anyone else unemployed?

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bjork

Member
Sometimes I wish I had zero debt (working on that) so I could go work on one of those Hawaii farms. Seems like it would be a neat adventure.
 

Canova

Banned
you guys are still young.

things are rough for most young people. but just keep going, do whatever productive things out there, volunteer; work out; go out meet people; set simple goals, when you accomplish those little goals, you'd get confidence out of it, then set bigger goals, etc;

things you can not do are quitting, and wasting your time away with unproductive things.

Do those things above, and things will turn around. It's a cliche, but luck is when effort meets opportunity. The only way you find opportunities is when you make an effort to look for them

Threads like this will depress some people, but on the other hand they also will help some others to tell them that they're not the only ones facing challenges.
 

Yasae

Banned
Hasphat6462 said:
These are entry level positions so most if not all candidates are people who just graduated, so no internal hires. Depending on the firm, connections are important (smaller it is, the more you're gonna get noticed, etc). But since most college grads don't come into the workforce with an expansive professional network, they still have to fight tooth an nail for openings.
Past connections from almost anything are important. It's not that they'll speak for the validity of your work, it's that they'll speak about the validity of you as a human being.
 

Schattenjäger

Gabriel Knight
Kentpaul said:
fucking enjoyment bro , fuck sitting like an office drone day after day rotting away , i live for the weekend, i live for music, i watch awsome films all day , work out, chat to my friends, eat out, but hey i'm a chilled out got , not a work junkie


:lol :lol :lol
life is about balance..you appreciate the free time more when it is more limited..

i remember when i used to work less than 10 hours a week and i hated all the free time..
 

Weapxn

Mikkelsexual
I just got a BA too. In theater. Go me. Meh.

I've got jobs lined up through next May though. Don't pay shit, but they're something.
 

Kentpaul

When keepin it real goes wrong. Very, very wrong.
Well fellas my "unemployment" ends tomorrow, i will have to wake up at 8 o fucking clock and walk 3 miles to my local town to start a job placement.(Blew all my money last night seeing "DJ SASH" at my local club

Good luck to the people trying to find work , but hey i just waited a year and got it handed to me, Best year of my life
 

Fuzz Rez

Banned
Schattenjagger said:
life is about balance..you appreciate the free time more when it is more limited..

i remember when i used to work less than 10 hours a week and i hated all the free time..

Depends on a person. There is nothing more I hate in my life then work. I can find good place to work and I even can enjoy it for a while but soon as the routine sets in I start hating the job and I can't wait to get out. Reason why most of my contracts don't usually last more than a year.

Then I go some place warm, nice and cheap, a place where I can just chill out for an year or two with all the money I have made during my work.
 

Chris R

Member
Take me off the list. Finally, 1.5 years after I got my degree. Hope it works out because this was the only company that looked beyond the 1.5 year gap in my resume :)
 
I have a job and it sucks...But i won't quit, So its either get fired and get unemployment (they are cleaning house to make the yearly goal) or look for something else. Blah retail sucks ass.
 

Chao

Member
Just got a job after a whole fucking year. It's not really awesome, but enough to pay the bills.
It's in an official Apple reseller, and so far it's been nice.
It sucks I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing (graphic design, illustration) but hey...
 

curls

Wake up Sheeple, your boring insistence that Obama is not a lizardman from Atlantis is wearing on my patience 💤
Chao said:
Just got a job after a whole fucking year. It's not really awesome, but enough to pay the bills.
It's in an official Apple reseller, and so far it's been nice.
It sucks I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing (graphic design, illustration) but hey...

Hey at least the hardware somewhat relates to your profession. A lot of graphic design firms choose to work primarily on the macintosh platform. Better than somewhere like morrisons. :)
 
rhfb said:
Take me off the list. Finally, 1.5 years after I got my degree. Hope it works out because this was the only company that looked beyond the 1.5 year gap in my resume :)

Yeah, it does suck when companies don't take you in because you are unemployed. I got lucky too. Last month, I finally got a job. Took me 10 months to find a job after I graduated.
 

JambiBum

Member
Lost my FedEx job about a week ago. Was a good job. More upset about losing it than I thought I would be. Trying to find another one. Might try and do some clinical trials to have some money but I can't really find any place to do them.
 

ollin

Member
I have three interviews in a week. Hopefully I can snag at least one of them. They are only internships but I need at least some experience. Should have done them while in school. Oh well can't really think about that now.
 
