What is on the minds of the current generation of twentysomethings, asks Róisín Ingle.
Marriage is to be considered only after living together. They look at Rip-Off Ireland and threaten to up sticks to help street children in Peru. It's the Gap-Year effect. Talk to any of the 400,000-plus people in he State aged between 21 and 27 and you'll find their expectations have shifted in proportion to the amount they have travelled. They are staying in college longer while they figure out what kind of job they really want. They talk about retiring in their 30s. Some are luck to have a fulfilling job and some hate their jobs. Should they stick it out or reinvent themselves?
The Quarter Life Crisis is just as real as the Midlife Crisis.
‘I don’t want to be pinned down’
Rob O’Leary, 24, Software engineer
I started a very small software company last March with my business partner and at the moment we have five employees. I took a year out of my degree in Trinity to work and got a job by pretending I had spent a year as an engineer already. It meant that when I really did finish the course, I had the edge over other graduates; a lot of the jobs were gone because the sector was going through a slump. I spent the next couple of years working for big companies but I didn’t like it at all. You became a lower-level engineer and then after 10 years you might, and it’s only a might, get to be at the level that I am at now. Plus you have to deal with bean-counters and the corporate world in big companies, which I don’t want to do. I also own half of a contracting company. It was a big risk leaving a permanent job with just one month’s wages to go out on my own but I felt I had nothing to lose.
I am in Italy a good bit for my work because we have developed software for IBM there. I am seriously thinking about buying a pub in Lecce, a small university town in Italy which is starting to attract more tourists. It seems like a good plan. I do worry that I am spending my 20s staring at a computer because I work six days a week, often finishing at 10 p.m. I had a girlfriend but she left me because she said I work too hard. It’s not a great way to spend your best years but I feel if I don’t do it now I will regret it. I am hoping to be in a position to give it up by the time I am 30 so that I can have a more relaxed lifestyle. I’ll live somewhere abroad and learn a new language and write software for fun.
Eventually I am definitely getting out of Ireland because it’s a miserable place – and that’s not only the weather, it’s the people too. I have no trust in the Government and you pay far too much for far too little in this country.
I have no sympathy for people who moan about their jobs. What are they doing staying in that crappy job? They let themselves get there. So they should get themselves out. The main thing is I don’t want to end up buying a two-up two-down in Lucan or somewhere like that just because it’s the nearest location to Dublin where I can afford a house. I rent at the moment because I don’t want to be pinned down by anything. I don’t even want a car.
There are people out there my age whose main ambition in life is buying a two-up two-down and having a business card. It’s just so short-sighted because in 10 seconds 30 years will have passed and you will be sitting in your pad in Lucan wondering what happened to your life. The people who aspire to this say they want security. But that’s not the goal. Happiness is the goal.
‘I am the professional bum with no career’
Laura Kiernan, 23, Barworker
I worked for 10 months after leaving college to save up for my year of travelling. I am now working in my parents’ pub in Roscommon to pay off all the debts. I was in Thailand and Australia doing various jobs for a year. It was funny catching up with my friends when I came back just after Christmas.
Most of them have jobs sorted and have cars and partners and other things I don’t have. It’s like a disease. They all seem to be talking about getting married or moving in together or trying to buy property. I am the professional bum with no apartment, no career and no love life. I knew before I went away that coming back I would feel out of my depth for a while. But that’s why I like travelling; you are constantly out of your depth and when that happens, you have to swim.
I am living with my parents until I get back on my feet. When my mother was this age she was married with kids. She totally understands why I need to travel. Some people I know are happy to stay at home and living out of a backpack for a year doesn’t interest them at all. Living in a small town [Roscommon] again after seeing the sights of the world is strange. I do see myself living in another country, maybe a Third World country, so I am going to try and get some training that would be of use in those regions.
‘I definitely don’t go out as much’
Orla Tobin, 23, Global market banker and former Rose of Tralee
I think we are much more ambitious than the generations that went before. We have a certain amount of drive and won’t just accept the first job that comes along which is what our parents would have done. In the past if you got a job in a bank it was a job for life whereas I have had a successful career in the bank and now realised banking is not for me. I have done a television presenting course but I would also consider going back to college to do a degree in something completely different. You don’t have to put limits on yourself.
There are things about living in Ireland that annoy me.
The thing that really gets on my nerves is that contraception is not free.
The Government worries about disease and teenage pregnancies and we still have to pay for contraception, which is ridiculous. Politicians should grow up and stop acting as though we are still in old Catholic Ireland because the rest of us have moved on. The fact that you are ripped off everywhere you go is outrageous, especially when you compare prices in the UK – even taking the sterling exchange rate into account. I definitely don’t go out as much I did because we have just bought a house. You can’t spend less than ¤100 on a night out in town so if you don’t go out and stay at home you can think: "Great, that’s €100 I can spend on something else."
