I Tried Really Hard Not To Return Here But Here It Goes..

[J_trustno1]

A year ago I was still a student, clawing my way through my masters year in an attempt to finding that perfect job. I was promised that the hard work and 4am bedtimes would be worth the degree earned at the end which would be my fast-track golden ticket to my dream career, so I kept my eyes patiently focused on the promises of freedom and success that glimmered on the horizon.

Fast forward to present day and I'm a graduate going nowhere; I'm employed in a monotonous, mind-numbing temping role despite submitting and promptly getting rejected from more than 100 jobs.

Despite my optimism level reaching a dangerous low, I still start each application with a deep breath, a renewed sense of positivity and the fresh hope that maybe this time will be different.

For each job I have tailored my CV and Cover letter only focusing on that job. However, I have only had 4 interviews so far. They pass me through the first round of interview and then reject me stating they have found a better candidate. Some of the other jobs I have applied for which only required retail experience rejected me saying they had numerous applicants. I have been keeping my eyes on every one of those jobs and applying as soon as it comes on a job website. I have looked through news papers, been to recruiting agencies who refuse to look at me as soon as they see my qualification.

Now I am thinking of giving up on this entire job search and become a homeless person so that it stops my worry of my future! I have now started feeling that the next door neighbor was right when he called me "useless and good for nothing" last week when I was banned on my own thread. I don't want to go to details about it, anyone who is interested can go and look up that information.

I have been discouraged to post on this forum since my last post because of one person giving me hard time each time i post. I would like to beg the staff if they can at least try not viewing things against me or else just ban me forever. I also deleted this forum however, one of my friend told me not to delete this because of one person. I am not trying to seek attention. I only came here because I am feeling hopeless and helpless right now, If i wasn't I wouldn't have ever come back. And I am not using passive aggressive behavior here like I was told last week. If you guys find faults then I will simply leave without escalating this situation because I am sick of arguing and getting into conflicts with people.

Thanks a lot for reading.

 

[joeylittle]

Hey @J_trustno1.

Regarding your comment about staff, I can speak for myself and say there's no ill will; just turn on ignore and keep it on remains the instruction.

But to your post - I don't know anything about employment where you are; my only question/suggestion would be, are you able to do follow up with the HR people at the places you are being rejected by in order to ask if they would share thoughts on how you could improve your next application?

And - are there any other ways you could get employment closer to your degree?

 

[Tanishq]

Jess, I will tell you somethings. Hope you don't mind them.

This place is not school like where staff will/can think to shut up/stop a person from posting everywhere. Here everyone is allowed to speak their opinion. Freedom is given here for a reason. To feel safe and to feel safe to express your opinion. Rules aren't impossible here either, you can follow them,too. No one can break rules here, not even staff. Even staff has to follow procedures and stick by rules. There is a reason behind this rules.

Even in real life we all follow rules knowingly and unknowingly.

Ignore button is there to help you. I understand things are not good between you and other forum member. It's not like ignore button will stop working or they will try to beat it. You are safe after using ignore button.

If I were you, I would put the person on ignore button after seeing so much strain and move on. Life is too short for this all. This place has sanity in it, you can learn a lot from here and grow more for upcoming moments of your life.

Think before you are going to do anything because a little thing is capable to change the course of many things in our life. This is what I believe.

Hope you are well there today. Hugs if you need it. :hug:

 

[Lucycat]

Jess, I will not go into the details of your previous thread. However I will say that I know how you feel. I have put an individual on ignore for much the same reason. In my case I have resisted the temptation to look at that person's posts and have not been banned for retaliating. You will have to be strong and stick with that 'ignore'. It does work, and after a while you get used to the fact that you know there are other posts and opinions you are not seeing. I get the impression when someone knows it is getting to you they persist all the more. You are better than that.

I am sorry that you are having such a hard time getting a job. Would you be happy to share here what the nature of your dream job looks like?

 

[Deleted member 20280]

I simply Echo @Lucycat . Just as with facebook and their block option, the Ignore facility really does work.

:hug:s Laurie

 

[scout86]

Back to your original question.

I don't know what the job market is like where you're at, or what field your degree is in and what the prospects are in that field. Those things make a difference. In the US, these days, it's not at all unusual for it to take a long time to find a job, degree or not. Some fields are more challenging than others. (I'm sure that's true everywhere.)

My own best luck finding jobs has come through personal contacts, not answering ads. Someone I know needs help, or knows someone who does, we verbally communicate, I usually get the job. Answering ads and submitting resumes has never worked well for me. Maybe I'm a bad resume writer, but I think the larger problem is there are many people applying for the same jobs and it's hard for those doing the hiring to sort them out. So, my first suggestion, if you aren't already doing it, is to talk to everyone you know who could remotely be helpful. Especially at your university. (Do they have a placement office, that helps connect recent grads with jobs? Most schools in the US do.)

One more thought, in the form of a story. I don't know that this applies to you, but I'm throwing it out there, just in case.

I had a very good friend who had PTSD. He had been very successful earlier in his life and never had much trouble finding work. When he retired from the military (with PTSD, at first undiagnosed), he needed a job. He couldn't find one, doing anything. I could have gotten him a job here, where I live, but that was over a thousand miles from where he was at the time & his family didn't want to move. Talking to him, I was pretty sure I knew why he was having problems finding a job. He was extremely angry and it showed in his conversation, even though he wasn't aware that it did. He had reached the point where he was angry, and frustrated, and blaming everyone else for his problems. He would NOT have interviewed well at all. I'm pretty sure that was the major problem. Just something to think about. The fact is no one doing the hiring really cares about us, or our issues. They have a position to fill and are looking for the best and least complicated person they can find to fill it. It's all about what YOU can do for THEM. I say this because I know you've experienced discrimination and the bad effects of stereotyping. You have anger over that, that's perfectly justifiable. But it's not HELPFUL. You have make sure you come across as an answer to their problems, nothing else.

