r/OlderGenZ

Hey guys,

I’m currently outside my home country and I’ve been unemployed for the past 6 months. I completed my bachelor’s degree between 2019–2022, and honestly, sometimes it feels like COVID made our entire degree experience incomplete.

I resigned from my previous job around the end of November because I thought moving abroad would open better opportunities for me, but the market has been really rough. Lately I’ve been overthinking a lot about people from the COVID batches and whether we actually missed out on important exposure during university.

Back then, I was working in another city far away from home for a lower salary, but mentally I never felt this drained. Most of my friends ended up pursuing master’s degrees because they couldn’t find jobs for almost a year after graduating. I chose work experience instead, but now I honestly don’t know if that was the right decision.

In interviews, I usually clear the communication/speaking rounds, but I struggle during the task or practical performance rounds. That’s what’s affecting my confidence the most.

What makes me overthink even more is seeing my younger cousin brother. He passed 12th during COVID without even having physical board exams, then pursued BTech normally once colleges reopened and pandemic ended. He started working last October and is already earning more than me because he at least got proper physical college exposure, campus interaction, and practical learning opportunities that many of us never properly had. He was same as me academic wise but he got his luck I feel.

Sometimes it genuinely feels like the 2019–2022 batch got stuck in the worst possible timing. Limited college exposure, online classes, weak networking, fewer internships, and then entering a terrible job market afterward.

Do other people from the same graduation years feel the same way, or am I just overthinking this too much?

Especially those born around 2002, we are turning if not already 24. Like you are grown grown now. You don’t look and aren’t 18-20 anymore. We already graduated high school, most passed the college stage,(18-21), already hit the 16, 18, 21 milestones and now we’re no different than someone who is in their 30s. The next years in your life are 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and that’s not youth. I’m honestly excited to be in my 30s in just 6 years but it’s annoying when I see those my age still claiming “young” or in their“youth” like grow up lmao. People will say “who is settling down at 24?”, like um many. I know many from college and hs (mind you from a lower income community) who are already engaged, married, and or have kids. Also the brain developing at 25, has already been proven to be a myth and even then, you’re ridiculous enough to think months to a year is big in that regard? Anyways you’re not young anymore like someone born in 2005-2006 and that’s ok…

I started in 2006-2007, and I went to a kindergarten to 8th grade school.

I just watched the Shawshank redemption again and the obvious reference is when Archie goes to Juvie it’s called Shankshaw and the warden is the warden from Shawshank. But after seeing a scene in the Shawshank where a guard is on the toilet reading a comic and it’s an Archie comic about Jughead I just thought that was really funny 😅

I know it’s not big deal but it’s become super annoying at this point when older generations especially millennials say gen z doesn’t know this or that and it’s literally something us older gen z definitely grew up with or know about! Like we were there too we lived the same era with y’all and grew up with a lot of the same things but to them Gen z is all young teens even though older Gen z is pushing 30 or is 30 now, it’s just a little annoying how it’s almost like we don’t exist to them.

Just for reference I’m gonna be 26 in a couple of months soon so I’m still young, but old enough to remember a lot of things about the 2000s. Is it normal for me to remember things from 2002 till now because they say your memories start at age 3, but I was 1 going on 2 in 2002 and I remember the first Spider-Man coming out, I remember my second birthday party and just the vibe of the year. Do you guys think I’m lying, or am I having a false memory lol? Because 02 till now I remember vividly 😭.

My pick

Dead tie between young dracula or wolfblood

Or the nowhere boys

I feel like a lot of us in our late 20s or just 20s in general rush into signing stuff without fully understanding what we’re agreeing to. Apartments, car payments, loans, subscriptions, jobs, insurance, medical papers, etc.

What’s something you learned the hard way that made you start taking contracts and paperwork more seriously? I seen so many people posts on social media about getting their first car or apartment since they are so excited about getting the stuff but don’t even care to read the policy and the consequences it comes when you don’t pay the payment or something based on the contract policy. Like I barely hear anyone mention this in adulthood.

I want to hear from you.

View Poll

Had a middle school teacher that molested the 7th-12th grade boys, and no one knew until one of the boys learned he wasn't the only one she was sleeping with and sent nudes of her to every school mail

I'll go first.
What I wasn't told was that it wasn't a compliment. It was just everyone around me being comfortable with how much I had already learned to shrink myself.
I made a short video about this because I couldn't find many people talking about it openly. Not the parentified child, not the eldest daughter trope, just the kid who quietly stopped being a kid and nobody noticed.
Drop yours below. Genuinely curious how many of us there are.