According To Wes

Wes & DeLaw | Grinding, Lying & Other 30-Something Survival Tactics

Wes/DeLaw

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We explore what our 25-year-old selves would think about our current career paths and discuss how traditional career advice has failed our generation.

We encourage you to share your own career journey with us on social media and let us know what advice you'd give your younger self.


Wes:

Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of the According to Wes podcast, where we believe to live is to suffer and to survive is to find something or find some meaning in that suffering, especially when it's time to tell our wives what to eat. That's all Got me, wes. You know what that's like? Man Fucking ass. Eat up there when you want to eat at and you run through eight different things and it's just like no to everything and it's just like yo Just to circle, I'm going to go someplace, figure it out.

DeLaw:

Just to circle back to the original place.

Wes:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All the time, all the time. It's an everyday thing, even if you're taking food out to eat, like what we eat I don't know Some pork chops in there, I don't know this in there.

DeLaw:

I mean, I'm not even that hungry.

Wes:

Why are we trying to cook? That's how I feel about it. Yeah, but as always, we got D-Law.

DeLaw:

We got D-Law, the dominant center on 2K between me and Wes. Hell yeah.

Wes:

Hell yeah, do you feel like 25-year-old? You will be happy with where you are in your career right now 25-year-old me. Mm-hmm. First thing I remember where 25-year-old me was Don't tell me all the drinking, fuck that up.

DeLaw:

I want to say 25-year-old me, and I want to say just been. I want to say just been let go by the feds. I crashed my car, I crashed my Impala and over the summer before I turned 25, I got my Ultima when I turned 25. I don't think so. I think it would be more of a shock. So a 25-year-old wouldn't be happy I think it would be more of a shock. A 25-year-old me would have thought I would have been with somebody else, along with doing a different career choice.

Wes:

as far as I say career specifically. I ain't saying nothing about romance.

DeLaw:

I'm just saying, I'm just looking at the whole picture, looking at the whole picture.

Wes:

All right, whole picture. I guess, whole picture.

DeLaw:

You know, a 25-year-old me will probably be shocked that this is the route that I took, or that you know that you know this is what I'm doing, because most days I still can't believe that I'm a state employee, because it's not what I thought I was going to be doing.

DeLaw:

So shocked in a good way or shocked in a bad way what I was going to be doing so, shocked in a good way or shocked in a bad way? Shocked in a Did I not do good enough in school to get to where I wanted to be at? But then when I'm looking at how the kids are now, I'm probably better off. I would have to come back and explain to the 25-year-old me why we're not in the school system teaching. I would have to go back and explain to them so 25-year-old, you was like yo, you're going to be a teacher.

DeLaw:

Yeah, a 25-year-old was going to be a teacher. 25-year-old me was not going to be inventory or logistics for any reason, because I had no clue what it was back when I was 25. You know what I'm saying. I had no clue what the fuck that shit was. But I would say not necessarily disappointed or happy, just more shocked. Then they'd be like well, you couldn't get back.

Wes:

You said you go back and you say yeah, I'm about to explain to 25-year-old D-Law like yo. This is why you're not in the school system. How does 25-year-old D-Law like yo? This is why you're not in the school system.

DeLaw:

How does 25-year-old D-Law take that information. 25-year-old D-Law, how does he take it? He takes it as so the kids are that bad. Okay, cool, I'm glad we made that choice. But how come I can't get back to the feds? That would be the because, you know, like I said at 25, at 24, I just got to let go from the feds. So a 25-year-old me is walking around on unemployment, you know, trying to get back into the feds. So the question that a 25-year-old me would have would be like so how come we didn't make it back into the feds? Like, were we that bad, like into the feds? Like, were we that bad? Like we? Just, I had to explain like, man, look, our resume was some cold garbage trying to get a real job in the feds and somehow or another, we ended up in the state after working logistics at a warehouse. Probably be like I worked in a fucking warehouse. What the hell? What you mean? It's like I would have to. I would have to explain and sit myself down and concentrate.

Wes:

So you're going to sit yourself down toss you a drink, oh yeah.

DeLaw:

I got some stuff. 25-year-old me, I was in my prime with the drinking Jeez Louie, that's bad. We were still drinking. Bad decision, you know what I'm saying. And we only called it that because we knew it was cheap as pocket. It was like $10 for a handle. You knew when you woke up in the morning you made a bad decision.

Wes:

I think what I would probably as far as my career, 25-year old me would be would be somewhat I don't know. I think 25 year old me would have some questions too, because it's kind of like yo, you got to a point of you're in the field, but how come you didn't go further? Well, how come, yeah, how come you didn't go further? Or how come you're not making this amount of money? I already know that's what 25-year-old me is going to say.

Wes:

Computers are the future. Everyone say computers are the future. You are part of the future. Why aren't you making future money? And I got that shit to him. Right, yo, it should be.

Wes:

I gotta explain, like yo, what I thought uh would get me back, could not get me back, this computer shit. I should have started way before college and I didn't have the resources to start way before college, nor did I have the, the influences and mentors, because it was kind of like a new but not new thing Like nowadays you could probably bump into like your, your, your son, for example, you could probably bump into somebody that's in cybersecurity or it or something like that, like it ain't nothing when we were young to someone just by happenstance that did that stuff like especially not in our uh, not in our community, so it's a lot of stuff. I would have been like yo uh start doing this now, because there's a lot of stuff at 25 that I wasn't doing. I would have been like yo start doing this now and in five years uh, you know you gonna be uh you gonna be that nigga.

