Comment

I’m from a culture where it is completely normal to live with your parents for essentially their entire lives. The issue is that as an immigrant family to a culture where it isn’t, makes me seem weird by comparison. I also have some of the worst luck there could be. My parents idea of success is to get a very good education, get a high paying job, support the family. There’s only one small problem. I fucking despise academia or academic institutions with all my soul. It took me 8 years to finish a 4 year degree and 4 years for a 2½ year masters. Additionally when I finished college, COVID hit hard and finiding a job was impossible since most companies stopped hiring. Now that I finish my masters we have the AI bubble and companies stopped hiring again. I never worked a real job my entire life, only research assistant, or student jobs. I have zero savings since those jobs barely pay above minimum wage. It fucking sucks. In any group I’m constantly the most educated looser there is. It makes you look repulsive to the point where I really hate talking about myself in person. I’d rather would have done an apprenticeship some 10 years ago and would have had a steady, less paying job, than this worthless engineering degree and zero real job experience. The issue is that now the cost of living is way to high to afford living on an apprenticeship salary for a few years, which is way below minimum wage. I spend essentially more than 20 years in non-stop education and it ground me down mentally to the point where I don’t even have motivation to keep on living. Literally, Fuck My Life. If anyone wants it, take it. Seriously, anybody, just put me down like a wounded animal.

source

Sort:hotnew top

theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Consider construction. They have unions, apprentices don’t get paid great but certainly better than minimum wage, and with some hands on experience you can go for a cert to do CAD and make real money

They’re always building something, and there’s a pipeline of moving from a trade into a CAD role - they tend to promote from inside due to unions, so it can be a kind of backdoor to avoid the mess of the application process right now

An engineer is an engineer, IDK what flavor you studied but I’m sure it’d give you a big leg up in getting into a CAD role

source
- Seleni@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The issue is getting in. In smaller towns sometimes it’s easier, but for example in my city for electricians, there’s 3000 applicants a year, and the Union only takes 25-50 into the program.
  
  I especially love how they bragged about building a training center capable of teaching several hundred students… and still only take 25-50 in.
  
  source
protist@retrofed.com ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

I’d rather would have done an apprenticeship some 10 years ago and would have had a steady, less paying job, than this worthless engineering degree and zero real job experience. The issue is that now the cost of living is way to high to afford living on an apprenticeship salary for a few years, which is way below minimum wage

Are you working using your engineering degree? You make it sound like you’re unemployed, so how is an apprenticeship salary worse than no salary? I don’t know where you’re located, but here in the US, there are many trade programs at community colleges that are very affordable. Your engineering background being applied to a trade also puts you in a position to differentiate yourself in a few years once you’re independent. You should let go of what your parents want right now and start planning for your own future. What are you, about 36? It’s def not too late.

source
- AnyOldName3@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The cost of living for someone with a job can be higher than an unemployed person as they need to live where they can commute from, which can make things like living with parents or not having a car infeasible. If the job doesn’t pay well enough to cover this, then having no income leaves you better off.
  
  source
  - protist@retrofed.com ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    In the short-term, maybe? But if you have the skills to be employed, you will be much better off over time starting to work somewhere. Having a job sets you up to obtain a better or higher paying role in the future
    
    source
    AnyOldName3@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The long-term prospects are better, but if someone doesn’t have some kind of buffer like savings or the bank of mum and dad to cover the period where their earnings aren’t enough to break even, then the short-term problems make the long-term benefits impossible to actually reach.
    
    source
- LouNeko@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’m finishing my masters right now. With fairly bad grades that is, because I really don’t care about putting in any effort anymore. Which probably means that just like with my equally shit bachelors degree I won’t be able to get a proper engineering position. The thing is that if you apply even to entry level positions, companies usually have more than enough candidates that don’t took 10 years to finish college with barely passing grades. And even on the off chance that a company is desperate enough to hire you, it’s usually a really bad one. I’m currently working as a student. Which pays very good by the hour, but is limited in the amount of hours you can work. So yeah while I get a decent hourly wage, it’s a lot less money monthly than even the worst paying trade jobs. And I’m prohibited by law to take on more hours or a second job while enrolled college (or more precisely the employer is not allowed to give me more hours). I also earn a little money on the side but all together is just barely enough to cover the bills. So yeah, don’t be like me and push yourself into a dead end where you’re too overqualified for unskilled labor, too inexperienced for skilled labor and too financially unstable to start over.
  
  source
  - Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    What kind of engineering?
    
    Low voltage is not a registered trade in some places, so data com/access control installation is easy to get into.
    
    source
    LouNeko@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Mechanical
    
    source
    -> View More Comments