Sam, I read it all and feel your pain to an extent. When I got done with my under graduate degree, I went to work in my degree field and took what I could to get my foot in the door. I was salary and starting straight out of college I was making around 40k, which was big money nearly 20 years ago. They worked me 7 days a week, and a minimum of 16 hour days (which is legal in the agriculture sector to salary employees I found out)...for quick math, I had an average of a 112 hour work week...which equaled making under $7 per hour, and there were periods in the summer we would honestly work 24hours straight at the mill. It was a revolving door of employees bc no one would last and the managers were the biggest piece of shit dick lickers you ever met. I lasted 2 years and was constantly looking for other jobs, even thought about going back to a warehouse job I had in college bc I was making $15/hr there and no weekends. I stuck with it and finally landed my government job. Now I have a pretty good salary, more holidays than I can name, weekends off and a hell of a retirement and benefit package. I guess my ramblings come down to this, if you are passionate about your schooling and degree, stick with it and it will pan out over time. I'm am a moron, and it even worked out for me.