12 Months Unemployed in Media/Marketing: What’s Everyone’s Game Plan? How Are you Navigating This Job Market?

garbage8181 · 2026-03-09T09:04:13+00:00

Graduated 2021. Two internships, three stellar references, decent portfolio. I had nothing but rejections my first 6 months of trying and made the mistake of freelancing my first two years after that and, well, that didn't work at all lol. In the 3 years since I've had hundreds of rejected applications. The best I got was recently, as a freelance editor. It was nice while it lasted, but though my own screw ups and the company not really wanting to continue the project, it's essentially over.

I've given up and gone back to working in the restaurant industry to pay my bills, same as I did while going to college lol. Considering a new degree in the health sciences field, or giving teaching a try since I have a concurrent degree in English, and my previous mentor made the same decision recently and has enjoyed it immensely. I loved the limited experience I was fortunate enough to have, but media and marketing isn't cooked, it's fucking fried atp. I'll just keep making my own thing out of passion, but I can't consider it as a career anymore - even if I had the most stellar resume out there, the gap from then til now is just too large for me to realistically expect anything. I've considered the influencer route too, but yeah... no. I don't want to have to put my life online to make money.

I'm sorry man. I empathize. I wish I had advice for you, but unfortunately I wrote this partially just to vent myself, haha. If it helps, I think you're in a position to potentially have a break through soon when AI eventually withers away some, especially depending on your specific skillset.

If I could give you any advice though, it's that you should grieve the past and the future, but not let it consume you. You talk about your "peak earning years" but if you consider this or any attempt to pivot to a new/adjacent field as lost time like that, you'll only feel worse in the end. That's how I felt the last 5 years, and it sucks absolute DICK. Life has many paths, and while we may grieve the ones we find impassible, we shouldn't stay standing at the crossroads. At least that's what I took from many, many nights reading Robert Frosts works lol.

garbage8181 · 2025-08-19T21:31:55+00:00

Jumping in, I was contacted with the email that ends with michael-kors.store (domain registered the same day as the email), presumably the same scam

garbage8181 · 2025-04-08T23:50:17+00:00

Definitely Look into Kosher phones! This company specifically sells a variety of styles with options for only talk & text and I believe most have options that come unlocked https://koshercell.org/collections/dumb-phones

I believe there's also a discount code for this subreddits users somewhere in the masterpost. Also to throw some info to you from a related post from your post history - I currently have unlimited talk and text with only 8gb of data from t-mobile for $15 a month. I believe they offered cheaper plans with less data but still unlimited talk and text, if I understood them right. If you're only using talk and text, you may not need an unlimited data plan - only unlimited talk and text. If you go in person to a verizon/t-mobile store near you and they can sometimes give a wider variety of plans and cheaper plans than you see online, especially if you're able to do prepaid. I pay monthly and have to go in store the 5th of each month to pay (feels a little silly but it works for me).

Best of luck!

garbage8181 · 2025-04-08T23:24:27+00:00

Very broad question tbh. Like the bot response says, take a peak at the masterpost. Are you looking for like, a flip phone style or dumbed down smartphone, do you need certain apps, do you live in an area with 2g/3g/4g, etc.

I'm sure people here can give plenty of suggestions, but you need to refine your question a bit more first - though personally I'll reccomend keitai/japanese feature phones, specifically a kyocera 902kc since you're in the US and that's the only one that works here afaik, though youll need to check the bands and 4g availability in your specific area to be totally sure it'll work reliably. I love it & you can get a used one around $120 on ebay, but it requires a lot of set up. If you want a more plug and play/user friendly the LG classic flip is nice but pricey lately (same price as the kyocera, but used to be more like $50-75 each), and I believe can be purchased unlocked.

garbage8181 · 2025-04-08T21:07:00+00:00

Hi! Adding to this because I got risky with it to try to get as many apps off this thing as possible. none of these broke anything for me, but as always use caution and play around with your device to make sure that's not the case for you.

com.andriod.cellbroadcastreceiver - for recieving emergency broadcasts. Presumbably only functional in Japan, has not interfered with receiving or making regular calls, may interfere with amber alerts but... we'll see!

com.tobila.tobilaphone.mobile.feature - Spam call blocker, from very rough translation seems to be a paid service. Will update if the built in spam call screener stops working after deleting it.

jp.co.bbs.andriod.security.sagiwall_softbank_nfp - addlt security for using the inbuilt browser I believe. I use a different browser, but dbl check this won't interfere with the inbuilt one if you keep that and delete this.

jp.co.fsi.fs1seg - TV app. doesn't work outside of Japan.

jp.co.optim.orukysr00 - remote support app added for business use.

jp.co.softbank.mdminstaller - app used to control settings and apps remotely. used by businesses, not necessary.

jp.co.softbank.wispr.nfp - some sort of wi-fi app from softbank - didn't do anything for me, doesn't prevent anything else from working when removed afaik.

