Maybe you’ve seen content creator Janel Abrahami’s viral TikTok about the “Great Millennial Career Crisis.” Or maybe you’re a millennial who is starting to second-guess their chosen career path. Either way, one thing is true: Widespread career unrest and dissatisfaction are happening, particularly among millennials.
While Gen Zers gained enough visibility into unfilled career promises to know they should opt for career minimalism, millennials weren’t so lucky. And now, they are asking themselves, “If I did everything right, why am I not seeing it pay off?” With no answers and zero direction, a large majority of millennials have officially entered crisis mode.
I spoke with Janel Abrahami, along with a few millennials, to learn more about the “Great Millennial Career Crisis.” And now, I’m breaking down what it is, why it’s common, and what to do if you find yourself among the many millennials feeling it.
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Janel Abrahami
Janel Abrahami is a career coach, writer, speaker, and creator at the forefront of modern careers and ambition, helping 100k+ millennials find their place in the Future of Work. Learn more in Janel’s Going Places newsletter—your source for what’s working in the new economy and proven playbooks for creating a career on your terms.
What is the Great Millennial Career Crisis?
In the words of Abrahami, the Great Millennial Career Crisis is “a collective breakdown.” She explains that “an entire generation is realizing the career ‘contract’ they were promised doesn’t actually exist anymore.”
“We were sold a simple formula: go to college, get a good job, climb the ladder, buy a house, retire comfortably,” she said. On paper, it sounded simple. But this path didn’t account for actual realities: impossible entry-level requirements, crushing student debt, unaffordable housing, and economic crises. Society and previous generations taught millennials that this formula would lead to happiness and success, but many who followed it are realizing they’re unhappy and actually not feeling successful at all.
On top of that, they are struggling to distinguish between external system failures and internalized personal failure. Millennials are blaming themselves for not achieving major life milestones “on time” or for not amassing wealth more quickly, without accounting for the many external factors that contribute to these societal failures. They’re beating themselves up over factors beyond their control and burning out trying to “catch up,” which is leading them to question everything—beginning with their careers.
What factors have led to the Great Millennial Career Crisis?
Economic timing
While every generation experiences economic downturns, millennials have experienced constant disruption back-to-back. Some millennials graduated into the Great Recession (2008-2009), entering a complicated job market. Then the pandemic hit, leading to hiring freezes and layoffs across many industries. Today, layoffs are the norm, not the exception, causing financial strain and harming mental health.
“Millennials are blaming themselves for not achieving major life milestones ‘on time’… without accounting for the many external factors that contribute to these societal failures.”
After being laid off in 2025, millennial Carolyn Jane Campbell found herself in a grief-filled period filled with guilt, shame, and self-disgust. “No one warns you about how isolating losing your job is; my world stopped while everyone else’s kept going. I received the gift of time with no idea how to use it,” she told me.
Lower starting salaries, slower wage growth, delayed promotions, and prolonged unemployment periods compound over time, depressing long-term income. The effects of structural instability add up, making some millennials feel that no matter what they do, they will always be behind.
Cost of living vs. wage pace
Millennials face ongoing cost-of-living challenges because wages haven’t kept pace with skyrocketing housing costs, rent increases, and surging childcare and healthcare costs. The average age of first-time homebuyers rose to 40 in 2025, highlighting that the cost of living is pushing traditional milestones to later adulthood. And childcare costs have risen so much that for many millennials (and Gen Zers), it’s a deciding factor in whether couples have children.
The milestones society pushes us toward, like buying a house and having children, feel drastically out of reach for many. When a job isn’t funding one’s priorities outside of work, feeling underpaid can certainly lead to job resentment. Especially if you have no attachment to your actual work, anger and bitterness become commonplace.
Student debt burden
As if the cost of daily life isn’t high enough, millennials have the largest share of total student loan debt among all generations. Ultimately, the student debt burden forces significant tradeoff considerations: Can I pay off my student loans and afford a mortgage at the same time? Will I be able to afford to raise children while making student loan payments?
To make matters worse, many millennials felt like they had to attend college to get a good job and make a decent living, only to feel endlessly behind. Now, they’re treading water. They are working draining jobs, only to find that they’re hardly keeping up with their loans. It’s a recipe for long-term exhaustion.
The satisfaction gap
And finally, whether due to a combination of the factors above or something else entirely, some millennials are undergoing a collective reevaluation of their lives, questioning their current paths. For example, millennial Nicole Ramirez followed the old “climb the ladder” playbook only to feel the climb wasn’t worth the view.
“Success, as we were taught to define it, doesn’t always translate to satisfaction.”
“I climbed the corporate ladder, landed what I thought was my dream job at a dream company, secured the benefits, the title, the external validation. On paper, I had made it. I was well paid, well-positioned, and deeply unhappy. And I think a lot of millennials are quietly confronting that same realization: success, as we were taught to define it, doesn’t always translate to satisfaction,” Ramirez said.
Millennial Tamara Asselta had a similar experience. “I found that working really hard, especially more than some men in my same field, didn’t get me that big bump in salary or title. I made more money over the course of my career, but at the expense of my own moral judgment and what my company wanted,” she told me.