Kentpaul said:
fucking enjoyment bro , fuck sitting like an office drone day after day rotting away , i live for the weekend, i live for music, i watch awsome films all day , work out, chat to my friends, eat out, but hey i'm a chilled out got , not a work junkie

I totally understand this way of thinking, i mean im responsible for being lazy when it comes to getting jobs, but at least ive been doing college for something worthwhile which i just recently completed.

You're like i was living the easy life, but in a few years, you're going to be totally FUCKED. Enjoy it while it lasts then i guess
 

Dragon

Banned
Isn't Kent Paul a joke character?

Edit: Thankfully I'm not out of a job but I know tons of people that are and most of them have non practical degrees like Philosophy or Psychology. Thank goodness I like being a programmer.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
Have a technical phone interview today. I'm pretty nervous because it's for a .NET programming job and I've been doing C++ for the last 5 years. I had some experience with .NET in a prior job with ASP.NET and C#, but I'm still nervous this guy is going to ask me specific questions and I'm just going to be like "Whaaaa?" :lol

I mean, I can open up VisualStudio.Net and put together an application and tap into a database pretty quickly. Played around with web services and WPF which is pretty cool. I think getting into .NET should be a smooth transition for me, but I'm not sure what level of experience they're looking for at this job. I just want to convey that I'm comfortable with learning new technologies pretty quickly.
 

jiien

Member
CrankyJay said:
Have a technical phone interview today. I'm pretty nervous because it's for a .NET programming job and I've been doing C++ for the last 5 years. I had some experience with .NET in a prior job with ASP.NET and C#, but I'm still nervous this guy is going to ask me specific questions and I'm just going to be like "Whaaaa?" :lol

I mean, I can open up VisualStudio.Net and put together an application and tap into a database pretty quickly. Played around with web services and WPF which is pretty cool. I think getting into .NET should be a smooth transition for me, but I'm not sure what level of experience they're looking for at this job. I just want to convey that I'm comfortable with learning new technologies pretty quickly.

Good luck! I personally HATE phone interviews. I dislike talking on the phone to begin with, because it's right in between IMing and talking face-to-face; it's more "present" than IMing because you don't have as much time to compose what you want to say, but you can't actually show or read any facial expressions. It's horrible.

This whole thread makes me anxious, and it doesn't even pertain to me. I wish all of you guys the best of luck. :(
 
Just out of curiosity, have any of you considered joining the military? Its something that I've been giving a bit of thought to myself.. I still have a year or so left in university, and even though I currently have a co-op job related to my field, my employer is in the process of going through layoffs so who knows if I will be around next semester, let alone have a full-time position available after I graduate. The military is essentially a guaranteed paycheck, a great way to meet and make lifelong friends, etc.. Not to mention, enlistees with higher education are usually bumped up a few notches on the payscale, aren't they?

Sure, it's hard work, but what's the alternative?
 

CrankyJay

Banned
lol, phonecall was only like 5 minutes long.

i explained my experience and my confidence level about getting back into the technology they are using but they made it sound like they need someone to hit the ground running because they are currently swamped. like a year ago, they would have had the bandwidth to hire me on and train me along the way, but i'm not sure that's the route they are planning on going.

the interviewer is going to ask his boss if there is a test on a computer they can give me in person there to see if i can handle things. so he may or may not call back. i just don't do well in pressure situations like that. ugh...time for a career change? :lol
 

Witchfinder General

punched Wheelchair Mike
Almighty_Chocobo said:
Just out of curiosity, have any of you considered joining the military? Its something that I've been giving a bit of thought to myself.. I still have a year or so left in university, and even though I currently have a co-op job related to my field, my employer is in the process of going through layoffs so who knows if I will be around next semester, let alone have a full-time position available after I graduate. The military is essentially a guaranteed paycheck, a great way to meet and make lifelong friends, etc.. Not to mention, enlistees with higher education are usually bumped up a few notches on the payscale, aren't they?

Sure, it's hard work, but what's the alternative?


Sure, except for the fact that America is fighting a war on TWO FUCKING FRONTS!

