RE: Getting to know Lunadan
I always hated school, I'm kind of surprised I even have my degree. Teachers always suggested to my parents that they put me on ritalin, but obviously my dad was always against it considering his career. There were so many times my family would say I'd never do it, or maybe I just wasn't cut out for school/the office job. Which they may be right, but I felt obligated to graduate because my dad bought Florida Prepaid Tuition in like 1983.. and he always says he was broke as fuck at the time and did it because he had to pay his own way through school (worked in a leather factory, stripping animal skin apart and all that dirty work) and didn't want any of his kids to have to struggle like that.
So I had tuition paid for and all I had to pay for was food and housing after my first year (parents paid for my dorm) which racked up 15k in financial aid debt. I always tell friends that haven't graduated, and kids, to just get a job with Comcast, Verizon, UPS, etc. and work your way up. A few of my boys that didn't even register for college after high school are making $35k+ now and I'm making shit. I made $23k at the advertising agency I was working at, and thats not including all the overtime I wasn't paid for. What the fuck am I gonna do with that when I got financial aid payments, a potential car payment (mine is about to die), rent, car insurance, gas, food, utilities, phone, etc.?
It didn't fall through, people treated me like shit at my agency cuz I was the youngest one there (next youngest was 30 and had worked there since she graduated college at 23, and still made $23k like me). I got tired of it and told them the stress, disrespect and lack of pay (I worked on the account that kept the ENTIRE agency in business) brought me to the conclusion I should just move out of expensive ass Miami and get a better job at a different company. You can do so much with my particular degree, and it's not like I graduated with a major in Psychology or some worthless major, but people are just so grimy right now that even with a year of experience (or close to it), they're only offering $25k a year.
I networked with a girl in my field who lives in NYC and works for a great company, they offered me like $32k a year, in Manhattan. I told my sister (who introduced us) that I'd rather stay off welfare. I feel like my degree doesn't mean anything anymore, and while I went to 5 interviews at 5 great companies in the past 3 months, every time I get to the second interview they say "so how much are you expecting to be compensated?" and when I say "around thirty-thousand dollars a year" (which really isn't shit unless you live at home still) they tell me that's way over their budget and they'll get back to me. I never hear back.
If I could do it all again, I'd start working at FedEx or UPS immediately after high school graduation. It's just not worth it when you have to pay financial aid every month and you make $7/hour working at the Shell gas station with a great degree (a few friends of mine are in this position). I'm on some other shit lately, I'm thinking of defaulting on my financial aid and just buying a house so I don't have to worry about renting every year with bad credit
I landed my job at that agency because I was well-versed in the field, studied up on the industry, and used my personality to push things a little further. The only people I know that graduated with me, with jobs (that required a degree, making more than $30k a year) were handed to them by their parents or a family friend. One of my best friend's dad is a financial advisor that makes like $200k a year (very smart dude, bought his $800k home with ALL money down up front) tells his son not to finish school and to just apply at Verizon. Says it's not valued, or worth it nowadays and it'd be more profitable to invest that time in a company in hopes of moving up, or starting your own business
(This post was last modified: 10-14-2011 02:45 PM by Lunadaniel.)
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