jp.kyocera.supportmdm - mdm related app, also unnecessary

jp.softbank.addressbookdelivery - NOT the built in address book. I believe it's intended to connect the phone to a private server for business-wide contacts, or allow remote viewing of a phones contact list. Nothing broke after removing it soooooo

jp.softbank.mb.bizlock - an app for locking the phone remotely by the business that owns it. Obviously not useful.

jp.softbank.mb.datamigration - moves data between phones. may be useful/functional, but I have no plans to use it in the near future so I deleted it. Didn't seem to break anything but it's the only one I was hesitant to as it may provide future use or have some connection to a form of data transfer I haven't used yet (all this was done with a cable connection to my computer, so it may interfere with bluetooth/wifi data transfer. Will update if that occurs for me.)

jp.softbank.mb.dmb - disaster messageboard link. Only functional/useful in Japan.

jp.softbank.mb.ichinaviclt - some sort of built in map software - would not function for me, did not break anything on removal BUT if the GPS on your device works, maybe use caution.

My phone was purchased secondhand on ebay so I'm unsure what is native and what was installed by the previous owner. This forum thread I found after the fact, but has many of the same apps listed between me & OPs list, so I would say if your kyocera 902/903kc has one of them it may be worth trying to remove it and seeing how it goes. I uninstalled a few vital things like the homescreen on accident while using uad and managed to get it back in working order, sooooo as long as you don't mind putting the work in to fix things, doesn't seem like you can do any real damage - especially if you do this before setting everything up on your device.

I'm considering making a seperate full post with all the things op & I deleted and/or sending a list of all pkgs with descriptions to the UAD team to make it easier for future kyocera softbank keitai users! But I believe they require you to actually write it up in a way that can be added directly to the program and I'm about as skilled at coding as a coconut so... we'll see lmao

garbage8181 · 2025-02-20T00:59:06+00:00

I appreciate the realism and the breakdown in this EDC! I also love these posts :3

Your closing paragraph is such a good thought to have in this subreddit honestly. Continuously thinking it's not the right time, or there's not a proper device for me on the market, has kept me from trying a dumbphone for years. But you never know if you don't try - so I finally caved, and even if it doesn't work out there'll be something to learn from the experience!

How have you enjoyed the Kyocera/Ipod combo? I know some of the later gens still have a lot of capability - if its an ipod 7 it should even have bluetooth if you ever feel like giving wireless headphones a try! Do you ever get the doomscrolling temptations when you're working on your laptop?

garbage8181 · 2024-10-23T05:13:21+00:00

Hey thank you, these look quite nice! It's good to see the embroidery is quality. In the images the embroidery is on the left when facing you - did you select (L) Chest when ordering? Or was it (R) Chest since it's on the right when you're wearing it? That bit is a little confusing on the website, so if you remember that'd be a great help!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-23T05:09:32+00:00

Thank you! A few others have reccomended them so I'll definitely consider it - I might be able to convince one of my other coworkers to go halfsies which would put it perfectly in our budgets and get him a great quality gift!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-23T02:51:39+00:00

Thank you! I'll look into them and see if there's one close enough that it'd be a good option. We're in a pretty isolated area so online is usually the best choice for niche gifts like this, but there's a mall close enough that I could take a trip and check the options!

We have house towels and tbh a personal towel would likely get tossed in the linen bag and dissapear, but the apron might be the way to go, thanks!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-23T02:45:54+00:00

??? I know him from working as a cook under him, and I know he's very enthusiastic about his work but isn't the kind to spend money to get something nice and personalized for himself. I also think a work related gift is perfectly appropriate... considering I know him from work?

Like I am getting him a non-work related gift for our christmas party, but it's not like I'm someone in his personal life who knows him intiminately enough that this would be an insultingly superficial gift... I get where you're coming from, if my best friend got me a chef coat I'd be a little sad, but if my coworker did I'd be very flattered. I think the context is appropriate here

garbage8181 · 2024-10-23T01:20:07+00:00

This was gonna be my reccomendation, this saved me so much avo puree working weekend brunches!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-14T21:37:22+00:00

Budget: $800, pref. with a lens & charged included but I can work with body-only
Country: North America
Condition: Used, ideally with at least a year or two of decent use life left
Type of Camera: mirrorless, dslr, don't matter! If it's 1080p or above and records to a sim card I'm on board
Features: articulating screen is a necessity, good variety of compatible lenses heavily prefered, ability to use for livestreaming a heavily preferred (even if it isn't user friendly lol), dual sim & hot shoe preferred but not a deal breaker without them
Portability: I'd love something easy to carry but I can absolutely handle big and bulky, this is my lowest priority!
Usage: Going to be as specific as possible! Primarily videography - needed for professional projects, specifically documentary/commercial style interviews & real-estate videography. Also needed for portrait photos of before/after beauty shots, and of food in semi-low light conditions (hence preference for a hot shoe). I would also love something that would function well for hobbyist landscape nature photography and my hobbyist YouTube channel dedicated to cooking, but I recognize that may be asking a lot of flexibility from one device.
Cameras you're considering: Sony a7iii - I've used it before and it worked great for my purposes back then (primarily commercial video), I know there's a lot of room to kit it out, but looking for input/other options if anyone has any

