orbister: zzrhardy:
For every top fat bloke with awesome skills, your got another 5 bitter fat blokes with chips on their shoulder and a nervous twitch.
Being fat is invariably a result of ignorance, stupidity or simply a remarkable lack of self control. These are not qualities any sensible interviewer looks for, even if there is a beautiful personality behind them.

Comments like this are invariably a result of ignorance or stupidity. Any sensible interviewer who sees a fat man walk into an interview overflowing with self-confidence realizes that, even though the fat ass might have made poor decisions earlier in life, they have learned from those lessons and don't let handicaps prevent them from excelling. This is a quality that all interviewers look for.

Ed Willy: In my life the most ardent proponents of bootstraps have been the most miserable people I have met, typically because they work for asshole bosses.

I think you're missing the whole bootstraps concept...

Ed Willy: I am 26, in student loan debt and often feel like there is no hope. I took a cross country trek for new job opportunities and even with a hub of alumni I can't find regular work. I don't know, for a while I've really given up on the idea that there are regular jobs that pay money and somewhere along the line the older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

also what did you study in school where you can't find any suitable job cross-country?

Ed Willy: powhound: Ed Willy: I am 26, in student loan debt and often feel like there is no hope. I took a cross country trek for new job opportunities and even with a hub of alumni I can't find regular work. I don't know, for a while I've really given up on the idea that there are regular jobs that pay money and somewhere along the line the older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

Bootstraps man. Stop with the excuses. Be the force of change in the world. I'm worried about my SS checks when I need them in 20 years.

In my life the most ardent proponents of bootstraps have been the most miserable people I have met, typically because they work for asshole bosses.

Sorry man, I didn't mean to strike a nerve. Ninety-nine percent of us are in the same boat. My boss is okay though so I won't talk down on him. I was just kidding with you, best of luck really.

Ed Willy: older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_economic_crises

Whatever. I died in an auto accident when I was thirteen and it was a FARKING TRAGEDY.

also does anyone else find this speech... in need of Prozac? What college senior has that notion (I know I didn't)? This is also for students at YALE. You know, the people that have the advantage over everyone else. Was she in therapy? was this notion from her group? And if 22 is too late to start, what was the consensus age to start if you want to do anything meaningful?

"I'm about to graduate, I don't think I'll get a job doing something I love, I know I haven't tried, but I'm so depressed!"

pedobearapproved: also does anyone else find this speech... in need of Prozac? What college senior has that notion (I know I didn't)? This is also for students at YALE. You know, the people that have the advantage over everyone else. Was she in therapy? was this notion from her group? And if 22 is too late to start, what was the consensus age to start if you want to do anything meaningful?

"I'm about to graduate, I don't think I'll get a job doing something I love, I know I haven't tried, but I'm so depressed!"

That's how I felt when I was graduating college. I felt like I was so behind and lacked experience. It seemed like everyone else had done so much more than me. It might sound ridiculous, but what she said is exactly how I felt at her age. Lol, I still feel like that though so I guess it's just part of my personality - although now it's more of a reality seeing as I'm now 31 and am back in college for another degree :P.

True story:

Her: "I may just be a waitress, but I'm in college, and do you not I'm gonna be when I graduate?"
Me: "Yeah. A waitress with a degree."

Wyldfire: This hits somewhat close to home. High school graduation and we all went up to a friends cabin for a classwide celebration. Most of us got totally smashed. This kid Aaron, who was a real straight arrow, didn't have a sip to drink. When he left, he took a turn down a hill too fast and ran head on into an 18 wheeler and died on impact. The guy passed out beside him walked away with a black eye.

That really sobered up our graduating class to the fragility of life.

Why does alcohol give such insane powers of preservation?


/godspeed to your friend who died

MadSkillz: I'm stuck in a shiat job right now that I can't just leave because I'm fat (working on that) and it's impacting my interviewing.

Unless you're a woman (which your profile implies you are not), or in one of a very few weight-concious industries (which your profile indicates you are not), statistics suggest that your weight is not a significant hindrance to employment or career advancement. I don't know your situation, so I won't call you a liar, but I'd suggest your concern over your weight is may be a bigger issue than your actual weight.

