Yes, remember “Joe the Plumber”? It turns out he wasn’t an official plumber yet and lost all sorts of credibility.
@lookingforward 5-7 years of that 8-10 is also working experience with a salary. There are different levels of plumber’s but it comes with experience, not any large amount of added study.
Plumbers have to work their way up the plumbing ladder, but when they move to a different state, they have to “take a plumbers’ bar exam”, per my friend’s words, aka get licensed. Sometimes, it means mandatory apprenticeship. I know at least one highly skilled plumber who had to start at the bottom of the food chain when he moved here. The spouse, a PhD researcher, had no such issues. Jobs for PhD scientists may be scarce, but a science degree is highly portable, even internationally. Your publication and patent record is a universal track record of accomplishments and follows you everywhere, no licensing needed.
Going back to the kid… The thread moved quickly while I was not looking. The Instagram compilation, which I assume details her post-firing living, is quite a narcissistic parade as presented (even if taken out of context, the photos were not the expression of gratitude the supporters could have expected). Reminds me of the photo of the WTO protester who was smashing the sign on the top of our downtown Niketown with a sneaker bearing the trademark swoosh sign… 
This young lady made a bunch of very good points and drew attention to the issues many youngsters face, but then just like the abovementioned protester, she erased it all. The issues are, of course, still worth discussing.
This sums it up for me…29-year-old millennial rips 25-year-old Yelp employee
http://www.businessinsider.com/stefanie-williams-response-to-yelp-employee-talia-jane-2016-2
^^ Stefanie Williams-- you go, girl!
partyof5–amen
It’s a distraction from the real problem of economic inequality. We concentrate on a thumbnail rather than the IMAX 3D movie…
How much did Yelp pay Stephanie Williams (note - she is a freelance writer) for her damage control letter? 
‘It’s a distraction from the real problem of economic inequality’ that is incorrect. if you said most people in the valley at the top of the food chain are pompous self absorbed jerks…I would not doubt it. that is who is drawn to founding and growing these type of companies.that said they are not social engineers and as long as people(employees and future employees) of their own choice go to work for them, they have made a personal choice on accepting the terms of employment as well as salary and benefits. and if you ever ran a business or did business accounting most companies do not have treasure chests full of gold and diamonds…while many maybe profitable they still struggle sometimes to stay in the black. and paying employees a couple more dollars and hour, buying new equipment or adding employees can sink a company. in my job I have come to understand it is OPM ( other peoples money) and when they show me all costs I understand why they deny me another hire or giving a large raise to some awesome employee. by the way everyone is always free start a company and run it anyway they choose.
I just don’t understand why she is making such a fuss about it. At that wage she should not even be living in an apartment on her own. It would be much easier to share an apartment and bring your cost down.
I make more money than her working as a server in a simple restaurant. She could easily go out and do the same while trying to land a job with her degree. I am sure that San Fransisco has a lot of night life spots where she could easily take home 400$ or so a night during the weekends.
If she works a double and makes 14$ an hour then she would make 200$ in a day. Of course we know she could probably make more than that depending on the restaurant.
I have no sympathy for people who whine about their choices, no one makes her live there and work there.
Baby boomers trashed the planet and destroyed the economy. Now we whine about all the entitled millennials and blame them for the circumstances in which they find themselves.
San Francisco seems to be an epic fail in city planning/gentrification. Maybe it was unavoidable, given all the circumstances. That’s an interesting conversation imho.
First, many tech employers have company-wide policies expressly prohibiting their full-time employees from taking another job. Second, many tech employers expect their employees to work way beyond the normal hours - without compensation (raises a few issues when an hourly employee is asked by managers not to enter extra hours into the timesheet).
@BunsenBurner It sounded like she was just a customer service rep. I can see why a tech job can be tough, but same goes for wallstreet interns. If you are going into the business you have to pay your dues.
Wallstreet interns work long days for little pay so that they can one day make the big bucks.
Doctors go through residency and basically study non stop with little compensation for the amount of stress.
Like you said now, tech jobs take a lot of hardwork and are a pain.
It did not sound to me like she had a real tech job though.
SeniorStruggling, how much do you know about tech co’s? Company policies apply to everyone - whether the person is manning the front desk or running the company. Check your employment agreement (if you are working a regular day job) and see what it says about other jobs.
What is a “real tech job”? A full time job in a tech company, where the company culture applies to all - from the receptionist to the CEO.
BB: I had no idea. So basically, a new college graduate taking an hourly job at one of the tech companies, as a hopeful foot-in-the-door first job, is prohibited from working nights/weekends bartending somewheres to make ends meet? Wow
adding: let me guess- the hourly workers don’t get those lovely severance pay packages when they are let go, the kind of packages the salaried workers take and maybe travel the world for a year before job hunting again. 
I would love to be wrong about that.
For sake of ending the back and forth about company policy, why don’t we just accept that she could have taken a side job, simply because she made reference to coworkers doing the same?
@BunsenBurner I’m going off by what you say. I am also not able to work other jobs because I don’t have time for it. My company doesn’t restrict me from working elsewhere though as many people are servers as second jobs.
Being a receptionist is also not something that will really have a significant increase in pay, notice how her wage is $8.10 after taxes. That is a very good wage for a minimal job. She did not look into getting another job though.
15.5k a year, take out 12k for apartment, which really should be split with someone. The money that is left over is 68$ a week for gas, food and other things.
People can survive on that, sure it’s not a lot. It probably is tough, but for one person to eat healthy at home one meal a day costs no more than 25$ for the week. Since we know she already eats majority at work.
Dry beans cost very little, chicken, some veggies, and pasta. She can have healthy meals for very little, if she really tried to eat.
On top of that she has enough money for gas a day and travel expenses.
It’s a tough life, but being a receptionist was never really meant to pay the bills and support a whole lifestyle. To choose to do so in one of the most expensive states in one of the most expensive cities is just silly.
Full-time jobs exist that we accept aren’t meant to support the person doing the work?
Are we at a point, parents probably have to subvent graduates taking entry level jobs?
I think we are back to our “Paying for the Party” book thread.
“Full-time jobs exist that we accept aren’t meant to support the person doing the work?”
alh, the key word is accept.
perhaps, if you do not already own a company , you should start one and run it in the manner you see as “equitable”( I support companies that can do that) what I have learned as I have entered the real world from the sheltered college classroom is that things , not just companies…the entire world do not function like my professors who have probably not left the college campus since 1969 think it could or should.