me. I was considering children, marriage, the house, all of it. It’s not happening.”
@Michelle
Why does that make it hard to sympathize with him?
@Michelle Agree, his definition of “being someone” is so wrapped up in material things that it’s hard to buy into his perspective.
Also, I’m missing something on the math that makes him 30 now. In the first piece, he says he graduated college around the time Lehman failed, after Bear Stearns, which puts us at fall 2008/spring 2009 timeframe. I graduated in 2009 and I’m now 25. In the second-to-last question of the follow-up piece, he says he wishes he hadn’t started college at 18. So that puts him somewhere between 25-27 now, or it took him 8 years instead of the 4 he says to finish college. Not to downplay that he has struggled with underemployment, but something doesn’t add up for me here.
@Michelle Why does this make it hard for your to be sympathetic? Even leaving aside his desire for materialistic things he feels as though he can’t live the life he wants – having children, marriage, donating to causes he believes in…. Does wanting to drive a nice car really negate that?
@Weasley A few reasons– because he claims that it’s impossible to date or have a relationship without a lot of material success, and if that were true no one in their early 20s would ever fall in love; because he’s talking about career success in material terms rather than any interest in the field he’s pursuing; because wanting to be a rich dude with a BMW at 29 is ridiculous, generally, especially with a communications degree. I feel bad that he can’t find a stable job but not that he can’t find a job that will give him “the prestige, the respect, the power.”
@loren smith Good point. He probably is an okay dude! I guess I just know a lot of people who get by on very little money in this city and manage to have relationships, donate to causes they care about (either with money or through volunteering their time), live interesting and productive lives. Waiting for the right salary to come along to support your ideal lifestyle isn’t going to be very fruitful.
@Michelle I get what you’re saying and wanted to add another perspective. Maybe what he wants isn’t just the materialistic items, but also the social bonds that come with it.
Working transient disposable jobs in my 20s made it really hard for me to find a group of peers who cared about succeeding professionally, and/or make societal commitments like volunteering (not happening when work schedules 24/7 and you don’t have the $ for cab fare anyway) or starting a family.
A weird chasm erupted between the post-grads who *had* made it (largely through family connections, but also luck and some real talent) and the untouchables – us scholarship kids who succeeded academically but had no concept of the work world from our parents.
It takes a baseline level of income and stability to volunteer, have a great relationship, be personally fulfilled, etc. Maybe that guy’s baseline was a little off, but he does has a point and those were dark days for many of us.
I can’t see how the whole “You wanna be a mechanic, go fix some cars” thing is relevant to 90% of possible career paths. HOWEVER, I would say that getting general office admin experience has definitely helped me in getting Real Jobs. Loads of the kids I did my masters with, while brilliant, didn’t actually know how to function in an office environment (ya know, answering phones, making photocopies) so I was at a bit of an advantage having done tons of secretarial part time jobs during university.
@cmcm This helped me SO MUCH. I started doing secretarial/admin type work at age 16 and basically did that for every job (excluding babysitting on the side) until college graduation. It hurt a little in college since, during the semesters when work study was full no one would hire me in food service jobs (that was the only other kind of job in the area and I had 0 experience in it) but come college graduation because I had so much office experience I had an easier time getting temp jobs (and temp agencies would put me in the $15-22 pay range instead of $10-15) and then I had a better time in interviews because no one had to wonder if I could actually work in an office.
Senior year I recommended a boyfriend to one of the offices on campus that did a lot of work study hiring (all of his previous experience was food service and farm work) and he recently told me it helped him a ton post graduation because not only could get get admin temp work in that weird period post graduation but pre real job, but also he had more jobs open to him because he already knew how to function in an office.
@cmcm I also feel this way about my reception job – I’ve been here for eleventy-billion years now and that’s had its advantages. Mainly that while I study medicine, I’m also getting office experience so that if I later want to work in a medical practice, I can prove that I’m familiar with admin and know how to be around other office worker bees.
Some of the (privileged) friends I had in high school have not realized that this is the way to go. Even though our earnings are relatively similar now, I know I have the edge and in 10 years I will be the privileged one.
Good reads, thanks for sharing! I always feel so torn on this matter; I am in a decent place thanks to a mix of hard work and luck (always be hustling!) Most of my friends are in sensible industries (medicine/health, accounting, police force, engineering) and are also doing well. But I also know a few who, like this guy, are struggling, my partner included.