Desperate career advice

This is some hard advice that you might not hear a lot.

With the current economy, youth see high levels of unemployment.

The last time I was unemployed, I was out of work for about 7 months. During that time, I went to about 15 different job interviews.

After several rejections, I was getting very discouraged. After 5 or 6 months, I was about ready to start working for minimum wage.

During one job interview, the interviewer asked me what I expected for a salary. I first said the market rate for the position but then I said I would be willing to work for the salary I had with my previous job which was 20% less than the market rate.

Two months later, I found I was awarded the position with my discounted salary.

I came to the realization that with the job market the way it is, it might be necessary for potential employees to accept lower wages/salary just to have a better chance at getting the job.

This makes sense regarding economics. There is a market for your time/labor. If your services are not desired at a certain price (salary), you can make yourself look more valuable by lowering the cost of your time/labor.

I know this is very discouraging advice but this is the economic reality that we face.

Back in college, they really emphasized networking to find jobs. I didn't realize how important this was until actually searching for the position I wanted on various databases.

Back in 2010, there were only 5 positions open that I wanted.
I had to apply to all sorts of stuff I didn't want just so I could have a chance to make some money and create a future for myself.

Traditional advice will encourage you to negotiate your salary up but realize that if you want to negotiate, you have to be in the position to negotiate.


Fresh out of college, you are in a terrible position especially if you have lots of student debt and are desperate to start working.

To have any position to negotiate, you have to be in a position where you don't need the job they offer. The conundrum is that you are only in that position if you already have a job.

So, when you need the cash, you should just find any job to take care of yourself. Once you have that, you have the chance to keep going with the job search and upgrade with the opportunity comes.