At a tough spot career-wise... not sure what to do

H22A4 said
Nothing comes easy. Sounds like you thought you'd be able to snap your fingers and choose which job offer paid the most $$ shortly after graduating. Rarely can one walk into a dream job fresh out of school without spending some time in the trenches. Going into the debt hole more by getting your Masters probably isn't the best idea either. Depending on how reputable the graduate school is, having a very little experience for the group/team work projects in is going to make it more difficult. Having 22 to 28 year olds with little experience but think they are 'know it alls' in graduate school is frustrating for the 30+ year olds who actually have real world experience who also know they don't 'know it all'. If you do get your Masters, you will then complain that you are over qualified for all the entry level jobs that 24 to 26 year olds are applying for yet you won't get the jobs for folks who have 5 to 10 yrs experience since you don't have the experience.

That crop duster gig isn't so simple because if it were, everyone would be a crop duster pilot. As another pilot has already pointed out, the investment to get your ppl and then commercial license will put you in the poor house pretty quickly. Then you'll have to work in the middle of nowhere as a pilot since the pilots with experience will be flying in the desirable places.

As for the girls you go on dates with now, if you think you need a good job or a place of your own to get respect/credibility, then you need to work on your confidence. They shouldn't like you for what/where you are/have but they should like you for you instead (ie: personality/character).

I mean a little bit, initially, but really I have no problem admitting I don't know sh** about something. I know what I don't know, and I always respect people with credibility. I am aware that I'm not really worth much of anything to a potential employer unless I prove myself. My attitude going into grad school would be the opposite honestly, I just want to open up my brain and soak up as much knowledge as possible from people who know more than I do. I also have experience from this job working in teams, in fact it's very rare to have the opportunity to do a solo site visit; it's pretty much regulation that unless you're doing strictly ground work you NEED to have a person with you for safety reasons or you can get in serious trouble (if you don't fall and end up in the hospital or die first). And I've learned a lot about people, having been set up with different work partners multiple times.

From what I'm reading here now the crop duster deal is looking less attractive, might still look into it but I'm definitely skeptical now.

Thanks for that last part, you are right actually regarding the ladies... when I do tell them I live at home in an embarrassed tone the response is usually "So? There's nothing wrong with that my friend/brother/cousin/whoever is in the same boat." I guess part of it comes from the pressure my dad put on me as a kid to be successful, I used to be all angst-y about it but now I am so thankful he pushed me as hard as he did because no joke I'd probably be in jail for selling drugs or something stupid like that if I didn't have the strong parents I do. I doubt I would have even bothered to finish high school.

I never thought I'd land my dream job fresh out of college but I had no idea it would be this difficult to find ANY job.