A recent Gen Z grad with $25,000 in student debt says his job search has made him accept he may never work in his dream field: 'I know that life isn't fair'
Solomon Jones
- Solomon Jones graduated in May with a bachelor's degree and roughly $25,000 in student debt.
- He's struggled to find a job in the sports communications industry and is exploring teaching roles.
- Freelance gigs and living with his parents are helping him get by financially.
Solomon Jones thought earning two college degrees would open doors. Instead, he's living at home and struggling to find work.
Jones earned his bachelor's degree in sports communication with a minor in psychology this May. However, he's still looking for a full-time job and said he's received "hundreds of rejection emails." Jones, who has about $25,000 in student debt, is living with his parents in New Jersey while he looks for work.
"The goal is to obviously get a job in the sports industry, but realistically, I know that life isn't fair," he said. "So at this point, I'm just trying to find a job, period."
Jones is among the recent college graduates struggling to find work. As of March, 5.8% of recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 were unemployed β the highest it's been since 2013, aside from the pandemic-related spike and its recovery over the next year. These challenges are tied to a hiring slowdown across the economy. Amid tariff uncertainty and the early effects of AI adoption, US companies are now hiring at nearly the slowest pace since 2014.
Jones started his higher education journey in 2017, enrolling at Rowan College of South Jersey, a community college. He initially pursued an education major before switching to liberal arts and graduated with an associate degree in 2020.
He planned to enroll at Rowan University that fall to pursue his bachelor's, but he didn't receive enough financial aid to cover his tuition. Classes had also shifted online due to the pandemic, and he didn't want to pay for a college experience that didn't include in-person learning.
So he waited. Over the next few years, Jones worked a string of jobs, including as a substitute teacher and teacher's aide β roles he was able to land without a bachelor's degree β and drove for Uber and DoorDash.
"It's not something I wanted to do with my career, but it was something to pay the bills in the meantime," said the 26-year-old. "I was doing whatever I could to make some money."
In 2023, Jones finally secured enough financial aid to pursue his bachelor's degree at Rowan, which he concluded in May before beginning his current job hunt.
While layoffs remain low by historical standards, Americans who don't have a job and want one are in a tough spot. This has left many young college grads like Jones β new to the workforce and without roles to fall back on β particularly vulnerable.
Waiting for the college education to pay off
Jones said he began applying for jobs shortly after starting at Rowan in 2023, hoping to secure work post-graduation. But starting early didn't give him the edge he hoped for.
In recent months, he's broadened his job search, applying to everything from AI content editing to social media management roles. However, he's focused more on writing positions outside the sports world, as well as coaching and teaching jobs. He said he'd like to avoid returning to teaching, in part because it's something he was doing before earning his bachelor's degree.
"I don't want to go that route because I don't want to go backward," he said.
Jones said some freelance writing gigs have provided pay that helps cover bills, but are too inconsistent and not enough to rely on. Some of the sportswriting roles he's landed pay based on the number of page views his articles receive, making steady income hard to come by.
"If people aren't viewing your articles, then you're not going to get paid much," he said.
Jones said he's had a hard time finding opportunities in the sports communications world and that some of the listings he does come across attract over 1,000 applicants.
"It's a very brutal industry," he said. "A lot of us are struggling to find a job."
Looking ahead, Jones said his goal is to move out of his parents' home by the end of the year. He still hopes to find a fulfilling job that complements his degree β and makes the student debt he took on feel worthwhile β but he knows this is far from a guarantee.
"I want a job that is fulfilling β that I feel like I earned after going to college and taking on debt," he said. "But it's just been a struggle all around."
