Unemployed and feeling down?

[Scaly]

I'm a recent grad who is unemployed and sad. Misery loves company, yeah?
Who else out there is finding themselves in this same position? We can vent to each other and give each other sympathy.

[Inkidu]

It took me nearly three years for me to get a job after graduating college with a liberal arts degree. My job is at Walmart. So make of that what you will.

:<

I'm not unemployed, but I definitely can share my empathy with others.

[Scaly]

It took me nearly three years for me to get a job after graduating college with a liberal arts degree. My job is at Walmart. So make of that what you will.

:<

I'm not unemployed, but I definitely can share my empathy with others.

Uuugh that sucks. I hope it doesn't take that long for me. I don't know how I'll stay afloat otherwise.

[LtSurge]

Degrees like Liberal Arts and Gender Studies aren't the kinds recommended for most salaried jobs out there.... and I even less recommend taking loans to complete such degrees. idk if you took student loans, but in debt and with a practicaly useless degree is an unfavorable position :/

I dropped out of college for the time being, have two jobs trying to pay off debt. I assure you it is not easy, but I'm better off with a 6k loan as opposed to some students who start their careers with 50k+ debt

[AmberStarfire]

I'm self-employed (which I needed to be because I published a book and I'm selling artwork) but not earning much from it, and I've been looking for work for about a year. I'm also another arts graduate (including a Master of Arts in editing and publishing). By working on my own projects I'm doing what I set out to do, just not in the way I'd intended and hoped. Having been in control of the whole process start to finish, I much prefer this approach because it allows for different types of creativity and making something that is truly your own, but it's not a job (or enough of one to provide a wage you can live off).

I have a decent CV, with a whole range of study in different areas including IT, but it's diverse and I've worked in different areas that don't narrow down my skills to a particular, main type of job. I've worked in areas different to what I've studied, because they were the jobs that were available. I didn't have any trouble finding office work until I got my Master's and moved across the country to a smaller city. I've had one job since then working in the computer games industry and then nothing. I've applied, been to interviews and I don't think even a third of my applications to agencies even got passed on to the recruiting companies, because my skills didn't fit neatly into a little box that fit the job. :/

I'm going to be travelling so I'm considering temp work until that happens, then something more permanent when I get back. I'm keeping going with my books (I have 2 more I'm preparing to publish) and I'm planning to spend more time on one of my hobbies, which is making jewellery, but I'll just have to see how things pan out.

I don't think any degree is worthless. A lot of employers aren't that concerned about the subject a degree is in, and whether or not your study area directly relates to your job, you're a more educated person for studying it with improved skills.

[LtSurge]

I'm self-employed (which I needed to be because I published a book and I'm selling artwork) but not earning much from it, and I've been looking for work for about a year. I'm also another arts graduate (including a Master of Arts in editing and publishing). By working on my own projects I'm doing what I set out to do, just not in the way I'd intended and hoped. Having been in control of the whole process start to finish, I much prefer this approach because it allows for different types of creativity and making something that is truly your own, but it's not a job (or enough of one to provide a wage you can live off).

Interesting. Can you link your book? I'm interested in writing/publishing my own fiction,and seeing other people make some success and money out of it is encouraging. Also, what kind of artwork is this? I am periodically looking for artists to commission for various aspects of my fiction.

I don't think any degree is worthless. A lot of employers aren't that concerned about the subject a degree is in, and whether or not your study area directly relates to your job, you're a more educated person for studying it with improved skills.

I don't mean to say an education in some field, especially if you enjoy that field, is totally worthless. But knowledge and experience in a trade like Mechanics, Chemistry, Engineering, IT, etc. is more likely going to get you a job than something like Liberal Arts, Gender Studies, etc. Knowledge in a technical skill and experience in some trade or service makes you more attractive for employment, but it doesn't mean you can't have success with an Art degree or something.

[AmberStarfire]

I've decided not to link my book directly on the forums, but I can drop you the details in PM. I published my book under a pen name.

I haven't made a lot from it, but the good thing about self-publishing is your books can stay up for sale indefinitely (whereas books through a publisher typically have a certain lifespan depending on sales). It means that if at some point in the future one of your other books takes off, one you published before might as well, and the royalties might trickle in for the rest of your life. There are so many books out there though that without marketing efforts or some other reason the book would be found, it might not be. I have a web site for mine, but to some extent it's a work in progress. I should add some more content. I'm also planning to put my book on Smashwords now that I'm no longer locked in to Kindle Select.

I have some of my artwork up on here. I don't think any of the art on E is in my first book, because I only started drawing most of those images afterward (since May or June this year). The drawings I used in it were more surreal type art for the most part. The ones I have on Elliquiy are more ones I'm creating with a view to including the best/most relevant of them in the next book. These ones also use more Photoshop brushes I bought the licenses for, so I can include them in my own work without giving credit to the brush creator if I want to. I do it anyway because it's respectful to do it and it might help drum up some more business for her at the same time. It doesn't cost me anything to mention her name/web site.

