I am a struggling 26 yo in NS. I read today in the Metro about NS beef farmers getting 2 m in loans. I once got a loan, but of a different kind..student loans. And this loan is what is keeping me down, 42000 in debt with an undergrad can’t afford grad school and don’t know the right people in this province to hand me a job. Because of this backward province I can’t make it here. I feel as though I am being pushed out. F NS, get your priorities straight.
—F this province…let’s eat more beef
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2010.
can’t afford grad school? What field are you in? Grad students should be making tax-free stipends and usually have TA positions to top off their income. In addition, you can use your full time student status to defer paying back student loans and use your tuition credits to offset the taxable income from your TA job.
Also, if you have a degree that you spent 42K on and can’t find a job here…then go where the jobs are. The province has been paying the interest on your loan for 4 years or so, why should they bail you out more? Get to work.
See ya later.
heh heh… tough love from the miles man….
YOU’VE BEEN TOLD!
what degree did you spend your next decade paying for?
anything viable to a NS atmosphere?
urban planning??? good call there…
nuclear engineer? smart… we have plenty of nuclear-related jobs here … oh yeah.
whatcha get?
“The province has been paying the interest on your loan for 4 years or so, why should they bail you out more?”
That. And the province paid for about 3/4 of your degree, with your tuition only covering about 1/4 of the actual cost.
Why should they hand you more money? What do you have to offer? You seem so full of bitterness and entitlement.
Beef takes 72 hours to digest.
True story.
mmmm, 72 glorious hours….
.. and it tastes a helluva lot better than free-range, fair-trade grad student. Better for the environment too. Cows don’t spew methane from both ends.
The Beef Industry is an industry, what the fuck are university graduates?
yeah but provimi baby chops w/ chanterelles and white balsamic reduction now that’s viddln’ real fancy like:)
I believe that Paingirl has extolled the gustatory virtues of Long Pig.
“Now seating, Donner, Party of 12”
well you can’t beat canniballating al fresco i give you that
yeah i love that term…”i’m not eatin im his legs all gammy”
i worked with this laotian guy and we were talking about our favorite meat and he’s like :dog! so i said hung ta you might wanna keep that to yourself brother:)
I just want to put out there…that the university grads in Wolfville that work in the local resturants , bars & coffee shops, seem to me , to be better at their jobs then the dropouts that work around the city 🙂
Miles— couldn’t have said it better myself. Got taxes on the brain?
OP, You can degrees coming out your ass, and the resume of a superstar, but you get to the interview looking like a douchebag hipster, complete with scruffy beard, tight (not fit properly) suit, and you can expect no call back. I’ve seen guys come in for interviews at a bank looking like this. It’s not always about “who” you know. Besides, the Feds and the Province “bailed” you out by giving you money to go to school.
P.S.: Don’t knock anybody in agriculture. Most of the cats who work on those farms work harder in one day than you will in your entire career.
ha ha Fever…it’s almost that time again isn’t it? I’ll tell ya, after getting student loans for an undergrad degree with limited career prospects I couldn’t afford NOT to go to grad school. Unfortunately I graduated before the new tax laws that make the stipend tax-free came into effect, so I ate up all my tuitions credits during grad school.
Can’t complain though…I’m no spring chicken and last year was the first year I had to pay income tax. Grad school paid enough to have a roof, food and drinks from time to time…best years of my life. Then I moved away (from home) to get a job because we all know how lucrative Halifax is.
I’ve never bitched about having to pay back my loan even though I sure could use the money some months. I never thought it was owed to me and I’ve always known the day would come when I have to pay it back. I went to university to increase my earning potential and open up some more viable career options and ended up doing just that.
It frustrates me when I see comments like the OP’s who think something is owed to them. It’s your education and your career…and your success or failure is determined by you, no one else. When you invest in your education you are investing in yourself….some people are just bad investments I guess.
No bail out = no beef or food for the 90% of meat eaters . A fuckin broke ass undergrad = fuck all . Bail yourself out – like miles says – get a job or head on out of province to another that has what your looking for . Your a canadian ( I assume this ) , your not bound by NS to stay if it doesn’t support your choice of career . Jesus i just have college and i could easily pay that debt off in under a year .
The loan and/or province isn’t keeping you down, it’s your shitty “I have a degree hand me everything” attitude.
For a lot of people college/trades training is the smarter investment. Less time and money up front and good job and career prospects. Of course, using a college degree to make money also takes personal effort and ambition…I’m not sure if our entitled OP could handle that either. Maybe he should try beef farming…there’s money there I hear.
Oh, and despite the ranting about the shitty attitude among some grads, I do think the province could/should do more to capitalize on it’s young and highly educated workforce that it keeps investing in.
