# Underemployed



## fluffyblackcat (Nov 25, 2019)

Is anyone else underemployed because of social anxiety?


My last job was exam marking for minimum wage. I've also done office work for minimum wage.


I have a bachelors in physics (first class - top 3 in my year) and a masters in nuclear engineering. Never been able to put them to use. Never even had a graduate level job because I get rejected due to a lack of confidence or experience.


Kind of given up. It feels like a trap that I can't wriggle out of.


Confidence at an all time low.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

Well you managed to get an education so that's a plus, it's easily carried, alot of people are underemployed because they couldn't even handle school, (like yours truly) so you're in a better position because of that, I wouldn't feel bad about having to work minimum wage jobs though, anything to help build your confidence is a positive step.


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

yeah I've been having minimum wage jobs most of my working life. the ones that paid better didnt last or were too stressful in the end, due to difficult people. I have a university degree and a few other qualifications. but people are too difficult, too exhausting. even when it's just a few co workers. bullied a few times, hardly ever given a chance. discriminated against. the world is dirty and unfair. this is just how it is. I wish I was stronger to get a better job. I just work part time now. my jobs are getting worse and worse it seems. it's such a big part of life... it makes me quite unhappy. if I had a better job I wouldnt have to live here with these dirty idiots. I wish I could afford to live alone. but theres no point in denying it, this is my place in life. at the ****ty end. first world ****ty anyway. it's not so bad, I can just go along through life and it's not that hard most of the time.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

andy1984 said:


> I wish I was stronger to get a better job.


Don't give up


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

Yep. I'm self-underemployed because I don't have the social confidence to market myself or the nerve to try a regular job.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

conantheworthless said:


> I never managed to get a job despite earning myself a bachelor so yes.


I don't even know what that is & I got a job.


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## Canadian Brotha (Jan 23, 2009)

I don’t have any post secondary education but most people that know me would say I should be doing more than working crumby minimum wage jobs. Climbing any employment ladder requires good social skills, & confidence in putting yourself forward, that’s tough to do with SA/depression and also tough when you have had experiences on multiple occasions where even if you get the job you can’t maintain it due to SA/depression, burnout out and either end up quitting or being dismissed at a certain you just start doing what you can manage


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

They say that your job ends up being whatever you're good at. In that case I feel like I should be a social worker since I've been babysitting addicts and dealing with the problems and insane behaviors/thought processes of all kinds of people for years now without proper compensation...


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## 30012020 (Jan 30, 2020)

The problem is there are no student loans for a second undergraduate degree, so I have to find the money myself.


The tuition fees total £36k and the student loans for living costs (I would have access to these) will only be about £4k at most per year in which to live on. In summary I would probably have to find £45,000. I do have a lot of savings, but not half of that amount.


At the moment I am thinking of not going to the interview as I just can't afford the course. I am also still waiting to hear if I have an interview for a graduate entry (funded) course but I suspect I will be rejected because I was rejected last year and the year before too.



In terms of the job itself, I think the course would be the most stressful part. I am very desensitized and can handle a lot. I'm good at putting people at ease too.


Yeah it's ****ed that it's so hard to get a job, even with a physics degree (1st class by the way). The MSc is in nuclear physics.


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## EndTimes (Aug 10, 2018)

30012020 said:


> The problem is there are no student loans for a second undergraduate degree, so I have to find the money myself.
> 
> The tuition fees total £36k and the student loans for living costs (I would have access to these) will only be about £4k at most per year in which to live on. In summary I would probably have to find £45,000. I do have a lot of savings, but not half of that amount.
> 
> ...


Seems strange. With a master degree you could probably even apply to become a teacher. My sister has a master degree in mathematics and even had people call her to propose a job. One of them was to give lessons to criminals in a prison (which of course, she refused). She worked one year in a high school and than probably quit because lately she has been every day at my mothers home. Probably not working at the moment


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Tbh I think the ultimate problem is this: if you make the types of honest choices that only a person trying to do good in the world makes...well, in my experience it gets you nowhere. To this day I still try to help people and am confronted with the reality that people are horrible to each other when it comes to making money. You see it in slow bureaucracies or even the FDA being corrupted by the stock market and cheap, toxic foods.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Also I guess you have to associate with 'winners'. Even if you have knowledge and ability, if nobody knows the high standards you set for yourself then you'll waste your life.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

asittingducky said:


> if you make the types of honest choices that only a person trying to do good in the world makes...well, in my experience it gets you nowhere


I've thought a lot about this over the years. It's been a constant dilemma for me. I'm not really interested in making money; I'm interested in helping people. And because I spend all my time trying to figure out better ways to help people, I don't have time to figure out ways to make money. As a result, I'll probably wind up homeless.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

blue2 said:


> I don't even know what that is & I got a job.


undergraduate degree, so basically the first time you go to uni. Often worthless.



sabbath9 said:


> Unregulated capitalism is like jungle law, might makes right. It is fascism to allow CEO's to become kings and dictators. We need worker owned businesses. In Germany, if a company has more than 1,000 workers than they MUST have a union and union reps MUST be on the board of directors. Plus they have apprenticeships.