DeLaw:

You know 25 year old me if I, if I told him every choice I've made to to get to where I am now choice.

Wes:

I'm just saying yo see, I'm from like work joy, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, I see what you're saying. He even makes it yeah, why did I?

DeLaw:

well, yeah, this ain't go this way. Blah, blah. Like did I do this? No, no, you didn't do that. No, no. Like it'd just be one of those things where it's like, look, we made the best choices that we could make to get us to where we are.

DeLaw:

I can't tell myself, man, just be happy, that's what we got to. Like I can't say that to my 20 years old, so I can't say that to my 25-year-old self. I can say we could have made better choices in college to help us. I could say we could have made better choices when we worked for the fifth and a 25-year-old me if I had made better decisions and did what I was supposed to, versus not follow the rules. But it was. You know, yeah, it's one of those things, but it would have been different. 25 year old me might've still been in the feds, or I'm about to end up like my cousin who was at department treasurer once he graduated college and he said well, thank you for your service, best of luck in your future endeavors. Same shit could have happened to me, yeah, so that's been long.

Wes:

Yeah, I think I would also probably tell him, just based off of what I know now, that that the yeah, I think I would also probably tell them, uh, just based off of what I know now, that, uh, that the um that the life society tried to to program us program us with was already dying before we even had. Like it was never. It was a real thing, uh, at one point in time, but that was like it was a real thing with our parents. It wasn't a real thing at one point in time, but it was a real thing with our parents. It wasn't a real thing with us. Like, oh, go get an internship, go do this, go do that. Internships wasn't abundant. They were trying to sell me a good GPA. Gpas don't mean shit.

DeLaw:

They tried to sell me on the teaching career. When I go to my student teacher they were like, oh, by the time you get in here they'll be making at the very least $70,000. Right now we're making $45,000 to $50,000 just coming in and by the time you get in you'll be making $70,000. They ain't making no goddamn $. Right now You're still making 50, 55. I'm like man, you know and not that I was a bully, because I think when I was originally getting in, the kids were still manageable. And you know, if you get in at the right time while they're still manageable, your reputation goes around the school of either you're just as hard-ass teacher or that you're like somebody like hey, yo, he's cool, like don't make no waves, but I'm like he gonna look out. Now, you know you give them, motherfuckers, a centimeter. They try and take a whole football field. People are like, all right, look, I'm gonna let that slide. Next thing, you know, they coming in 40 minutes like, oh, I thought you were going to let it slide again.

Wes:

No, nigga, I can't do that when you're going to learn.

DeLaw:

Right, it's always something like that, I think. You know, as far as state government, I think you'll be shocked. I think the I wouldn't be shocked, because I was already tutoring. The thing would be oh so I started a business. Oh, okay, cool, all right, that ain't that bad. Am I making hundreds, thousands of dollars? No, that might be like the thing. What we doing, what we doing.

Wes:

Yeah, that's probably what my 25-year-old self would be like too, what we doing, like you say in high school, like society ain't what it was or life ain't what it was Like they said it was going to be. I'm just like yo, you didn't get no internship, you didn't start off at no prestigious organization and stuff like that. Like those internships are not a dime a dozen, or those places to work for it's very highly competitive. All the good jobs are competitive and that's what no one that's what they don't say to you Like oh yeah, you're good at a good job. Lawyers with a good profession, this is a good profession. Doctors are good. Yeah, they all good professions because they're competitive and everyone wants to do that.

DeLaw:

Goddamn job I remember I applied to the bank. I think I just I just got let go from the feds. One of the alumni from the fraternity was like yo oh, I work at bank of america. I'm gonna put you in contact with this person, they're gonna let you apply, you do whatever. So I'm thinking all right, I'm about to start working at a bank, be Be a bank teller. All right, cool, I get past all that initial part. He's like okay, you seem like you're going to be a really good candidate, so we just need you to do this questionnaire and from there we'll decide everything else. So I do the questionnaire. Clearly, I answer honestly, you know, not knowing.

Wes:

Would you steal money if it ever came about? And you said yes.

DeLaw:

No, you know, not knowing how would you steal money if it ever came about? And you said yes, no, I ain't say yes to stealing money. I said I ain't like helping motherfucking.

Wes:

Oh yeah, I remember you told that story. You was not getting that job I wasn't getting that job.

DeLaw:

And so the guy called the cops like hey, you know, I never got a response back. And then he's like oh well, let me check what happened with your uh, your self-evaluation test. Oh, I'm sorry, it was too late, there's nothing we can do with you. Goodbye, I'm like damn, not even All right, look, I'm going to see what I can do. I'm going to see if I can reopen this test, kind of like redo it and see what happens.

Wes:

Your brave man was like I don't like helping people.

DeLaw:

Look, they asked the same question like seven different ways. I got confused. I'm a college kid at 25.

Wes:

You also an adult at 25.

DeLaw:

Yeah, I'm an adult at 25. But why are you asking me do I like people seven different ways? Why are you asking that if someone asks me for help, will I help them seven different ways?

Wes:

At that point you're in customer service and they need to be firm on their decision if we want to hire this guy, because the negative stereotype of bank tellers, dmv employees and what else the post office people are the angriest people.

DeLaw:

Why are they asking me if I see somebody put a dollar in their pocket, am I going to switch? You don't have to ask me that separate different ways you do.

