4 ms·

At the age of 29, I've likely forever lost the following opportunities due to cost and probable inability to make up for lost wages and career potential: Serio

At the age of 29, I've likely forever lost the following opportunities due to cost and probable inability to make up for lost wages and career potential: Seriously? Forever lost is a pretty strong statement. I don't see how any of these opportunities are forever lost just because he's 29 and hasn't had a steady job until now. Millions (billions?) of people manage to get married, have children, study, etc while in objectively far worse situations than this kid ever will be. This article overflows with a sense of entitlement. Reminds me of an editorial from a few years back, where a lawyer (professor?) in Chicago claimed destitution at $400K/yr [1]. [1] http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/09/in-which-mr-deling-responds-to-someone-who-might-be-professor-todd-henderson.html http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/09/in-which-mr-deling-res... PS: Comment from an older thread that expresses my sentiments precisely: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991666 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991666

chc 14y ago
Are you sure you aren't thinking of the Louisiana Congressman who complained that he had "only $400,000" left over after the costs of running his businesses and feeding his family?
michaelochurch 14y ago
Actually, I think he's screwed. As a 29-year-old with no work experience, he's at a disadvantage against 22-year-olds with similar empty resumes. When good jobs become available, he won't be able to compete. The real problem is that the kinds of jobs that liberal arts education trains people for are: * academia and research, which have been contracting for 30 years. * autonomous high-skill labor, which has also been getting rarer, and which would require further education on his part. * executive jobs that have since been judged supernumerary and probably don't actually make economic sense. People like him used to get "junior executive" jobs where they might have no direct reports, but were clearly being groomed for something better. (Think Pete Campbell in Mad Men.) Those jobs don't exist anymore and that's probably a good thing, because they don't make sense, but that is exactly what society prepped him for-- something that no longer exists. He's now in the state where he can't get quality work experience because he doesn't have quality work experience. If I were unethical, I might start a business as a "reinvention consultant" and give guys like him a fake work history (shell companies, references, ~3 months of training in the very few things he actually needs to know to be a corporate executive) and a second chance. There will be a lot of demand for that kind of service 5-10 years from now.
- jholman 14y ago
  > Actually, I think he's screwed. As a 29-year-old with no work experience... Screwed? Nonsense. At 29 years old, I had zero work experience, other than a few research assistant jobs in my 10-year slacker bachelor's degree (which did not result in positive references). Oh, and 4 months at a Subway. The only thing even vaguely positive about my economic history was that I did do a degree in computing science... but I had deliberately made it as useless as possible, because I was an idiot. 6 years later, I work at the best company in the world (I believe you're familiar with the place, mchurch). He (she?) may well be disadvantaged by his age, that's fair. But then again, he's already had lots of advantages, like being educated, living in Canada, etc.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Silly answer, he could, if he chose to, get some training in something useful and find work. The challenge here is that a lot of people were sold on the story that "college degree" == "paid employment." And so they optimized for the easiest to get college degree so that could quickly move past that step into the "job" part of their life. This is a painful and horrible lesson to learn, especially if you are carrying student debt for going to a "good school" for your degree to enhance your "job prospects." If you want to be employable by a wide number of places, you need to learn three things: 1) Mathematics with at least one year of calculus and one year of probability/statistics. 2) Communication competency, being able to propose, debate, and revise a plan or proposal. 3) The scientific method of knowledge discovery through a combination of theory, experimentalism, and reasoning by analogy. I interviewed a guy who basically cheated his way through school so that he could 'get on with it since you don't learn anything in school anyway' and completely missed that you actually can learn how to learn in college. It helps if you develop your integrity and maturity as well. At least he was up front about it. The whole 'screwed at 29' thing is just youth angst. Trust me you feel the same at 40 as you did at 30. And you've got 10 years between those two, you could get a medical degree in 10 years if you applied yourself to it.

chc 14y ago

Are you sure you aren't thinking of the Louisiana Congressman who complained that he had "only $400,000" left over after the costs of running his businesses and feeding his family?

michaelochurch 14y ago

Actually, I think he's screwed. As a 29-year-old with no work experience, he's at a disadvantage against 22-year-olds with similar empty resumes. When good jobs become available, he won't be able to compete. The real problem is that the kinds of jobs that liberal arts education trains people for are: * academia and research, which have been contracting for 30 years. * autonomous high-skill labor, which has also been getting rarer, and which would require further education on his part. * executive jobs that have since been judged supernumerary and probably don't actually make economic sense. People like him used to get "junior executive" jobs where they might have no direct reports, but were clearly being groomed for something better. (Think Pete Campbell in Mad Men.) Those jobs don't exist anymore and that's probably a good thing, because they don't make sense, but that is exactly what society prepped him for-- something that no longer exists. He's now in the state where he can't get quality work experience because he doesn't have quality work experience. If I were unethical, I might start a business as a "reinvention consultant" and give guys like him a fake work history (shell companies, references, ~3 months of training in the very few things he actually needs to know to be a corporate executive) and a second chance. There will be a lot of demand for that kind of service 5-10 years from now.

jholman 14y ago
> Actually, I think he's screwed. As a 29-year-old with no work experience... Screwed? Nonsense. At 29 years old, I had zero work experience, other than a few research assistant jobs in my 10-year slacker bachelor's degree (which did not result in positive references). Oh, and 4 months at a Subway. The only thing even vaguely positive about my economic history was that I did do a degree in computing science... but I had deliberately made it as useless as possible, because I was an idiot. 6 years later, I work at the best company in the world (I believe you're familiar with the place, mchurch). He (she?) may well be disadvantaged by his age, that's fair. But then again, he's already had lots of advantages, like being educated, living in Canada, etc.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Silly answer, he could, if he chose to, get some training in something useful and find work. The challenge here is that a lot of people were sold on the story that "college degree" == "paid employment." And so they optimized for the easiest to get college degree so that could quickly move past that step into the "job" part of their life. This is a painful and horrible lesson to learn, especially if you are carrying student debt for going to a "good school" for your degree to enhance your "job prospects." If you want to be employable by a wide number of places, you need to learn three things: 1) Mathematics with at least one year of calculus and one year of probability/statistics. 2) Communication competency, being able to propose, debate, and revise a plan or proposal. 3) The scientific method of knowledge discovery through a combination of theory, experimentalism, and reasoning by analogy. I interviewed a guy who basically cheated his way through school so that he could 'get on with it since you don't learn anything in school anyway' and completely missed that you actually can learn how to learn in college. It helps if you develop your integrity and maturity as well. At least he was up front about it. The whole 'screwed at 29' thing is just youth angst. Trust me you feel the same at 40 as you did at 30. And you've got 10 years between those two, you could get a medical degree in 10 years if you applied yourself to it.