It actually really isn't, because capitalism is a lot less egalitarian in many ways than hunter-gatherer societies. They're far from perfect but you can also kind of tell by comparing stories like the Abrahamic religions vs animism. As society got more unbalanced and complex, so did it's mythology so you move from animism to polytheism to monotheism. I don't really know what happens next but it's possible that it will just be Satanism (Transhumanism,) in the sense of people being their own God. Then what? Does the process reset like The Matrix?

The role capitalism played in fascism though is often underplayed for obvious reasons. I don't find it surprising that today's neo-crypto-fascists tend to make a case for national CEO's, countries being run like businesses etc. Cause to an extent the right dissolves into 'people can be owned.' So many of these people are further right than fascists (because fascism is a little more populist than absolutism. Prioritising the idea of a nation. This is also I believe why Evola criticised fascism as being matriarchal.) So it's the extreme direction, and they've just worked capitalism into that model so instead of an aristocracy based on 'x other thing,' many of them want a CEO now. It just kind of evolved with the time. (though in a way it didn't because what you have in the US and UK for example is nothing Plato didn't loosely predict/cover so whatever.)

Frankly I'm surprised that many of their thinkers model the left as being inherently Christian. Well they model them as theocratic and spiritual I think (the clergy/academia,) but they argue that the existence of God is necessary and cannot be compromised on because they have this idealised idea of what Western society needs to be/should be, but that just seems a projection of their desires. 'Their new God is progress' But it makes no sense for the left to not kill God, because that's what that psychology does inherently. If one side is absolutism the other must be the opposite. So it kills God when necessary. Whether God is literal or metaphorical. That's why the people who compare leftism to Satanism make more sense at least comparatively.

The strangest thing about men and women is they _want _ to be ruled. Albeit in different ways. That's a generalisation though. Lol having a Marvel Loki moment (honestly it's just what I think while reading Dark Enlightenment stuff. Major daddy issues.) But I think also a lot of people can be controlled by their desire to be king if they think there's a chance. It's like faith in God but the God is themself haha.

Anyway. Almost off topic.


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

I just have to remember this ****



> Success is as dangerous as failure.
> Hope is as hollow as fear.
> 
> What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
> ...


was looking forward to being forced to find a new job because hours were reduced but then I get told hours will go back up... so will be more of the same probably...


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

sabbath9 said:


> not sure what any of that means
> 
> I haven't found a decent job since 2012. I just returned from an interview and they asked "what have you been doing since 2017, how do you make a living?" I didn't really know what to say, maybe "looking for a job, being unemployed means not making a living moron".
> 
> I think I'll tell a little white lie and say "I have income producing property". But the truth is I don't.


That's fine, nobody understands any of my posts. I'm really just here to post random crap until I die because there's really no point to my continued existence and I don't enjoy it at all. So killing time or whatever.

I wish not understanding was enough to stop people sometimes though but you don't need to. Because everything is subconscious.


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## kesker (Mar 29, 2011)

sabbath9 said:


> Trickle-down, supply-side, Reaganomics, etc. whatever you call it, does not work. Waiting for billionaires to spend their hoarded wealth is illogical. Nearly the entire USA is unemployed, underemployed and / or underpaid.
> 
> There are college graduates flipping burgers or working retail. People have degrees and have never found a job for that / those degrees. And I'm talking about men and women with computer programming and network tech degrees.
> 
> ...


https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/5601...e-become-more-like-governments-than-companies


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

To be fair I have a fair grasp of maybe three quarters of what you say, but I still like reading it most of the time, cause you have an opinion on a broad range of subjects & and also pretty open minded & a contradiction sometimes which I find really interesting, it would be alot duller here without you.



Persephone The Dread said:


> I'm really just here to post random crap until I die because there's really no point to my continued existence and I don't enjoy it at all. So killing time or whatever.


Aren't we all, is there a point to anybodys existence ? That is the question, I think the ones that believe so are just better at looking busy & fooling themselves :lol


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

blue2 said:


> To be fair I have a fair grasp of maybe three quarters of what you say, but I still like reading it most of the time, cause you have an opinion on a broad range of subjects & and also pretty open minded & a contradiction sometimes which I find really interesting, it would be alot duller here without you.
> 
> Aren't we all, is there a point to anybodys existence ? That is the question, I think the ones that believe so are just better at looking busy & fooling themselves :lol


Technically no there's no point, unless you make one, but I guess that's not really what I was complaining about.

