- A 43-year-old has been unemployed for years, despite having two diplomas
- Dan Colflesh quit his job at the age of 34 to pursue a university education
- The graduate said the experience left him feeling “defeated.”
A university-educated millennial has complained that his degree is ‘worthless’ after being unable to find work for three years.
Dan Colflesh quit his job in the customer service industry at the age of 34 to pursue a degree in hopes of improving his employment prospects.
“I’ve worked my way up in a few companies, but I always hit a roadblock in promotions because I didn’t have a college education,” Colflesh told Business Insider.
However, the now 43-year-old has declared his degree ‘worthless’ after struggling to find a job for years after graduating and being saddled with student debt.
In 2021, Colflesh graduated with an associate degree in physics from the community college and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
His story comes amid speculation that the college degree is losing its value as Walmart, Accenture and IBM remove all degree requirements from their corporate job descriptions.
Dan Colflesh quit his job in the customer service industry at the age of 34 to pursue a university degree
The graduate said his experience of the job market left him feeling “defeated.”
‘Nobody wants to hire me. My undergraduate degree is virtually worthless,” he complained to the publication.
Colflesh explained that he has looked for work in the three years since graduating without any success. He has applied for more than 100 jobs without success.
The graduate told Insider he is still looking for a job and sometimes feels “defeated” by the process.
“Once upon a time you could have a bachelor’s degree in just about anything and get a good-paying job,” he said.
‘Now you must have an incredible amount of experience.’
“I keep hearing employers talk about how no one wants to work, and I really want to work, and I can’t get anyone to ever sit down and talk to me,” he added.
The unemployment rate for American men is low compared to previous decades
Colflesh said he feels like he faces additional challenges because he is autistic.
“I will always hate most non-autistic people,” he explained.
‘The general lack of acceptance of autistic people makes social networking challenging, which has implications for employment.’
However, he remains determined to find work.
“I’ll keep watching no matter how bleak it gets, because I have to,” he said.
The unemployment rate for American men is low compared to previous decades.
However, it has fallen significantly since 1950, when about 97 percent of men aged 25 to 54 were employed, compared to just 89 percent who are employed today.