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There is repetition because the first two posters in this thread are the same person. I think he has one or two other names as well... Holy commas batman.
Shocking that someone who can't write is having trouble finding a job. I shudder to think of what his cover letter must look like.
I thought the same. But there is obviously a sense of deep satisfaction in basically talking to one's self. At least there's always someone there who agrees with you.
PS: Brings to mind, "The Two faces of Eve" but with the main problem being that the two personalities are identical which is quite tedious. Makes for much more interesting reading when there's a huge disparity between the two. To have them arguing with each other would be priceless bathroom reading material.
Last edited by STT Resident; 04-17-2012 at 05:44 AM..
Reason: added PS
You don't know what the current workplace is like.
"Solid work history" can mean someone who isn't competent but plays up to the bosses.
Right now, there is virtually no security.
In this current high unemployment, the person out of work doesn't mean they are incompetent, or a bad choice.
Employers like to hire the competition.
So when you go back to work, you will see that employers care NOT that you volunteered. Believe me, they don't care. They care what you have to offer them, not what you did with your time.
In this case, the OP has admitted he made mistakes. Even if, by some slim chance, it isn't his fault he was out of work, there are other factors. Apparently he spent 4 years at JC and didn't finish.
With his attitude and admitted past mistakes, plus the fact that he doesn't seem to grasp the simple concept that the more qualified person should and will get the job, he could be out of work for a really long time.
The problem is that the job market has changed drastically over the past few years. Prior to 2007, it was an employee's market. Back then in many parts of the country, anyone could walk into any business, fill out an application in person, establish a rapport face-to-face with a company and get basic entry level work that usually paid well-above minimum wage. The in-person rapport is what sealed the deal of getting hired. Nowadays, we have millions of laid-off and underemployed people willing to take what ever they can get. Because of this, employers have wised up and realized that they can buy experienced workers for what once were entry level salaries. In a bad economy, companies do not take risks by hiring inexperienced people fresh out-of-school. As a result, entry level jobs have almost disappeared in many, if not most, fields of work. Many small businesses cannot afford to train workers. This is the reason why a college degree seems to only be good as a prerequisite to getting a government job these days. This is because government workers are paid through tax dollars and do not need to produce a profit through their labor as workers do in the economically blasted private sector. In addition, there are so many people out-of-work that applicants are no longer allowed to apply to jobs in-person at the vast majority of businesses. The de-personalization of applicants makes you nothing more than a piece of paper that usually never gets read and just gets put in a pile with 400+ other resumes that either are never downloaded or are paper-shredded. If you lose your job, like millions of Americans, getting a new one without connections is incredibly difficult because of the impersonal online application process and the stiff competition for every job available. Because of this, we have millions of people who have been unemployed for a year or more. All in all, employers now are only looking for the cream of the crop workers with the most experience and best education willing to work for the least or they are hiring their own people or folks with inside connections to the company.
Out-of-touch morons need only park their cars and walk their overweight paper pushing asses around the streets of any big city to realize that the human fallout of this new world economy is royally screwing over the youth in this country. If college grads who didn't major in aerospace engineering are being mocked for being losers, what the hell do you think high school grads, high school dropouts and inner city minority youth are going through?! Trust me, you have an enormous chance of getting robbed, beaten or even killed by frustrated kids with no opportunities who have been completely shut out of the job market these days. These kids will literally kill you for your sneakers, an incredibly senseless and desperate throwback phenomena reminiscent of the late 80's and early 90's that has made a widely publicized comeback on the streets. Where I live, youth robberies and flash mob robberies/assaults have become epidemic recently here in DC. A few weeks ago, I saw three teenagers pull ski masks over their faces in broad daylight on a sunny 70 degree day on the main commercial strip on Wisconsin Ave in very White and very affluent Georgetown in Northwest DC. As long as the gentry class of Baby Boomer idiots keeps on calling 99% of the American population under 35 years old stupid for not being rich and telling us to eat cake, it will only get worse on the streets.