What to do if you’re experiencing a career crisis
Given that many of the factors contributing to the Great Millennial Career Crisis are structural and external, Abrahami told me that, to address these issues fully, there are four necessary levels of change: policy and economics, culture, companies, and individuals.
Unfortunately, it’s unrealistic to believe we can create perfect conditions for our careers to thrive overnight, given how much is beyond our control. But there are steps we can take to overcome our personal career crises and find a way forward. If you’re experiencing one of your own, these specific actions can help you move through it.
Release the shame
This experience directly reflects our circumstances and environment, so it’s important to distinguish between what you can and cannot control, and release the latter. Abrahami says, “There are certain things that will always be out of your control (which companies conduct layoffs and when or whether a recruiter emails you back), so the best you can do is cultivate agency over what you can control.” This could look like how you nurture your network or how creatively you problem-solve.
Of course, releasing shame over your circumstances is easier said than done. So, when you feel ashamed about how your career has panned out, consider making an “in” and “out of” my control list. Then, redirect any misguided energy to what’s inside your control only and start making changes there first.
Identify your identity capital
Many of us came to believe that when we entered the workforce, we were choosing our career path for the rest of our working lives, with little room for deviation. That’s not the case, but that doesn’t mean you are starting over every time you try to figure out what’s next for your career. You have built up so much experience and knowledge already, and all of that can lead you toward what’s next.
In deciding what’s next for you, “document the skills, knowledge, experiences, and relationships you’ve already accumulated (this is your ‘identity capital’). You’ll find patterns that point toward what actually matters to you versus what you thought should matter,” Abrahami told me.
Ramirez is a great example of this. After being laid off, she started asking herself what she actually wanted outside of what looked impressive or felt safe. She turned to LinkedIn and started building a personal brand, leveraging her marketing background and personal and career experiences.
“A career crisis can feel scary, but it can also help us uncover what we value without letting societal expectations dictate our choices.”
A career crisis can feel scary, but it can also help us uncover what we value without letting societal expectations dictate our choices. Sit with your experiences to identify what’s available to you in this next season of your career.
Embrace career seasons, not one “forever path”
Speaking of seasons, Abrahami encourages embracing them, especially in a labor force where the “forever path” feels as if it no longer exists, except in rare exceptions. “Stop thinking about careers as linear progressions toward a single destination. Instead, think in terms of seasons: different chapters where your priorities, interests, and circumstances shift,” Abrahami said. She also points out something that previous generations may not have had opportunities to realize: What we want and need can (and does) change, and we can make career decisions that better reflect what we need in this season.
Early in my career, I was eager to chase paychecks, promotions, and experience. I worked a corporate job and freelanced part-time, prioritizing work and money (and building the circumstances, a.k.a. savings, that would allow me to leave the corporate world). After burning out, I realized my priorities were shifting: I no longer wanted work to be my sole focus, and I wanted to create more space for my health and loved ones. It was then that I stepped off the traditional career path to pursue freelancing full-time.
Similarly, as she continues her post-layoff job hunt, Campbell is turning inward. “I have gotten in closer touch with my core values and how I will live them every day in my new career. I have been focusing on redefining myself and what I want my new career identity to be,” she told me.
Don’t be afraid to make a change
Change is scary and hard. Many of us chose our paths based on what seemed safe, respectable, or even impressive in our early 20s when the world looked much different. It makes sense that a decade later, those choices might no longer fit.
But there have never been more resources to support career pivots and alternative career path options. Knowledge is at our fingertips (literally, all the time), and it’s never too late to change your mind or try something new. We no longer need to fear what other people think, as career pivots are becoming more the norm.
Stop asking, “Will I look flaky if I leave this industry? Will people judge me for ‘starting over’ after I worked hard to get to where I am?” Instead, ask, “What are the risks of clinging to a path that no longer exists?” Choosing change is brave.
Find joy outside of work
When you’re in the middle of a career crisis, believing you’ll feel better once you find the “right” job, title, or company, is easy. But expecting work to solve our dissatisfaction and unhappiness places a heavy burden on the role we expect it to play in our lives. It also increases the pressure we put on ourselves to stay on a set path. In the wise words of Asselta: “It’s important to keep in mind that your work is not everything. Understanding that your work can be a means that brings you joy in life could very well be worth it.”
One of the most grounding things you can do is intentionally build a life that holds joy in places your job can’t touch—in your personal relationships, hobbies, and who you are as a human being. Millennials may not have received the future we were promised, but we’re more than capable of trying to build a career that’s more balanced, fulfilling, and entirely our own.
Alyssa Towns, Contributing Career & Finance Writer
Alyssa Towns is a Denver-based writer and communications professional whose writing and expertise have appeared in Business Insider, Clockwise, G2, The Knot, Passion Planner, Thrive Global, and more. In addition to being a freelance writer, Alyssa has a background in internal communications and change management and is passionate about helping humans thrive in the workplace.
The post It’s Official: We’ve Entered the Great Millennial Career Crisis appeared first on The Everygirl.
