https://fortune.com/2024/02/09/gen-z-grad-two-degrees-breaks-down-tears-minimum-wage-employers-resume-in-person/

“I was so upset and disappointed in myself because growing up, I was told that if I get an education, if I go to college, then I’ll be successful,” Santos told Business Insider—and she’s not the first Gen Zer to complain about feeling tricked into pursuing further education.

Just last month, 27-year-old Robbie Scott similarly went viral on TikTok for insisting that Gen Z isn’t any less willing to work than generations before. Instead, he said, they are “getting angry and entitled and whiny” about the prospect of having to work hard for the rest of their adult life, only to “get nothing in return.”

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    10 months ago

    she’s not the first Gen Zer to complain about feeling tricked into pursuing further education.

    A growing trend in business news journals is to tell people that pursuing college degrees is some kind of trap. It is downright sinister how the response to the student debt crisis has simply been to lie to young people about their future job prospects without a college degree.

    If a Fortune Magazine reporter comes at you with a microphone, remember that you are acting in self-defense when you draw and fire.

    • FlakesBongler [they/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Yeah, I remember being in high school, unsure of what I wanted to go to college for and being told

      it doesn't matter, as long as you get a degree in something

      Which, let me tell you, does not help at all

      I've gotten all of my jobs because I knew someone

      • SuperZutsuki [they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        The trick is to study abroad and never come back. Fuck this hellhole, that's what I should have done.

        • FloridaBoi [he/him]
          ·
          10 months ago

          Or get a degree to do a soulless email job like I did desolate

          But I still only got my current job because I knew someone

          • FourteenEyes [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            The only reason I was able to escape grocery is because my brother put in a good word for me at the job he was already a manager at, and for that same reason I might be moving to a different department so I don't explode from stress

            • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
              ·
              10 months ago

              MFW I already feel like a loser for mooching off my parents, and it looks like I'm going to have to mooch off my more successful family members just to get the porks to even consider me.

              I hate it here.

        • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Honestly? I've been looking at master's programs to do exactly that. Even kkkanada is leagues better than anarcho-fourthreich.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I've gotten all of my jobs because I knew someone

        I've landed a jobs because of a recruiter and a couple others from applying online. Good corporate jobs, too. But it's an enormous slog compared to having someone already in the firm who will vouch.

        That said, college is a big exception to the rule precisely because of how much effort businesses make to hire directly from senior classes.

        The degree matters, but surprisingly less than GPA. If you've got a 3.2 or better at a state school or big city college, it's a ticket to practically any employer in the country.

      • SoyViking [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I won't say I'm bad at my current job, far from it, but I'm ridiculously formally underqualified for it. All my grown-up jobs has come from me knowing guys who knows guys. It is ridiculous. If I hadn't known any guys I'd be fucked.

        I do have a a bachelor's degree and almost all of a master's degree in something totally unrelated to my current career. I had to drop out for mental health reasons and the student debt from back then is still an albatross around my neck. A very radicalising albatross by the way.

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      I will just flat out refuse to engage, because if they don't like what I'll say, their fat pig of a boss will decide for me what I said.

      No one is ever interested in hearing out our side of the story. Humans simply cannot handle the truth about how they're all worthless garbage despite taking great pride in their savagery.