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If you are counting "underemployment" I have been completely unemployed for a total of 13 months and underemployed for 3 years, totaling a little over 4 years. It's making me think that my college education was a complete waste of time.
I have been unemployed since October 27,2008. That is over 43 months and counting!
During this time I have:
- applied for over 1,000 jobs
- interviewed for 25 companies
- gone back to school and attained a BA in Business Management (4 year degree), my GPA was 3.8 (*** laude)
-volunteered for nonprofit organizations, preparing financial reports and financial consulting
- assisted a bookkeeper on a small project
And learned to enjoy my life regardless of my employment status.
I was wondering if any of my long term unemployed brethren would share a synopsis of their journey in the "unemployment wilderness"?
Same story here more or less. Lost my job at the age of 47 due to a plant closing, I returned to school and finished a B.S. degree in managerial accounting, great GPA....... By the time I was out looking for a new job I was 50 years old.
I was out of work for 18 months after completing the degree. Hundreds of targeted resumes for jobs I was qualified for with very few interviews. I had a lot of hands on experience in manufacturing that would have transferred well into a manufacturing cost accounting role.
I finally found a new job in my desired field but it was difficult. No matter what the cheery little articles about changing careers on the internet say it is a very hard thing to accomplish. These idiots writing the articles have NO CLUE about it.
I've been unemployed for 3+ years now and I still find it hard to believe. Last year, I was turned down from a 6 figure job because I was overqualified.
For the first year, I was just looking for work figuring my strong experience would land me a job but that didn't happen. The last 2 years, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about my field (investment management), I've taken master level Excel classes and even learned some VBA. I work a job as a waiter to keep some cash coming in; it's humbling but I have to believe it's temporary. But now I have taken what I've learned and started a company doing quant derivatives trading based on some pretty impressive models I've built... I don't have much to work with in terms of capital and it's expensive to maintain but it is also incredible experience and I have something substantial to show for my time out of work. I'm about to start another company with an old friend who owns a tech startup... it's based on a predictive analytics model I built years ago and have now completely revamped and we're turning it into an app.
I've had a few interviews over the years and at first I was discouraged because I could tell a lot of the people I was interviewing with weren't on my level but had jobs. But I'm more optimistic now because I know so much more now than I ever did when I was working... plus I have side projects to account for my time. I'm hoping the pick up in the economy will lead to something good for me soon.
If you are counting "underemployment" I have been completely unemployed for a total of 13 months and underemployed for 3 years, totaling a little over 4 years. It's making me think that my college education was a complete waste of time.
I sympathize completely, but not only just college education but also professional degree waste of time and $$$$$$...yea!
and applying to a fast-food place like McDonalds is like applying to be an Engineer
And applying to an engineering position is like applying for deity status. By the time they get done listing the 3 to 5 years of laughably narrow experience requirements, the only people who qualify are those who are currently employed with that company. And then they have the nerve to complain, "Whaaa!! There are no qualified Americans!" It's unreal...
I was out of work a hair over 2 years the first time, and then the worthless little machine shop I worked at finally crashed and burned thanks to tyrannically stupid management, so I've been out of work since the end of January. At this point, I've about had it and almost don't care how the story ends. What's the point? I graduated 3rd in my class with a mechanical engineering degree, have 10+ years of excellent performance and experience in the field, have held a security clearance for years - and nobody cares. There simply are nowhere near enough jobs to go around, and connections beat performance every time, but since I'm not the boss's son, that doesn't help me a bit. While I rot away, total morons at both my previous post-college places of employment are guaranteed a job for life... it makes it very clear that doing the right thing does NOT pay off.
I was out of work a hair over 2 years the first time, and then the worthless little machine shop I worked at finally crashed and burned thanks to tyrannically stupid management, so I've been out of work since the end of January.
I have 10+ years of excellent performance and experience in the field, have held a security clearance for years - and nobody cares. There simply are nowhere near enough jobs to go around, and connections beat performance every time, but since I'm not the boss's son, that doesn't help me a bit. While I rot away, total morons at both my previous post-college places of employment are guaranteed a job for life... it makes it very clear that doing the right thing does NOT pay off.
Been there and done that working for mom and pop small business jobs. 3 times since 2007 and all 3 resulted in layoff.
Never again... I'll stick with the big corporate jobs giving me 70 hrs a week. If you ever make it out this way you could surely find something. Lot of manufacturing that needs engineering here... including my employer.
I had to move because I refused to rot in a small rural east coast town.
I'll be at 5 years unemployed in a couple of weeks. Like many others, have been to hundreds of Webinars, 100 phone interviews, 15 in person interviews, read countless books on employment & getting a job, obtained 5 certifications (one has already expired though), etc.
I'm now 60 (but look 50 & act 30). I spent 11 years working for a company that HAD been in business for over 100 years & managed to run the company into bankruptcy. We were a tech company, with a world wide presence & over 60,000 employees. I was laid off with several thousand others, had to be part of a class action law suite to get even part of my severance package. I took whatever jobs my managers gave me, in order to help the company, so I don't really even have a job title to fall back on. I'm not an out of work banker or architect. I do have a BS in Engineering, but haven't ever worked in that field either.
Driven a Tractor-Trailer in Atlanta since before 1975, when I went to a Trade School.
Lived through the Recessions. With this one, I'm going back to 2006, all, that's right, all, the Driver Dispatch labor agencies have gone out of business, and everyone I knew from nearly 40 years of working in Atlanta, have left.
It's not how long you've been Unemployed, it's whether there will be anybody to re-instate all these defunct companies. I've been Retired for almost 6 years now.
I'll be at 5 years unemployed in a couple of weeks. Like many others, have been to hundreds of Webinars, 100 phone interviews, 15 in person interviews, read countless books on employment & getting a job, obtained 5 certifications (one has already expired though), etc.
I'm now 60 (but look 50 & act 30). I spent 11 years working for a company that HAD been in business for over 100 years & managed to run the company into bankruptcy. We were a tech company, with a world wide presence & over 60,000 employees. I was laid off with several thousand others, had to be part of a class action law suite to get even part of my severance package. I took whatever jobs my managers gave me, in order to help the company, so I don't really even have a job title to fall back on. I'm not an out of work banker or architect. I do have a BS in Engineering, but haven't ever worked in that field either.
I too would like some advice, if anyone has some.
The next website after Facebook will be <Tribe.net>. They are hyper-linking to everything, and it looks good. Here at City-Data, you've probably got the best shot of connecting to a good tip, [domain blocked due to spam] is all but defunct, and what I've found, knowing the Region as I do, is that those companies that can afford an IT Tech on Social Media, use TWITTER, but even TWITTER is becoming too enlabored.
Again, I can't even Verify previous employments, stretching back to 1972, so good luck, and save every scrap of paper, that's about all I have.
The company I worked for 7 years went kaput in late 2007, that' was the very start of the recession. After that job I've had several full-time jobs acquired through temp agencies. Most of those jobs lasted for a few months the longest assignment was about 8 months. From reading this thread I see most are in Engineering backgrounds. I Studied Mechanical Engineering at the University and most of my work experience is as a CNC Machinist and CNC programmer. I haven't held a full-time job since October of 2011, so that is over two-years without a job. Since that time the only type of work I have found are cash job/day labor type of work. I live in California in Los Angeles county to be more precise, it seems like the manufacturing jobs have relocated to other states.
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