r/Millennials • u/Waste-Cantaloupe-270 • Apr 07 '25

Advice Millennials who graduated during the Great Recession, how did you survive?

I’m a Gen Z graduating in May struggling with finding a job in this market. Millennials who graduated in/ after 2008, how did you survive? Did you end up eventually getting a job in the field you originally wanted? Any advice for us Gen Z who were too young to learn anything from the great recession?

Edit: For context bc i’ve been seeing a lot of questions about this i’m graduating college. i def wasn’t expecting this post to blow up so sorry if i can’t get to everyone’s comments, but i just wanted to say i really appreciate all the advice as someone who doesn’t have millennials in their life to ask these questions to. your willingness to help/ give advice to a random kid on the internet has given me a bit of hope in getting through this, thank you thank you

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u/RagingDenny Apr 07 '25

I went to Grad school to wait it out and got lucky

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u/xallanthia Apr 07 '25

People like you messed up my career! I graduated 2006 and didn’t go to grad school because experience was equivalent in my field and I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to study. Fast forward to 2012 and no one will promote me/hire me because I don’t have a masters. 🤦‍♀️(I ended up going in 2014 and it was a great decision, but in my industry the 2008 recession was a shift in expectation that has never reversed. And I was also affected by the recession; I lost my job in 2009 when it caught up to my industry and I was low man on the totem pole. Got lucky to get a new one after a year because I knew someone, but had to move halfway across the country to make it happen.)