/ If you're asking potential employers to buy 2 plane seats for your interview you can disregard what I said
// I am also quite the fatty, and recently changed jobs, without any trouble about my weight

AverageAmericanGuy: It's sad this girl lost her life in an auto accident, but she wasn't wrong because her light was snuffed out so early.

Now she has no cares. She doesn't have to worry about making a good salary or wonder where to send her resume or how to climb the corporate ladder or wonder when she'll have time to climb Mt. Everest. She is dead and all those things are now meaningless to her. In Heaven with Jesus, she has all she ever could want.

R.I.P. Marina

zzrhardy: Ed Willy: older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_economic_crises

The point in any "generation" rant/whine at which the snowflake in question asserts that their "generation" is the "first" to go through something or other is usually the point where I stop reading.
It's really difficult to imagine that any literate person could be that stupid.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: Well, the good news is that now she can become a helicopter.

iseewhatyoudidthere.jpg

orbister: or simply a remarkable lack of self control

Exactly. Just like anyone without $100k in savings shows a remarkable lack of self control. Sure, it's a little easier for people who had rich parents, a sound financial education, and significant previous income, but it's certainly possible for any 27-year-old to have $100k in savings -- they could accomplish that simply by working for minimum wage since they were 15 and never spending a single dollar on anything like "food" or "sheller".

/ Or maybe your dismissal of fat people makes you a bad interviewer, and a detriment to your employer, just like any other non-work-related bias would

AverageAmericanGuy: In Heaven with Jesus, she has all she ever could want.

So in heaven, you are provided everything you could ever want, for free?

Sounds socialist.

profplump: orbister: or simply a remarkable lack of self control

Exactly. Just like anyone without $100k in savings shows a remarkable lack of self control. Sure, it's a little easier for people who had rich parents, a sound financial education, and significant previous income, but it's certainly possible for any 27-year-old to have $100k in savings -- they could accomplish that simply by working for minimum wage since they were 15 and never spending a single dollar on anything like "food" or "sheller".

/ Or maybe your dismissal of fat people makes you a bad interviewer, and a detriment to your employer, just like any other non-work-related bias would

You know, I hadn't heard that comparison before, but now that you've made it, I like it. I like it a lot. I'm going to steal it. Thank you, Professor Plump.

I have this irony taste in my mouth

/Oh, frkk it..
//bwahahahahahahaaaahaha

This really makes me cringe - we all know she probably said something like "Noooo!" or "Ow, my neck!", and yet we all pretend that her last words were some from some lame speech she gave.

Idiot boyfriend was too smart and special for speed limits?

/Darwin was watching, clever boy.

Because this is FARK, I can say what I'm thinking: if given a choice between being a progressive journalist living in New York and playwright, become the playwright; no one will notice that there's one less progressive journalist, and they aren't changing the world for the better, even less so when they seek out progressive enclaves in NYC, where they can hang out with other right-thinking people.

/seek out people with different points of view and try to understand them. Don't accept a philosophy that minimizes the importance of individual actions and beliefs.

MadSkillz: dopeydwarf: MadSkillz: Kinda sad. Stuff happens. That people stress at age 22 about being too old for anything surprises me.

I'm 34. I know there are limits for me. But at 22, there were none.

Dude, you're 34. Start worrying about limits when you're pushing 50.

I'm acutely aware that at this point, I need to be paying into a place to live so I build equity, that I need to be saving for retirement... however, I'm stuck in a shiat job right now that I can't just leave because I'm fat (working on that) and it's impacting my interviewing.

So go to the gym an half hour before work and lift weights twice a week. then on your off days go jogging

zzrhardy: The old saying is "beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes right to the bone".

True that. Whenever I meet a pretty woman and she starts prattling on about Jesus, it just kills it for me.

/Mass delusion: It's not just annoying, it's mental illness.

pedobearapproved: also does anyone else find this speech... in need of Prozac? What college senior has that notion (I know I didn't)? This is also for students at YALE. You know, the people that have the advantage over everyone else. Was she in therapy? was this notion from her group? And if 22 is too late to start, what was the consensus age to start if you want to do anything meaningful?

