So much is different... At 19 I was unruly AF, literally up in arms against the Soviet Union, but also I had no worries at all about future jobs and such!

These days I'm a refugee from what I defended back then...

I didn’t read the whole thing as from the bit I did read it just sounded like he was trying to find excuses for why he couldn’t get a job..

I tried following this traditional path when I first started my career. I went to University, studied computer science, but really had no interest in sitting in lectures and came out with pretty terrible grades.. I couldn’t get in to any sort of graduate job with the grades I got so had to do things differently.

I got a job working in an ISP help desk and later did some web design for small businesses. That experience got me in to a role developing the billing system for a startup ISP. That company collapsed but I made good connections there which have led to all of my jobs since then.

In my case I partly had a bit of “luck”, and times were a bit different, but I think he would be better off finding other ways to build some experience rather than looking for excuses..