One can try not to think, but denial is counter-productive. I imagine that the job market in Seattle in 1994 was in fact a lot rosier than it is today, and char

One can try not to think, but denial is counter-productive. I imagine that the job market in Seattle in 1994 was in fact a lot rosier than it is today, and charts will confirm that. You don't think there's more graduates with degrees in Environmental Engineering today, swarming all related niches (because the unemployment rate is also higher)? The data confirms it. Those kind of lucky breaks (hire you first and then pay you while you learn?!) just don't come around like they used to. Things were obviously not tough all over, like they are now. There's a mass of empirical evidence to show this. I don't why our elders continue to deny it (to their own future detriment!) other than so they can bask in their own self-satisfaction. Not to say that time-tested advice doesn't apply. It does, but it just doesn't work like it used to!