"I'm about to graduate, I don't think I'll get a job doing something I love, I know I haven't tried, but I'm so depressed!"

they talk in sarcasm all the time. they're just like the rest of the population. and acting serious is just part of the "gay" charade.

profplump: MadSkillz: I'm stuck in a shiat job right now that I can't just leave because I'm fat (working on that) and it's impacting my interviewing.

Unless you're a woman (which your profile implies you are not), or in one of a very few weight-concious industries (which your profile indicates you are not), statistics suggest that your weight is not a significant hindrance to employment or career advancement. I don't know your situation, so I won't call you a liar, but I'd suggest your concern over your weight is may be a bigger issue than your actual weight.

/ If you're asking potential employers to buy 2 plane seats for your interview you can disregard what I said
// I am also quite the fatty, and recently changed jobs, without any trouble about my weight

I agree. I think fat people worry about that too much. Hell, I'm a smoker (the root of all evil in modern America), and with the exception of it taking a few months to find my Boobies-college job -- labor market in 2007 had gone to shiat in Florida, but I got one in DC -- I've never had much issue getting a job.

If you can write well, use spreadsheets, make intelligent conversation (and have a good sense of humor), and be honest about what you're good at and not so good at (many fail on that last one and come off as either too scripted or just arrogant), you'll show enough potential that someone will hire you.

That's been my experience anyway.

profplump: it's certainly possible for any 27-year-old to have $100k in savings -- they could accomplish that simply by working for minimum wage since they were 15 and never spending a single dollar on anything like "food" or "sheller"

Working at a minimum wage job for 12 years, that's a talent. You'd think they might get promoted at some point. Or at least change to a career that allows for advancement.

My revision to her speech: Don't aim just to be the "Would you like fries with that?" guy, aim to be the head "would you like fries with that?" guy!"

Age 50 gets here one hell of a lot faster than any 22 year old imagines.

Message that it's never to late to 'do' something? I like it.
Message that you'll have so much time because someone is 'so' young? Not so much, no.

Animatronik: Because this is FARK, I can say what I'm thinking: if given a choice between being a progressive journalist living in New York and playwright, become the playwright; no one will notice that there's one less progressive journalist, and they aren't changing the world for the better, even less so when they seek out progressive enclaves in NYC, where they can hang out with other right-thinking people.

Actually, a lot of them are just there because media access is still chancey anywhere else. Especially for progressives.

/another large segment are there because they like the bagels.

Ed Willy: I am 26, in student loan debt and often feel like there is no hope. I took a cross country trek for new job opportunities and even with a hub of alumni I can't find regular work. I don't know, for a while I've really given up on the idea that there are regular jobs that pay money and somewhere along the line the older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

The problem with your alumni hub is that it's from the state up north. Srsly. That's likely also a contributor to your problems finding work. That state is a failure, economically.

Did you at least get a useful degree?

Lastly, you've got no understanding of financial crises and living with the blowback. All that comment showed was your complete lack of historical knowledge. That could also be an indicator as to why you're having problems finding gainful employment.

FTA: "I remember that same impulse when I graduated and moved to New York. Missing life in a dorm and conversations in dining halls, I recreated them by joining my block association and becoming a regular at neighborhood bars and cafes, and eventually creating a network of social gatherings that allowed liberals in every corner of the United States know they weren't alone. "

God forbid you might want to actually think for yourself. Get out of the dorm-mentality - explore the world for yourself!

I'm not sure this advice applies to 22 year olds who are not graduates of Ivy League universities.

Ages 18-26 is when most people make the contacts that are going to see them through the rest of their careers. Most of the successful people I know started with a college internship, were hired by the company where they interned, stayed there for 5-15 years, and that was the foundation of their career. Most of these people are still working with people they knew in college. The people who failed to follow this trajectory are struggling.

Sure, this is an extremely discouraging piece of news, completely at odds with what a lot of us have been told. But it is what I have observed.

AverageAmericanGuy: It's sad this girl lost her life in an auto accident, but she wasn't wrong because her light was snuffed out so early.

Now she has no cares. She doesn't have to worry about making a good salary or wonder where to send her resume or how to climb the corporate ladder or wonder when she'll have time to climb Mt. Everest. She is dead and all those things are now meaningless to her. In Heaven with Jesus, she has all she ever could want.

