Are young people a lost generation?

[eriseis]

Yeah... It's difficult, but not impossible.

Then during uni, I did some unpaid work in a professional environment, who brought me in after I graduated, and I've worked up from there.
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This. I went to a large school and within its colleges the requirements were really different. For one college, you had to have an internship as a graduation requirement, for another college you didn't. Doing relevant work in any field during university, even if unpaid, definitely pays off.

And it doesn't even have to be in a technical field. With social media, community management and other career paths with heavy writing are becoming more and more important.

[muffinss]

took me 6 months to find a minimum wage job that would hire someone with 0 work experience... and i got that because my mom happpened to be a friend of a friend of the manager.

yeah, id say we have it tougher. my parents told me surely the area was teeming with "opportunities".. why any pimple faced kid could get a job by showing up to the interview. thats not true any longer.

I do agree. Six years ago it was so much easier to find a job. When I was in high school back in 2005 I applied to work at my local grocery store and two days later, I got called in for an interview and got the job that same day. Started to work a week later. I ended up leaving because I couldn't balance school and work since they had me working an hour after I got off of school till midnight. Then after I graduated high school in 2007 I applied for best buy and the same week got called for an interview. I didn't stay very long because shortly after I applied for my states university and I didn't want to balance both work and school. I regret doing that.

Since 2008 till late 2011, I've been pretty much unemployed. I've applied so many times to so many local businesses around here I lost count. I called them, talked to them in person, nothing. Back in November of 2011, the first time since 2007, I actually did get a call for an interview with one of my local retail stores to be a temporary stocker for the holiday season. Now, I'm unemployed again.

It is very hard to find work. I'm 23, full of school experience, hardly any work experience. Can't get experience without getting a job, can't get a job without experience. Awesome loop to be in.