Putting his strength to work
- Name/age: Rick Riley, 24
- Job Status: Underemployed in an unexpected field
Rick Riley played football at Huntingdon College before graduating in 2010 and decided to leave the sport behind in favor of working in sales. But he didn't expect the job search to be just as rough.
"I was expecting to find a career where I could stay at the same thing, something where there were a lot of advancement opportunities," he said.
What he found instead was a dearth of job openings in his Alabama hometown. It wasn't until he moved back in with his parents and lost 65 pounds that he found work -- as a certified personal trainer. "People started asking me for weight loss tips and so I got my certification," he said.
He now has six clients and makes $20 to $30 an hour, working two to three hours a day. While he's happy to be making money, he said he needs more clients if he wants to stay with it. And eventually, he wants to put his college degree to use.
"If you would have come to me five years ago and told me this is what I was doing, I would have told you you were crazy," he said. "A lot of my friends, especially those with liberal arts degrees like myself, have to find work in fields that don't involve skills they learned in college, if they are lucky to find work at all."
