The dead end kids.

Originally posted by drunknhorny
oh & furthermore the term "dead end kid" implies a kid who has reached a dead end. ie there is a wall infront of him preventing him from traveling in the direction he wasn going & leaving him with 2 options... option 1 turn around... option 2 kick the wall down. yes?

Maybe Deadbeat kids will suffice?

reply to post by thaknobodi


i know it least 5 people that are unenployed not encluding my self. u are vary lucky to have a job right now and i wish you even more luck to be able to keep it. once the banks are finished everything will fall.

reply to post by traphouse

It's just that extra effort you have to put into it to build up your experience and skill that sets you apart from the average player.

This is what you have to do in employment.
Demonstrate you are better than the others and gain as much as you can.

reply to post by travelboarder


I am confused by the USA higher education system.
In the UK it takes 3-4 years to obtain a BSc, BEng or BA degree.
A masters degree is another 2 on top.

How can you have 3 degrees at such a young age?

Why do you need so many degrees? In the UK a single degree in a relevant subject will land you a job in your chosen career.

I'm 18, out of high school, and jobless. Earlier in this thread I said I'd reply with how my job hunt went. I've been looking for two weeks and just got hired by Wendy's. Orientation this friday. So I am no longer jobless!! haha

[edit on 12-10-2009 by doped00]

In the 50s and 60s there was little unemployment in the USA, because it was a closed economy: everything was produced by local companies and was consumed locally. Nowadays, most products are produced in other countries and are imported in USA, and therefore unemployment has skyrocketed.

Nevermind [edit]

[edit on 10/12/09 by silent thunder]

I met some more of the dead end kids on Saturday. I was running the front gate at the Suns-Warriors game (I also got to escort Anthony Morrow to the locker room after his on-court interview, which was kinda cool, although I don't actually watch or even like basketball).

Again I found them to be nice kids. In this case mostly JROTC types who didn't choose the military and were nothing but sorry for it. We worked a full 8 hours- no 10 minute breaks, no lunch. We didn't sit down, we didn't go get more water, I didn't smoke (if anyone else was an addict, they didn't bother asking for a break- so I don't know) most of us didn't even go to the bathroom. We stood our god danged post and were grateful for the roughly $60 (more like 40 after taxes) that we earned on that one day gig- labor laws and bathroom breaks be damned.

I kept telling this one guy that I'm more of a "hey fatass" than a "sir" but he never really did get the hang of it- he reminded me a lot of myself when I was fresh out of highschool- except he'll never see 33 dollars an hour (and 66 an hour on sundays)- which I had for a few beautiful moments before the world went to hell. Granted there was also this one weed smokin idiot who reminded me more of me during college and who wouldn't do his job even when I hovered over him, but he was the exception, not the rule.

Anyway, I'll probably be employed full time by the end of the week, making roughly a third of what I normally do as a carpenter. I'm paying my prospective employer 200 dollars for the job- the owner of the security company I'm hiring on with also owns the security school that he refers potential employees to. It's basically an elaborate kick-back system. If he takes my 200 dollars and then doesn't hire me I'll probably beat him senseless and take the money back- but who knows- I've been screwed a time or two before and decided it wasn't worth going to jail over.

So wish me and him both luck. But despite the obvious worries I'm pretty optimistic- all of his managers really liked me (he also owns the non-security event staff company that I worked for at the basketball game) and though I hate to say it, I've obviously got my age and skin color on my side [they gave me a supervisory position my very first day in their employ, and although I'd like to think I'm an excellent person, they didn't know that. All they knew was that I was 26 and white- whereas most of my co-workers were 18 and Mexican].

Wow, there's an awful thought... what if I was a few years younger and a few shades darker? Maybe I'd have beaten my boss senseless and taken his money already... so here's to hoping the dead end kids don't have to endure this much longer, hmm?

Well, let's look on the positive side for a moment. The rising generation will have to be:

-Less materialistic
-Less trusting of authority
-More of a packrat personality and an ability to "improvise and make do."
-Leaner n' meaner
-Better judges of character (i.e., not determining the value of a man by the brand of his shoes or cars)
-Adept at useful skills
-Hard workers who can take knocks, get up, dust themselves off, and keep moving.
-Perhaps more spiritual to compensate for the dearth of the material?
-More hard-headed and realistic. Less likely to believe what "people in authority" have to tell them
-Perhaps, out of necessity and maybe mediated by new tech (social-networking, etc), more community-oriented and better team players, whether in the real neighborhood or in the virtual world.
-More flexible: Can plant a garden, fix an auto or a solar panel, and even head into the office for a bit of cubicle work if needed. Increasingly at home with both lo- and hi-tech.
-Frugal and aware of the value of money
-Ultimately wiser and more stoic than their parents...a resurget "Greatest Generation?"

