What's the point?

[IHaveRespawned]

I am in this continuous burnout phase. Everything seems so bleak. All we hear anymore is doom. AI causing a white-collar "bloodbath", people living out of their cars, inflation sucking the average everyday American dry, housing unaffordable, etc...

It seems like greed is running rampant. People are uncompassionate, harsh, selfish, and cynical anymore.

This whole work hard, get educated, and be successful mentality my parents' generation and previous generations had doesn't cut it anymore. My father and older generations have become so jaded now and try to pin the blame on us not trying enough.

It is unmotivating to know with any unexpected emergency or job termination, you lose everything. One missed paycheck and you are screwed. Why work our asses off our whole lives to not be able to retire on time and securely and be squeezed so thin the entire way? Why put in our all when we risk losing everything despite our efforts?

[lightbulb27]

It may be hard for some as change hits, you may know better than others and may need to make drastic change.

This is concerning reading below.

Those around me, seem to be doing ok but most kids I know are in college... just starting, I don't know that many 30 yr olds. The ones I do know, are working and doing ok.

Some generations go through this upheaval... sounds like yours is. I'd like to know more what is going on. We had layoffs in Tech every year at work... as company grew, we always rehired, I survived 2000 crash, 2008 crash. There's always something, but usually some other job.

I recall times physicists couldn't get jobs at all. Things change, you may have to be very flexible as tech changes.

We are in a new paradigm that has never existed before... AI.

Some people are getting filthy rich... See Scale AI. What else can you create or displace?

[IHaveRespawned]

I had to leave careers twice now.

The first, I was an EMT. I just wasn't cut out for it anymore, and I was often coerced into working 48 hour (and even up to 96 hour) shifts. The pay was low, the morale was nonexistent, and it was a toxic atmosphere. But me leaving EMS wasn't a choice. My license was essentially revoked over something stupid unrelated to the job.

In 2018 at around age 22, I learned coding, software development, and a wide array of technologies. I worked as a developer at various companies over the course of 3 years. Sadly, when I was laid off, I haven't recovered in the tech industry. AI is destroying our career market.

Now, I am once again back to square one.

[lightbulb27]

Leaving EMS sounds like a good idea, it is low pay... oddly... and like a nurse, your career is on the line every day. I praise anyone whom does do it, I thought about it, but I'm not cut out for it either.

I used to code like crazy. there are a lot of jobs around tech and tech changed constantly, I was retrained several times. It may be even worse now. like scrum master, project planner, business analyst, etc.. check consultant companies.
if AI is killing it, go into AI and be an expert. I've not heard anyone else say this about AI, but I'm not in those circles anymore.

Worst case, get a job anywhere until you find something better. Or try to switch to something that AI doesn't replace, like HVAC, electrical, plumbing. but that times time to relearn. I'd think there is going to be something in tech. Not long ago, I saw lots of jobs posted on east coast area. But I'm not sure what is going on right now.

Sorry to hear of the struggles, hope you have some support while transitioning. I recall that kind of fear and stress... starting out is hard.

The "issue that got you out of EMS"... make sure you don't F up your life doing dumb stuff, that's #1. I worked witha guy on the sex predator web site, I know people that got fired for stealing, etc.. Once your reputation is crap, then you gotta hang a sign on your car and work for yourself because hard to get hired.

Worst case... go get a lemonaide stand and go to fairs and stuff... they make good $. just boring.

[SotiCoto]

There is no point. The older generations priced us out. We try FAR harder than they did, but they've already taken everything of worth in the world and they use their riches to steal everything new too. All our efforts are grossly devalued because the older generations have manipulated the system for decades to line their own pockets at the expense of everyone else and refuse to let anyone younger have any of it.
Again... there is no point. Life is ruined. Our parents and grandparents ruined it for us.

[IHaveRespawned]

I believe our generation has more red tape, bureaucracy, procedure, and certain complexities older generations likely didn't have.

These days, everything is a cumbersome mess wrapped in legal fears and retaliation. You cannot just walk in anywhere and start a job instantly from the moment you apply. You don't have organic conversations with people anymore. It is you leave an email or voicemail and hope someone calls you back (and they usually don't). Universities used to be for those with a certain intelligence level, but now they have lowered the bar so badly, now it is the defacto route that we have been told in order to be "successful", yet thousands are graduating with bachelors and still waiting tables. There is now an oversupply with less demand for graduates.

[exitseven]

My kids and their friends are all recent college grads and seem to have good jobs, some are married and all seem to be well adjusted and happy. I do not think things are as bad as you say.

[IHaveRespawned]

Maybe I need to get out of Knoxville

[IHaveRespawned]

Curious, what are their professions. It has been a nightmare in tech and software engineering right now.

[exitseven]

One of my sons is a scientist, another works for a marketing company. my daughter is a technical recruiter and makes more money than the other two.
Their friends are mostly engineers and a couple are attorneys. They have friends that work in the financial sector as well. They have a few that are just working in retail or in low paying service jobs as well.

[lightbulb27]

That's educational feedback as layoffs hit tech... I heard about Microsoft layoff. I'd be squirrling away $ for a rainy day, sounds like it hit. I'd be looking for a consulting company, working on my skills.

[exitseven]

@lightbulb27 @lightbulb27 I keep getting calls from recruiters and emails from employers. Some of these jobs sound pretty good too.

[IHaveRespawned]

I would be careful if I were you. There are a lot of scams going on. Double check the sender email addresses. Research the company.

[exitseven]

Yes, i do not trust anybody. i have retired last year and i am not in the job market anyway.

[IHaveRespawned]

It's weird. I have nearly 3 years. of professional experience and I have worked on projects for multi-billion-dollar companies. Still nothing. Could it have been my past trouble coming back to haunt me? Maybe it got around?

[exitseven]

I got laid off during covid. I planned on just collecting unemployment and when it ran out I was going to retire. Then Biden got elected and the price of everything doubled and my retirement account took a beating so I started looking for a new job. It took a whole year and actually I was offered two jobs.

[IHaveRespawned]

If this was around 2022, I was in the same boat. I got a couple calls here and there. This is unprecedented and completely different than it was a matter of 3 years ago.

[exitseven]

@IHaveRespawned It was 2020. i went back to work for more than two more years and decided that if Trump did not get elected we were all screwed anyway so i
retired.

[IHaveRespawned]

I did okish in 2020. That is the year I got my first junior developer role. Starting in 2021 over a span of a few years it got worse and worse.

[exitseven]

I was in grad school in the 90s and could see that programmer jobs were going to be shipped to India. I got into networks and data communication. That and the fact that I hated writing code.

[Dongie]

Stop waiting for things to change and fix your attitude. Pull out of it! Hip!!

[Dongie]

Fix that thing in pink. She shouldn't be on this page.

[Anonymous]

I thought Trump was supposed to fix this for you “day one”. Guess not 🤣