I used to be an independent consultant, and my partner worked in the upper corporate world. My work dried up after T took office since I did government-parallel work. Hard to complain, because it was unethical and I didn’t like earning income via gov. contractors anyway, but it was what I stumbled into years earlier. My partner is a POC and hit the glass ceiling, and then became promptly burnt out and had to quit for mental health reasons.
We lost our house a year later, had to sell everything, and suffice it to say we ended up in Latam, where we are now. But we’ve been looking for work for going on almost two years now, and I can’t find shit. I’m in my late 30s and I have no clue what to do. Savings won’t last forever.
So anyway, what do all of you do? Who in gods name is making livable income these days? I haven’t had a single phone interview in who knows how long. I have 3-4 friends back home who’re also out of work, and are doing basically what I am: winging it until their savings dries up. The only thing I have on track is that I re-enrolled in school, and around next summer when I graduate will shoot for an English teaching position in China. If I can survive that long anyway.
It’s luck mixed with performance. I work a white collar job with a BS in engineering in an industry so niche it would dox me to say it. It’s not defense either lol.
I’m about in the 75th percentile of individual income for my state but it took 6 months of full time job seeking to find it. The position started kind of mediocre but within a year I got 2 vertical promotions due to performance.
Oh and it’s a soul sucking industry with shitty toxic corporate culture in a role where everyone you talk to hates you and I work 13 hours a day and can never ever let the chill and friendly model worker facade fall off and I’m probably getting laid off in 3 years
But otherwise I guess it’s marginally better than unemployment, looks good on the resume, and is great STAR interview material for my inevitable next company
This is not a humblebrag. I hate my life and the money doesn’t even help because unironically 75% of my paycheck goes to my student loans. I don’t even live alone and it’s not with an SO either
Sounds about right for most niche white collar nightmares anymore. I wouldn’t ever want to be in those roles again; I’ve just been looking for roles about 5-6 positions below those types. One above or below the executive assistants. I’ll leave the salary and live frugally if I can just be remote and not want to commit suicide every morning. I’ll take an hourly rate over that. Plus like you said most of this type of BS isn’t going to last anyway, not with AI developments.