It's unfortunate that so many people my age are facing a difficult job market and heightening living expenses without the benefit of a job that utilizes their hard earned college education, or pays them accordingly for it.
The plight of the Millennial generation is that there are so many different degree programs and so many requirements for jobs, and they rarely marry well enough to ensure that a job awaits each college graduate or certified worker.
If I were in the position that a lot of my peers are, working a "dead end" job with little promotion potential, I would try seeing which companies have hired people that do what I was trained to do. In the past, I'd call HR departments and ask what makes a good candidate, what sorts of things they were looking to see, and how to best display my experience, so I could tailor my resume to make sure that I described the most critical elements well. After enough years of college and freelance projects, most people have done a little bit of a lot of different things, and if a 1 day or 1 week project has the skills and competencies needed for a full time job at one of the big companies in your industry, that could be what gets you the job.
You could also consider positions in state, local, or federal government. They usually pay less, but sometimes go more by credentials than experience. As long as you fulfill basic requirements for a position in terms of education, they are happy to train you to the function at hand. Best of all, fresh eyes might discover something that needs to be reworked.
Be willing to move, long distances if necessary, for the right position. I more than doubled my income when I left my state, and you might too. Sure, your expenses might rise if you move from Kentucky to Texas, but if you get to make three times the money and gain experience in your field, you might want to consider it. Best of all, once you've cut your teeth you may be able to come back home to your state and either start something so productive that your industry flourishes in your home town, or get a job that you wouldn't have qualified for previously.
Another option is to just start making things. You can do independent project work that is really awesome and get attention from Mozilla, Google, or Microsoft once you've got a product running, like Notch did with Minecraft. Minecraft was eventually licensed by console game developers, and acquired by Microsoft for 2.5 Billion dollars, but the development costs were Notch's groceries and apartment costs since he pretty much just made Minecraft for a living once he started getting sales.
If you are able, doing contract work is a great way to go as well. You get your own business, great management and professional experience, and the kind of responsibilities that managers and executives love to see 5-10 years down the line. If you're lucky, you will get to become an "Internal Consultant" after a while, and stack up salary, benefits, and a cushy traveling job while sharing expertise site to site.
My biggest piece of advice is to be open to opportunities that might not seem too attractive at first. Don't turn your nose up at work, it's good for you and it helps to put food on the table. If your grandparents and great grandparents had the opportunities we had today, they wouldn't say that things were too hard or there were too few opportunities. They would buckle down and do what they could to feed their families, clothe their children, and care for each other.
I think that my generation definitely has a lot to struggle with, between broken homes and massive debt, but there is hope for the future. We just need to find a way to get there without melting the planet first.
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