No shit Miles. Hearing about a new job building investment that isn’t another frigging Minacs cattlepen would be nice.
But…what would we do without more call centers in Halifax?
Exactly the example I was thinking of SD. Man that gets my goat. How about building on our strengths…like oceanography, medical research, agricultural technology, green energy, information technology and probably about a dozen other things that we could build real nationally competitive industries around? Why do you want to attract minimum wage jobs to an area that has the manpower to support higher paying careers? You don’t get much income tax from someone making $20K/yr.
I agree with your posts mile and lehova . I certainly wasn’t knocking university !! Just was knocking the attitude . They can make more then me easily if they got off they’re ass and stopped thinking we owe them the world . Mind you – I’ve been doing my trades for a couple decades now . I see alot of 2nd year apprentices on my and other sites doing what they were trained to do . And also making decent money. Maybe the OP is just used to getting hand outs and believes the jobs will just hand themselves to him/her? After all – all that time in school and money – someone should feel the need to kiss they’re ass and just hand it over .Funny thing is – I wonder in comparison how many trades people work in a call centre compared to university under grads or grads? Let me know if you find out because I’m betting on nary a one .
PS and not the ones doing the electrical,plumbing,paving,bricking or painting of the call centre haha !!!
Boy you guys are harsh!
No, I’m not the OP, but in a similar situation. Thankfully no debt, have paid if off by being smart with my money… though no job in my field, yet. Not even close actually, but still trying, still going, yep, gotta do it! The only other option is to keep doing what I’m doing, which I can’t.
It does make you wonder though when someone who was a worse student with less education and experience gets a better job than you, and you find out their dad or some other relative of theirs just so happens to know the guy who works for that company. A lot of it really is who you know rather than what you know, and certainly not only in Nova Scotia. Also, best advice: work smart, not hard.
OP: sometimes you have to move, think of it as an opportunity. I’ve crisscrossed the country for school/work, not always out of choice but I always feel richer for the experience. (well except for Chicoutimi and Houston, don’t ever live in either). Come back later and you’ll bring your valuable outside experience with you. That or just buy a cottage with your Alberta petro dollars and come home when you can.
You chose the degree you were seeking, you should have known what you were up against when you made your choice.
No sympathy, you could have worked part time to cut down cost but likely you went to school, supper and than pub
You borrowed the money for an education, you got that education, now its time to be a grown up and be responsible instead of blaming the government because they did not give you more handouts in the form of a job. Only one responsible for you place in life is YOU
The difference Q between you and the OP is I don’t hear you saying you are owed a job or more loan money or whatever. It’s the sense of entitlement that I am harsh on. My only question for you is why are you still in NS if there are no jobs here?
Also, this ‘who you know’ business is just the reality of life. People are going to hire people they know they can work with and that they like. If you are just a faceless name on a piece of paper vs someone who is vouched for by a person already in the company you can see why they choose the person they know. If you want to get hired, make people get to know you…even if that means an unpaid/underpaid internship or something. Demonstrate a good personality and a good work ethic and you will have a much better chance of landing a good job. Use the people you work with to network and hear about job opportunities before they get posted. A lot of companies like to hire internally, even if they HAVE to post the job broadly.
Here’s a suggestion. Why don’t you work a little while in the agricultural industry? Hey, you could pay off some of your student loans and get your ass beat into the ground everyday 🙂 Do you realize what would happen if the beef industry collapses here in NS? Yes, let’s rely even more on imported food, let’s put ourselves in that vulnerable situation.
I work in the agricultural industry, actually the educational sector of the agricutural industry. You obviously haven’t done you research about graduate positions. I know of 3 as of today that are just waiting for students. The funding is there, the paid TA positions are there but surprise, no students to be found. Of course you would have to lower yourself to study, with the intention of advancing, the agricultural industry.
Thanks Miles, I try to complain as little as possible and while I admit that I am probably a bit lazier and now less motivated than I should be, I am still trying all avenues to get proper work here. Contacting contacts, trying agencies, checking job websites, making cold-calls, going into places to drop off resumes, follow-up calls and emails, etc. Sometimes, though, it feels like it gets to be a bit much and I just gotta bitch to get the frustration off my chest! Which I suspect the OP was feeling.
“My only question for you is why are you still in NS if there are no jobs here?”
Good question. I guess I’m still holding onto some hope that there may be work in my field here, somehow, eventually. Halifax is home for me after all and I like the city. However, I’ve now set myself a goal: if I’m not working in my field in Halifax by April, I’m outta here! Hello Toronto or Calgary. Do what you gotta do.