The American job market of 2022 is a pyramid scheme. You get a job and then you’re expected to work your way up if you want to have financial prosperity. But in any organization there are more workers than there are supervisors or managers. The job market is designed to uplift some and disenfranchise others.

A lot of jobs don’t offer any real type of career advancement. That’s particularly true for African Americans and women. Despite anti discrimination laws many American organizations only see Black people as workers and White people as leaders and they have a hard time deviating from that. Don’t believe that loyalty, hard work and professionalism will get you anywhere in an organization with racial and gender bias.

Jobs don’t really give raises. The pay increases given each year are between 2-5% which is barely a cost of living increase. It’s not a raise. In order to make more money you need to pivot and find an entirely new career path that can pay off. Be cognizant of career ceilings. Some careers plateau very quickly.

People go to college with hopes and dreams of a glamorous career but there aren’t that many glamorous high paying careers. Take some time and look at career websites. In my area they are mostly looking for office workers that don’t pay more than $45K per year, customer service jobs and warehouse work. At least that’s what I see.

In today’s job market I would recommend going to community college and getting an associates degree unless you have a very specific career path. I’m not sure that the current job market is worth getting a four year degree. Most employers are not worth it. If you pursue a higher education do it for you. I wholeheartedly support scholarship for the sake of learning.

Anyway, we have all been lied to. There are very few glamorous, high paying careers. It’s mostly grunt work. Take it for what it is. At least it’s an opportunity to earn a living. Focus on making money and pursue your interests and passions in your free time.