And thanks I guess my profile quote fits then lol.


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## Velorrei (Jan 30, 2011)

asittingducky said:


> Tbh I think the ultimate problem is this: if you make the types of honest choices that only a person trying to do good in the world makes...well, in my experience it gets you nowhere. To this day I still try to help people and am confronted with the reality that people are horrible to each other when it comes to making money. You see it in slow bureaucracies or even the FDA being corrupted by the stock market and cheap, toxic foods.


This. This is so true. Becoming successful and "going somewhere" require many long-term complex calculations related to the place's dynamics and then aspects of the actual job. Some of their horrible decisions had more pros than cons related to them. But when they decide to do something "good", sometimes it had nothing to do with morality and that the more valuable choice(s) just happen to be considered "good".

But yeah, truly doing good all the time might not help you personally advance.

There are so, so many things that result in underemployment. The economy and the job market are most commonly associated with it. But of course there are other variables.

The qualifications and standards are not always cleat. think there is some subjectivity. It seems like there are unspoken requirements for a lot of jobs as you go "up the ladder". Like mentioned above, confidence and varying levels/types of people skills. Another important trait is likability. More often than not, it comes down to, "I don't like that guy." or "There's something off about her."

Currently, I am underemployed. It is due to personal reasons, and social anxiety is one of them. However, I spent _years_ unemployed. I am grateful to be employed at all.


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## Kevin001 (Jan 2, 2015)

Yes lol. People thought I would be a scientist in school lol. People are shocked when they find out how poor I am after doing well in college. Its not what you know its who you know and networking.


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## irishkarl (Apr 20, 2020)

I havent worked since i was 20, im 43 now.....the last job i had was easy going, it was as a security guard.....i apreciated working on my own, nobody bothering me .....and i could earn decent money as a 60 hr week is easy as a security guard.....it might be an idea for some of you


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Velorrei said:


> This. This is so true. Becoming successful and "going somewhere" require many long-term complex calculations related to the place's dynamics and then aspects of the actual job. Some of their horrible decisions had more pros than cons related to them. But when they decide to do something "good", sometimes it had nothing to do with morality and that the more valuable choice(s) just happen to be considered "good".
> 
> But yeah, truly doing good all the time might not help you personally advance.
> 
> ...


I think it also has a lot to do with pre-existing systems and notions. Paradigm shifts like in the good 'ol days of Galileo don't happen anymore. If you want to cure a disease nowadays it doesn't matter that you want to do what works instead of following outdated policies and systems.


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## either/or (Apr 27, 2020)

I have a "good" job in that I make enough to live on, can put some in savings, have decent benefits, usually get a yearly bonus, get like 4 weeks of vacation every year. But I could be doing much better if I could just talk to people like a normal human person and also get a decent night's sleep once in a while. I'm a first-line manager for a large company but should be at least one or two levels higher than where I'm currently at. 

What I lack however is job security. I feel like it will be a miracle for me to keep my job over the long term. And once I do get the axe I don't know if I'll ever be able to find another job. I hate my job but am scared to death of losing it.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Honestly the ones I feel really bad for are the people who have to deal with the public or customer relations. I'm not trying to play the 'workers vs management' card, but I really do know what it's like to be blamed for everything that the people in charge are doing. Nobody seems to understand what it's like to just be trying to do your job and helping people understand what's best for them.


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## James10145 (Dec 20, 2019)

*.*

Giving up is like admitting defeat, once u give up giving up again becomes easier n easier

Keep trying dont let anxiety win


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## elenabey (Jun 25, 2020)

I try to avoid managerial posts due to high anxiety related to people management. TOO MUCH PEOPLING for an empath is not a good idea. There are no significant salary differences then it is acceptable to accept a job that is kind of lower than your caliber.


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## AffinityWing (Aug 11, 2013)

Jokes on them OP. In a few decades even those people's confidence and experience won't be enough, as almost every job get automated.


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## Shadow123 (Sep 13, 2019)

I worry about this alot. I currently finished first year engineering and it was hard(especially with SA).

SA will really impede me from doing good in interviews definatetly, so I am scared of getting an underemployed job.


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## abhinav21 (Jan 19, 2010)

I have worked for a few yrs but never managed to hold on to anything for long. Although I was good, I could never climb the ladder as I kept job hoppin, lacked people skills, etc. SAD has screwed my career and now am unemployed. Don't even have the motivation or drive to work again but still trying.


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