Hi all! PSU was a great school and it really pushed me, but I'm struggling with employment even more than before I started my CS journey. I have a medical condition that makes me somewhat disabled (ankylosing spondylitis), so that's part of the reason I got so burnt out.
I was only able to get a contract dev job for a few months and it was a crazy position, especially since my health was worse at the time but it was also just impossible for me to do everything they wanted. The subject matter was rough too, it was about foster kids and involved child abuse and some of the worst stuff you can imagine.
After that I was extremely burnt out and suffering health wise, so I took a break and tried to be a stock and futures trader. Surprise surprise it didn't work out well and now I've been forced to take any job I can get, which right now is a call center that does political data collection. So far it is very hard and doesn't match my personality, I'm an easy going guy who likes to keep to myself mostly.
I just made an appointment with alumni services, but I saw another CS grad posted here about this a couple of years ago, and it made me think that someone here might have an idea that can help?
Another thing is, I'm not a very competitive person these days and would be fine with a boring office job, but it seems impossible to find something like that these days where I live. Eugene is my hometown and I've basically been priced out of it by people moving here, so I live with my parents again which is distressing for me. I was previously living with my girlfriend and thought things would finally start to work out. I'm 32 years old.