Finding a job is difficult; this is not a new topic. In fact, it was also not easy to find a job in the past. I remember when I just graduated, finding a job was exceptionally hard. I could only find some labor-intensive work. Of course, there were many intermediaries, and these intermediaries often packaged the job very well, but in reality, the job was very poor. They were just trying to earn your intermediary service fee.
I remember when I first graduated, I thought about going out to work to earn some tuition and relieve the pressure on my family. At that time, I went to an intermediary in the county town. The intermediary asked me to pay a service fee ranging from 150 to 300 yuan, and then introduced me to a new job. At that time, I paid the money, and after paying, they gave me an address and told me to go find it. However, when I arrived at that address, I found that the workplace was surprisingly not far from my home, and the working environment was very poor. Many people wanted to resign, and the phenomenon of unpaid wages was very common.
I felt cheated, but trying to get back the intermediary fee was very difficult. They usually told you that they would find you another job, but every job they offered was a bad one, all problematic, and had issues with unpaid wages.
I remember arguing with the intermediary staff at that time, and during the process, they learned about my family situation and refunded me a portion of the money. Later, they introduced jobs to people from our village, and I went to Dalian. However, when I arrived at the factory based on their address, they said they were not hiring, which put us in a dilemma.
At that time, many people turned to work in Tianjin. The neighbor who brought me out didn't have much money on him, so he thought about working at the dock instead and asked me to follow him to work at the dock. Working at the dock that year was quite tough. Later, I didn't want to work at the dock anymore, so I went to find a job myself.
So I found a job at a construction site in Dalian that promised to pay two months' wages, but the boss said he would definitely pay me. However, just when it was time to pay the wages, the boss got into trouble because he was reported for using fraudulent checks and was also involved in an extramarital affair. This made it almost impossible for us to get our money. At that time, many people couldn't afford to wait and left one after another. I was also forced to leave. Before I left, the boss's brother told me, "Little Shandong, you can go back. You won't lose your money; it will definitely be transferred to you." But when I returned to Shandong, I could hardly get through on the phone, and even when I did, the other party was vague, and in the end, nothing came of it.
I remember that to go home, I had to go to the labor market in Dalian to find some work. After finding a job, I was deceived again. Dalian also had many labor intermediaries, and these people had no conscience; they were just there to make money and did not do any real work. I remember seeing an ad in the newspaper for a company called Northern Housekeeping, so I went to the Ganjingzi District, but it turned out to be a shady operation. Their daily work was just distributing flyers, going door to door to insert small ads, which might have been illegal. They said they provided accommodation, but then charged us money. They played with words, saying, "We provide accommodation," but providing does not mean it's free. Later, they also didn't want to pay us, and in the end, I had to leave. When I left, I went to another place to do odd jobs and earned some money. After that, I decided to go home. When I arrived at the Linyi bus station, there were pickpockets, and as a result, my money was stolen again. So when I got home, I had not a penny left. Looking back now, it feels very painful.
Many people say that society is too competitive now, and it's hard to find a good job, etc. In fact, compared to 20 years ago, it has improved a lot. Perhaps in today's society, you can't find a very good job, but 20 years ago, it was very hard to find any job at all. Although it was the golden period of real estate at that time, migrant workers had a very tough life. Migrant workers had work to do, but often they couldn't get paid. Usually, when the project was about to finish, the relevant leaders would run away, and many migrant workers would just consider themselves unlucky.
I am a victim of that era. Back then, I just wanted to earn tuition because I failed the first college entrance examination, and the fee for the repeating class was 1,100 yuan. At that time, I couldn't come up with 1,100 yuan. Do you know? 1,100 yuan is a small amount now, but back then, a month's salary was only about 300 yuan, or even less than 300 yuan. So, taking 300 yuan as an example, to earn 1,100 yuan, we needed to spend four months' time, and that was if we had a conscientious boss willing to pay us. If we encountered a boss without conscience, we could work for four months and end up with nothing. The social reality at that time was like this.
So, at that time, I was particularly confused. Due to my introverted personality, having just transitioned from school to society, I tended to trust strangers. I always thought that as long as I put in the effort, others would treat me fairly. However, in reality, the more you give, the more likely you are to be taken advantage of.
In that era, many people had experiences of being deceived. Being able to go out to work and bring back wages was already a significant achievement. I was working in such a historical context.
At that time, I particularly wanted to change my fate, but I kept getting cheated. After finally earning some money, I thought about whether I could use this money to start a business, seize some business opportunities, and achieve wealth multiplication.
At that time, I often received materials about so-called good projects or notifications that I had won a prize. In fact, these were all scams. I also spent money to buy so-called materials and ideas, only to find out they were all traps. After working hard to earn that little money, I was deceived by scammers again. It was truly a helpless situation where no one would respond to my calls for help.
When I was desperate, I often thought about the grievances I suffered and the fraud I experienced, wishing I could see that person and kill him. However, such opportunities were always missed. If I had the chance at that time, I really couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't impulsively kill that despicable person. Working day and night only to be deceived in the end is something no one can accept.
However, when someone asks you how much money you earned from going out, you can't say you were deceived and brought back nothing. You can only force a smile and say how much you earned. Yet, the pain of it all is something only you truly understand.
Many people complain about today's society, and many envy the real estate opportunities of the past. However, in reality, even if you went back to that era, you wouldn't have the conditions to buy a house because making money was much harder than it is now. Of course, I mean in that particular field. Now, we should cherish our current life, the social welfare we have, reduce some complaints, and use our skills to create our own career.