You might try, with some of these, when they respond that they found a "better" candidate, responding again and asking, specifically, what made the other applicant "better". You may be able to learn some things that will help you express your qualifications better in future applications.

I hope the perfect job is just around the next corner!

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

Now I am thinking of giving up on this entire job search and become a homeless person so that it stops my worry of my future!

I just want to say that sometimes it takes a while for the right job to come along. I am a teacher. I submitted probably hundreds of applications (well maybe just over a hundred, it was a lot) before getting my teaching job. Then, it only lasted for two years (that is a long, complicated story). After that it took me two years before I found the job I have now. I love my job and I am glad to be where I am. That's what makes me so terrified of losing it. So don't give up hope. I know it is hard, I certainly gave up home at times on my job journey and I wasn't even dealing with PTSD then. Know that it is okay to feel discouraged, but that doesn't mean you will never find the right job. I certainly hope it takes you less time than it took me.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

Have you thought of volunteering and/or internship until you find a job? At least then you have something to put on your resume.

 

[Dana1010]

Hey @J_trustno1, it's good to have you back. I honestly wasn't phased by the frustration you expressed on your last thread and can't see why anyone would be - on a PTSD forum of all places. Go figure.

recruiting agencies who refuse to look at me as soon as they see my qualification.

I'm not sure I know what this means. What is your "qualification" and why do they refuse to look at you as soon as they see it?

I second pretty much everything in the post by @scout86. The last time I was unemployed I became so cynical about the process, I was staggering into interviews huffing and puffing, thinking "let's get this over with." I started to think that ads are placed just as a safety net and they already have someone - or several people - in mind for the job. Like, are they just wasting your time? Think about the employer - how many people do they know who need a job? Friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, relatives, former employees. They're going to get hell from those people if they give a position to someone off the street instead.

The job I hold currently I got through my former employer who recommended me. I am agoraphobic and have no friends, so for me to have gotten my job through another person is really saying something. My snide little mantra these days is "no friends, no job." I really think things are that corrupt.

Now a break from the pessimism. I don't think you should stop looking for a job. You have a Master's for Pete's sake, there has to be some work for you out there. One thing I highly recommend aside from networking with everyone you know, is script the interview. Try to anticipate what they're going to ask you, and write out and rehearse answers that make you sound awesome without too much puffing. You can't guess exactly what they're going to say, but there are some old standbys you're surely going to hear, like, "Where do you see yourself in x years?" Also, when they ask you to list your weakness, you have to tell them something that isn't really negative like, "Once I start something I have trouble leaving it unfinished." Ha!

Also, it really would be helpful to know (generally) what kind of job you're seeking.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

The truth is that the job market sucks right now in much of the world. Some people go a very long time between jobs or even end up taking entry level jobs although they have been in the industry for 5-10 years plus, making it next to impossible for a new graduate to get a foot in the door so to speak. Maybe you have to move? Maybe you have to expand your job search parameters?

Somehow I don't think that becoming homeless and living on the streets is the answer. I think a lot of people would kill to be in your position as you have the gift of opportunity. Don't squander your gift.

 

[ghotiff]

I applied to over 100 jobs to get my first crappy part time retail type job. To get my "real" job I applied to over 300 jobs and this was during good economic times.

Point is, getting a job is often a numbers game and a lot of persistence and patience is required, the worse the economic times, the more persistence is needed.

Good luck. Continual rejection is hard, but it's part of the process unfortunately.

 

[Hashi]

I was looking for a job about eighteen months ago, and must have applied for way over a hundred. And I'm in a city with loads of jobs in my field, I have good experience and transferable skills. I couldn't even get temp work. In the end I took a job that was below my true ability, although everything was such a struggle for me at that time it was a challenge to do any job. But recently they've increased my responsibilities and salary. So don't give up heart. What I would recommend is:

- Work really hard at your temp job, whatever it is, with a good attitude. You may already be doing this. In the past I've worked in places where over-qualified people were doing entry-level jobs. The people who just put their hours in and wished they weren't there got nothing out of it. The people who did the work as well and as seriously as they would have done a higher level job tended to progress, either in that organisation or by eventually moving to another. They made the best of whatever skills were associated with the job - eg dealing with people, being efficient, punctuality, meeting targets, being a team player, having a good work ethic, and that helped them with their next step.

- Go on any courses/advice sessions you can about how to make job applications (doing research, application forms, CVs, cover letters, interviews). Use everything they tell you, even if it doesn't seem right. I was told to reduce my CV to two pages only, and I thought that was much too little for my work experience. All of us were given a list of buzz words to use, which just seemed a bit fake and obvious to me. But I had no interviews until I reduced my CV to two pages and put the buzz words in, and then suddenly I started getting them. For someone else, it might be that they need to do a functional (skills-based) CV rather than a chronological one. Or their interview technique or whatever.

- I'm always hearing about getting jobs through networking and I'm sure that's true for a lot of people. It has never been the case for me, for some reason. Which is ironic because I know quite a lot of people you would think could help me get a job. I definitely think it's worth a try because it might work for you. Just keep trying all the approaches.

Good luck.