I think an interesting result of this has increased the snobbishness/elitism of UT Grads. Older UT Alums (prior to the 10% rule) are pretty chill people, but the newer ones are universally entitled jerks.
510 karma · joined December 4, 2017
1. Be Attractive.
2. Don't be unattractive.
Boy was I wrong.
Opportunity and pure luck have to be at your back for the kind of generational change I sought. End up on the wrong side of either one of those and you too might not end up where you expect.
Nowadays, I wish I had learned a trade. Sure the work is hard, but those skills are always in demand. Houses will always need electrical or plumbing, but not everybody needs someone who can design an emulator or make an interpreter.
I haven't had a job in 5 years, due in part to relocating for my partner, family health problems, and then my own health problems.
I've developed a bad anxiety problem, due in part to the shitty job experiences, which has been amplified due to my own health issues.
To top it off, tech work generally leaves me unfulfilled. I don't want to work on another CRM, build another website, or fix another damned computer. I want to do work that matters, work that is new and innovative. I'm tired of not making money.
Finally, I am sick and tired of all the bad luck I seem to have. I'm on the wrong side of the success bell curve and I don't like being here one bit.
Even though I have big hands, I like a small phone.
I guess you don't have a problem with other people signing up for services with your email address.
I have a <first-initial><middle-initial><last-name>@gmail and several people like to sign up for deliveries and airlines using my email address.
I get to know ALL about Richard's flight to Boston, or Rachel's Adult Themed party night, or recently, how Reggie sent $40 worth of flowers to his wife, but $120 to his mistress.
ie... I graduated 10 years ago, I've got 2 or 3 years programming experience in there mired with periods of unemployment, moving/relocating a few times, health issues (resolved) and dealing with the fallout of a bad accident (I walked away, but had to transport wife for about a year while her foot healed)
The $14 was way below market, some web work, some IT, and some updating a program that I had built for them a year earlier. I needed the cash and it beat flipping burgers or working retail. The place was interesting, people did Bio-Research. I was trying to get my foot in the door and get a better job with them. About that time my wife took a job that brought us back to Texas, outside of San Antonio.
Took that job because I had been looking for a year and this was the first reasonable offer. Didn't negotiate cause I really needed the job, found out after a promotion that I was lowest paid employee in the shop by 20k.
My first job after graduating 10 years ago was for 45k per year.
I have had an awful lot of bad luck since graduating and have yet to be paid more than that since.
Every job I've had paid progressively less, always took them cause I needed the job.
My last programming job paid $14 an hour.
Can anyone offer advice on breaking out of the cycle of terribleness?
I'm a US citizen, bachelors in CS, live in Tx.