Wes:

If it's my bank, I need to ask that 10 different ways.

DeLaw:

Fuck the 7th. There's no way that Nah.

Wes:

I need to ask that 10 different ways.

DeLaw:

If I had, gotten that job, I would have been a bank teller and I more than likely wouldn't have left the bank industry Like at that age of 25,.

Wes:

Would you try to be a manager of your own?

DeLaw:

branch. I've been trying to move up. They make good money, why not? With that said, I think all roads lead to what you know you're good at. Am I good at counting money? Of course I do numbers for most of my life. Am I good at counting money? Of course I do numbers. I did numbers for most of my life. Am I good at talking to people? Yeah, it's hit or miss. It's hit or miss, you know. If it's one of the homies, hey, what's up, fam, you know, whatever. Whatever it's a little cutie, hey, you know, how are you doing today. If it's a regular, ordinary person, hello, how are you Like? You know, it doesn't depend on who was in front of me that day, you know, you know 25 year old me. You see, a little shorty, that cute. Of course you're going to be like hey, you know what's up. Hey, well, you know I'm off at. Like, oh, what you getting into? You know, all right.

Wes:

But yeah, man, but yeah, man, I mean, you did touch on something interesting though, like um, starting at the bank, right, what I, um, what I felt that my 25 year old self didn't know, is that, um, what's what was missing from, uh, my experience on my my, what I knew at that time was that there are it's better to take an entry-level job, it's better to take an entry-level job at an entry-level organization, rather than always shooting for the, the top tier companies you know, as you would, because when I, all I knew was, like, probably this is where I should be aiming for.

Wes:

These are the only companies that I know of not knowing that all organizations at that time, let's just say, for it, it's going to need an IT department or something that's dealing with that, or just even with um. I'm not too uh, well-versed in the, in the math side of things, but I'm pretty sure that you know every organization needs payroll or every organization needs some type of auditing system or something like that. Like it's probably been, it probably was a bunch of companies you could have, like you know, apply for even if you had to leave the state, or some shit like that.

DeLaw:

There was, but I knew the person at Bank of America that was trying to get me in. He was high level in there to get me in.

Wes:

I'm just saying in general I just fucked it up.

DeLaw:

I just fucked it up. There ain't no way around it. I just fucked it up, me, I fucked it up. But I mean at that age, yeah, entry level, entry level into something. You're young. You got a little bit more leeways than me at 40 trying to get entry level with anything. You know what I'm saying. Because me and my age trying to get entry level, they're like what the hell is wrong with you. You got all these years on your butt. You trying to get entry level. Yeah.

Wes:

I would also tell myself, not that I job hopped, but you know you didn't. This is what I tell myself, which is also crazy too. Even though you didn't job hop, it was possibly best if you job hopped, because you could have developed more experience uh, very quickly than staying, you know, at one company for a long time hoping and trying to work your way up. But that's another thing. That's a myth too, like putting that it used to work for our parents back in the day. Oh, your grandparents stayed at this organization or this company for 30 years. They give you a pension.

Wes:

Jobs are hard to come by. But our generation and younger, they're like yo, I'm gonna hop around, they're gonna offer yo, I'm going to hop around, they're going to offer me competitive salaries, I'm going to learn some things. Because it shouldn't take me four, it shouldn't take me five years to master something. If I like what I'm doing and I'm good at it, probably six months. Take that somewhere else. Get more money, get more money, get more money. Even that long Shit, depending on what it is, I'm saying six months.

DeLaw:

Even now I mean come on, I got to the department.

Wes:

You ain't gonna be a brain surgeon, and you know what I mean.

DeLaw:

I got the department to help me. They said, you know, our system's a little complicated, this isn't this. And I was like I said, okay, well, let me see the system. And I looked and I was like this ain't complicated, it's stupid, it's not user-friendly. Look at me complicated.

Wes:

I definitely tell myself like yo, all that shit was a myth. If I would have thought about that. I'm seeing YouTube videos. This is how I earned $200K a year because of this, this and this, and it was mainly just staying at jobs for six months at a time and just like, all right, it's time for me to move. I learned a bunch of stuff here. It doesn't seem like I'm going to learn anything else. Keep this job until you find another job, but don't do whatever you know. Probably do that a maximum of three times and then look for the place you probably want to try to stay at. Yeah, I wish I would have known that.

Wes:

That's what I would have told my 25-year-old, See I never really hopped around jobs too much, Neither did I, Because it was frowned upon. But when we in 27, 30, mid-30s oh now that's what everybody's doing I was like everybody was doing that. I thought we weren't supposed to do that, Following the rules and shit.

DeLaw:

Now that you say that because you know it was a lot of people I knew Exactly Every two, three years I'm like, oh man, how you like it over there? Oh, no, I left.

Wes:

I don't work there, no more.

DeLaw:

I'm gone. Yeah, I went to another place that offered me more money. Oh okay, cool, all right. I figured my mom was a fed employee from the time she got out of college and she took the OPM test to the time she retired. She'd been a government worker. These people, people in the state they said they've been there 30, 35 years. I'm like shit. I said so am I not supposed to stay? Am I supposed to stay?

Wes:

It was always told to us stay at your job, get your 401k pension and this, this and that. That's what was told, and all the people that make the money is the ones that break the norm, break the rules and shit.

