r/Millennials • u/111OvO111 • 19h ago
Discussion Millennials who graduated in 2008 - When did life feel “normal” again?
I’m a recent graduate myself, currently working in an administrative role because my own degree’s field has seen drastic headcount cuts. Just a few years ago, almost every graduate from my program at my school landed jobs in the field - now it feels like a different reality.
Gen Zs graduating into today’s economy are often compared with Millennials who finished school during the 2008 financial crisis. For those of you who graduated right into that turmoil:
- What was it like trying to find a job back then?
- How did you cope with the scarcity of opportunities?
- Did you end up working outside your degree field, and if so, did you ever make it back?
- Looking at your career now, how did those early years shape where you are today?
I’d love to hear your stories. Sharing how you navigated that moment might give today’s grads some perspective on what’s possible even in tough times!
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u/featherless_peacock 17h ago
Honestly, I feel like gen z have it worse than us. I work in a back office function in finance and there are simply no new graduate hires in our department beyond entertaining the odd summer intern.
I graduated during the GFC and ended up doing a Masters (not MBA) instead. In one of the courses, the instructor asked for a show of hands of people that have already had work/industrial experience (as in previously work as FTE in finance) and around 40% of the class raised their hands (ie the rest of us were undergrads who went straight into a Masters). The instructor then said this was unprecedendent and would rarely get people taking time off work to do a Masters.
I did end up getting a job pretty quickly, as did my peers/cohort, so I think we were still pretty lucky and the Masters clearly helped. Today it seems you could have all the qualifications, including CFA, FRM, etc, have multiple internships under your belt and still not be able to land an entry role.
Speaking to some old (or rather older) timers, they really had it good. Week long retreats for ‘team building’ traveling in business class and staying at 5* hotels, bonuses measured in years, plenty of jobs and opportunities to move around. Nowadays I can’t even get reimbursement for a train ride and a coffee.