They may not be "fun" and many will not make it, but if they can come out of it all with those values, they will be better human beings than their parents on almost every level.

Flag for this thread,

I am 21 years old.
I also find myself in quite a depressive situation. Since the Black Empowerment in South Africa and the way the economy is going there is NO work...

I am a Silversmith and live in a small town In the Wstern Cape called Hermanus. Jewellery companies aren't hiring so I have spent all my savings on setting up a workshop at home and believe me it's bloody expensive.

But tell me this- who the hell buys Jewellery in the state we are in now?!

It is the only thing I can count on as I have no college degree (thanks to my parents) so I must count on my skills, which I had to obtain as an apprentice at a Jeweller, worked my butt off! For nothing.

This is selfish but the suffering and struggle is one of the main reasons I cannot wait for this system collapses on itself so we can start fresh. Even if I don't make it, at least future generations have the chance.

God help me If I need to go back to waitressing...

[edit on 06/10/2009 by jinx880101]

why is everyone trying to force their idea of success on the up and coming group of young people? i am 24 and i dont care about money at all. i want to build my house, grow my own food, and provide myself with clean energy. i dont care about getting a better education because i dont trust what they are teaching people in colleges. our system if government is curropt beyond repair. we wage wars i dont agree with. pay taxes i never voted on. and we also have to pickup the pieces where the previous generations have left off. and as you can see the world is in a sad state of affairs.

why in the world would you think we would want to do anything let alone get a damn job and help some corporate scumbag make the world worse? i refuse to buy a car, fill up a gas tank, bank at banks, among other things. its not that were lazy its that were pissed off our parents didnt care enough about us to make sure they handed things down to us properly.

id like to thank everyone for their greed, manipulation, and abuse!

now go get a job and make me money kid!!! damn kids dont know anything. lol

Originally posted by lightchild
In the UK a single degree in a relevant subject will land you a job in your chosen career.

That was the case some years ago, buut now with 50%+ of schoolkids going onto university, the degree has become somewhat devalued and you need a masters to stand any better chance

In saying that though, there are a hell of a lot of mickey-mouse BA degrees that aren't worth the paper the certificate's printed on. The BSc/BEng will always be held in a higher regard

reply to post by onequestion


Excellent post, and best of luck with your plans.

Many "hippies" tried "back to the land" before discovering "back to the BMW." This time around there may be no BMW to go back to, whether people like it or not. I wish you and any young people who think as you do the greatest of success and no turning back. Be prepared and organized in what you do, and if possible find ways of cooperation. Study the communes of the 60s, collective farming, and even older "utopian" agrarian movemements in the 1800s (like "Fruitlands" in Massachusetts). You can learn from their successes and failures. You may even want to look into medieval monastic movements on the frontiers of civilized Europe, like the early Cistercians.

It seems to me that living off the land is much easier with a group, but this creates additional problems...petty infighting, cabin fever, "you did dishes ten times this week and I did them 20 times," blah blah blah. Thus these things tend to dry up and float away in the breeze 9 times out of 10...especially when there's always mommy and daddy's basement to run back to if you get tired of playing farmer Jones. Also, farming is hard work (I spent much of my adolescence and youth involved in it) and more technical than you might imagine.

Study well, plan well, anticipate social and psychological issues...and once again, best of luck.

34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population.

Meanwhile, for the larger picture:

The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed.

I saw a guy the other day holding up a sign that said

"Stop Buying Junk for Christmas"

I thought that was very enlightening.

Most of the junk I bought for my daughter was never played with. Books and video games seem to be the most likely to get used. Also, most likely to be made in the U.S., and not be child labor.

It would be a great kick in the teeth to corporations everywhere if all people bought were things like books and video games, or locally produced stuff.

If you are young, give hand made gifts. It is time to rock the world this holiday season.

reply to post by The Vagabond


Well, it took 3 months from the time when I thought I'd be working within a week, but today I cashed my first check from my new job as a security supervisor.

I'm in exactly the same place I was when I was 19, (the place I left when I landed that high paying job as an operating engineer) on Tuesday I actually sit in the same chair, although it's been broken since I was 19. But they let me run my shift more or less as I see fit, I find most of the work very easy and I expect to clear the poverty line for the first time in 3 or 4 years, so I'm having a hard time getting to upset about a lot of the stuff I would have known was wrong in the past.

And the dead end kids... well I haven't seen much of them I'm afraid. We've got 3 of them, but they're a serious minority I've never seen so many people over 40 in entry level positions in my life. The ones we've got are tougher than people give them credit for though. As I've seen from others like them plenty of times, for all the whining and screwing around they almost always do what they've gotta get done, even with clients getting racist and/or physically threatening on them.

