Hi, I am a millennial and I am experiencing a career crisis!

Dr. Ciera Graham
7 min readMay 21, 2023

Have you ever felt that the work you were once good at now bores you? Are you a millennial seriously considering an early retirement or lamenting at the thought of working until retirement age? Are you someone who climbed the ranks of leadership in your 20s and 30s only to find yourself burned out and unhappy? Do you continue to feel depleted and exhausted every day of the week? Is work making you lose your joy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, and you’re a millennial, you may be experiencing a career crisis.

Throughout my early adult life, I had to make a lot of calculated career choices in order to achieve upward mobility — I chose to pursue a graduate degree, as I associated education with increased earning potential. As a child from a working family, a college degree was seen as a tool to ascending to a middle-class life. Arguably, it was seen as the only tool as a high school diploma wouldn’t come close to granting me the financial security and freedom I sought.

I made the decision to work while pursuing a doctorate degree so I could earn money, increase my skill set, and pad my resume. The more work experience I had — the easier it would be to find a job. I knew my Blackness was a mark against me, but being both Black and unqualified would have created more hurdles. At one point while pursuing a…

--

--

Dr. Ciera Graham

I’m a writer and higher education administrator. A doctor of sociology with a love for writing topics on race, intersectionality, and women’s career issues.