A tearful Gen Z job seeker with two degrees and three languages has said she is the ‘most humbled’ after going door to door for a minimum wage job and dropping out, adding that she ‘just wants to be a TikTokker ‘.
Lohanny Santos, 26, from Brooklyn, uploaded a video of herself crying while holding a stack of resumes on TikTok.
“This is the most humiliated I’ve ever felt in my life,” she said, telling viewers that she tried to meet in person with potential employers asking for a job – but so far hasn’t been successful.
She added: “It’s honestly a bit embarrassing because I literally apply for minimum wage jobs and some of them say ‘we’re not hiring’ (…) This is not what I expected.”
Santos, who graduated from Pace University with a degree in communications and one in acting, said she speaks three languages and seems devastated after being unable to find a minimum-wage job, which pays her $16 per week in New York. hours would result.
Lohanny Santos (pictured), 26, from Brooklyn, uploaded a video of herself crying while holding a stack of resumes on TikTok
Santos admitted that “this sucks” as she wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks. She said she wouldn’t give up her job search because she ‘literally needs to make money’
“This sucks,” she added, wiping away the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I just wanna be a TikTokker when I’m so real with you, but I can’t be delusional anymore… Like I literally have to make money, so I just keep trying.”
Santos isn’t the only one who can’t find a job in New York right now, as data from the New York State Department of Labor shows unemployment is rising.
The unemployment rate for New York City was 5.4 percent in December, up 0.1 percent from November and up 0.3 percent from December 2022. The unemployment rate in New York State was 5.4 percent in December 2023 4.5 percent.
Santos’ video seemed to resonate with many Zoomers — the colloquial name for Gen Z members — as it racked up 3.3 million likes on TikTok.
‘You never have to be ashamed. You should take pride in putting your pride aside and being realistic,” one of her fans wrote.
Another follower said: ‘This is exactly how you apply for a job before the internet. Nothing to be ashamed of, because this gives you real sales experience.’
But not everyone was sympathetic to Santos’ situation.
One commenter wrote, “If you hadn’t majored in communications and acting, you might not be in that situation.”
Another asked: “Something tells me she’s doing this for the content?”
Santos – who vowed to ‘keep trying’ as she cried (pictured above) isn’t the only one currently unable to find a job in New York, as New York State Department of Labor data shows unemployment is rising
Although Santos received sympathetic responses from young people in the same situation, she also received a lot of criticism, with some users even accusing her of faking her job search and crying on camera.
Some told her that her degrees and language skills alone would not get her a job, because experience mattered most to employers.
“This used to be a normal process of finding a job when you have no experience, the only difference is we did it while we were going to college and didn’t wait until after,” one user wrote.
Others said Santos chose the wrong majors in college. “Choosing communication and acting is not a good start,” said one.
Another added: ‘Behaving better than everyone else and then crying while applying for a mundane job is comical, getting off your high horse must be tough.’
But one Instagram user suggested it wasn’t Santos’ fault she couldn’t find a job, but that it was a problem for her entire Gen Z generation.
“The problem is your generation, and everyone else’s perception that you are nothing but trouble,” the user said.
“Business people don’t want that stuff in their office. Sorry, now you see how your schools have failed you.”
Ultimately, Santos’ public job search paid off when she landed her first brand partnership with a birth control pill company.
Some of her followers thought her viral video, which showed her crying in front of the camera with the stack of resumes in hand, might have been for show.
“This is planned,” one user wrote, while another noted, “I have a degree in acting and can cry on the spot.” I don’t want a real job, I want an easy way out and sponsorship.’
A third accused her of “just trying to get attention as an influencer so she doesn’t have to get a real job.”