Post College: The Dreaded Return Home
As a 23 year old post-college student who has moved back home and has been living under my parents' roof over the past year, there are definitely pros and cons to the situation.
Obviously, everyone has a different relationship with their family. I suppose I am lucky enough to consider myself as having a “good”, or at least stable, relationship with my parents and siblings. However, I feel like since becoming roomies with my family members again, there is this sense of freedom I feel like I’ve lost since moving back home.
This loss of independence includes a financial dependence on parents for certain resources, especially if you’re still in that awkward limbo "searching for a job” phase after graduation. Other restrictive areas include abiding by rules, overprotectiveness, as if we’re not competent to take care of ourselves at 22, and petty fights that you only have with your family as hostility and tension increases from dealing with each other on a daily basis. If there are two things I have learned since moving back to my childhood home, it’s that having "your room" at home is VERY different from having “your room” in an apartment with roommates. Also, phone calls and voice mails are much different from the face to face presence of your parents nagging.
We all know that our parents are just trying to look out for us, that is their job. And with that comes a safe, warm bed, food on the table, and reliable laundry services. But it is difficult, for all of us returning home, to accept help that we need and pay the price of our independent practices after 2-4 years.
Here are a few tips I’ve learned to help lessen the blow of living at home.
- Take a break! Whether you plan to go return to your college town and to visit your friends, or you’re going out for ice cream with a friend, get out of the house. Take a relaxing walk or go visit your fun aunt for a day
- Get a job, any job, or volunteer while you are looking for your long term career. It will give you an excuse to get out of the house and feel like you are doing something with your time during the day. Plus, any experience is helpful on your resume
- Invest in a good pair of headphones
In a report published by the Huffington Post, the article questions why there has been an increase in millennial moving home after college. Even after the recession, the numbers of university students returning to their parents’ home have continued to increase. This concept of earning $40,000 after college may be true for some in the right field with a full-time, all year round position. However, that isn’t the case for every college student. There are extenuating circumstances.
From a personal standpoint, most college students feel like they need to be somewhat financially stable before moving back out again, or at least the ones I know. This means paying back their student loans, or even a portion of what you may owe your parents before affording rent. Not everyone can earn $70,000 right out of college. According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2015, the median earning of graduates with a bachelor degree is $1,137 per week.
This idea that millennial are rushing back home to their parents’ homes also depends on your parents' class standing, and whether some graduates are fortunate enough not to have to pay back loans or reimburse their parents for their college tuition.
Some take up a assistant positions at schools, personal trainer jobs, receptionist jobs, and some obtain a minimum wage job through their university, all positions that pay $30,000 or less. Some, such as myself, juggle multiple part-time jobs. In my case, one of which is internship based and one that is paid.
One of the major factors that I think is also forgotten is experience. For a full-time position after graduation, it isn't as easy as simply earning a degree and getting employed for 40 hours a week at a permanent job. And every field is different, however there are numerous fields such as graphic design, communications, music and sociology majors that require at least one year of experience according to sites like LinkedIn and Indeed.
Every circumstance is different. But no matter what the case may be, and no matter how much we grit out teeth and roll our eyes, we appreciate all our parents have done for us over those college years and beyond into returning home to them.
Post College: How Searching for a Job is a Full-Time Job
From the perspective of a June 2015 graduate, searching for a job is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve had to go through. There are so many inspiring, "you can do it” attitudes from parents, professors, and guest speakers. Even our president, Barack Obama, who just delivered a speech to Howard University on how our generation can change the world. How can we change the world if no one will give us a chance? In a report from 2013 by the Washington Post, only 27% of college graduates are able to obtain a job within their field.
It took me about 7 months of constant searching, great determination, hundreds of submitted resumes and applications, and spiraling further and further into the farewell debt package that my university so graciously gave me. But I knew I wanted to be a writer and editor, and that I would have to fight for that dream.
So why is it so difficult to secure a career in a field that you are educated in, maybe even over-educated in, worked hard to achieve good grades, and worked at unpaid internships and gained experience in said field? In yet, you still find yourself playing the waiting game, which is a difficult task for me and all of my other impatient peers that join in on the struggle of checking our email accounts at least 5 times a day.
Why is it more difficult to hold out for the job that you are passionate about and that you have worked so hard for, when the number of calls and emails I’ve gotten for offers in advertising and marketing is astonishing. When did selling a product become more in-demand than teaching a student how to read, or helping to keep a sick patient alive?
The only city where writing and editing employees reaches above 5,000 in the employment of this division is New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Division with 17,920. However, even that isn’t very much considering that there are 8.4 million people living in New York City alone. Chicago only holds about 3,710 editorial employees. Employment for advertising sales agents easily doubles in number, in areas like Chicago with 7,720 and Los Angeles with 8,040. Elementary school teachers reach employment numbers of 61,200 in the New York/New Jersey division, and 27,730 in the Chicago/Naperville area. Could one pin this lack of employment on location?
In a 2009-2010 study, recent college graduates who majored in education have an unemployment rate of 6%. Business majors generally have an unemployment rate of 7%. Sociology majors have a slightly higher unemployment rate of 8.6%, and above that is liberal arts majors with 9.2%.
In a report done by the U.S. Department of Labor, unemployment rates have decreased by nearly half over the past 6-7 years. However, is this a genuine decline, or are college educated graduates simply more inclined now to accept any job while taking on the long-waiting search for their dream job? For some, the search may take years before their opportunity arises.
In my case, these statistics don’t match up to the personal stories I have heard from the majority of my family members and friends who felt like the 6 month search for employment was never going to end. And in a good portion of these cases, the individual who did eventually land their ideal job had a personal contact connection with the employer. It has become an unfortunate but well known fact that employers only take approximately 6 seconds to look over your resume before moving onto the next one. That is a glance at someone's hard work and dedication over the past 22 years, or longer in some cases.
The discouraging factual numbers show that unemployment rates of workers under the age of 25 increased over the past 7 years in 46 out of the 50 states. There seems to be endless damage done to the entry level employment sector for college graduates. These are individuals who are supposed to be filled with ambition and determination as they enter the work force, and the world. Yet, the foundation on which the system is built on is a crumbling one, that continues to build on top of a rotting structure. So how do we change the system? How can we better the framework of employment for the next generation, and our children, and our children’s children?