If death is so great, kill yourself.

What she had to say was right. She died young right after saying it. Ironic, yes. That doesn't invalidate the correctness of what she said.

Bad things happen to good people all the time.

superdude72: I'm not sure this advice applies to 22 year olds who are not graduates of Ivy League universities.

Ages 18-26 is when most people make the contacts that are going to see them through the rest of their careers. Most of the successful people I know started with a college internship, were hired by the company where they interned, stayed there for 5-15 years, and that was the foundation of their career. Most of these people are still working with people they knew in college. The people who failed to follow this trajectory are struggling.

Sure, this is an extremely discouraging piece of news, completely at odds with what a lot of us have been told. But it is what I have observed.

Networking certainly helps, but so does being prepared when opportunities come up. Be on the lookout for them, be prepared to take them. Get in to your job, work hard at it. At lower levels, you can switch around a bit more quickly - maybe yearly or so (if it's a large company, stay within that company if at all possible; if you're moving from companies stick around for a few years). That gives you good experience with a multitude of different situations and allows you to gauge your performance year over year against yourself. As you move up the ladder, you'll have to stay in positions longer and longer. There are a lower number of these positions and more is expected - plus, some of your initiatives will take more than a year to come to fruition.

Always try to see what your boss if focusing on - and what his/her boss is focusing on. Make sure that you can spend time focusing on that as well. As you get to the point where you're doing your job well, see if you can take some things off your boss' plate so they can do the same with their boss. That way when they move up, you're a natural to step into their position. But make damn well sure you're doing your own job well first.

Fett56: Hagenhatesyouall: 22 years old and dies in a farking auto accident.....

That blows.

After her probably douchey boyfriend wrecked the lexus his parents bought him.

/no has a sad

oh, that was tender

MadSkillz: dopeydwarf: MadSkillz: Kinda sad. Stuff happens. That people stress at age 22 about being too old for anything surprises me.

I'm 34. I know there are limits for me. But at 22, there were none.

Dude, you're 34. Start worrying about limits when you're pushing 50.

I'm acutely aware that at this point, I need to be paying into a place to live so I build equity, that I need to be saving for retirement... however, I'm stuck in a shiat job right now that I can't just leave because I'm fat (working on that) and it's impacting my interviewing.

You can do it. My brother has lost 150 pounds (no joke) with portion control and walking. No surgeries, no crazy Crossfit routines, etc. He looks like a completely different person, and is no longer almost having heart attacks with cripping angina before the age of 30.

Does anyone know when they changed the rules about elementary school cutoff dates? When I was a kid, just about everyone was 10 years old in 5th grade, and graduated when they were 17/18.

Nowadays it seems like everyone's been held back a year. I see this stuff about someone graduating college at age 22 and my first thought is "Are you slow or something?"

I love the insanity of this whole thread, and how it dissolves down into madness as soon as you really question this advice combined with your lives. You want a good piece of advice? Never stop learning. Keep making friends. Keep exploring. And whatever you do, never fail to do something simply because 'you're too old and it's too late.'

Oh, and here's another one: stop with the whole 'I'm supposed to be here by this age' bullshiat. Nothing is more destructive than playing with an idealized world that, by definition, can never exist.

Well to be honest there is a laundry list of things you are too old to do at 22. Be your high school teacher's underage love interest, for example, is right out!

superdude72: I'm not sure this advice applies to 22 year olds who are not graduates of Ivy League universities.

Ages 18-26 is when most people make the contacts that are going to see them through the rest of their careers. Most of the successful people I know started with a college internship, were hired by the company where they interned, stayed there for 5-15 years, and that was the foundation of their career. Most of these people are still working with people they knew in college. The people who failed to follow this trajectory are struggling.

Sure, this is an extremely discouraging piece of news, completely at odds with what a lot of us have been told. But it is what I have observed.

Foundation of their career? 5-15 years?? How is the weather in the 1960s?

Next thing you'll be talking about these things called 'pensions' and 'bootstraps.'

