AH, yes! How did I ever forget to mention the “experience barrier” - everyone trying to break into a job has to contend with this.
They want to take on someone with lots of experience - 2 years, 4 years, sometimes 6 or more.
I see things like “4 years, and you must have worked on at least Multi-Million Dollar Film, or AAA Game.”
Now how on earth am I going to do that if I can’t even get my foot in the door at fucking McDonalds?
And you know why they can put “2 years minimum experience” on their ads? Because there are plenty of people out there looking for those jobs with 2, 4, 8 years of experience in that role who need a job desperately.
If you want to work, you basically have to know someone in the company. If your parents run the joint, you can get in there, and get that experience. My sister has no trouble finding work now, because she has a couple years of experience - she got her first job through a combination of lying, and making very good friends with a number of people who worked there, by going to parties.
She barely made it through tenth grade.
I graduated 12th grade and college.
The system is broken, and only maintains a broken status quo. It puts barriers up to the outsiders, and puts minimal value on the insiders.
Humans are expendable assets - if they fire you, there’s a queue of people waiting to do your job.
Then there are places that exploit internships.
Some companies bring students in to work for a month for free - the old “pay you in experience” trick. Problem is, they’re not giving you the level of experience you need to secure a job, and there are dozens more students and graduates who want to get those unpaid internships, So they can just keep getting work from desperate students and grads for free.
It’s like all those artists who get asked to do something “for the exposure” - the exposure is an empty promise, and they really just want you to work for free.
The big CEOs want to keep their billion-dollar bank accounts floating. And they don’t care who has to suffer and die for that to happen.
If you wonder why so many young people are trying to make a name for themselves on the internet - “social media stars” and whatnot - it’s because it’s about the only chance we have to do something and be noticed.
We now have platforms where we can put ourselves out there, and try to make money based on our talents.
Is it a long-shot?
Absolutely.
But it’s about the only chance we have.