DeLaw:

When I look at the, when I look at people's emails and I see that they don't have a number at the end of their name and they say they've been there 25 years, I'm like that means you've been at. You might not have been in the same position for 20, 25 years, but you've been with the same department for 20, 25 years, like I'm like. So. I was like you know, hey, for 20, 25 years, like I'm like. So I was like you know, hey, how long have you been here? 25?. I've been here 30 years. I'm about to retire in five. I said so. You only been here. Yep, I only been here in this position. And I'm just like oh, okay, that's cool. It was like how long have you been here? I said I've been here since July, but I came from department and I don't expect to be here too much longer because I'm trying to find my next big payday. Yeah, you know, I ain't trying to be sitting around making this same money with no one trying to move me out. That's crazy.

Wes:

Yeah, yeah, sometimes you get to like. When you get to like your 50s, you ain't really trying to move nowhere forever.

DeLaw:

That's what I'm trying to get all done now. Yes, me too, me too, definitely, once I hit 50, I ain't trying to find no new jobs. And if I find a new job, it's to move up. Yeah, it's to move up, like to like assistant chief or something, or deputy chief chief. You know it's the. It's to move up to make, to make the my retirement money. Yeah, yeah, I'm putting into retirement my full and all those other things. But when I move up to that, that's to make sure that when I'm done with working and they start giving me my pension, that I ain't just getting no 35K because they're only going to give you half of what your highest you know average of what your highest pay is for like three years. I ain't trying to get 35.

DeLaw:

Now, at this point I think they raised Social Security like 67. So even when I retire, even when I'm ready to retire, I gotta wait. So this is like what do I do? Yeah, I can't. I can't be like all right, 62, I'm done. I only have, I only have to work till I'm 62. I only got to work till I'm 62. I'll get my full pension to home 62. I only got to work to home 62. I'll get my full pension and but with getting my full pension there's no early, early Social Security is now higher, so that means I got to wait to get early Social Security and yeah, I, um, I don't know how long I gotta wait to retire.

Wes:

It's probably like 62 as well, 64. But I'll tell you one thing I would love to have a different, uh, career change that pays more than what I'm making now at 50. Yes, it depends I, I like just something that's gonna. When I say that pays a lot more, I mean a lot more, like if I can find it at 50 and just kind of be done with the going into the office type shit, like I got some investments or something that's bothering me. Why the fuck not?

DeLaw:

If I can't, if I can't find, if I can't get into the feds within the next year, then I'm going to stay with the state for my next seven and I year that I'm gonna stay with the state my next seven and we'll just go ahead and get invested so that what those 10 for these next. So let's say, like within, like the year, so like today, april 27, 2026, I don't, if I don't, if I can't get back into the face, let's go early in my state career where it won't make a break whether or not I stay or not. It's only two years. It's not like I got seven years under my belt and I'm like I'm trying to go to the feds. No, if I got seven years under my belt, I'm staying the next three to get vested. But if I can find something soon in the feds, then I will. I'll dip out and I'll do the rest of my career in the feds doing logistics. I will, I'll dip out and I'll do the rest of my career in the feds on logistics or whatever else I'm going to do.

DeLaw:

But if not, then I'll do my 10 years. That means just for the next 7, 8 years. I'll just have to grind and try to get as much money as I can so that when it's like up to like 90 grand right, let's say I get up to like 90 grand. Right, let's say I get to like 90 grand, 95 grand by the 10-year mark Then that means when I get invested, that's my pension. I might not get it until I get to 62, but I can leave and go get another pension from somewhere. But the only way that works is if I grind it out and get more money and get up to a certain amount to where okay, cool, I got that or I got this, and I can just sit pretty, get my two pensions, social Security, 401k on up and do the shit that I've been invested in. Or maybe I become a millionaire doing sports better, who knows?

Wes:

That's the best way.

DeLaw:

If I can get me a cool two mil off of one back. Now what Get the government they have, you know, pay off the house, get me my brand new car and shit, man, shit. I wouldn't need to go nowhere, I'd just be like you know what, all right, so now I have all this money left right here. Right, all right, I, now I have all this money left right here. All right, I done paid this house off, I done brought another house and now I'm making money on this house here. That's paying for my lifestyle elsewhere.

Wes:

So At the end of the day, as long as you're able to live comfortable, it's the more people we want a bunch of things, you know. Possessions and shit. They be fucking them when it comes to like finances. Because if you go, let's just say, typical life, you could afford to eat out four times a week Still get food in the house. Vacation, maybe two times a year. Yeah, spending money for like clothes and you know whatever year. Yeah, spending money for like clothes and you know whatever. Whatever. Some nice cars and shit, or just you know some decent cars, transportation and shit. I think a lot of people would jump at that. But you know, there's always like I got a stunt, I gotta have this, I gotta have that, and blah, blah, blah, and it's just kind of like yeah, you can go that route too, but I ain't going that route because once I'm dead, i'm'm dead. That stuff, you know.

DeLaw:

I've never been that.

Wes:

And then you got a new the summer collection is out. And then summer 25th, 35th collection is out, and your summer 2022 ain't really popping no more. Come on now.

DeLaw:

I ain't a flashy person like the most, the only flashy thing I got is my bar. That's about it. Other than that, I don't really buy too much clothes. My car is about you know. I mean, if I'm really looking at what I have, like as far as like, let's say, I was make just be making a shit ton of money, a lot of my money doesn't go to clothes and it doesn't go to other things. It goes to like stuff for the house and my bar. Yeah, so it might be like oh man, I can go buy this bottle.

