> If making $10 an hour as a retail employee when you have an advanced degree is what you were talking about when you spoke of the non-linear careers people have today...

Losing your job or failing to find a job in a field which isn't growing and having to make do with what you can is a fact of life and definitely an example of a non-linear career. There is nothing facetious there.

That might end up just being a way to live while waiting for something else, that might be the start of a career in retail. It's just how it is.