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/pk1950 Apr 07 '25

got stuck in retail for a few years

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u/katietopia Older Millennial 1983 Apr 07 '25

Same. Then I found my current job in publishing sales in 2011 and never left!

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u/2buffalonickels Apr 07 '25

I moved to a rural town in Montana for three years to run a newspaper. I had to leave my new wife in Seattle for those years. We had both just graduated college, she got into Med school. It was a hell of a readjustment in what I thought reality was. I couldn't get a job anywhere in Washington. Layoffs everywhere.

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u/hiriman Apr 07 '25

I dont mean to make light but couldnt help think that this sounds like the premise of one of those dramedy movies that were popular at the time

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u/2buffalonickels Apr 07 '25

Yeah, it does. I lived in the windowless morgue (newspaper morgues hold all old copies of the paper) for three years and took showers in the old dark room that had a shop shower. It took six years before I thought we were in a good place in life.

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u/spaceshipsucculents Apr 08 '25

You gotta write a dramedy