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Part of surviving college is having a part-time job that you may or may not hate — at least it is if your parents don’t give you spending money. My parents cover all the needs, but if I want something, that is on me. Since high school, I’ve always known that if I wanted something, I needed to get a job and pay for it myself. Years of part-time jobs at retail stores or restaurants gave me a nice appreciation for anything over minimum wage and a deep desire to get a degree and never have a part-time job ever again.
Cue graduating from college but lacking a full-time job. Because I’m not about to sit around at home broke, I went against my resentment for minimum wage and got a part-time job to fill the gap. Cars don’t run on empty wallets, and neither do my shopping addictions.
I showed up for the first day of training, and immediately started picking up on the rules of the establishment. I’ve worked in restaurants before — if you’ve worked at one sports bar, you’ve worked at them all. The girl in charge of training me was certainly just doing her job and making sure that I knew what I was doing. You can’t fault her for doing what the manager taught her to do, but in my head I was thinking, “Yeah, I get it. It’s not that hard to use a computer and place a food order” or “Wow, I had no idea that food has expiration dates!!” Call it being a snob or whatever, but going through training was almost enough to make me quit.
I understand that not everyone can go the same route with school. Not everyone can attend a four-year institution and get a degree. Some people have to work part-time to survive, and there’s nothing wrong with doing things differently. But damn if it doesn’t hurt my soul a little bit to have to take orders from managers that I could easily run circles around academically and professionally.
Education has turned me into a snob and it is really hard to take orders from someone when you know a monkey could probably do the same job. Granted, training exists for the person who really has no clue how to properly fold a shirt or sweep a floor. Somehow there are people out there that don’t even know how to use a mop. But I’m hoping this is just a nightmare and I didn’t just spend thousands of dollars to go back to being a part-time waitress for the next 40 years of my life..
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This comes off as just bitter and entitled. Just because you went to school doesn’t mean you’re better qualified than the same people you are ripping on. There’s a reason you are in the same position as them and writing an article like this sheds plenty of light on your own attitude.
*Mic drop
Eh, entitled is when you feel like you deserve something you haven’t earned. Working your ass off for a degree and the job market sucking ass is enough to make anyone a lil salty
Majoring in communications doesn’t qualify you for shit.
What did you major in? I sold my soul to degree plan in a field that’s always in demand.
Also….Sup?
Blaming the job market is a cop out. That was a valid excuse in 2008, not now. The job market is prime right now. If you can’t find a better job it’s because you picked a worthless major or don’t know how to network and interview. Your lack of accepting any responsibility for your current position is why us millennials get a bad rep.
If you just graduated, you have no excuse for picking a useless degree… unless you’re a petroleum engineer.
There is no such thing as a useless degree, except, perhaps, a degree in a field that you selected solely to land you a job you hate that makes you dumber and less interesting every day. College is not trade school. You’re there to get an education not a job.
It can be hard to start you career right after college, mostly because you probably haven’t figured out what you want to do with your life. No shame in taking a service job to make ends meet and figure it out. But It is super fucked up and gross for the writer to assume that she is smarter than everyone there because she has a degree. These days, unfortunately, anyone who can finance it can get a degree. It’s not an indicator of intelligence in the slightest.
Hey, I just want to let you know to keep your head up. I know you just got down voted into absolute oblivion on your own column but I too used to get down voted to the point of non-existence on here too but I worked and wrote and wrote until I gained the respect of my peers and now look where I’ve come with all that hard work. Welcome to the world. Listen, the world is your oyster except you’re now the oyster and you’ve just been proded and split in half and then slurped down like a wrinkly booger in the throat of the wealthy elite that run everything. Maybe if you put that extra hustle in, you’ll be able to land a job that pays you just enough to show up the next day and maybe have enough money to buy a bottle of cheap wine so you can cope with the reality of your existence week after week!
I genuinely liked your columns
Thanks man that means a lot. I’m in the process of writing a new one.
Plenty of “over-qualified” people still work part-time jobs. I willingly work one in addition to my full-time job just to pay loans off faster. Get over yourself.
This felt like one long intro. I was hoping there would be some story of you dealing with a 45-year old throwing up all over the table, and then you ponder how your degree really prepared you for that moment.
The job market is much better today than it was 5-6 years ago when I got my degree. I worked a part time job driving forklifts after I graduated but it was better than being an unemployed postgrad piece of shit. Suck it up and keep plugging away until you finally land a decent full time job.
Exactly. I stuck around an extra year for an MBA mainlybecause my 5th year of football paid for it. I completed said MBA in August . . . of 2008. YIKES.
You’ll find the same contrived and dumb shit birds in the full time working world except they’ll drive nicer cars, wear nicer clothes, and have more money. So far in my deep analysis of being a peasant that is getting completely fucked over for decades to come, the smartest people are the ones who aren’t working (rich or poor). My advice is to find a need and exploit the living fuck out of it until you have enough money to persuade power establishments to your death machine of profiteering.
Are you wildly overqualified because you had years of experience as a waitress? Or because having a degree in whatever somehow makes you more qualified to do a part time job?
“managers that I could easily run circles around academically and professionally.” From where I’m sitting sure doesn’t seem like it.
Boo hoo
Shit, speaking as someone who graduated with a useless major, I’m telling you to suck it up. If you still haven’t landed something decent come November, by all means, both and prepare for grad school. But I considering I found a decent paying by job with benefits given my background, I’d say that you should keep plugging away
I’m having to go back to my old job at a grocery store this fall because my last year of graduate school will not be condusive to my current 9-5 job. I’m damn grateful for the opportunity.
HEB discount totally worth it though.
Kroger’s the way to go
One of the reasons I’m going back.