Seriously, now would be the worst possible time to enter the army unless you don't mind the very real likelihood of being in the frontline.
 

jiien

Member
CrankyJay said:
lol, phonecall was only like 5 minutes long.

i explained my experience and my confidence level about getting back into the technology they are using but they made it sound like they need someone to hit the ground running because they are currently swamped. like a year ago, they would have had the bandwidth to hire me on and train me along the way, but i'm not sure that's the route they are planning on going.

the interviewer is going to ask his boss if there is a test on a computer they can give me in person there to see if i can handle things. so he may or may not call back. i just don't do well in pressure situations like that. ugh...time for a career change? :lol

Ouch. Why don't you try another field within your career? You mentioned you have a lot of C++ experience. For example, I work in the defense industry as a software engineer/programmer. Though we do use a few legacy languages, we also use a lot of C++ and Java (both of which I assume you know pretty well). Why don't you look into that field?

The nice thing about working based on government contracts is that the government (unlike consumers) isn't not nearly as finicky and fad-driven, and it tends to do everything sloooooowly. A minor expenditure and project for the government can be ten years of work for you.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
jiien said:
Ouch. Why don't you try another field within your career? You mentioned you have a lot of C++ experience. For example, I work in the defense industry as a software engineer/programmer. Though we do use a few legacy languages, we also use a lot of C++ and Java (both of which I assume you know pretty well). Why don't you look into that field?

The nice thing about working based on government contracts is that the government (unlike consumers) isn't not nearly as finicky and fad-driven, and it tends to do everything sloooooowly. A minor expenditure and project for the government can be ten years of work for you.

The defense industry writing C++ is just what I got laid off from. There are a few other defense contractors in the area but they are not currently hiring. :lol
 

jiien

Member
CrankyJay said:
The defense industry writing C++ is just what I got laid off from. There are a few other defense contractors in the area but they are not currently hiring. :lol

Damn, didn't know. Sorry :(

If you don't mind, where do you live? Just wondering. I live in New Jersey.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
jiien said:
Damn, didn't know. Sorry :(

If you don't mind, where do you live? Just wondering. I live in New Jersey.

Western, NY. And don't worry about it.

I just don't see many C++ opportunities springing up in this very specific region.
 

jiien

Member
CrankyJay said:
Western, NY. And don't worry about it.

I just don't see many C++ opportunities springing up in this very specific region.

Ah, that sucks. I don't know if your situation allows for it, but you just might have to move. :T

Well, you have a lot more experience with this stuff than I do, so I wouldn't presume to give any more advice. Anyway, good luck.
 

dmann

Member
I am getting laid off in mid-August. I work for a pretty large engineering consulting firm, and they have decided to close down my business group in Atlanta. They've asked me if i wanted to relocate to Houston, and I declined. So I have been looking for other opportunities since I got the news several weeks ago. It sucks knowing that I'll be out of a job soon, I guess I'll collect unemployment when that time comes. =/
 
I was quite lucky. I walked in May and I had two classes to take over the summer. A firm sought me out a month ago and pulled me in for an interview. Called me a few days later towards the end of the week and asked if I could start the following Monday.

The best advice I can give is the following:

Tailor your resume to each job. Carpet-bombing a standard resume/CL rarely works. Be confident in your abilities if you get into an interview; many employers will try to shake you and test your resolve. Remember that they brought you in because they're interested and take those tests in stride. Don't be afraid to be assertive about what you want.
 

Kuraudo

Banned
Been unemployed for about four weeks, but got another job coming up next week thankfully.

Had a government contract for a year and honestly thought that once I was in they'd be able to make me permanent. Really annoying because they would have kept me on too (guy they have in doing my job is useless apparently), but there's a stay on all public sector recruitment at the moment so they couldn't keep me on once my fifty one weeks were up.

Hit up a bunch of recruitment agencies the week after I finished as well as sending off a bunch of application forms. I got really lucky and one of the agencies called me up a week after I went into them about a new team that's being set up. Been a real rush over the last week and a bit trying to get my clearance and references together for them, but I've got a new contract starting Tuesday in a bank pretty close to home.

It's only for six months, but it's something and it's got me more confident that I'll find something else when that ends. Thinking about doing a few night classes while I'm doing it. I have a degree in Computer Science, but nobody wants it and I'm not sure I want to do any software development myself after being in those environments. Figure I might as well use the time to get some more qualifications relevant to the work I'll probably spend the rest of my life doing.


