Holding up a sign looking for work in MA (Boston: college, lawsuit)

[smoky_topaz]

Just a quick note to illustrate something else...I'll give you the short version. About a year ago my parents hired a nice young man to work for them on their property (they have a pretty big lot, and it needs a lot of upkeep.) This boy lives in their neighborhood, btw. He's about your age and I got a chance to chat with him a little he says he has Crohn's disease but he may also have Asperger's Syndrome. He cuts and mows, trims shrubbery, other odd jobs... you know that kind of thing. I asked him one time how did he get started...he said that he started making flyers, magnets and putting them in mailboxes advertising himself as a "hard working dependable person willing to do odd jobs". I asked him "What do you tell people when of if they ask about your references?" and he said that most people didn't ask further too much on that one.

Anyway, it's just some food for thought. This young man may have decided that the 9-5 traditional route was not for him, or there were too many hurdles to overcome, like you feel. So he decided to create work-found a need to be filled and went from there.

[KKay9]

I've not been following your travails for several years, Parried, just noticed this thread today.

1) I would accept the offer to communicate from smoky_topaz. Obviously someone who has been there and done that.

2) Your experience with putting in applications and hearing nothing back is NOT unique. It's extremely common. My husband and I, with graduate degrees and decades of work experience, have experienced exactly the same thing when looking for jobs. Answering job ads just does not work for anyone any more, it's not about you personally.

3) I think you are setting your sights too low by looking only for minimum wage jobs. I know you want a regular job and a steady paycheck and think that's the easiest way to get there with a GED, but it's really not. You are clearly pretty bright. Though the tone of your posts can be offputting and you are quite single minded once you have an idea, your grammar and spelling and general writing skills are solid. You can obviously type and know your way around a computer. You don't need to be working at McDonald's.

4) Don't brush off volunteer work as a way to get experience. When I was your age, with a new, fancy schmancy, liberal arts degree, the ecomony was bad. I could not find anything. I volunteered to work for free in the development office of a hospital...just so I wouldn't be sitting around. I wasn't earning any more money sitting at home, hoping someone would return my calls . This was pre-computer on every desk days. I typed and filed and filled out forms in a back office for six months. That gave me the bit of office work experience, and the good references, that I needed to be taken just a bit more seriously when I looked for a paying job.

5) In that vein, with social skills being a challenge and with your obvious computer skills, volunteer to do data entry or database maintenance somewhere. At a social services agency or non-profit. They probably need the help and it would get your foot in the door. IT is a great career for someone like you. I've worked in IT for 30 years and work with quite a few adults with Aspberger's and other Autism Spectrum disorders. These folks are consistently: smart, very focused, give great attention to detail. As an analyst part of MY job is to help the more businessy folks, the "flighty"/more social folks, communicate with them and vice versa.

[miu]

parried - Have you tried going to "hiring events"?

[baystater]

Originally Posted by miu

parried - Have you tried going to "hiring events"?

Let's give smoky topaz a chance.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by miu

parried - Have you tried going to "hiring events"?

Miu, OP hasn't posted for a record breaking 24 hours. Hopefully, he is beginning a beautiful friendship with SmokyTopaz.

[miu]

Originally Posted by baystater

Let's give smoky topaz a chance.

My question was more about if he had ever tried them (hiring events and job fairs) in the past, not about going to one in the future. With these hiring events, the attendees fill out job applications in person, and also talking with representatives that day... in person. The face time he is demanding.

And he has never mentioned going to a hiring event or job fair, but I was just wondering if he had. And it came to mind because I saw one listed today on craigslist.

[parried]

Those events are all well and good but the people doing the hiring have bad communication skills. They just don't follow up or keep in touch. They just use classic brush offs. "We'll call you", blah blah blah.

[Ericthebean]

Originally Posted by Shutout

Try Lowell General/Saints Medical. They are one entity now and each hospital on it's own is more than twice the size of Merrimack Valley. A much bigger organization.

I would never recommend a complete stranger, especially one who is now unwilling to even fill out applications anymore. That shows that you are a quitter when things don't go your way.

What you want is someone do the hard work for you. Finding a job is like a job in itself.

You claim you're not even getting interviews... I'd like to see what your resume looks like or cover letter looks like. Do you even do a cover letter? Sure they are entry level jobs, but more is better... it shows you actually care.

You do realize it's against human workings to do the job of finding a job after a certain level of discouragement, unless you can quantify you are getting some potential takers. Finding a job is a job without pay. How many jobs would you be incentivized to do without pay?

[Shutout]

Originally Posted by Ericthebean

You do realize it's against human workings to do the job of finding a job after a certain level of discouragement, unless you can quantify you are getting some potential takers. Finding a job is a job without pay. How many jobs would you be incentivized to do without pay?

I did enough to get me qualified and ready for a paid one.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Ericthebean

You do realize it's against human workings to do the job of finding a job after a certain level of discouragement, unless you can quantify you are getting some potential takers. Finding a job is a job without pay. How many jobs would you be incentivized to do without pay?

I think your post says a lot about different attitudes. Some people keep trying the same thing and when it doesn't work throw up their hands and say "I tried. It's not my fault it didn't work out." or worse dream up some conspiracy about why the world is actively trying to keep them from success. Other people, when faced with repeated failures, learn from those failures and change what they're doing.