Room and Board
After I graduated college in June 2018, I moved back home with my parents. I had no job prospects upon graduation, nor did I have any relevant experience or decent connections. All I had was an Economics degree and a 2.8 GPA, which, considering I wanted to go into finance, meant I was pretty screwed. Eventually two months later, after hundreds of rejected applications and five failed interviews, I got an offer.
It was for an accounts payable role paying $15.87/hour at a big company. The office was in a city 45 miles from my home in a place with a very high cost of living. Despite the commute and low salary, I took the job. I didn’t really have much of a choice. I had student loans to pay off and I was naive and desperate. And I figured since it was a big firm, if I worked hard and got to know the right people, I could land myself a better position later on. I was so wrong.
The commute was terrible. I started work at 9 am and was done at 6 pm. If I left my house at 6-7 am, it still took me two hours to get to the office. Going home was just as bad. If I got home earlier than 8 pm, I considered that a good day. I spent about 4+ hours each day in my car. I was also driving a small SUV, so gas was rough on me.
After six months, I was ready to crack. I would come to work already drained, and coming home I just didn’t have the energy or time for any hobbies. All I would do is watch TV or play video games. Worst of all, the job was going nowhere; what I was mostly doing was data entry, and I hadn’t learned anything of value to me professionally.
Also, a large portion of my salary was going to gas, and I was gaining weight from eating fast food after work. Moving to the city was not an option due to the area I worked in being very expensive. Then one day I was having lunch with my co-worker and we were discussing his upcoming vacation plans. His plan was he was going to drive to the office the next week, work the whole day, and then Uber to the airport from the office.
I was confused at this point, because what about his car? My co-worker was surprised and he told me as we were employees, we were allowed to leave our cars overnight in our office parking structure for as long as we wanted. All we had to do was sign a document saying if anything happened to our car, the company wasn’t responsible.
It was a common thing since the office was close to the airport and it was more convenient to just Uber. And right there, everything changed. At that point for the next six months, this was my routine: Every Sunday I would pack my clothes and meal prep for the week and drive down to my office that night since traffic was much lighter.
My office was accessible 24/7, so I would come in and store all food in the refrigerators. My office also had a 24/7 onsite gym with showers so I would go there, shower and brush my teeth. I would then go to my car parked all the way at the top of the structure. I’d roll down the windows slightly for air and then put up my windshield cover. My car had very dark tints so I never had a need to cover my windows.
I then would go to sleep. Luckily with an SUV, I had plenty of leg room. Monday morning, I would wake up at 7 am, go to the gym, and get a workout in. I’d brush my teeth and shower and get into the office by 8:30. I was never, ever late again. I’d work until 6 pm and then eat my dinner I stocked in the fridge. Once I was done with work, I would stay at the office (it was common for people to work late so no one ever batted an eye at me) and look up tutorials on certain skills I wanted to gain.
I learned advance excel, financial modeling, certain softwares, etc. Then at around 9-10 pm, I would go back to the gym, shower and brush my teeth and go sleep in my car. I would repeat this the rest of the week until Friday when I drove home. I improved significantly. Meal prepping healthy food and working out allowed me to get back into shape.
I was getting around 8-9 hours of sleep per night, so I was much better rested and more productive during the day. I was able to learn skills that were relevant to me and I had a slightly better social life in the city I was in since I no longer worried about my commute. I was also driving less, so I was spending less on gas. I also managed to pay off my loans and help my parents out since I was able to save so much.
Nobody knew about this. I would tell my parents I was staying with a friend who charged me cheap rent for staying the week. Since I worked for a big company in a minor role, no one really knew or cared who I was. Not once was my car ever ticketed or towed, nor did anyone ever investigate my car at night. This went on until I resigned two months ago.
I had interviewed and accepted a job offer out of state for role I specifically wanted and had been developing myself for. My new firm offered to help pay for relocation and my salary went from $18 to $35 an hour. The job is fantastic, and with the money I saved I was able to buy a “newer” used car and get my own studio close to my job.
My commute is now 15 minutes max. For anyone who is wondering, I was living in Thousand Oaks and my job was in LA. Let’s just leave it at that. For anybody here still in college, the reality is your Bachelors alone is not enough. You’re also going to need experience or you have to know someone. Internships, connections, clubs, even a high GPA (yes, some places did check my grades and I got screwed because of that) does help.
Hit up alumni or go to networking events and try to learn practical skills. It’s a highly competitive world out there and the world doesn’t owe you a thing. And yes, I considered myself very lucky to work for a company with all those perks. And that was one of the reasons why I really thought I could move up there and took the job despite the commute.
But instead, I was basically a clerk and pretty much everyone outranked and made more than me and treated me as such. What was worse was most of the people there were my age, so the environment was really cliquey and toxic.