You want to go to grad school to do what?? Just go sweep up around the office someone will give you some work to do.
And it literally worked that way for them. It was codified as apprenticeships or interns or pages or copy boys...
I know one person who made the transition from sweeping up to six figure career. He's a great guy and totally deserving, everybody loved him and he's smart and hard working, but I'm also 100% sure the people who gave him the shot felt great about themselves for doing it - and they should! But times have changed and people are looking for diamonds in the rough, or if they are the "rough" is the ivy league.
As late as the 90s, movies still had scenes of the "mailroom" where aspiring white men worked hard to try to climb out of the basement and get higher on the corporate ladder. I'm sure some mailrooms still exist, but that "career path" does not. Nobody is exhibiting company loyalty like that anymore and no company is loyal enough to its employees to give them a second glance. Truly an unrecognizable world compared to where we live. Remember movies with company picnics? Christmas parties? Christmas bonuses? They are still in movies but don't really exist anymore either.
If you read the comment I responded to, youll see that I am directly responding to assertions in the last few sentences (that these things exist in old movies but not in real life anymore).
because i didnt go back and read and was quoting from memory, i accidentally omitted the word "some," which doesn't change the overall meaning of the phrase in the slightest. they are still admitting that mailrooms exist. Yo u take the L and move on.
boomers got where they are due to the generosity and kindness of the generation above them. the reason people have problems today is that boomers are now "the generation above" and they are endlessly greedy and cruel. a boomer would never give a sweeper a job, they'd call the police on the sweeper and lie about them having a gun to 911
Talking to someone in a C level position recently who worked their way up from ~1989 from an entry level. The org happens to be hiring a equal level job. Said VP level literally does not qualify for his job. He has a BS, now requires MBA and years of experience leading similar sized teams in a similar sized org, growing in size over time to match your title, etc. These people do not seem to grasp that they would no longer be hired for the job they walked in off the street and filled out a paper application for.
Agreed. It’s even stranger when I talk to my father. He recognizes that people would never be hired with the same qualifications he had because he lead the teams that negotiated with the unions for their contracts. So he knows exactly what it takes to get hired and what it takes to switch jobs.
At the same time he doesn’t believe that young people have it harder because for a brief moment in the early 1980s the interest rate to buy a home was sky high. And the city (or county?) set up a program to ensure people like him and my mom could borrow money to afford a home. And other stuff like that. And no facts I show him can change his mind.
The fact I reached making 100k was huge to him, never mind the fact it was far less money than he’s was making buying power wise in the 90s.
Someone should make a civ video-game where you can try to make it in different eras with the same character. The 50's would be easier in many ways but probably harder in others. Would be interesting to explore.
One thing to keep in mind- when people talk about how easy things were for the boomers they are talking specifically about white people. I guarantee you no black person would trade places with their grandparents.
Yeah, society's memories are clouded with survivorship bias. Sure, all the straight white men could walk in an get a job with a handshake. Because they weren't competing in the market with: blacks, gays, women, foreigners, Jews, Catholics, etc etc etc. And now today we see all the healthy successful boomers still kickin around. Where are all the poor ones? They died in Vietnam. Or they came home from Vietnam with PTSD and no support and became homeless and died in the streets. Or they died in the AIDS epidemic. Or they drove through the wrong sundown town in the south and got lynched. Or said the wrong words during a traffic stop. So many of the fringe populations experienced incredible turmoil and hardships.
Sure, all the straight white men could walk in an get a job with a handshake.
It was incredibly easy for white women, modern ones just try to claim a victimhood that didn't really exist
One of my neighbors growing up was a boomer elementary school teacher, her pension was a more a year than I make in a decade. She tried getting me to become a teacher because of the salary and benefits she still thought existed in the 2010's.
Yeah, her and her husband were a 2 income Boomer household and could afford a 3 story mansion on a commissioned officer and teacher's salary.
It really was like this. One of my neighbors growing up, this is the 1980s, had started off making french fries in the late 60s at a major fast food chain and became some sort of corporate big wig within like a decade because he was a "good communicator" and ended up retiring at like 55 and filthy rich. Just a very different game.
Man, my old boss was like that. He started as the delivery driver! He literally just worked his way up into ownership and retired at 70 something making a cool $20 million selling his company. Good for him, and yet the delivery drivers he hired were making about $25/hour and he certainly wasn't looking to promote them to managers or directors.
Obviously there's more to the story than that, but within two generations the dream of starting at the bottom and ending up at the top simply does not happen anymore.
A former CEO of Verizon used to work as a linesman climbing telephone polls. And it's not like it can't happen, it's just that it used to be quite common, that was how you climbed the ladder and proved yourself. Not so much anymore.
College, Army, and starting a career with actual experience still required Affirmative Action to get a whiff at the bottom rung of the corporate ladder for some of us. Thankfully, there were a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, my kids have it far worse, even with better education. It basically sucks for everyone now.
If you think those are the causes I have a bridge to sell you.
Boomers had unrivaled social mobility and squandered it for the following generations out of greed. NAFTA and immigration aren’t the reason you can’t afford to live from a decent job you work your way up in… greed is.
I actually did that. 10 years ago and it a smaller company. I saw on the website that they needed web developers. I put on a nice shirt, went to their shop, was lucky that the owner was there and convinced him to give me a chance. It was a $10/h job in the beginning, but eventually I earned much more and used the experience to get a much better paid job at a different company. I am still in contact with the old owner and help out pro bono on smaller fixes.
I am now earning a good six figure salary, which is insane when 10 years ago I was living from $300/ month at my moms place.
My father used to tell me this unironically. At least he helped me realize that I would have achieved only anguish and poverty by following his advice and that I should use my own head.
Nah totally disagree with this bullshit. My parents are boomers and they worked hard and had discipline. We probably ate out twice a year and holidayed in the same place every year, which we only started doing when I was like 10. They worked in their own business outside my dad’s 9-5 job to save money to put 3 kids through private school. They lived within their means and still live frugally, although now they’re retired they are travelling a lot because they never did that in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. Yes shit is expensive now but people also spend money to pay someone to deliver their lunch to their home rather than making a sandwich or buy out lunch daily. I still remember my dad making sandwiches and freezing them in bulk to take to work. When he started buying lunch at like 50 years old we all thought he was being a bit fancy.
I mean, this is actually pretty good advice if you don't hyperbolize it. Change "walk into a skyscraper" into, network in a big city. Change "hand your resume in person" into give your resume to people you know. Change "become a CEO in two weeks" into i have a great idea for a business. Change "you're all just lazy" to... nothing. The people who whine about not being able to get ahead are lazy. That's why they don't get ahead while hard working, ambitious people continue to get ahead.
To me it was like the absurd confidence but total separation of reality of even applying to jobs at a certain point. Like qualified people that probably couldn't even type their own resume.
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u/Adorable_Echo_4317 19h ago
Just walk into a skyscraper, hand out your resume in person and become CEO in 2 weeks.. what's so hard to understand? You're all just lazy.