Regarding studying, a lot depends on the job you're aiming for. A lot of companies won't hire you for a qualified role straight out of college. You need experience, either with an internship or somehow working in the field. I know from when I was in college that some people who were successful in finding jobs straight after were working/interns in companies while they were studying. By the time they graduated, they had experience. Others had unrelated experience but they had work experience and it helped.

Personally I don't like internships. I've looked into them and I'd have been working for nothing or next to nothing, and there are costs like transport and lunches that they probably wouldn't cover. Over here, a lot of jobs that were 'entry level' have now become internships. Anything can be an internship. I saw an internship for selling bread in a bakery. People are taking advantage of loopholes to hire employees cheaply. Over here there's an internship scheme that will top up benefits by 50 euro if you're on them and take an internship, or you'll earn 50 euro a week if you're not. Basically, all the company is doing is paying 50 euro a week to hire someone on full time, and an internship lasts between 9 and 12 months. They say it helps get people into jobs (some internships may lead to jobs afterwards) and there are cases where it does, but I also know people who have 10 or 20 years work experience, have studied at university level and they're earning next to nothing as interns. They should have better options than that. One guy who was on my team in my last job has been doing an IT support internship for the last 6 months or more, even though that was part of his paid job description in his last job. Maybe he will do well out of it in the end and get a job there, but there's no guarantee. People are taking advantage, and while for him it might benefit him because it means he has some money coming in, companies should be paying their employees properly if they expect them to turn up for work every day and do what's required of a job. It costs money to live. I'd say if you don't have any or much experience, consider charity work, temp work or something like that. Then you have something to put down on paper and it shows you can work with members of the public.

I've totally gone off track with my bit of a mini rant/ramble, but anyway, an arts degree is more suited to jobs or interests in the area you've studied. You need to be able to apply it in a job interview setting and explain what you gained from it or how its unique skills apply to the role you're looking for. Even if it comes down to being a more well-rounded, knowledgeable person, there is always something. If you call your degree useless or believe that it is, other people will pick up on that and adopt your view. If you put a hell of a lot of work into it and learned from it, and grew from studying it, then it does have value. With arts degrees, I've found these are well-accepted for office-based roles.

[AmberStarfire]

I wasn't able to send a PM because you're on hold right now, but I'll send it on when I can.

[LtSurge]

I wasn't able to send a PM because you're on hold right now, but I'll send it on when I can.

Yeah, I cannot PM nor can I see that art you linked...

[jouzinka]

I graduated from a business academy, then spent a year on unemployment support. Then I went off to McDonald's and started working there.

Right now I am self-employed and loving it, but I still remember the sucky time. Hang in there, work will come. And eventually there will come one you will like.

[AmberStarfire]

Yeah, I cannot PM nor can I see that art you linked...

Give it a little time and you may be able to see it soon.

[LtSurge]

Give it a little time and you may be able to see it soon.

I'm on hold for six months, so meh... don't worry about it

[AmberStarfire]

I see. Well, that's a fairly long while. At least there are other roleplaying sites out there to post on too.

[WindVoyager]

Thanks to Yahoo locking my e-mail account for no reason what so ever and its the e-mail need for work, I'm about to end up jobless. I really dont want to end u working some place like Wal-mart, long  hours, bad pay, horrible customers, and standing on that concrete floor isn't going to be good for my knee

[AmberStarfire]

Thanks to Yahoo locking my e-mail account for no reason what so ever and its the e-mail need for work, I'm about to end up jobless. I really dont want to end u working some place like Wal-mart, long  hours, bad pay, horrible customers, and standing on that concrete floor isn't going to be good for my knee

Your work should understand that there can be IT issues beyond your control. You can only do your best to get these sorted. If you lose your job because of it, they're the ones who have acted inappropriately. Yahoo have a customer service page where you can contact them. I know it took some finding once before when I couldn't get into my account, but there is one there.

[WindVoyager]

I've E-mailed them several times, contacted them via twitter and facebook and all they have done so far is not only not bother to help me they parrot stuff that is on thier so called Help page

At least TW pretends to care about its customers, Yahoo just doesn't care 

[AmberStarfire]

Did you try resetting your password through a different device to see if it would let you finish the reset process?

[TeamVelma]

I'm a recent grad who is unemployed and sad. Misery loves company, yeah?
Who else out there is finding themselves in this same position? We can vent to each other and give each other sympathy.

Well I'm not a recent graduate but I took voluntary redundancy from a job of 10 years at the end of March and have only just had an offer but that needs clearance so it could be another 2 months before I start.  It is a slog, one thing is to try to get some work, to tide you over while you are looking for the ideal job.  Another thing is to make sure you get out of the house every day, go for a walk, stay active, visit a library.  There's nothing worse than staying in doors all the time grinding away looking for work, you have to give yourself some mental breathing space.  I would give myself a day off a week from looking for work so I had a break from the pressure.  Oh and have a structured day.  Another thing is to get some others to review your CV, they may see things you have missed (both good and bad) which may help.

[AndyZ]

I've been unemployed for over two years now, and had a similar stretch between September 2010 and December 2012.

It's the recession.  What can you do?

