Learn from the mistakes of others

the system manages to do several things at once. you get blamed for failing to get a job. you get blamed for needing a 'benefit'. you get blamed for 'not doing enough' to change things.

i have two honours degrees. that puts me in about 1-2% of the population. rarer than phds.

goddess forbid that i'd actually finished my phd! i'd be in esoteric-land.

i can't work in retail or admin, despite my mothers harping on about it being 'better than nothing'. as you say, overqualified. besides, there is this disability thing ...

i'm beyond fucked off about being unemployed four years after graduating. ignoring my hecs debt for the moment, my income is less than a third what i was worth four years ago. all of my classmates are associates or similar. i'll be that guy at the reunion who was considered 'most likely' by his peers, but never got anywhere.

i've been told time and again that people cannot believe that i'm still unemployed. these days i point out that that is exactly why i'm not working. every employer seems to figure, "well if not this job, he'll get the next one" ...