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I've been seeking a job for more than ten years. It's a strange problem to have. A person can explain away one year of unemployment: he can say he traveled for a year or perhaps tended to his sick mother, both honorable things to do, especially when you are in your early twenties.
After two years comes along three years, and at some point, I began making sarcastic snarks about never having a real job again, and at least in my early 20's, when I was standing next to the Mexicans on the street corner chasing cars down so I could lift a shovel for a day, that attitude, at least to those on the outside looking in, worked well. What people didn't know was that I was actually stomping the pavement whenever I had the chance.
At some point, I simply couldn't take waking up at 5am to go stand at the street corner with illegal immigrants, so I signed up with Labor Ready and worked there, but earning $35/day in Los Angeles is far from an optimal income. I started working as a background extra, but the pay for that kind of work isn't much better.
After reading the above, people may wonder why I let myself sink to such levels. I grew up well beneath the American poverty line, so I was raised with the attitude that you just do what you have to do to get ends to meet. Survival is paramount to all other considerations, and if you have any pride, you never ask for help, you don't complain, and you most certainly never go the welfare line. College was not an option for people like me. When I was 18, I came home and found my bags sitting on the street corner.
I am now 34 years old. I haven't had a “real” job since I was 22 years old when I was a bike messenger in Miami, Florida. This is not to say that I have not had any jobs at all. I had one job working in a restaurant, but I was fired because someone accused me of using and selling drugs. I'm not a teetotaller, but I do not approve of drug use; that accusation was made on purely false grounds.
The next job was working at a call center for FEMA in response to Hurricane Katrina. That is the year 2005. Eight years ago. I then volunteered at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
At some point, especially if you are not interested in working for yourself, and your entire focus in life is to pound the pavement 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, for years on end, you fall through the cracks. I spent two years of my life sleeping on the street. Somehow I managed to maintain some of my friendships and even make valuable connections that allowed me to attend school for a year and get off the street. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go to even get an associates degree, so I attended a trade school and that ultimately got me nowhere except, despite finishing at the top of my class, pounding the pavement for nearly a year in a fruitless job search. My practicing license ran out and I was basically back to square one.
At some point, I found a girlfriend and we eventually moved in together. After a year together, we broke up. A month later, we talk and I visit her and her sister, and I get a job at her sister's company. This is great but not-so-great for me: I finally got a job but I was stuck living with someone I don't get along with anymore. It turned out the company was a total grind-house and I was quickly fired, but I had one expertise that they needed and they couldn't easily replace, so the company decided they needed a marketing department and I became the entire marketing department there. Despite my lack of work history, some things seemed wrong about this job, and I asked around and people let me know that the job I had was not only terrible, but my coworkers and management were clearly manipulative and abusive, that my best route of action is to try to find something better where I'll be happy and have better pay. After a year of working at this place, I could no longer take the job and I could no longer live in an abusive relationship, so I had to quit both of them.
The reason why her sister got me the job wasn't so much because she liked me or the fact that I was dating her sister, it was that she was mystified as everyone else that ever knew me: how could someone so damn intelligent not be able to find a job. I'm not a social moron either and I'm far from lazy, so what was the issue? She isn't the first person to be mystified by my inability to find a job. Pretty much everyone I know thinks I am highly intelligent, and everyone I've known assumed that I have 4 to 6 years of college despite the fact that my college experience is walking around a campus once or twice. I used to get enjoyment from watching people's reaction when after asking what college I attended I told them I had no clue what a college classroom looked like. What used to be amusement now just creates a sense of dread, especially at an interviewing table.
So, to people who think that all unemployed people are lazy, I hold myself up as an antithesis. Before getting the job mentioned above, I put out 100 resumes per day, every day for one whole month. That is 3000 rejections. I spent over a decade of my life looking for a viable job I could enjoy. I spend months on end walking around the city of Los Angeles dropping resumes and filling out applications. Since September, I have sent out at least 10 resumes a day. I've had 2 interviews during that time. It's sad to think that people I know were very happy to see I manged to be interviewed at all. So, I've had 2 interviews from about 2000 resumes, which is a large improvement over the 0 / 3000 resumes I experienced just a year ago.
Okay, so that is all hum-drum rejections. You may wonder what I have done to improve my own thinking and life. I am a hard-core autodidact. It wasn't by accident that I was made the marketer at my old job. They knew that I was self-trained in Statistics and Calculus. They knew that I was learning how to program. I have been spending the past year and a half working through the MIT OCW and Coursera, learning how to program, do math, and basically absorb as much information as I could. I built 4 website by hand (no frameworks for me). I haven't read a fiction book for years. If you saw my bookshelf, you'd see about 20 textbooks ranging in subjects from Economics to Biology to Psychology. I may not have went to college, but I surely made it my purpose to educate myself as much as possible.
So, what is a hard-working, able-bodied, and decently intelligent person to do when no one gives that person a chance over the span of ten years? I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say to me: “You can do better than this. You're way to smart.” Well, if I COULD do better than this, then I would, right? Apparently I cannot do better than I do in life because if even ONE interviewer in the past ten years examined my resume, met me face-to-face, and decided I could do better, then it would be done.
