I'm Gen X too and I don't think that's really accurate.

I feel like the job market has changed pretty markedly since I was a grad in the late 90's, and that it's just way more all or nothing.

You either can get a job with benefits and a career track and 4 years later you're better off, or you're literally going nowhere, every year of your job is the same as the year prior and you have nothing to show.

There's no more thing where you get a real, genuine, full time, but low-skill entry level job and try to prove yourself. You can't prove yourself in low-skill jobs any more, nobody is watching and nobody cares. In short "you can't get there from here."

I'm speaking entirely anecdotally for sure, but with that said it really does seem fundamentally not the same at all as what I faced as a new grad.

Yea, and once you get on a track, you're pretty much there for good. There's a narrow range of "promotions" within that track, but no jumping tracks anymore. If you're flipping burgers at McDonalds, you can't just "hard-work" your way to owning that store. If you're 3rd junior engineer from the left at your tech company, you can hard-work your way up to senior, maybe even principal engineer, but you will statistically never be able to hard-work your way to CEO. If you're a nurse, you're never going to hard-work your way to being a doctor. And so on. The higher-status jobs are all gate-kept by social class pedigree and credentialism.

I partially agree with your sentiment. But isn't this one of the most commercially relevant skills to demonstrate to a potential employer?

In finance, it is "tradition" for people _without_ certifications to dump on those with certifications, such as CFA & CPA, but most of these haters miss the point. It is really hard to motivate yourself to finish. Once you have the cert, it is a good indicator that the person can get things done! Interestingly, when I interview fresh grads, if they have anything that demonstrates tenacity, like sports or playing musical instruments ... or something that takes time and skill to accomplish, I am always curious to hear about their experiences of personal growth.