I’m going to be brutally honest. You do in fact, like many others have pointed out, sound like a stereotypical, entitled, and whiny millennial. The reason why you were/are in the predicament you are now is because you put yourself there. You made poor financial decisions because you wanted to live in a fancy apartment that you could not afford.
You knew what you were going to get paid, so why would you WILLINGLY sign a $1200/mo lease? Your “($1245)… apartment that’s 40 miles away from work because it was the cheapest place I could find that had access to the train” excuse is BS.
You see, I also graduated college with a “useless” degree. My first full time job out of school? It was one that I hated, had no future, and paid $15 an hour. After 2 years, I quit for a sales job that paid $24k a year, which totaled to about $1600 a month after taxes. The same as all my other colleagues. We actually did not work for a big company either, so our health insurance wasn’t fully covered, nor did we get any perks like free food. But, our office was in downtown SF as well. Do you think it would have been wise for any of us to have signed a $1200/mo lease? How would that be realistic? The majority of us not still living with family made creative living arrangements. One of my coworkers even lived in a makeshift bedroom out of an apartment’s living room for $400/month in SF, and the rest of us were in very similar situations. Sure, it would have been great to live in my very own apartment. But the question is, would that have been even the slightest bit practical?
Fact is, there are dozens of other options that you could have gone with other than “Oh, I’m an adult and adults live in nice apartments so I’m going to do that.” No. Being an adult means that you are often required to make sacrifices and your livelihood is dependent on responsible financial decisions (i.e. living within your means)
Even now, a year and a half later, I am still with the same company that originally paid me $1600 a month. After 8 grueling months of basically living in “poverty,” (as my coworkers and I would say) I started making substantially more due to my commission. I’m still not making enough to where I would be comfortable shelling out $1200 a month for an apartment , but I can now afford to have my own REAL bedroom, contribute to my 401k, pay off my student loans on time, and go on vacations. And I am extremely proud of where I am now because of all the blood, sweat, and tears that I put in to get me here.
So really.. this is the real world. Absolutely no one is going to give you a raise because of how you are doing in your personal life. You are getting paid for the work you are doing, which is an entry level job that does not require a complicated skill set. You are going to be paid for your skills and unfortunately, the skill set you bring (brought) to the company is a dime a dozen and you are easily replaceable. Want to get paid more? Get a new job or earn it. This is something you need to learn. No one is going to hand you things in the real world. Here, you must prove you deserve it by putting out consistent, quality work. And no, you do not deserve a raise after 3 whole months. Companies typically do yearly evaluations and IF you end up getting a raise during this time, you know it will be because of your performance and you should feel proud of that.
I know I may sound condescending, but your post was really appalling to me. The thing that sickens me that most is that your job had the potential to turn into a job in media, which you wanted. And you threw that away for what? An apartment? Because you couldn’t pay your dues and stick it out for one measly year? Think about how many unemployed people would kill to have been in your shoes. For your own sake and sanity, really think about the choices you made to get where you are now. You don’t just land your dream job by being a “special snowflake,” which you are not. You land your dream job by, like most do, working from the ground up and making sacrifices now for a better tomorrow. You’ll look back and be thankful for the struggle.
Good luck
