Let's Face It... Life and work are unbearably terrible things. They're getting worse for a lot of us. I need to have a brain storming session.
I'm interested in hearing some opinions on the current job market in the US, and what it means for the over-educated, the underprepared, the career-changers, the grad students, the med school/law school attendees, Dissertation writers, grad school dropouts who either have to settle or jump back in, and the woefully undervalued terminal bachelor's degree holders.
Let's say your best friend told you that s/he was going to return to school because he couldn't find a place in the intellectual black hole that is the "real world," and s/he came to you asking for advice on three plans s/he'd come up with after a lengthy stint in the private sector.
The plans are as follows, from least (#1) to most (#6) absurd:
1. Return to graduate school with the aim of earning a doctorate in the sciences
2. Going to law school because it's someting.
3. Returning to grad school and getting a Master's in an arts or humanities field (k-12 teaching, journalism, education, or something kind of not quite science, not quite art, like City Planning or Public Policy)
4. Doing what they always wanted to do but never believed they could, and starting medical school with the aim of being a psychiatrist, researcher or something else quiet.
5. Stick with their bachelor's degree, fuck off with their master's, dropping out immediately if they haven't already, and just *knuckling down* and putting all of their energy into some impenetrable field such as print journalism, publishing, non-profit administration, and living a life of experience bouncing from pizza job to pizza job while they chase their dream of making a living wage, enough to support a small family, while doing something they don't hate.
6. Moving to California to start a "Sustainable Eco-Community" for which virtually no hard planning has been done, but at least one reality TV production company had expressed an interest in "pitching" their story to some networks. (Seriously)
How would you advise them?
I ask because my life has taken a pretty huge face plant on the pavement next to where it used to be and so have the lives of many of my fiends. Basically, everyone who didn't get their doctorate, or choose to climb the ladder with complete loyalty over a decade with a major corporation, is fucking fucked. Some of my friends live with their parents. Others are taking on small businesses, and I'm not interested in anything like that.
If I could I'd become Kerouac, but I think someone already did that.
Tell me what you'd say to your friend. Which option you'd advise him/her to pursue, and which you'd advise him/her to avoid like the plague of plagues (which I imagine is a plague that can kill plagues... But since its still a plague, it's probably not a great thing to be infected with.
These are all examples of what people in my life are doing. People who are tired of the "rat race" or who never made it there in the first place and are working MaCDonald's, doing very little with their medieval art degree.
The world ain't right. We all need more options, and better ones.
Feel free to share any insights or success stories of your own.
We're going to be a generation that never sees retirement if things don't start to change in the world.
Many thanks.
~Severian