DeLaw:

I ain't thinking like, let me go buy this chain and buy these rings and go buy this clothes and go buy this car, because I'm like these things, you, you get those that day a new model of it comes out tomorrow. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like I can get a. Let's say I got enough money. I can get me a 2025 Audi with all the bells and whistles, anything that you can have in it. It's in there. Right, the 2026 might as well have something I want. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So you know, for me, I never put that much value on getting cars and clothes and stuff like that, because they go out of style, they change the brand, changes, a new thing comes out, and it's just you always earning money on getting those things.

DeLaw:

Versus alcohol, unless they say they change the recipe, that shit the same. So I can buy this bottle of pure white Hennessy and leave it in the bar and just chill. You know to me and not that alcohol is a good investment it's not. But it's something that I know is going to ring a bell. When you see it, you see Hennessy. Hennessy been around for decades, decades. When you see it, you see Hennessy. Hennessy's been around for decades, decades, don Julio, decades. Bacardi I don't got no Bacardi in my bar, but Bacardi's been around for decades. These brands will be around for a long time and they're not changing the recipe. Unless it's bad, they might add a new. Oh, we now have a Hennessy XXXO. You know what I'm saying? It's the smoothest Hennessy you'll ever taste. It costs $200. I might buy that just to put it in the bar. But guess what? That's that one-time investment that I don't have to make again. I don't have to buy another model next year because that is the model that is for right now. For the next 10 to 15 years, it's just one of those things. A lot of it is.

DeLaw:

Even if I made that type of money, I wouldn't have no, it would literally be giving the money to my wife for her to spend. That's the only way I'd be able to spend all of it, because I wouldn't be able to. What a new house All right, cool, I wouldn't spend all of it. The latest car of Audi and maybe the latest Nissan Altima Okay, that's still between the two of those, only really $170,000, right, yeah, a house about $400,000 to $500,000. So, right there, that's only. That's not even a million.

DeLaw:

I give whatever I don't want to spend. I give my wife some. I might give her $50,000. She might burn it, she might not burn it, but then I'm still left with this money that I got to do something with, or I invest it, or might not burn it, but then I'm still left with this money that I got to do something with, or I've invested, or however.

DeLaw:

I want to do it, but it wouldn't be on buying clothes and shit or doing vacations. Maybe it might be. I might call one and say, hey, I want 300,000 points. How much it cost? Okay, boom here, take this off the thing. Whatever, boom, it might be something like shit that we can do for free.

DeLaw:

All right, you know what I'm saying. All right, baby, you want to go into Chicago? All right, cool, you just got to pay for the airfare. All right, cool, what up? We can pay for that because, you know, depending on when all this happens, we already paid off all these houses. We're saving our money and if we agree to let someone stay here, literally three, literally three times that they pay us, we put the money aside for the taxes. Put the money aside for the taxes. Whoever's maintaining the house for us, put that money aside. The rest of that money is in our pocket. Hey babe, you want to go to St Thomas? The ticket's about $500 a piece. All right, yeah, let's do that in September. All right, let's get these checks from these people. Boom, all right, go on the September. All right, let's get these checks from these people. Boom, all right, on the trip, we ain't got to pay them. You reinvent your wealth and keep adding to it.

Wes:

All right.

DeLaw:

In theory. That's how I look at it. Now. We'll eventually do some clear brush and buy something crazy maybe, but I couldn't justify it to myself. I wouldn't be able to justify it to myself.

Wes:

I would be able to justify it to myself, All right. So somebody needs your advice.

DeLaw:

I don't know if anyone needs my advice because I was told I have no sort of empathy to anything and I'm hard to talk to.

Wes:

Yeah, they don't know what they're talking about. Somebody needs your advice. This person is 25 and they just want a simple job and life.

DeLaw:

Yeah, pull your pants up and get one.

Wes:

They say why is it this hard? It's fucking exhausting. I am the only one, am I the only one feeling this way? Like you're not asking for the world, you just want a stable job, a place to belong, something simple. And yet it feels like you had to jump through hoops on fire while solving a rubik's cube, blindfolded, just to get a chance. Oh and all and all the do a masters or upskill this or try this. Unpaid internship advice just makes it worse. Like bro, when do I actually live? The system is just broken in so many ways. Linkedin feels like a high school popularity contest. Email is just digital begging at this point, and the four-stage interview circus an entry-level job. Like, why do I need to do a thesis defense to become a junior or anything? This whole setup is just not made for humans. It's made for robots with 10 years experience at the age of 22 who love networking and waking up at 5 am to meditate and code. What advice do you have for this person?

DeLaw:

My advice for this person is stop complaining about being a goddamn adult. And that's almost 40-year-old me. Saying that 25-year-old me would be like I know what you mean, but, nigga, stop complaining about being a goddamn adult. I think the person sounded white, but I'm not how you get there from words. Well, when he said junior level something, what niggas you know looking for a junior level anything?

Wes:

I was looking for a junior level something. What junior network administrator at one point in time okay, well, you looking. Junior level sales who wouldn't look for junior level sales either?

DeLaw:

that wouldn't look for junior level sales either. That's what I'm saying. We're going to assume that this person is colorless and we'll just approach it as in what 25-year-old would do At 25 years old. If you've already finished college, it's a market hard, I mean. You don't know how to really write your resume. You're competing against people trying to get the same position that already are five years older than you, trying to do the same shit you do. The only advice I can give you that little nigga fucking lie, lie, lie and lie some more.