This is an issue that breaks my spirit more than anything: I am placing my entire self-worth on the opinions of people who don't even know me. I have faced down malicious and rude interviewers, pushed hard to learn and work, and all of this hard work resulted in nothing at all. What happened to the ideal that if we work hard, we can accomplish at least some of our goals in life? All I wanted for ten years was a stupid little job doled out by someone, anyone, anywhere, doing literally anything at all, yet here I have nothing. Am I truly unemployable? And if I am, what am I supposed to do? I DON'T want to work for myself. I've done enough of that in my life, and I would rather just relax in a job until the day I die. Being a reluctant entrepreneur isn't a viable life strategy, trust me. Working for yourself is seriously hard work, and if you aren't married to the idea of self-employment 100%, then you are 100% guaranteed to fail. I don't want to work for myself and I never wanted to. I only did it out of no other options, but can it be true that I am truly 100% unemployable?
Amazing how some are dying to get out of the corporate world while others are dying to get in it.
I feel your pain to a very small extent. I had thought that california had a shortage of manufacturing/production positions, have you looked into those areas? You sound like you have a great amount of discipline and perserverance, most would just give up at your stage and succumb to the worse things in life.
But not you, you kept trying, and trying, and trying. There HAS to be an employer that appreciates that in an employee. Its not whether you failed, its whether you got back up again. And you've been getting back up for a long time now. I know it sucks when you can't even find a simple 9-5 just to get yourself by.
When you don't even care that you can't buy a new house or a new car, or even new clothes, but just knowing that you have a paycheck coming in to pay for your essentials and nothing else.
Do you have transportation? Have you stayed in the same city for a long time?
Amazing how some are dying to get out of the corporate world while others are dying to get in it.
Not sure I want to go all-out corporate. Small business is fine too, but I'm thinking you mean "office?"
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I had thought that california had a shortage of manufacturing/production positions, have you looked into those areas?
I have. The polite way to say it isn't that there is a "shortage" of workers looking for those jobs, it's just that the companies show a deference to people who are on a work visa, so they create their own shortages.
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But not you, you kept trying, and trying, and trying. There HAS to be an employer that appreciates that in an employee. Its not whether you failed, its whether you got back up again. And you've been getting back up for a long time now. I know it sucks when you can't even find a simple 9-5 just to get yourself by.
Thanks for the kind words, but I think that while Rocky makes a nice sweetheart story, employers want proven winners with a resume to back up the talk. I wouldn't walk into an interview room and tell people my life story. I can't imagine that working out well...
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Have you stayed in the same city for a long time?
Been here for about 10 years. I think it's time to give up and leave this town for some place easier to get by in.
It doesn't matter if your auto-didactic. you need a college degree
get a student loan from the government. Yes, it will put you in debt, but you will be able to work towards a bright future. If you say you can learn calculus by yourself, you should be able to handle most majors. Pick something that can get you employed right after undergrad. You don't have too many options here, but there are some. Accounting, Education, Engineering, Finance, Management Information Systems, Nursing seem to be the only ones. Unfortunately, things like Finance will probably look at your background and think you're unreliable.
or if you are good at computers, go for an Associates in computer tech. These jobs aren't the most glamorous, but you will be able to work as a computer repair person. It seems like the computer field is one of those that values your skill above anything else. So that is another option.
I would say the best options for you are either nursing (if you can handle the blood) or Education with a Math major. Math teachers are still needed in some areas of the country, and also in high-poverty regions. Based on your work history, i'm going to assume you wouldn't turn down a job just because it was in a low-income neighborhood. So that is a valid option for you.
Yes, these will take a long time. And yes, you will have to take out a loan. But at least you will have a shot at a better future. Right now, it seems like you don't have that option. So, is that chance worth the years of sacrifice and personal debt? In my opinion, yes it is.
As the above poster said, you need a degree. I would recommend tech/vocational school. Find a good accredited one, pick a trade, and you'll do well in it. The trades rely on the experience of each individual worker and your ability to self teach will carry you far.
With your resumes, did you have cover letters for any of them?
It doesn't matter if your auto-didactic. you need a college degree
get a student loan from the government. Yes, it will put you in debt, but you will be able to work towards a bright future. If you say you can learn calculus by yourself, you should be able to handle most majors. Pick something that can get you employed right after undergrad. You don't have too many options here, but there are some. Accounting, Education, Engineering, Finance, Management Information Systems, Nursing seem to be the only ones. Unfortunately, things like Finance will probably look at your background and think you're unreliable.
or if you are good at computers, go for an Associates in computer tech. These jobs aren't the most glamorous, but you will be able to work as a computer repair person. It seems like the computer field is one of those that values your skill above anything else. So that is another option.
I would say the best options for you are either nursing (if you can handle the blood) or Education with a Math major. Math teachers are still needed in some areas of the country, and also in high-poverty regions. Based on your work history, i'm going to assume you wouldn't turn down a job just because it was in a low-income neighborhood. So that is a valid option for you.
Yes, these will take a long time. And yes, you will have to take out a loan. But at least you will have a shot at a better future. Right now, it seems like you don't have that option. So, is that chance worth the years of sacrifice and personal debt? In my opinion, yes it is.