I wish some of the critics could come work with them for a bit, and see first hand that spoiled as they've been in better days, they can hang in and work even in situations where the only reasonable thing to do is tell the client to go to hell and tell the boss you're going home.

Canada had this little correction happen when I was in this age range.

It does indeed have a long term impact on your financial stability and familial life.

However, that it is happening in the USA now doesn't mean that other nations haven't had the same thing happen. I don't notice, and didn't then, that anyone noted or cared much when it was happening here.

I can see why many people especially young people are discouraged right now. In order to get a job you must meet exactly what an employee is looking for. If you are overqualfied or underqualfied you are not even considered. Let me give you can example from the jobs I have applied for. I will not do all of them because it would take up more than 2 pages.

Jobs I applied for and how I was either overqualfied or underqualfied:
I will put an oq for overqualfied, uq for underqualfied and a q for qualfied by each requirement

Taco Bell Asst Manager
Requirements
1year+ management experience -Q
1 year + in fast food - Q
High School diploma- OQ
Ablity to work in fast paced environment - Q
Cashier experience - OQ

2 OQs therefor I am ineligble for job

Hallmark Supervisor for Cards
1 year+ supervision in retail - Q
2 years in retail -OQ
Associate's Degree - OQ
Ablity to life 50 lbs - UQ

2 OQs and 1 UQ sp I am inelgible

Radio Shack Sales Assocaite

2 years in retail -OQ
Some high school - OQ
Cashier Experience - Q

I have since changed careers from retail to psychology

i have applied for several jobs in the psychology feild.
Here are some examples

Peer Support

Some College _OQ
Experience in peer support _ Q
Transportaion _ Q
Good listening Skills - Q
Experience with people - OQ

I am sure by now you see a pattern if you are overqualfied or underqualfied they do will not consider you at all. I have applied to around 50-100 jobs in a years time. I never can find a job that I am exactly qualfied for. I work from home now 25 hours a week yet want something more challenging.
When I was 28 I gave up on working over 35 hours a week. I never got anywhere no matter how hard I worked. I would get a quarter raise at best and only a couple promotions. It seems in our system you are punished for hard work.
You can also be fired for any reason. My sister was fired recently for something that happened 2 weeks a go that was not even her fault. There is not much protection for employees and even at $8/hour 40 hours a week you can't qualify for most apartments including section 8. At $8 a person would only make $1280 per month. This would get you into a tiny studio or a one bedroom apartment that is run down.
What I think is most dissapointing for the young people is the saw the baby boomer generation doing so well and it seemed easy. When they actually grew up the saw how hard it actually was. If you don't make enough or have good credit you may have to live in a motel or on the streets. That is terribly dissappointing. I know I am very disillusioned and I don't blame the younger generation for being either.

Update from my earlier thread:

I'm done with my BSN (nursing) program since December 2009. Now I'm preparing for the NCLEX-RN exam (licensing exam to be a Registered Professional Nurse).

Let me say that THERE ARE NO JOBS HERE. Everyone thinks that nursing is "in demand" ...and while that is true-- they are needed, hospitals cannot afford to hire the vast majority that apply due to budget cutbacks. Also keep in mind that nursing programs are pumping out new nurse graduates regularly now, since that everyone wants to be a nurse now.

NY nurses are in the same boat with nurses in CA, FL, NJ, AZ and CT are far as lack of jobs. Basically to get a job around here, you need connections. It helps to know a recruiter. As for me, my strategy for now is networking. It's who you know, not what you know. You're like a dime a dozen in recruiter's office. My friends and I have had experiences of sitting across extremely rude and condescending recruiters, who for whatever reason disliked us. In a way some of them get off on being complete bitches.

Just think there are thousands of us walking around with these qualifications, with anywhere between 5k-100k worth of student loan debt (I'm with sallie mae.. and my debt has to be near 100k between my two degrees), AND NO JOBS!

My conspiracy theory here is: some evil asshole mastermind made propoganda to everyone that made them think they HAD to go to college/4 year school to NOT be a low life/loser... and we and every other borderline illiterate moron succumb to this by paying assloads of money for an education which gives us a USELESS piece of crap paper that says our name and the name of the degree we enslaved ourselves over.

We have an awesome society: politicians and media who are in the business of lying to us (that we continuously vote in LOL), and millions of skilled people who cannot find a damn job anywhere. So what gives? Eventually how is the government going to be able to afford to spend when too few people are actually paying the taxes? Corporations love dodging taxes. Probably because CEO's must fund their entitled 16 yr old daughters a MTV 'my sweet 16' parties with a 100k mercedes to throw in, so everyone can be jealous.

reply to post by helster83


Switch 'nursing' with 'engineering' and 'USA' with 'Canada', and that's pretty much my story. Fortunately, I managed to graduate without student loans, but even so, there aren't any jobs around here for new graduates, and without connections, what can you do?