Don't envy anyone still looking for work. Applying for jobs is awful - you can't relax as it's always on the back of your mind that you should be job hunting. Just stay strong, do what you can and don't beat yourself up if there's nothing out there. Something will come up sooner or later. Good luck.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
jiien said:
Ah, that sucks. I don't know if your situation allows for it, but you just might have to move. :T

Well, you have a lot more experience with this stuff than I do, so I wouldn't presume to give any more advice. Anyway, good luck.

Can't move just yet. Wife is halfway through getting her CPA and I don't want to disrupt that. After that, who knows?
 

CrankyJay

Banned
Hehe, the recruiter is pushing back on the client a little bit, so she asked me to do a writeup of the programming experience I had at my previous jobs with links to show what I am capable of.

I said I am serious and confident in my abilities and more than willing to spend the necessary extra time to get back up to speed.

It looks like I'm going to have to create a portfolio I can publish online to show people what I can do.
 
i see lots of desk jobs talked about in here, you do know people work outside from time to time don't you? go buy a pair of work boots and fly at it.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
maxcer0081 said:
i see lots of desk jobs talked about in here, you do know people work outside from time to time don't you? go buy a pair of work boots and fly at it.

That's the problem. You put on your resume that you were a software engineer and a company like you suggest will flag you as a flight risk and not want to hire you.
 

Kuraudo

Banned
CrankyJay said:
That's the problem. You put on your resume that you were a software engineer and a company like you suggest will flag you as a flight risk and not want to hire you.

Yeah, I had a few places turn me down for being overqualified. It's fucking ridiculous when experience or qualifications begin to work against you.
 

CrankyJay

Banned
Have another phone interview today with a different company and that company that I had a phone interview with last week is giving me a technical test tomorrow.

I'm glad my resume and cover letters are at least generating interest.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
CrankyJay said:
Have another phone interview today with a different company and that company that I had a phone interview with last week is giving me a technical test tomorrow.

I'm glad my resume and cover letters are at least generating interest.

yeah, it sucks going weeks without hearing shit back from anyone.

I've got an interview lined up for next week, and it's scheduled to last from 10-2pm. I've never had an interview that long, so it should be interesting.
 

bistromathics

facing a bright new dawn
bkfount said:
yeah, it sucks going weeks without hearing shit back from anyone.

I've got an interview lined up for next week, and it's scheduled to last from 10-2pm. I've never had an interview that long, so it should be interesting.
netvideogirls?
 

Coeliacus

Member
InfiniteNine said:
Test experimental drugs for side effects pretty much. My arms look like Junkies arms, but I get paid a good sum to maintain my lifestyle of buying games, importing goods, hang out with friends every month or so, rent, and food. Going to start going to Krav Maga lessons with my roommate to shake things up a bit. I get around 2-4 thousand dollars each time I do a trial for a drug.
I've done this once. Made $700 for staying two nights in bed and having constant blood tests. Not leaving the facility was a bit of a downer though. Also having to go back for outpatient visits weeks later before getting my cheque.

I would actually do it again, but doing this sort of thing regularly means not committing to anything for months in advance. At least with the hospital that does trials here, the trials usually start a couple of weeks after being announced, and if you can't make even one of the out patient visits then that's too bad.

Even though I'm happily employed, I still receive trial updates. Next time I'm between jobs and I can manage it, I'll do this before welfare and job search training (again). :lol

Good luck unemployed gaf. I probably have about two years combined unemployment (most of that in one stretch) so I know how much it sucks.
 

Chris R

Member
CrankyJay said:
Have another phone interview today with a different company and that company that I had a phone interview with last week is giving me a technical test tomorrow.

I'm glad my resume and cover letters are at least generating interest.
With your experience you should be able to find a good job shortly. I on the other hand hope that I'm able to keep this job because I've actually never been in a full on programming job before, and my web/database programming skills are limited :( Granted this is like an internship/learning position.
 

B.K.

Member
I can't find a job anywhere. I'm not even getting any interviews. I applied at Wal-Mart and never even heard back from them. I'm just too useless.
 

Dizzle24

Member
Was laid off this recent Christmas...yes, Christmas. 7 months later, 100's of applications, only 1 interview. No other call backs for anything I've applied to. I even had mandatory meetings with the Dept of Labor so they can verify I am actively searching for work. So on top of barely scraping by with Unemployment checks, I have the Government keeping their eyes on me like I'm a scumbag.

