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yardieHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

My experience graduating right into the dot-bomb was it absolutely sucked

My experience graduating right into the dot-bomb was it absolutely sucked. I, a fresh-faced grad, was competing against experienced engineers who were laid off after Y2K, Cosmo, Yahoo, and other dotcoms for entry-level jobs. I wasn't very bitter then, but now when I meet mid-20s developer with "senior" or "director" titles, it hurts knowing that 3-5 years of my career was wasted trying to string together credible work history portfolio. The best thing I did was tap out, sell my car, turn in my apartment keys, bought a one way ticket, and stuff my life into large backpack. I saw lots of things, made lots of friends, and met a life partner. Simply because life decided to unplug the career treadmill and there was no point in me trying to run on it.

Original discussionYoung graduates are facing an employment crisis372 source comments · at import
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eldaisfishHN

a mid 20s person with "director" in their title sounds good on paper but there is no credible replacement for experience.

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sys_64738HN

Titles are bogus and everybody wants to be a "senior" something so they claim to not be clueless. Director is a ten-a-penny title like in the Wall Street banks. There, every other person is a VP. It's a total joke.

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tuesdaynightHN

If you don't mind sharing, what would be the things that a person should think about it before doing the same action that you did? I'm always torn between doing that or saving more and trying to make changes later in life.

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laborcontractHN

Graduating in a recession is really unfair to the graduate. Economists have looked at the effects on lifetime wages and it's estimated that recession kids lose in aggregate about 20% in lost lifetime wages, and to no fault of their own. Of course this is an aggregate figure, but it goes to show how uneven economic outcomes can be across cohorts.

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