Graduating during the great recession was difficult. Especially when you’re told to go to college, get a job, and everything will be ok.
I was struggling to get interviews and a job after I graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I resorted to Craigslist to see if I could find anything to make a quick buck. It didn’t matter what because I had bills to pay and already felt defeated.
This email landed me my first post graduation job paying $20/hr cash to shake a sign on the sidewalk for a mattress liquidation company in Santa Maria, CA. They had two locations, one in Santa Maria and one in San Luis Obispo. If I remember correctly, the owners were Cal Poly graduates.
I did this for a couple of months and don’t think my efforts drove any foot traffic into the shop.
On a hot sunny day, as I was shaking the sign on the sidewalk, one of my professors (Norm Borin) was cycling past me. This was the first week I got to work in San Luis Obispo and didn’t have to commute to Santa Maria.
I had this professor for many of the upper division courses I needed to graduate including when I joined SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) for my Senior Project.
He took an abrupt stop and was confused. He asked me why I was out there shaking the sign. I told him I couldn’t find a job. He was shocked, because according to him I was one of his favorite (and best) students.
I graduated in the Winter of 2009 and this was a stark reminder of the job landscape and environment we walked into.
I was humbled and so was my ex-professor. I’ll never forget the days I was on the glaring sidewalk in 100+ degree weather for 8 hours a day. My hands would blister from holding and shaking the sign.
Shortly after this period of my life, my brother and I decided to move to Huntington Beach, CA in hopes of better opportunities. Little did we know this would lead to some of the most depressing years of our lives.
We still struggled. Even though we were meeting new people, making new friends and going out I remember we would count how much money we had (literally less than $20) and tell ourselves we could buy 1 beer in the night we decided to go out.
Thanks to Glenn (my twin brother) having a credit card we would sometimes cash advance money to his bank to be able to afford rent.
I also started a door to door sales job that was commission only. I’ll get into this into more detail in another post, but cold calling businesses (walking into their establishments) and walking door to door in residential neighborhoods trying to sell people is quite a humbling experience. Especially if you’ve walked your territory for 10+ hours in the scorching heat and made $0 for the day.
I would sometimes treat myself to Flame Broiler. A teriyaki chicken bowel with steamed veggies and brown rice. I thought I was eating gourmet food since it would be a change from the scrambled eggs in the morning, peanut butter sandwich and nature valley crunchy granola bars for lunch, and bulk spaghetti for dinner in the evening.
Photo Credit: Max, ex-roommate and friend, who worked in Santa Maria after graduating from UCSB and lived with my brother and I in San Luis Obispo that year. When he got off work one day, he drove past me in Santa Maria, making fun of me and took these two photos. Thanks for capturing this memory, bruh.