I've run out of ideas. I have a BS i Behavioral Science I earned 5 years ago :lol , lots of student loans I can't afford to pay back, and I can't take a retail job because I FUCKING HATE RETAIL and feel that I would be throwing my college degree out the window by stocking shelves, I also earn more from Unemployment than I would working at Bestbuy.

I've also developed severe anxiety and depression since being out of work, which has brought on other problems in my personal life.

Moral of the story: No matter how much you hate your job, there are people out there who will gladly take your place.
 
I've been unemployed since last June. I've been searching for the last year, but couldn't find a job. I even tried going back to retail, but never got a call back. Finally got fed up with it and enlisted in the Navy.

I sorta looked at my life and decided that this would be the best thing to do. I've tried school, moving up the corporate ladder, etc, but I wasn't happy. I pictured myself in 10 years and realized that I'd be stuck at an office, barely making it through life.

I also realized that I had no job skills besides being an office worker. I was basically at the mercy of these corporations, which usually let people like me go before anyone else.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to enlist. Looked at what the military can offer and I decided to go for it. Going to do damage control for the Navy, which is considered an engineering job. I also have the scores to get into positions like turbine machinist or aviation electronics, so if I don't like DC, I can always try to go into a different rate later in my career.
 

Dresden

Member
I've been working as a grocery store clerk for the last four years. Decent pay and the job is easy. I've also been going to university, with two semesters left till I graduate.

But I've been writing more and more. It's always been a dream of mine to be a writer, but I gave that up a few years back--but about a month ago, I thought to myself, why not? The first few weeks were filled with form rejections, but now things are starting to roll, and I'll be writing a novel soon. Is it a foolish dream? I guess so. But even when the bubble pops I'll still have my degree along with a crummy job, and right now, it's the happiest I've ever been.
 

Salazar

Member
Dizzle24 said:
I even had mandatory meetings with the Dept of Labor so they can verify I am actively searching for work.

I remember those. It is similarly soul-sucking in Australia.

Dresden said:
But I've been writing more and more. It's always been a dream of mine to be a writer, but I gave that up a few years back--but about a month ago, I thought to myself, why not? The first few weeks were filled with form rejections, but now things are starting to roll, and I'll be writing a novel soon. Is it a foolish dream? I guess so. But even when the bubble pops I'll still have my degree along with a crummy job, and right now, it's the happiest I've ever been.

Good heavens, keep going. God knows I would be doing the same thing were I not writing a thesis - which is, in its way, eccentric and loose enough to be vaguely novelistic.
 
I was unemployed for about six months until a couple of weeks ago. I got a part-time job working at a DVD rental store. It's minimum wage, and the hours are absolute shit, but I guess it's something while I look for full-time work elsewhere.

I'd be ecstatic if I could find a job in an office, like as an office junior or something. I just want to save up enough money to get rid of my debt (just a student loan for a single semester; I'd be able to - and prefer to - pay it off really quickly with a full-time job), get out of my parents place, and preferably find work abroad on placement or something. Like working on a farm or in hospitality or something.

I went to an agency recently, and I was told that due to the recession, they no longer take you on if you have no experience in office work already, as businesses are using agencies less, so they can't justify promoting inexperienced people. What makes this even worse is seeing how well a friend has done for himself after using that same agency. He went to them about a year and a half ago with no office experience, almost instantly landed an office junior role at an office for a car manufacturer, and he's already been promoted and has done really well for himself. I'd kill to have a job like that.

The thought of spending too much of my life in retail puts me into a serious depression. I'm praying for a lucky break, because right now I'm just depressed pretty much all the time, and sometimes find myself wondering if everything is even worth it.
 

Aesius

Member
So I've been at Best Buy for a little over a month, and I'm already getting antsy about working there.

I'm 23, and I am definitely one of the "older guys" in the store. The people in my department with full-time hours (which are given to those with seniority) are 20-21. And an alarming amount of the other employees are 18-19.

It's a decent job, and probably one of the better retail jobs out there. And I sort of feel lucky to even have it, as my store literally gets dozens of applications every single day. But I feel like it would have been a much better fit for me at 20 or 21. At 23 (24 in Nov), I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

I know I'm not going to turn it into a career, but at the same time, I have no other options. My degree is in journalism, which is somewhere between Art History and Business Administration in terms of job placement. I have no other skills. I'm not even a good salesperson, which is literally what every other person in my immediate family does.

I basically have six months until the real world comes crashing down on me.
 
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