Wes:

No, no, that lying shit will catch up to you well, it only catches up if you.

DeLaw:

Well, it only catches up if you don't take the initiative to learn it some things that people lie about.

Wes:

They don't have the opportunity to learn it within the time before they get caught. That is a dangerous thing to do. You know what I mean. I don't want to say.

DeLaw:

I've ever lied on my resume because we'll just say that I have embellished, that I know how to do something. But I also say that I know the bare minimum. I never say that I'm a master of it. So like, let's say, the payment system that we have in the state, I knew the ground level of it. I knew how to log in.

Wes:

Oh God, I had to think I'm like where are you going? I heard log in. I'm like, oh, that's it.

DeLaw:

I know how to hit F1, f2, f3, f4 to get to whatever I need to find that's it.

DeLaw:

I don't know anything else in that system, but the application said active knowledge of the feminist. That's active knowledge, like in the movie Basic with John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson. You only got to. It's not how you tell the stories. As long as you tell the story right, sure, yeah, think about it In a perfect world for this 25 year old applying to be whatever. If it says you have to have the minimum requirements of these things.

DeLaw:

Right, and you know a lot of things, you have no clue what they are or you don't know, or, in his case or his or her case, they don't know how to articulate that they've done this but not in the setting that they've done, to articulate that they've done this but not in the setting that they've done it. I think that's where a lot of us fall into that trap of, I think, my application to get into the state. Have you ever purchased anything on a budget or whatever for a state agency or a federal government? No, I haven't, because I wasn't high enough to do that in the state agency or the federal government. But I have purchased.

DeLaw:

I didn't ask whether to have you purchased or done procurement, but I have done it in other settings. So it's all in how you word it. You might have only brought pencils for kids at a tutoring center. You are now a procurement expert because now they gave you a budget, you brought the fucking pencils. Now you can say that you purchased and planned all this stuff and worked with the budget you had and gave back all of the seats. You are now a procurement specialist.

Wes:

it's all in how you tell the story I, I, I'm afraid to say I agree with you on that one I'm afraid to say that because it sounds yeah, yeah, but that, that, that is what this 25 yearyear-old is missing.

DeLaw:

He's missing whatever experience he has. Now, if he has, or he or she has no experience because you weren't as fortunate as some of us to actually have to work at a younger age. You have no experience. Your parents did everything for you. You graduate college. You have no experience. Hey, man, you should have a lot. You need to go over to McDonald's. You need to start building some skills so you can embellish what you did for McDonald's and keep it. You know what I'm saying and I feel like a lot of the kids who do grow up and don't have to work before college. They're at a very big disadvantage than most of what they had to work, because we can put our experiences at the age of 25.

DeLaw:

I had already worked at McDonald's. I had already worked at a cleaner's. I went back to McDonald's. I already had taught. I had already been a teacher. I had already worked for the feds twice. I've had a mountain of experience that when you look at my resume, instead of you thinking it was 25, you might have thought this person was 35 with the experience that I had, but really I was just 25. Now did I have the right tools to write my resume, the right way to get a good job? No, but that's something I had to learn. And also, we even had chat GPT.

Wes:

Yeah, that is very true.

DeLaw:

Very true. So I mean, it all depends. I mean, it's just like you talking about this other day how a lot of women now they lead off with their accomplishments of how they take care of themselves and how they got their own house, their own own this, they got their own job, they do this and this and it's like oh, whoop-dee-doo, Welcome to being a fucking adult. Like, men do it all the time Like, I get it. You rent your own apartment, Cool. Or you got your own house Cool, yeah, you go to work every day. You make $78,000 a year All right, great. You got your own car. You pay your own bills. You go on your own trip All right, cool. Everybody does it. It's called being an adult, you know.

DeLaw:

And then let me lead off with that. When I was back in Dayton, let me lead off with I got my own car, my own place. I got a job that paid me 80K. I got to. Also, are you trying to get me with money? Yes, God damn. Really, I'm trying to show you I'm an adult. Listen, the only thing now.

Wes:

Really, I'm trying to show you how I'm going to do it. Listen, the only thing I can say to this young person is, like yo, start the thing outside the box. That's the only way. In my experience, as we were talking earlier, as far as how people have been able to further themselves than other people, they thought outside the box, how, like, for an example, we were staying at one company for a long time, or whatever have you, it was like fuck that. If I need to get the experience, if they own, if this company is only doing this one thing and it's other companies doing something different, I need to work at both. So I need to work at both. Like, I'm not saying that that should be what you should be doing. This person is obviously trying to find a stable job, but you might have to think outside the box to get that money first, not drug dealing, selling your ass off.

DeLaw:

And stable is a very relative thing, because stable to me might not be stable to them Exactly.

DeLaw:

To me, stable means I ain't getting fired, that's stable to me. Ain't getting fired, that's stable to me. Well, yeah, that I'm going to get a decent enough paycheck to live on my own. Now, to them, stable might be that they it's a certain dollar amount, they're going to get increases. But that's not stable to everybody.

DeLaw:

Like, think about, think about all the people that work at the state that been there for years I mean decades, like they done, seen different administrations walk into their departments. To them that's stable. And a lot of them are so low on the totem pole they make about as much as I do when I just got to the state. So to them they're stable. They can pay any bills, they can put groceries on the table. Ain't nobody fucking with them, they just riding the shit out. To them, that's stable. So when you say stable, you have to be very, very specific about what is stable to you. He wants a stable job. Mcdonald's is stable. They don't fire nobody. Yeah, they do. I mean they do. You gotta fuck up for real. But even when they fire you, they bring you back if it ain't that bad true yeah, I'm just saying listen, think outside the box, young person.

