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Just keep doing your best and something good, big or small, will happen. A year ago I was like many of the unemployed on this forum. I was depressed to the point where I thought about suicide or joining the military.
I wonder how people can say things like:
--just go find a retail job?
--take your skills and do something else
--move to find a job
--it's just all about networking
or a dozen other stupid comments those WITH jobs say to those without.
How many of you out there with out jobs were in supervisory or administrative jobs that no longer exist? There is a whole section of jobs that have been destroyed by the recession.
Mickey D's doesn't want administrative assistants. They don't want shipping clerks or accountants at Sears or Kohl's...
Faking and dumbing down your resume is not going to guarentee you a job.
Every day at the library I see folks old, young and middle aged looking for work on the computer. I see them in the stores, filling out psychological profiles for jobs that pay very little and who will not hire them. I see them trying to listen to all the people who say:
1.Tweak your resume
2. Tell everyone you need a job
3.Get re-training
4. Do ANY JOB!!!
What a joke...as if...
We're all suffering. Today it's me, tomorrow maybe you--so take time to value what you have, today, no matter how modest.
Here come the holidays and now it's time to spend or just keep your head above water.
Christmas displays depress me. I can't do retail therapy or even buy many of the necessary things I need to keep on job hunting (nice clothes or haircuts). Sometimes just getting my laundry done is a hassle because I don't have much money.
My spouse and I are both unemployed, have no benefits and live with relatives who are kind but do not have any idea what it is like to try to get a crappy job, let alone one that pays the bills. The come home and say "Sears is hiring!" or "This (store) has a big sign that they are hiring." They tell us to "just go there" and "get off the computer" and we will be hired.
Um, maybe you haven't heard:
1. They ask you to apply ONLINE, Mom
2. We've been down there, Dad--they don't want us. They have 300 people or more for these jobs. We're over 40, they want kids or maybe 20 somethings, or maybe...no one...really...
This is bad, bad, bad....
But, don't pity me.
Instead, enjoy today. Don't complain about what you have NOW.
So, today when you pick up your dry cleaning from the cleaners, grab that take out meal, perhaps pay for some date, or anything NORMAL people do, please remember how blessed you are.
I haven't been normal for a long time. I wish I would have counted my blessings when I had them. Now it's too late and we are just another couple of people who have to carry on and hope we score jobs before we run out of money or get kicked out by the relatives or both.
I hope and pray you or your spouse (or best case...both of you) find jobs soon. I know your situation is not unique, and that's what's so hard to bear...all the people who want to work when there isn't a job to be had. Anyway, I'm proof that those online apps can work. I recently got a job...not the one I want, not doing what I want, but it's a job and I'm grateful. I wish your family the best.
Uh, sorry, that won't help. Good scapegoat though.[/quote]
How would more jobs and less people, not help?
Nearing the end of the Black Plague, which wiped out a third of the population of Europe during the Middle Ages, wouldn't you have loved to live during those times?
In just one day, you may have received 20 job offers, and then you had to go thru all the pain of deciding which one you'd accept.
For one whole generation, there were no lower classes.
Imagine, how humbled employers would be today, if something like that happened again!!!
I'm with you on this one OP.This depresion has shaken my faith in capitalisim and our government.Six people for every job opining.I wish people and government would realise that there are just not enough jobs for everyone that wants one.And to the poster that said let homelessness be an option, have you ever been homeless in this country?They make it illeagal to try and take care of yourself in that situation(illeagal to sleep anywhere outside).And don't bring up shelters.Most of them are always full,dirty and unsafe and make it hard to procure work because of the lines to get into them that start at 3 pm.When I was on the road last year I met a homeless cuban man who had just road his bicycle from billings MT to bozman MT.He told me he was thinking of going back to cuba because in cuba atleast they let you take care of yourself if your destitute.That statement blew my mind because we live in the richest country in the world yet we still have ECONOMIC homeless all over.
I hear ya and I agree with everything you've had to say here since I've been going through it myself too.
I would encourage you to try one more time with the seasonal jobs though.
My benefits end on the 27th because I missed the Tier 1 cutoff by ONE WEEK so I'm SOL. I applied for Kohl's, Best Buy, Target, and Shopko. I had worked at Kohl's the previous year seasonally to make some extra money and they re-hired me. I also got a job from Target yesterday as well and I had kind of written them off because I applied over 2 weeks ago. Right about now they're filling the last of their positions so they can dump a bunch of extra people on the floor by Black Friday.
Even though I was only applying for a cashier job I really pushed the whole past retail experience and leadership experience during my interview at Target the second person I interviewed with told me I did a great job with the interview and hired me on the spot! Even though it's kind of ridiculous that they are looking for "exceptional leadership qualities" in a person running a cash register or stocking shelves, you can probably use this to your advantage in the interview if you have experience in administrative positions.
I played right into their questions that were probing for leadership experience and discussed what I learned from being an Eagle Scout and leading people. I brought up situations where I was asked to learn new skills on the fly, multi-task, or shift priorities at my previous professional jobs when they asked the "describe a difficult situation you faced at work" type of questions.
I guess what I’m getting at is it didn’t freak them out when I talked about my professional experience as it fed into the types of questions they were asking which had a leadership/management qualities skew to them. You might have decent luck with it if you talk up your administrative experience in that context.
I know the job sucks and it’s STILL not paying enough to live off of, but at least it’s something. You never know they may keep you on afterward and put you on a management track too.
My younger brother was working at Menards during college and applied for the Management Training program after he graduated because he wasn’t finding any work in Construction Management. They trained him in all the different department areas for 3 or 4 months then they assigned him to a dept as a 2nd assistant. In the year and a half since then he’s move up to a 1st Asst. and then a Dept Manager. He’s on pace to make around $40K this year with his year end bonuses factored in. That’s not terrible and at least it shows some good leadership experience.
Anyway, what I’m saying is give it one more shot.
Thanks for the encouragment Further North.I can't give up because I have no other choice but to find some crappy survival job or stick my thumb out and head south to be homeless for the winter someplace warmer.This situation just pisses me off because all my life I have NEVER had a problem getting a job within a few days.But since late 2007 its been easier finding a unicorn than finding steady work.I now have a new respect for what homeless people go through in this country and the utter FAILURE government policy for the homeless is.
Uh, sorry, that won't help. Good scapegoat though.[/quote]
How would more jobs and less people, not help?
China closed itself off to the world once. Sure worked real well for them.
The world economy is MUCH more complex than how some interpret it (and I'm not blaming you, most politicians do the same thing). If it were as simple as more jobs, less people, who would disagree? Let's take a look at some of your ideas:
1. Outsourcing tax: Let's put a 20% tax on all goods we outsource. Will this create new jobs? No. Because it's still cheaper to manufacture outside the US, and companies will just raise prices by 20%. Lose for us. You would pretty much need to levy a tax in the hundreds of percent for companies to even consider moving production to the US. And then what do you have? TVs that used to be $500, now $2000. Sure we'll have "more jobs". But your purchasing power DROPS, and everyone becomes poorer. Sounds somewhat socialistic, no?
2. Stop handing out visas: Many of the immigrants who go through the US legally (look up the stats) are usually of middle class or higher, have higher degrees, and take scientific/medical/business positions. The US excels at innovation, and keeping these people out means they stay in Europe or Asia. Giving them the advantage. It only takes a simple glance at the nobel prizes the US has won to see how many of the winners have immigrant backgrounds. Or even simpler, a walk through a hospital, university, tech firm, or science lab.
3. Illegal immigration: I don't know what else we can do when it's already illegal.
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