Well, let me ask you if you'd make this sacrifice:
With no support system, I would go ahead and spend the next 4 years in college. The debt doesn't bother me, despite the fact that I was already declined for this, but regardless, assume I was able to take the debt. I would still be facing 4 years of going to school with no support system and no job: in simple terms, I would be broke and homeless for the entire time I was there. I would then graduate at around 40 years old and I'm pretty sure my chances of finding employment will be null at that point.
Anyways, I already went to a trade school for one year because that was literally the best I was able to do in regards to loans AND having the support system to not be homeless. That didn't work out either, which is a total bummer.
I was simply seeking advice on how to find a job working in a gas station or even sweeping floors in a hotel. I can't even get these kinds of jobs. Yeah, I aim low, but honestly, it is far better than my average and as far as the programming and math, I do all of that for my own intellectual pursuit, not profit, so I could care less if I ever get a job in those fields.
EDIT TO ADD: You are able to find jobs with a portfolio, at least in programming. I've been offered internships, but basically, I would have to work full-time for several months, which is the same issue as stated above.
So, what is a hard-working, able-bodied, and decently intelligent person to do when no one gives that person a chance over the span of ten years? I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say to me: “You can do better than this. You're way to smart.” Well, if I COULD do better than this, then I would, right? Apparently I cannot do better than I do in life because if even ONE interviewer in the past ten years examined my resume, met me face-to-face, and decided I could do better, then it would be done.
...
It's time to get out of Dodge. It ain't working for you. Long Beach is right south of LA. Long Beach is the busiest port in the country, and has lots of people in transtion. It has demand for every position in the supply chain. If you are a US citizen, and have a clean record, you can likely walk around, find yourself a position, and work your way up. There's a Labor Ready in Long Beach, as well. In addition, because it is more decidedly a working class town, COL may be lower.
If, as you say, you are a good worker, and don't thrive in an office environment (all office environments have manipulators and drama), then head out to the places where field jobs are still to be had. One thing about field jobs, in contrast to office jobs: it's all about what you can do. If you can scope out the process flow wherever you land, and improve it, it means less work for everybody and more productivity for the company, because you demonstrated how to work smarter.
Please consider the following observation, which is offered respectfully and in good faith. As I'm sure you know, you do not want to come across as a college grad wannabe until you find yourself a tribe, and have established a membership in that tribe. When you have a tribe on your side, you may be able to show some aspiration - but very carefully, lest you alienate the only friends you have. First assess, then adopt the worldview of your tribe - whoever it winds up being. To provide an outlet for your aspirations, Long Beach has a community college that is justifiably famous for its outreach programs. If you find the relief of steady employment more attractive, so be it: personally, I would. There's nothing wrong with being a working Joe, if you are in an environment that has a critical mass of working Joes. I don't know how this will come off there, but being a newcomer in the area gives you a certain freedom, for a period of time, to ask for advice and guidance from your tribe - even if it's one person. Done with the right air, that person will become invested in your success. You must adopt your tribe's definition of success until you change tribes. Everybody thinks of himself as an expert, and likes to talk about it - so get them to tell you the secret of their success. They don't want to hear your story, frankly, except on a very superficial level. More than anything, you need a tribe that doesn't look down on you for not having a college education. That's ground truth, and it is what it is. Work from there.
You're right that you need a back story. You've got several to choose from. For example, CA has one of the highest UE rates in the country. You could have gotten wiped out in a bad relationship just at the time the great offshoring began, lost momentum being the sole caretaker of an elder parent. That'll cover three years easily. Then could not get back on the hamster wheel for the life of you - your wardrobe was no longer the latest thing - and have since been working Labor Ready. That story will prompt some questions: if you are that hard working, how come some Labor Ready customer didn't snap you up? To address this question, you must make a humble and searching self-assessment and then address it in a matter of fact fashion. It sounds as if you are ready to do that. Your story has to be you.
It appears that LA is not a "working" town as much as a "schmoozing" town. It sounds like you got stuck in no man's land, without a tribe, aspiring to positions for which you were easy to rule out, stuck in a place that didn't value the skills you do have, and having little demand for what you tooled up to do, FWIW. However, I am not a Californian so I do not have the feet on the ground read. Whatever - the numbers for working, in Long Beach, look good. It's been my personal experience that over the long haul, the numbers win every time.
Best of luck to you. Please let us know your progress!
If you really want a job that bad............why don't you move to ND, that's right damn cold ND where unemployment is less 4%. You will probably be working on corn ethanol or NG shale, but how desperate are you.
Someone read my story and history and suggested I move to DC metro as there were a lot of high tech sales job there and I am considering it, seriously.
Ignore the cover letters they are a waste and I have fact checked with HR people that I know. If you can't get your point accross and impress in 15 seconds your done. Highlight on your resume in bold your accomplishments. I bold all my awards and accomplishments, it's an ADD world really.
I was ripped on for suggesting this before but I want to help you so here goes. Clean homes under the table. My Mom's housecleaner in OC, CA gets $12-15 an hour! Or be a window washer they make pretty good money too.
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