Most young people I know who have good jobs got their jobs before 2008, when it was still an employee's market. One friend of mine who has worked for Verizon since 2006 only has a high school diploma, makes almost six figures almost doing nothing, has union protection and he will proudly tell you that himself. That same guy couldn't get that job fresh out of high school today because the job market has completely changed for the worse for job seekers since then.
Last edited by goldenchild08; 04-17-2012 at 11:53 AM..
Location: where people are either too stupid to leave or too stuck to move
3,982 posts, read 6,687,625 times
Reputation: 3689
Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy_J
People in the past who have gone against brick walls when seeking employment have done some unusual things to get noticed.
One guy in advertising had a huge 4 story high resume made up, then hung that in New York on a building across from the place he wanted to work. He was instantly hired! (Prior to that no one would talk to him.)
So maybe you can be creative and do something out of the ordinary to get noticed?
Maybe write a nice positive letter about your abilities and why you want to work for a specific company. Then run off many copies of that and stick it under the windshield wipers of all the employee's cars in the parking lot of that business.
Maybe the head boss guy will see it and say "Hire that person!"
You can also have promotional materials made. That costs money. But at the following site they sell promotional mouse pads. Maybe place your picture on it along with something cute like...
I will not tire, one you will not fire, the one to hire! Jane Doe 555-555-1234
Then mail 5 to each HR department before you submit your application.
The problem is that the job market has changed drastically over the past few years. Prior to 2007, it was an employee's market. Back then in many parts of the country, anyone could walk into any business, fill out an application in person, establish a rapport face-to-face with a company and get basic entry level work that usually paid well-above minimum wage. The in-person rapport is what sealed the deal of getting hired. Nowadays, we have millions of laid-off and underemployed people willing to take what ever they can get. Because of this, employers have wised up and realized that they can buy experienced workers for what once were entry level salaries.
This is a beautiful post. I read it three times.
And you are so right. I've been an independent contractor for the past four years, and I've done well for myself. Now that I'm trying to get back into the "traditional workforce," the salaries I'm seeing are mind-boggling. I see masses of ads for legal assistants and paralegals that pay no more than $12 an hour. And these employers want highly-experienced workers who probably were accustomed to making $30/hr. or more before the economy headed south. I recall passing over a job that offered $35 because I didn't like the benefits. Hah. Hah. Heh ...
What a lot of people who have not experienced a lay-off simply do not understand is that even if they do get a job, it will be for a considerably lower salary. A friend's husband lost his job as an engineer after 20 years (the company folded, so it wasn't his fault); he then took another position at only 40 percent of what he used to make, because that was all he could get. His skills did not go into decline. He does exactly what he did before, for the same amount of effort.
Gaps in employment typically look bad if you did NOT:
1. Have a baby
2. Volunteer
3. Suffer from an illness / family emergency
4. Go to school
There really isn't an excuse to NOT be doing anything while unemployed. But then again, I have been fortunate enough in my almost three years in the work force to have a job and no significant unemployment gaps (except a few months at most).
Yes, I believe we will see a rise in youth crime. People cannot be sitting around without ANY hope and expect to just fight it out over the few jobs out there.
Now the HAVES think this is awesome and so what if a few extra no bodies get killed or hurt or never work again but every no body is someone's mom or dad or husband or grandma or son or cousin or someone.
Each one of us matters. Maybe not everyone did it all right all the time. Even those who had their eyes on the prize and always did it the company way can find this era of lack of jobs unsettling. That guy who has put in 20 years at the X company can not be assured he won't be let go tomorrow.
like I have always said -white space on a resume is death it is plain death.
The employer automatically assumes you have been lazy, never mind that you spend every day looking for work, both minimum and "real" work, never mind that the economy is not the best and you and about every other liberal art grad is applying for that same job, never mind the fact that many layed off experienced people are willing to work entry level jobs (the jobs you are applying to because you don't have experience)-NEVER MIND ALL THAT, you don't have work because you are too lazy. My guess is that is how many HR managers think. I can only hope that volunteering is worth something on the resume because that is all some people can get
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