Hi everyone, I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this but my fingers are crossed, so if it's not just ignore me lol. If formatting is bad apologies, I'm on mobile.
So basically I'm in a pretty crappy situation. I have one year left in my program at college where I'm majoring in English. The problem is I'm majoring in English. I live in a very expensive county outside of a large metropolitan area that has a very competitive job market. Now, I'm a very hard working and determined individual so you'd think it would be easy for me to find a job right? Wrong. Because of living and financial situations I've been unable to keep up with my peers. I've had zero internships and have no experience in my field. My GPA has also suffered greatly because of time constraints.
But what's the big deal you ask, since I'm only 20 and have a supporting family to pay my bills for me, right? :( Unfortunately that's the wrong assumption. My living situation right now is that I am the sole provider for both myself and my mother. Long story short, my dad is an abusive POS. Fortunately he signed off on leaving me his GI Bill benefits before cutting me and my mother off (she has no income, was a homemaker for 23 years, got no money in the divorce) so I haven't had to worry about rent the past three years. After this next semester those benefits run out. I won't go into specifics because my rent+bills are ungodly expensive and I know what everyone will say about those and I'm aware of my mistake of signing a two year lease (I'm young and naive what can I say). Fortunately, I was able to work my way from a minimum wage position to a salaried position at my lousy fast food job within 6 months of starting and will be able to scrape by without starving to death my last semester.
My main point of worry is post-graduation existence. I see so many people finding these jobs like it's super easy, but how!? I'm starting to feel desperate to be honest. Unlike everyone else who has had all of the time in the world to have 5+ internships over the span of their academic career I've spent the last three years delivering sandwiches and flipping burgers just so I can make sure my mom has food to eat. I feel like I have no useful skills, and now I'm trapped in a position where I'm required to work 45+ hours a week just to survive. I've tried freelancing to get myself out there, but to no avail. Breaking into freelance writing/editing seems just as impossible as getting a job. I don't want to end up working in fast food management for the rest of my life, I might actually rather die. What are my options? Were you guys able to get jobs with somewhat okay pay and benefits with nothing more than a mediocre bachelor's degree? How did you manage it, and how do you feel about your work now? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but no one in my family has ever had a white collar job so I feel in the dark completely. I feel like this semester is my last chance since it's the last time I won't have to pay rent. It feels like If I don't find something better now I'll be stuck at this miserable job forever.
Financially, I feel I'll be okay, but barely skating by. I have my ridiculous rent, a car payment, insurance on two cars, bills and food for two people, all on 35K (before taxes...) a year but if all goes as planned I'll be moved to 50k +monthly bonuses by the end of the year if I can stay sane long enough to stay at this job. I mean, from a financial point of view the smart thing would probably be to stay at this job since I have a head start moving towards a good salary at only 20. But is it worth it to sell your soul for financial comfort? I want to do what's best for my mom, but I don't know if I'm capable of being the stoic, selfless person I should be. I've learned a few things at this job such as basic accounting like P&L maintenance, invoicing, some HR (hiring, pay negotiation etc), and things like budget allocation and scheduling, but those all seem pretty useless and inapplicable to "real" jobs. Other than that all I can do is read, write, and research fairly well. Putting together a resume is just embarrassing. How do you make a resume out of nothing haha. I know this was a jumble mess of thoughts, I guess I'm just really scared. If it were just me I'd be okay with living in a destitute hut eating ramen everyday if I got to do work I enjoyed, but I also have to make sure my mom is well taken care of always. I suppose I'm looking for someday to balance that in my currently bad situation. Sorry for the length of this, and thanks in advance for any and all advice/input.
Tl;dr: 20 years old, sole provider for myself and mother. Make 35k a year as a manager in fast food but miserable, about to have BA in English which seems worthless in a competitive job market and am clueless how to move into the real world job market because entire family never got past high school/mostly joined military, and I've spent whole time in school working so no internships etc. Looking for advice on job market for people who appear less than average on paper/on life/ everything.
Submitted June 15, 2017 at 08:24AM by punkpingu http://ift.tt/2tqg3uh