‘It would be nice to have more free time’
Luke Norman, 27, Printer
A lot of my spare time not working is spent in "cabbage-mode". That’s just the way it is when you work long hours. I work in the family printing firm. It would be nice to have more free time and holidays, but it’s hard to leave even for a couple of weeks because it means arranging cover. I have had two two-week holidays in the last 10 years. A couple of years ago I might have thought about walking away but I have put too much time into the business to let it go now. I removed a lot of choices by going into the family business; it seals off certain avenues.
I think a lot of problems experienced by people my age come from making important life decisions at 17 or 18 when you are not old enough to really know what you want. People I know are feeling like they want to change the jobs they have to try and find out what it is they want to do. Others will work in a job they don’t like very much until they are 40 and then go off and teach diving in Honduras or Thailand where they won’t need much money and their quality of life will be amazing.
What my friends and I talk about are things like how the quality of everything here is getting worse as everything becomes more convenient. We seem to have a worldwide culture now instead of an Irish one; it’s become kind of grey, a bland world where the extremes that make life more interesting are not there any more.
‘I’m one of those free spirits’
Michelle Hearne, 23, Travel consultant
I was lucky in that I knew from a very young age I wanted to work in travel and tourism. Over the last five years I have worked in two companies and travelled through France, staying in Montpellier for nine months which completely opened my mind. I have a great job now but I am planning to go to Australia in the near future. A lot more people my age are going off travelling because the fares are cheaper and it’s easier to get a visa – it used to take weeks to get a visa for Australia and now you can get one in 48 hours.
I think people feel there has to be a lot more to life than just Ireland and they have a thirst for new experiences. They have done nothing but work since they left school or college and they want a break before they settle down. I am going travelling now because I don’t want to be a 27-year-old backpacker. I do want to focus on my career and move up the ladder but it’s hard to do that because I have such itchy feet.
Most of my friends have houses and mortgages but that’s not for me at the moment. I am one of those carefree spirits, I live every day as it comes. I have friends who move from job to job and are very unhappy, with no idea of what they want to do. My parents both had one job and stayed in it for 30 years. I have the utmost admiration for all my friends who have serious jobs and new houses and mortgages and there are days when I sit down and wish I had my own house and car. I am happy with the way my life is, though, learning as I go along. Everyone is different.
‘Buying a house seems very remote’
Marianne O’Shea, 24, Student
I don’t know what I want to do at the moment. I did an arts degree – the most open degree in the world – and then went travelling to Germany for a while just pottering around. I am 24. I feel grown up. I can’t help thinking that I should have done something with my life by now but I am single and still in college doing a post-grad in community work. I don’t know what I thought I would be doing at 24 but it isn’t this.
I think a lot of my friends are hitting that "Oh no, we have to do something" stage of life. It’s do or die time.
You have to think about choosing something. Buying a house seems very remote. One friend started talking about property prices recently and it’s the first time I have heard any of our group talking about it. It makes me feel "Oh my God" I should be settling down somewhere, but I live in rented accommodation in Kerry – not by choice but because of where my college placement is. I just have this feeling that something should have happened in my life by now. I thought I would be a lot more sorted but I am still the same as I was two years ago.
I think I will have to go off travelling again because I want to see loads more places but then I think I should start thinking about buying and then I want to go away again and then I wonder should I settle down. The course finishes in September. My Dad asked me what I am going to do. I said I am either going to get a grown-up job or go and hide somewhere. I don’t know where. There are so many choices but that only makes life harder, in a way.
It’s easier just to let things happen.
‘I want to do better, I want to achieve more’
Gillian Whelan, 25, Funds administrator
I got a job straight from school and never ended up going to college but got a job with a bank. With all the in-house training I’ve managed to get to a good level. I took a year’s leave of absence a few years ago to go to the US with my boyfriend because we both wanted to travel. We have just managed to buy a two-bedroom apartment in Sandyford mostly because we made a bit of money while we were away and for the last year we have really been saving.
We have a 35-year mortgage which sounds quite daunting but the repayments are manageable and I can’t wait to move in. The thing I do worry about is interest rates going sky-high. That is a bit of a fear. I can’t get over the price of things in Ireland. I went to the doctor to get jabs because we are going travelling for a few weeks and it cost €67 for two.
It’s very different for us than it was for our parents. It wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t have a child until I was 30, until I could afford to get someone to mind it. And I don’t want to stay at home minding children when I have them, I would definitely go back to work. I want to do better, I want to achieve more – not necessarily for the money but for that sense of achievement that comes with success.