My name is Jermaine. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering. The problem was I fell for the "our engineering school is so awesome even our 'C' students or more sought after than Stanford 'A' students" line of bull. So I eased off on the academics. I decided to join a frat and party a little. By the end, I was just a B average student and it turns out that only grades matter to employers. They didn't care what school I went to AT ALL. Company after company passed on hiring me. Eventually I took the first offer I got for a ridiculously low salary thinking I could at least gain some experience. Fast forward a few months and the supervisor that was going help me gain a valuable certification was let go and there was no real future after that.

Ignoring how long it took to get the job and the horrible (at the time) job market, I quit. I was foolishly clinging to school's lie about their great reputation thinking it would allow me to find a better job easily. Of course that didn't happen so I begin a long journey of a series of odd jobs not even remotely related to engineering, all of which could have been done straight out of high school (some maybe even if I hadn't finished high school).

After a while I tried in vain to see if I could get back into engineering, but by then the engineering employment gap was so large, no one wanted to touch me. No employers cared that I stayed gainfully employed like a responsible adult. My engineering degree was essentially expired.

I tried and failed at a few business ventures until I gave up my desire to be self-employed and settled back into "reality" by getting a job with the USPS in maintenance (which is where I am in this picture). I even thought I might be able to use it as a "foot in the door" and eventually get into an engineering position with them, but that was a bust. At that time, I still hadn't figured out that my degree had expired.

That's not a problem anymore because I am on a new Success Path to achieve a better life than I could have even if I was able to use my engineering degree.