[Oniya]

The last job I had, I was working from home, doing reports that eventually ended up with the EPA.  Then, a bunch of people who have never been short of cash a day in their lives decided to shut the government down instead of doing their jobs.  Work slowed down, but every once in a while, I'd get a packet to do.  It was never more than an hour a day (although the pay was pretty nice for that hour), and I'd get through packets pretty quickly.  The final packet that I got came at a time so removed from the previous one that I had forgotten my time-sheet password.  I dropped an email to the lady in HR, and got a response back from her boss.  He told me that she had been let go, along with almost all of their part-timers, because there just wasn't enough work to justify having them 'on the books'.  I asked where that left me, since I had just finished and submitted work, and he said he'd talk with the people that handled the contract and get back to me.

He never did.  I found out through the person who sent me packets (who was with the company that my company was sub-contracted to, but wasn't in charge of the contract) that I had been let go.  You've heard of people getting 'Dear John' texts?  That's about how impersonal this was.

All of my technical knowledge is almost a decade out of date.  I haven't worked retail for about twice that.  Any place around here that is hiring is offering wages about what I made coming out of college.  I open my resume and wonder if it's even worth copy-pasting it onto the online applications, especially when my 'previous experience' is either completely irrelevant (especially the information about my hourly wages), or so out of date that it's literally from another century.

[AndyZ]

The last job I had, I was working from home, doing reports that eventually ended up with the EPA.  Then, a bunch of people who have never been short of cash a day in their lives decided to shut the government down instead of doing their jobs.  Work slowed down, but every once in a while, I'd get a packet to do.  It was never more than an hour a day (although the pay was pretty nice for that hour), and I'd get through packets pretty quickly.  The final packet that I got came at a time so removed from the previous one that I had forgotten my time-sheet password.  I dropped an email to the lady in HR, and got a response back from her boss.  He told me that she had been let go, along with almost all of their part-timers, because there just wasn't enough work to justify having them 'on the books'.  I asked where that left me, since I had just finished and submitted work, and he said he'd talk with the people that handled the contract and get back to me.

He never did.  I found out through the person who sent me packets (who was with the company that my company was sub-contracted to, but wasn't in charge of the contract) that I had been let go.  You've heard of people getting 'Dear John' texts?  That's about how impersonal this was.

All of my technical knowledge is almost a decade out of date.  I haven't worked retail for about twice that.  Any place around here that is hiring is offering wages about what I made coming out of college.  I open my resume and wonder if it's even worth copy-pasting it onto the online applications, especially when my 'previous experience' is either completely irrelevant (especially the information about my hourly wages), or so out of date that it's literally from another century.

Not having enough work is really common.  That's what let me go from my last two jobs, and I've had recruiters who I found out were let go when it seemed like they had some chance of getting me a job.

The guy who actually knew you and was nice to you probably wasn't allowed to contact you.

[Yukina]

Simply, I'm currently stuck without a job. The last one I had was slowly destroyed due to the new manager being a whiny, ablest jerk. Jobs are hard to come by for me, as the things I prefer (clerical) just don't seem to exist and when I try to get into retail or any other non-clerical job, all the interviewers focus on is how my last two jobs on my resume have nothing to do with them. 

[BCdan]

One thing I realized before getting my 'steady extra' (20-35 hours a week) job was that it is good to fill your time while looking for a job. People say that your job should be to look for a job 8 hours a day, but that is unrealistic and silly.  Volunteer, network, make friends and grow. 

Also, if you find a company that seems attractive, just try to get your foot in the door. I do mail stuff, so I get to visit every department in a gigantic company that interests me and hand my resume to the secretaries of that department.

Another thing with getting your foot in the door, a lot of companies will give first priority to internal transfers over outsiders mainly because an internal transfer has already made it through a lot of loops in the HR process. 

I think the job application process throws a lot of people off because its not a linear, logical system.  Networking, being sort of sociable and lots of follow up will get you a job more than a tidal wave of applications. 3 of the 4 jobs I got during/after school were through who I knew.  The fourth job was because I was apparently the only person to wear a goddamn suit to the interview...

[RubySlippers]

I've been employed very little since I left High School formally, I was a Busker and did other cash under the table work and some on the books work but now am on SSI Disability so am deemed too unfit to work and well its good in although I'm covered by my wife's benefits I can go back on the government if she passes away even in the Coast Guard its still a risk if war breaks out or some drug dealers shoot back at her cutter. But am working part-time on the base so its a job helping with disabled outreach and I visit schools with one of the officers back home. Its fun and pays a bit over the minimum wage so I feel lucky.

But I miss my wife - a lot.  :-\

But am proud of her and she is so sexy in a uniform, she is upset she couldn't find the two boys lost at sea awhile ago she was on the southernmost hook of the search. I said all her crew can do is their best and I for one am proud of them for doing their duty so diligently I feel better she's out there defending the coast of our nation.

[Oniya]

I said all her crew can do is their best and I for one am proud of them for doing their duty so diligently I feel better she's out there defending the coast of our nation.

Semper paratus.  :-)