Turning 18 and no job
This article is for parents of recent graduates of the 5300 High Schools in the USA and countless Home Schooled young adults suddenly taken from the nest and tasked with finding a job – any job. You as parents are painfully aware of the employment downturn as you read every day about more layoffs and see the empty storefronts in a once prosperous main street USA.
To put this into numbers there are 112,000,000 people out of work. The 8% and such political adjusted unemployment figures are admittedly just those people who are filing for unemployment insurance compensation they have paid into. The entire workforce of the USA is about: 147,000,000 eligible workers; the majority having given up hope, and no longer registered.
Truly this coming Presidential election rhetoric will be filled with endless confusion over what can be done to put the USA on its feet again.
When your child turns 18 and is faced with the responsibilities of being an adult and paying their own way they have little hope – but there are jobs out there. The Hispanic laborers have left behind labor-intensive work. If the newly entitled graduate, being indulged, gives way to hands and knees- start at the bottom and work up.
You the parent have a new responsibility to re-educate your young adult into a productive member of the family by sharing workloads, finances, and making a daily effort to locate some sort of job to make family ends meet. The young adult is no longer allowed to sleep in, sit around playing video games and carouse with their peer group. The teen years are gone.
You as the parent must assume responsibility to set adult rules for family membership which include (if still living at home and unemployed) preparing meals in advance, no matter how simple at first, for the wage earners returning home at night, keeping house with dusting and cleaning, washing and maintenance of family automobiles, social networking for employment, explaining how auto insurance, house insurance, taxes and liabilities are paramount.
Playing the “Blame Game” of who caused this mess is a waste of time and there is nothing you can do about it. Use that time and energy to focus your young adult into the real world of being responsible for their own actions for if you suddenly lose your ability to provide by death or downturns the young adult will not be just standing there whining about who is making supper and why are the lights out.
I believe in the concept of “Tough Love”. This especially applies to drug abuse. If the young adult, responsible for their behaviors to the common good of the family disregards that precept, then they are out. Drugs are another layer of the child-like cocoon of total irresponsible indulgence, which to further support this entitled thinking drags the entire family structure down with it.
A very good friend, a retired psychiatrist, confided in me that the patients who had the most miserable lives and disenchantment were: Single Mothers. You as a potential Single Mother are at the mercy of the whims of the “boyfriend” who trained to always be a child in a man’s body preys on the Single Mothers to be indulged and spoiled. Women’s inherent psychology makes them vulnerable to this lifestyle by “becoming lonely” as opposed to men who have male bonding. Single Mothers usually have an income from the State Welfare and/or father(s) and this is not enough income barely to live on, much less support a grown up (child).
Perhaps the biggest hook for the working parents, or the Grandparents, is the “Grandbaby”. Who can boot the young adults out in the street with their “Grandbaby”. The complexity of situational scenarios that arise wherein young adults wind up living with, and being supported by parents, and Grandparents usually terminate with bad feelings when their grown children are in their late twenties.
To avoid these situations it all starts at age 18, or earlier, if you are on the training program of training the teen to become a young adult. Age 18 is the last chance to tighten up and set policy for the family. For what you teach, the child will retain and imitate.
The fastest growing business in the USA today is a $1,000,000,000, 000, education scam. You and the young adult are caught in a matrix of keeping the young adult on focus through college and hope in the meantime the economy improves so that a job will be available.
Unfortunately if the expensive private University, or the lesser expensive State College competitive placement can not accept your young adult, then there is the option of Community College, private industrial trade schools, Secretarial/Business colleges, and of course my favorite: The Military.
Let us assume your Young Adult, to enroll in a University or College, must have a passing score to meet eligibility, or your Young Adult requires a General Equivalence Diploma, (GED), to be accepted. Community Colleges offer entrance needs at a cost, but it is a step to enter higher education. A two-year course of education will graduate the Yong Adult with an AA or an AAS degree – this entitles the young adult to have mastered the freshman first year of a normal college program.
The beginning two years of College are subsidized by Federal Grants of money, Scholarships abound and there are military programs that pay for most of the costs. However credit cards await 18 year olds, debt mounts and parents are required to be liable for endless lists of expenses. Consider the $1,000,000,000 (one trillion) dollar college debt in the USA. It is quite normal in today’s College scene to finish a degree program with $20,000.00 and up debt. A PhD program can set you back $250,000.00, and a MD program $400,000.00 and up.
A College education today is many and varied, and for the most part useless in finding a job excerpt in the advanced engineering community. The Nurse profession is rapidly filling up, and an elementary education degree is really useless. 47% of Young Adults are illiterate in the major cities and you do not want a job there anyway due to crime.
The trends in jobs appear to be in elder care, which is not skilled care and only offers low pay. Construction is down and will stay that way; we actually bring over skilled China workers for construction in Washington DC and elsewhere. Food service pay is low and there is no upwards mobility. Sales jobs, always offered leave little hope.
I am going to pitch for the US Military. If the young adult is in good health, reasonably bright and has a High School diploma or GED, he or she may be eligible. Not everyone in the military is in a battle situation. Combat forces are quite small when compared with the entire million-size force. The military offers physical conditioning, quality nutrition, total health care, education in trade skills, and off duty College preparatory to use the GI Bill after military service for more advanced degrees. Benefits, as discussed on the http://www.daveramsey.com/home/ show are extraordinary, and he marvels at this fact. Keep your young adults options open.
The biggest stumbling block in job search is the Ego. Employers do not give a hoot about you, don’t know you and could care less. They are forced into finding a reliable worker who will stay the course and not be one of the work today-gone tomorrow- people content with a day’s pay. You need a clean dress code, haircut, clean fingernails, shined shoes and an assertive manner –not aggressive- in meeting with a potential employer. The first question may be: “Why do you want to work here”. The answer is: “Because you are the best.” You can apply for a bottom feeder position and one in the employer’s world you can cross train and move up. Civil service works that way and they first hire from within and if there are no applicants they will interview outside. Take what you can, then move up. You best options are government service as they are vast, and they are always cross training with openings hither and yon.
Research into the community brings results. If there is a major construction job going on, as with state highways, and you want to be a heavy equipment operator (with no experience) you might consider a training school to meet a goal. Short term “colleges” of education include: gunsmiths, secretaries, and nurse practitioner, to name a few meet skill level applications. You can get schools and training in the military for your time and you are fed and paid too.
Every day is spent talking, researching with others about prospects and being persistent. Make them remember your face. Sitting home and sending out thousands of resumes is not getting off your butt and “doing it”.
Good Luck!
God Bless.
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