DeLaw:

Yes, think outside the box, young person think outside the box or put into, since now you got chat GPT as a 25 year old. 15 years ago I didn't have no chat GPT. I had to pay somebody to look at my resume and tell me what chat GPT could have did. And then, at that, they might not even did a great job. I still might not got a damn job, and then you would have still had to pay that resume writer. And then, at that, they might not even did a great job. I still might not got a damn job, and then you would still have to pay that resume writer.

Wes:

Fifty to about five hundred dollars for them to work on your resume. Yeah, I remember I was. I was on my wife one of them because she we, she one of her friends knows not know someone. But it's real, a friend of a friend is dating this girl, basically, and she does that and she gets people like people have spoken highly about her and she's got people with numerous jobs with what she decides to put on her resume out of words stuff and the rate was $200. I was telling my wife I was like yo, I'll pay for that shit if it means you won't get a better job doing it in time or whatever, but means you won't get a better job doing that at the time. But she ended up getting a job before I could spend the $200.

DeLaw:

Thank goodness.

Wes:

I was like shit. When I'm looking, I might have to holler at an old girl and be like yo. It resume.

DeLaw:

You ain't got to do all that.

Wes:

I'm not doing the JGVT thing, because everyone's doing that.

DeLaw:

Well, so my boy, I remember I told you I was trying to get to Northland Grumman and so I put my resume up. Northland Grumman called me right and they asked me to send my not my Indeed resume, but my official resume. And I was like, okay, well, that's easy enough, so I send it. I'm trying to take stuff out and everything else, but if I had had chat GPT I could have looked and narrowed down what they were looking for and had them spell it out for me better.

DeLaw:

My boy, who just got into North Carolina doing warehousing, he was like he put it in there and it gave him this. So then he put what they put there to make it more specific so that it really captured what he did, so he didn't have to lie about it. So he sent me what he did and I looked at I was like that sounds like exactly what we did when we worked at that warehouse. I said no, I said that and he said yeah. So I try to make it as specific as possible, like what everybody's doing with ChatGPT right now. They're just taking the broadness versus getting it.

DeLaw:

Right, instead of getting it very specific so that it don't sound like ChatGPT. And honestly, I think that these employers, they want ChatGPT so that they can. Honestly, I kind of think they do, I kind of think they like the chat GPT because now they reading the shit it is why would you, why wouldn't you use?

Wes:

it. I hear you.

DeLaw:

It don't say on none of those companies resumes or applications please do not use ChatGPD. From what I can tell everyone that's used, it is working, nice, paying jobs. They say, oh, they frown upon it. But you got a job, they ain't frown upon it about too much.

Wes:

Yeah, you ain't wrong.

DeLaw:

Hey look, I forgot who said it. It ain't fined a pound about too much. Yeah, you ain't wrong. Hey look, look Like I forgot who said it.

Wes:

It ain't cheating if you don't get caught. Yo don't say that out loud, it ain't. Don't say that out loud. If you're listening and you don't know what context you're saying it in, people will be texting me like yo. Man, remember that fucking episode.

DeLaw:

We did it all depends on who sees the YouTube videos or whatever. Okay, and then you know they'll put a meme up of your wife asking you about who this bitch is on your phone. Thank you.

Wes:

I'm using this as a clip, I'm just saying that's the only way I can.

DeLaw:

I got you, I got you, I'm fucking with you.

Wes:

If they listen to the whole thing they're going to understand the concept of what the fuck you were saying.

DeLaw:

That concept goes, unfortunately, I say unfortunately. It goes to a lot of things. It ain't cheating if you don't get goes, you know. Unfortunately, I say unfortunately. It goes to a lot of things. You know, yeah, it ain't cheating, if you know. If you don't get caught it's not a crime. If you don't get caught, it pretty much it ain't nothing if nobody catches you doing it.

Wes:

You still, you know, you're still throwing your hands up, like you just tried to.

DeLaw:

You know I'm just look, I know a chick. When I was working for the US Stockpile, she wanted to get on the client side to where, like, she was a contractor for CDC and she's like I was like. So, from what I know about you, you worked in retail and at Costco your whole life. What made them think you were qualified to really do what you're doing? Oh, I lied.

Wes:

I lied.

DeLaw:

But no, that's a concept. You can put anything in If you don't get caught. Hey, you know, look, if they can't catch you, that you did something wrong. It's only a crime if you get caught yeah, it's only a crime.

DeLaw:

I mean, think about it. Look, I know you watched WWE wrestling back in the day, so remember when Stone Cold won his first Royal Rumble? Right, stone Cold got thrown over the top rope. He was eliminated. The refs didn't see it. He rolled back in that motherfucker. You know who eliminated him Bret Hart. He rolled back in that motherfucker. He kept fighting. Eventually, he threw Bret Hart over the top and won the Royal. Rumble. I'm just saying I know it's scripted.

Wes:

It always results back to wrestling.

DeLaw:

Always. I'm just saying it makes sense, don't it?

Wes:

Perfect sense.

