General discussion / blabber about moving from that UnemployedLyfe back into the workforce anyone? I've reached the point where I feel like I'm throwing applications anywhere I can, personally. But I've noticed I still have Standards Spoiler: Standards Only applying to jobs at equal or more than $9/hr - Minimum wage will not work for my bills + needing to move out of my temporary living situation Mainly applying to full-time jobs - again, I need 40 hours a week to get myself situated Only applying to places I have experience - I feel like they won't consider me Avoiding an industry of filled with primarily young/middleaged/old men - even though some security guard companies and big rig trucking companies have free license training Avoiding food service - things move too fast, too many people Avoiding applications that require a CV - I have no idea how to write a good CV, but my resume is on point. Carefully avoiding companies where I declined a previous job offer / didn't show up to the interview - I just feel like they'd remember me. I also have job dream traits, but little experience / nothing above a US high school diploma / no professional certificates. Spoiler: wishes Something involving physical activity Something involving writing Something in theme parks, as that's my area of most employment Something where I can deal strictly with patterns Something I can master easily On a side note: does anyone have good advice on how to CV / cover letter? I've got a resume that I think I'm proud of, but maybe it also needs work too? Gosh job hunting wears ya down.
Ugh, I feel ya. Part of my problem is that I know my brainweird would make fast food work impossible for me, and I'm not physically capable of warehouse-type jobs. And since my only ever paying job fired me after a month, I'm really worried that looks bad to prospective employers. Anyone got advice on how to get a job in maybe graphic design or data entry? I don't have a college degree but those are both things I'm good at.
@Acey No professional advice from me, obvs, but including your proficiency with computers / wpm / etc in your resume as skill can help a little, as well as searching for "administrative assistant" jobs, which is just generic job wording, I've found, for "office work", data entry being involved in that in some cases. What was your work experience in again? I feel like I remember you mentioning it here way back when. But I could be wrong.
That's right, I was remembering correctly. *hugs* You should try to go for office jobs, maybe, if you're in an area with a business-ish district. Even call center jobs, to me, are much less stressful than working a restaurant, but that's a personal preference. They've got their own social rules, the business casual places, but the impact is generally lower immediate-stress wise, to me? Not sure if that would relate the same for you, no empathy on my end and all. ♥
Degree is becoming a standard requirement in most jobs relating to puters. Even Ancient Guardian with 35+ years of experience is often passed over for a contract simply because he got into software engineering before there was a degree to be got. This part is going to be a problem: Outside retail & food service - they are all that. Women in the workforce may be getting near to 50% overall, but it still isn't in the better jobs. I work as a contract software engineer (means I go from company to company for short term tasks) and nowhere do I find places that are not weighted toward men. And in some, like the one I am at now, it's because they don't even get applications from women. I suspect it's because women get tired of putting them in and being turned down just for being women and give up. In my experience, the more high-tech the job, the less gender harassment from co-workers (management is still as bad as everywhere else, though).
aaaaaaaaaaaaay I'm here for this thread trying to find a job trying so very hard it's not going well because brainweirds and shit getting in the way plus the only job I want to do is game programmer which uh I'm dfab so good luck to me there
Trying to find first Actual Job for the summer at least (currently I'm working as a writing tutor at my university but that's obviously not a thing during summer) and ugh this seems like an impossible quest. Everything either has good people skills as an Absolute Requirement (which is a thing I can sorta fake sometimes but not enough for a job) or requires more experience than I have or requires more physical strength than I have. There's a summer research internship (paid) with the chemistry faculty that I'm going to apply for even though I know I'm not going to get it (due to the fact that it partly relies on grades in previous chemistry courses and yeah C+ and B are not impressive letters, plus there's going to be a whole bunch of students going for the same internship). Sigh.
Unless the job is in academia, almost everywhere when they say CV mean resume. I also am applying to places, but sort of desultorily because I don't have time for even interviews until after graduation.
So I've got two jobs now. On paper at least. First doesn't start regularly until the 28th. Second doesn't have a start date yet. Could be a few more weeks. I just wish there was something I could do for A little cash in the between time? ? Augh.
@Acey Go back to the job I quit two years ago because of how they treated workers. Also applied to literally anything I might remotely have the experience for, regardless of my belief in myself because I'm dead inside with 13 bucks to my name and bills due. It's not ideal, but it's all I can do atm..
...That's exactly what I've been doing though? And the only place I've ever worked at fired me after a month.
What do your resume and usual cover letter look like? The cover letter I've been sending out is mostly:
I am so worried of late about not being able to find a job in the field that I want I am attempting to get on SSDI because I literally can't work a regular job right now (thanks, mental health problems) I'm hoping I'll be able to manage the job I want okay, though I've never tried it and wouldn't know but it's such a male-dominated field and I am unfortunately AFAB and I'm just ugh what if I can't break into it because of how male-dominated it is what if people don't see the value of an AFAB person in that field or think I'm not worth as much as my male counterparts sorry to ramble about this here but it's work-related, kinda, and I'm Stressed
Smart employers in male-dominated fields definitely know the value of AFAB people - if not, you can highlight that differences in experiences bring better problem-solving to the workplace and/or mean easier communication with a wider variety of people.
oooooooooooh I hadn't thought of that and I also thought I had like zero shot in a male-dominated field because of that whole "women in male-dominated fields never get hired!" that my family's, like, drilled into my head. it's comforting to know that this is not necessarily the case.
Yeah, no, I've worked in bikes and financial planning, and both of those are wicked male-dominated (srsly, the biggest bike trade show IN NORTH AMERICA, with over 18,000 attendees, had 50 women show up in the professional women's retreat/room thing that was supposed to be a networking thing: the professional end is exhausting and terrifying). But my first employer in bikes made a point to hire women because he felt there was less drama, and had an entirely female bookkeeping staff because he thought they were more trustworthy, and being a woman was one of my major selling points for the third job in bikes and part of the reason I got the job, because I was able to sell it as reaching more people. Women go into male-dominated fields at lower rates because it's perceived as being hostile, and women leave male-dominated fields because a lot of those workplaces end up actually being hostile (um, not to scare you off, and not all of them are like that), but being AFAB can be a selling point in a male-dominated field if you can project confidence about it.
huh, cool. I will work on projecting confidence about it! and the possibility of my workplace being hostile doesn't scare me--I can handle that. I'm just worried about getting my foot in the goshdang door.
