10 Signs You're Underemployed

Underpaid and under wraps.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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If you're a victim of underemployment (like far too many post-college twenty-somethings), there's a good chance you spend your nights alone, weeping gently, empty box of Little Debbie snack cakes in one hand and a taped-together remote control in the other. Most of the numbers have worn off, but it's okay because you memorized the layout a long time ago.

Your life is like Cast Away—after Wilson gets lost. Only in this case, Wilson is all of your aspirations. You're underemployed, working in a place where your skills aren't being utilized (Deleuze didn't talk about fries), for less money than your qualifications warrant. And you might not even know it. 

Underemployed, MTV's new show for people just like you, premieres at 10 p.m. tonight. Before you tune in, take a self-assessment to see if the series is actually about you. For all of you debt-ridden intellectuals still in denial about your ill-fated employment situation, here are 10 Signs You're Underemployed.  

1. You just used the word "juxtapose" in conversation and no one cared.

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9. Your car is the nicest in the employee lot.

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8. You try too hard.

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7. There's giant bag of knives in the backseat of your car.

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6. You chuckle every time you see your college diploma, which sits collecting dust in your parents' house.

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5. You still go to fancy bars and restaurants you can't afford.

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4. You never learn your co-workers' names.

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3. You keep your job under wraps.

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2. You dress Wall Street; you work at Wal-Mart.

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1. You contemplate a breakdown but decide against it, knowing your boss will kill you if you miss another 6 a.m. shift.

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