DeLaw:

He ain't the only one that's been thrown over because the refs didn't see it. X-pac did the same thing. He got thrown over one time. X-pac got thrown over. He got thrown over one time. X-pac got thrown over. He got thrown over one time and nobody saw it. He rolled right back in that motherfucker. Yeah Was one of the last fours. He didn't win, but he rolled back in that gym.

DeLaw:

So, I'm just saying, you know, until that 25 year old hey man saying you know, I tell that 25-year-old hey man, look, it's time to be an adult.

Wes:

It's time to be an adult. It's time to be an adult.

DeLaw:

Hey look, you want a stable job. I get it. But you kind of got to take a job and work your way through it. I mean, the job is only as stable as dedicated as you are. I mean the job is only as stable as dedicated as you are. I mean, that's what it was. You could work at a place that is a big turnover, but if they like you, they know you're hardworking, you're dedicated, they can get rid of you. They're stable there.

DeLaw:

You could practically almost get away with murder, like when I did a stockpile once. They were like you know, d-law's the guy. I could've dropped a $100,000 pallet on the floor and would've got a slap on the wrist, as long as it wasn't vaccine. Yeah, vaccine's a little different. Somebody's head got to roll for that. Shit Might even go to jail. Sure, nah, as long as I ain't taking out the facility, I ain't got to go to jail. I couldn't drop a million dollar pallet. I couldn't do that.

DeLaw:

That's different, because that's a vaccine that's probably saving somebody's life. And then we got to spend that money again. That might be a write up and or termination, but for certain things I'll get that leeway of. Nah, we can't get rid of him. Give him the write-up, let him know don't do this shit again and keep it rolling. But let it be something else to somebody else. Maybe walk him out the front door. But a job is only as stable as much as they like you is, until you become obsolete. And sometimes they just keep you around because they're like you know, we like you a lot. You're older, blah, blah. This, that, that thing.

Wes:

I would get kept around because they like me, me neither. It just never happened.

DeLaw:

They tried to Like. When I got my job at the state, they tried to be like you know you might want to stay after this. We're making everybody full-time here, Really. Yeah, oh, okay, that sounds cool.

DeLaw:

I mean hooray hooray yay, I mean, the way I had to look at it was I was making a certain amount with the stock value and when I got my first check from the stock value I mean my first check from the state it was less than what I was making at the stock power. Was it less? It was not less. It might have been around the same amount, maybe a little more, but it wasn't enough for me to be like man cool. You know what I'm saying In retrospect. If I had left sooner, sooner I'd have been making 10 grand more. But because I left when you're about to make everybody full time, I technically was making 10 less yeah so that's just.

DeLaw:

You know the reality of it now. Now I'm making five grand more than what I was going to be making at the stockpile, but I'll take that, you know. Hopefully I can make more and I can keep advancing. But we want to keep you on board because you know we really like you. You ain't got no retirement plan here. We ain't got no contract. Y'all want to keep me here until it's time to go, and then I got to go find a job. I got a wife.

Wes:

You got shit to do.

DeLaw:

I got shit to do. I can't you know. Mind you, if I stayed, my old super buddy, he found a job somewhere and he was like yo, he'd have been like, yeah, come with I left and I'd have gone with him there and got myself stable there.

Wes:

So I you know you can always choose to say no.

DeLaw:

But it's one of the things where, when I looked at it, I was like, if I had stayed, if I had stayed, would I still be better off? Looking at it now? Yeah, I would. I would not better off. Would I have still been all right? Yeah, I still would have been all right. But would I want to take that gamble?

Wes:

No.

DeLaw:

No, I wouldn't want to take that gamble, because who's to say that you know the stock has been closed for since last year, since last year January? Who would have said I would have found a job by then? Who would have said I wouldn't be working at McDonald's trying to make a little? Gone to a tutoring company trying to tutor, like who would just say that I would have found some? So you know, I yeah, I took the first thing smoking, and this 25 year old might have to do the same thing. But once you take the first thing smoking, you now become marketable because it's like having a girlfriend. Other people start saying, okay, well, he's hired by this person. I wonder what made? Okay, let's bring him in see what's going on. You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying.

DeLaw:

It's like that, like if you don't have a job or you don't have a girlfriend, you're not appealing to nobody. It's once you get those things that you become appealing to what you're trying to get. You're trying to get a better paying job. You've got to have a job. You want to meet this girl. You want to meet other girls. Oddly enough, you've got to have a girl. You won't get it out of her, because a lot of times we don. You gotta have a girlfriend, you can get well-behaved out there, because a lot of times we've got a girlfriend and some chicks that you ain't know. Oh, that's your girl. Oh she cute. I didn't know you had it like that. I don't want to know what you're working with.

Wes:

Now they carry that. They're missing out. But you was already missing out when you ain't give me that chance. Now I'm going to have to dig down your friend just off the terms of the game. Not even you, a friend. I need you to hear about it even more. I need you to do what Megan did to Kelsey and fuck with Tory Lanez, even though my homegirls. I'm not even going to say you said that because that's what happened. That's what happened. I didn not even going to say, because that's what happened that's what happened don't kill me.

Wes:

I already know how to edit this. It's all jokes.

DeLaw:

Tori doing this like a G. He doing it like a G and honestly I think he's innocent. But that's neither here or there we thank everybody for tuning in.

Wes:

D-law definitely wants to smoke by saying that we don't know what's what, and you know how sensitive people are to that, so we're going to end the pod right here. We thank everybody for tuning in and see you guys next time. Pod right here. Thank her for tuning in. See you guys next time.