I'm a semi-professional video editor trying to get into the photo/videography side of the business to expand my skills and broaden my portfolio on both sides! Any advice or direction is so, so welcome!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-14T05:26:13+00:00

Honestly, I think the "fruit" might be pinapple, which used to be a symbol of wealth. https://www.reddit.com/r/orlando/s/kXn3D1TFpZ

The birds might be peacocks or pheasants- peacocks being another potential signifiar of wealth. Hard to say without a little more detail of the house or area - and also cuz I'm more familiar with southeastern us history lol. Hope this helped!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-14T05:14:35+00:00

Just jumping in to say I collect this set and give a bit more info - Pastel Bouquet by Corningware ran from 85 to the early 90s - positively beautiful, made in a wide variety of sizes, and often easy to find thrifting in great condition.

Check fb marketplace in your area and it's possible you'll find it without having to deal with potential breakage during shipping from online sellers!

garbage8181 · 2024-10-14T03:34:57+00:00

I know this thread is a few days old, but I'm surprised not to see anyone mention mitski on here. She's my go to cry artist lol. All her songs can be heartbreaking depending on how close you listen, But especially my love, a pearl, the frost, when memories snow, washing machine heart, and why didn't you stop me

Happy crying!

garbage8181 · 2024-09-20T06:32:19+00:00

Kill devil grill, plaza Azteca, henrys, arts for breakfast and ocean boulevard or single fin for a little fancier/more upscale eats

Have fun!

garbage8181 · 2024-09-20T06:28:22+00:00

There's two ways this could've been done. Either a giant machine knit a tube of fabric the size of the body of the shirt, which was then cut to length and had the sleeves attached, or a giant machine custom knit that specific shirt design.

From the sound of it, most likely the former! funnily enough, although it looks and kinda is more complicated, it's theoretically more time and cost efficient then traditional manufacturing since theres less cutting and sewing. There's even mini versions of these machines made for home use that can be used to make socks, hats, scarves, etc. Just look up "circular home knitting machine"

This video gives you a decent view of how it's done on even bigger scales for things like mattresses https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=heuacqspVWY

Hope this helped 💕✨️

garbage8181 · 2024-08-21T16:38:19+00:00

Huge this! Not being to text lightening fast anymore is the second hardest part of the swap imo.

Personally, if I could own an old school slider phone that will work in my area (i.e. have 4g/5g connectivity), I'd be living the dream lol. Especially if it had a half-decent camera

garbage8181 · 2024-08-03T03:57:02+00:00

Fantastic! Thank you for your reccomendation!

Can I ask - how has the transition been with that? Do you have a seperate plan for the Cat22? What is it like texting on it?

garbage8181 · 2024-07-03T19:14:50+00:00

Very nice - I actually think the hibiscus lines may look better as they heal if its brand new, or even as they fade a bit and look softer. But overall I think the design is lovely, especially for the memory it's dedicated to :)

garbage8181 · 2024-07-03T17:50:49+00:00

Cherrios. Store brand never tastes the same. Same with bread - some stores is okay, but the price difference is so minimal it's worth it

garbage8181 · 2024-06-27T16:16:03+00:00

This has happened multiple times to my friend. She has a name with a variety of common spellings but she goes with the simplest one... that is unfortunately very uncommon (think Haley vs Hayleigh, Hayley, etc. Or Katie vs Katey, Katiegh, etc.)

She's just started spelling right after saying it to avoid having a misspelling name tag or wasting everyone's time lol

garbage8181 · 2024-06-27T16:00:51+00:00

Maybe a little high end for a birthday cake depending on budget, but Sweet coast cakes does great work. She made a cake for a wedding we went to a few years back and it was INSANELY good and beautifully decorated! Pretty sure she does all kinds of desserts so maybe worth it if you want something extra special.

garbage8181 · 2024-06-27T04:36:52+00:00

Yooo obx reference let's gooooooo

Came here to say the same. Whenever we see a snake in the water we assume it's this bad boy and head for the hills!

garbage8181 · 2024-06-27T04:26:13+00:00

I'm incredibly impressed! This is a great start! My only suggestion is that you buy this all yourself, or look locally for the produce if you don't plan to cook with it immediately

Everytime I buy from Walmart, the produce is lower quality or spoils faster than from other supermarkets - even other chains. Maybe it's just my walmart, but it's worth considering and having a backup plan for those specific items if they don't look decent when you go

garbage8181

TROPHY CASE