Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Maybe this city got too rich, and too young, too fast. I've been amazed in the last 10 years or so to see so many high-end bars and restaurants patronized by 20-somethings. In the 90s, a bar or restaurant could be high-end, or it could be aimed at young adults, but it couldn't be both. That wouldn't make any sense. If you were in your 20s, even if you were lucky enough to have a professional career, it didn't pay well. Too many Boomers occupying everything but the lowest entry-level positions (which used to pay like entry-level positions). I actually feel sorry for people in recent years who walked right out of university into jobs making $70,000+. They have no experience of anything different, and can't call on the experience of living on $30,000 to recalibrate their expenses and lifestyle.
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I think this is the most noticeable because of the sustained boom during the 2000's. Expectations around salary, career prospects and lifestyle were ballooned because of the severe labor shortage back then. Kids could walk out of university with even the most liberal of arts degrees and waltz right into a job with a big O&G company that would find something for them to do. I seem to recall a poll done at Haskayne School of Business about 2-3 years ago that said kids expect to make north of 65k+ starting salaries pretty much because they spent three or four years in post-secondary.
I'm not sure what their parents or professors are telling them, but those jobs are now reserved for the cream of the crop freshies out of school who know petroleum engineering, chemical engineering or software development (and maybe finance). And even now they're scare.
Then you hear stories about people getting transfered to Dubai or Qatar and making a quarter-million per year, then wanting to come back and make the same thing here. No dice unless you've backscratched your boss into sublime euphoria.
As much as I hate to say it, this province is experiencing that reality check for people to re-align with normal expectations of what a real job market and economy look like - we got so, so, so, so, so lucky in the last 15 years. It's time to recognize we are no longer in that era.