It never hurts to be prepared (starting with a budget). Even though I thought I had a fool proof plan, moving to California taught me that there is no such thing as too much preparation.
After the initial “wow” moment of moving in, the excitement really died down and the stress came pouring in pretty quickly and relentlessly. After my dog had been attacked in our new apartment building, it was just one thing after another.
Finding a job was absolutely impossible. I am a college graduate and couldn’t find anything in the city. I mean ANYTHING. I applied to retail jobs, to unpaid internships, to assistant jobs, receptionist jobs, and secretary jobs. I even considered taking a shot at trying to become a YouTube sensation (when in L.A. right?) because I was receiving no callbacks.
The world of education really made it seem as though my degree was like some magical key to finding a job after college, at least to me. It was always graduate high school, graduate college, get a job, the end. No one ever mentioned the struggle to me. Of course they probably didn’t plan an entire move to an area that was basically a dead end, but I digress.
Another thing: having a degree isn’t really much of an accomplishment anymore. I’m not down talking it; it is an achievement, but all jobs want experience now. At least in California that was entirely the case and the reason I think I was having such a hard time. No retail experience? Not interested. Never been a receptionist? Not a chance.
One thing that my boyfriend and I noticed was the age of the minimum wage workers. The waiters, the grocery store cashiers, the retail employees all were on the older side. There were no young kids working anywhere. Which if anything just shows the scarcity of jobs available in L.A.