Let's face it she was a blow hard liberal arts major writing for a student newspaper. She was, excuse the expression, dead wrong. Nothing ever published in the New Yorker has ever benefited anyone but the advertisers. It would have been a tragedy if she were a biology major going on to cure cancer or a physicist with a life of pushing back the frontiers of science ahead of her or even a computer science major putting out the next Photoshop or even iPhone app that helps people. At best she could have had a career putting bon mots in the mail boxes of over bred trustifarians every week. At worst she could have had a future of putting out self indulgent drivel like Updike, Cheevers or Proulx. No doubt they'll have no problem finding someone else with left wing bona fides to make coffee at the New Yorker or more likely ordering fair trade, organic, low carbon foot print lattes from the local douchebag coffee shop. She will not be missed by anyone but her friends and family.

10 to 1 the boyfriend was high as hell or they both were and the cops didn't do a tox screen as a political favor to his family. And she probably toed the party line on weed being a victimless crime etc. I did a google search and this is what came up.


Their daughter cared about whales (and wrote about it), the legalization of same-sex marriage, the decriminalization of marijuana and helping college-bound undocumented immigrants realize their dreams, according to her parents.

I'd rather be her than her boyfriend. He has a tough time ahead.

Fear the Clam: Does anyone know when they changed the rules about elementary school cutoff dates? When I was a kid, just about everyone was 10 years old in 5th grade, and graduated when they were 17/18.

Nowadays it seems like everyone's been held back a year. I see this stuff about someone graduating college at age 22 and my first thought is "Are you slow or something?"

You're missing the part where a lot of people end up taking 5ish years to get their degree now.

Ed Willy: I am 26, in student loan debt and often feel like there is no hope. I took a cross country trek for new job opportunities and even with a hub of alumni I can't find regular work. I don't know, for a while I've really given up on the idea that there are regular jobs that pay money and somewhere along the line the older generations broke the system and we are the first generation dealing with the blowback of it.

I'm one of the generation you think screwed you up. Actually, it my was Grandfather's generation. They started Social Security. That led people to believe that if they turned over control of their life to the government, the government would take care of them. So in the 60s my Dad's generation started Medicare and the Great Society and the War on Poverty. Also thrown into the mix was the notion that if you worked for a company for a few years, that company should add to your Social Security with a pension. All of these programs promise you security in exchange for giving up a substantial part of your income for your entire working life. In other words, you get paid only a portion of what you earn with a promise that, should you actually live long enough, Nanny State will take care of you. Of course, if Nanny is footing the bills, Nanny will decide what it is you get.

We have now arrived at a decision point. Are we going to continue down the path of giving up a substantial portion of what we earn for our employers in exchange for the illusion of security or are we going to decide we would rather return to our roots, as a nation, and allow workers to keep more of what they earn and be responsible for themselves. Your generation is going to have to make that decision and then live with it.

Your student loan debt is a great illustration. The government has convinced you that you needed a college education and that you deserve one. So they loan you the money - because everybody knows that colleges NEED to charge the exorbitant tuition rates they charge. You will then spend the next 20 years of your working life paying that off. While you are putting 15% of your income into FICA. And you will pay property taxes, income taxes - more than likely federal, state, and local - sales taxes and a host of other fees and taxes all of which take away from your ability to build wealth for yourself. Wealth that you could pass on to your heirs, should you be fortunate to have any. Instead, the government is gambling on the fact that you will die young so that all the money you put into the system stays there. Were you an ideal citizen, you would die after you have paid off all your loans but before you draw Social Security, pension, or qualify for Medicare. That will become the new definition of Patriotism.

In the meantime, take any job you can find. Even if it's cleaning toilets. There is a friend of mine who took a job as a 2nd shift janitor for a cleaning service, after graduating with a liberal arts degree. He ended up assigned to clean a research lab. The director of the lab frequently worked late and would talk to this friend. Got him interested in medical research. Got him a position as a lab assistant. He went back to school part time, paid for by the research company. Fast forward several years and he has his Ph.D. and owns his own research company. Your results may vary. But the best way to find the job your looking for is to take the job you can get, no matter what it is.

But but but, the guidance counselor told me I could get a great paying job as long as I got a degree in what I love, and that's why I spent $147,000 getting my doctorate in Nigerian Womanyst studies.