This Economy

[Spexxvet]

Blame the wealthy.

[Perry Winkle]

Fresh, what are you doing with your underemployed self to make you more employable?

My suggestions:

Degrees are worthless. It's what you do with the knowledge that counts. The more people that have the same degree that you do, the less it's worth even to the unenlightened.

Build a portfolio. Start doing the job that you want, and soon you might actually be paid to do it.

Anyway, these are my personal feelings:

I love this economy, but I'm annoyed at the hysterical responses. Make a plan that fits the circumstances and keep hustling. Don't whine that today is not the same as yesterday.

I think it's getting tougher worldwide to get a job if you aren't providing enough value to justify the expense of employing you. This is a net good. The momentum of productivity gains from the industrial and information revolutions that has persisted until recently is all but gone.

I am betting there will be another such revolution in the next 100 years.

Some people will have trouble adjusting to the increased shift toward entrepreneurial capitalism our economy is going through, especially established families. I think new and first-gen immigrants will be fine with that, since the hustle is their milieu.

Fuck the corporate ladder. Build your own.

(ever read "The Rise of David Levinsky"?)

I am optimistic.

By the way, I'm a computer programmer. I've switched jobs three times since the first crisis in 2008. I got my first job in the middle of the .com bust. Most of the programmers I know that are unemployed deserve to be so because of poor choices or lack of skill.

Accounting is a more or less scripted job, though I'm certain there are forms that are highly specialized that are likely to stay on-shore.

Manufacturing? We should model it after Germany's manufacturing industry. High-end, specialized equipment.

I'm happy to send away low-skill jobs.

[Bullitt]

My BA History degree isn't doing jack for me other than just being there saying "yes I can do the work and complete a long-term goal". The key to my job market is personal connections. Sure I had to go through EMT and firefighter training to get qualified, but to make myself stand out I had to make connections through different departments. Put in the work, get to know people, volunteer for everything you can, stay on their radar screen, and then when something opens up you are top of the list.

I got hired at my new EMT job through this method. I used a guy I know who works there as a reference. Who I worked with at my old EMT job, which I in turn had gotten by getting to know someone on a volunteer department. Work every angle you can and don't burn any bridges.