Full Disclosure: I CAN'T Get a Job

[Scrumtrilescent]

The education bit is dependent on the field you are interested in honestly. For most business industries, I totally agree that a BS/BA is about as meaningful as a Subway Sandwich Artist Diploma, and a MBA is about the same. In the hard sciences, education is still the first and largest barrier to entry. Of course, if you want to spend 4+ years past your undergrad degree in a particular field, you are usually at least somewhat sure as to your career trajectory. It's a very all in field, you can't just go halfway or you'll end up in a dead end like Office Space just like every other corporate gig. But I'll be the first to stand up and shout please don't go degree grabbing just for the sake of going back to school. The stink of a professional student is almost as bad as a job nomad.

[Proudiddy]

Nothing about anything you just said makes you sound "humble", i hope you realize this. It almost sounds like you are proud of the fact that you have worked over 20 jobs....if someone seriously said to me in an interview they "have worked for over 20 companies....3 hours here, and 2 days there", I would never hire them. Also, no one cares that you have worked hard elsewhere. Obviously you didn't succeed in that system, otherwise you would have stayed with a company, and moved up in the ranks.

I'm really not trying to sound like a dick, and am honestly trying to give you sound advise. I know it may not be what you want to hear, but you started this thread.

The point of telling you about those two jobs in particular was that I was dealt a crappy hand most places I went, had horrible experiences that most people I know didn't have to put up with, and I have worked so many jobs that I CAN'T share all of those experiences with employers because it doesn't reflect well on me. So, I have to, like a resume, share the few highlights I do have.

The best job I ever had was my last one, in a professional setting, through my college. They treated me well, and I did good work for them in return. They loved me and always talked about me glowingly, and I do the same for them. I still talk with my supervisor from that job. That was the FIRST job in my life that rewarded me for hard work and respected me. They treated me as a human being, not a faceless slave. I don't care if that sounds humble or not, it's the truth.

Imagine Steve Smith working a 9-5. That was me as a teenager. So, I've grown up quite a bit, but I didn't take any crap if it wasn't equally dealt across the board to everyone. Yes, everyone has ups and downs, but I'm talking about a systematic dumping on one person. But, to say I sound proud about having 20 jobs, well yeah, that's not something I tell prospective employers, but it is a sort of badge of honor among those who know me, lol. It's a joke. But, in personal conversations I'm not going to shy away from it because it molded me and again I endured some hard times and unbelievable circumstances in the process. And it wasn't 20 "companies," I worked for people who didn't pay me because I had to take it in order to get by. I even stocked shelves getting paid literal CHANGE (under the table) at a commissary by independent vendors. I'd say that is a humbling experience.

If you do work for someone somewhere and after the fact, they don't pay you, are you gonna stay there? If you work in a factory getting paid $6 an hour and they take money out of your check for being 5 minutes late, but you're the one that calls the Dept. of Labor on them out of a plant full of grown men, are you gonna keep that job? Are you gonna tell people about it? If you started a job somewhere that requires you to come to work overnight and pay you .25 a case that you stock, and then you come in and they only have 30 cases, are you gonna stay there? That's what I was dealing with.

So, I couldn't list all the employers I had even if I wanted, because some couldn't even be verified.

Now, I have credentials that command some level of respect, and I'm willing to work just as hard - I'm just not getting the chances. But, I'm not going to go into an interview and say "I changed jobs like underwear. I had over 20 of them, above and under the table. I got treated like crap or misled about pay or positions, so I left a lot of them. So, when do I start?"

Out of all the people I have known throughout my life, none have had any sort of employment experiences even remotely close to mine. So, it's tough to know I've had these unique experiences as well, yet I can't share all of those or any at all with prospective employers to demonstrate growth.

No offense BC, I'm just sharing that here. It's not what I would want to put on my business cards.

[toldozer]

If you worked for me for two days and quit i probably wouldnt make an effort to find you and pay you either. And how is working three hours at a wendys taking your lumps? I think your problem is you think more of yourself then potential employers do. If $8.50 is what they are willing to pay why would they give you $14.00, just because you think you deserve it? When i was in high school my dad was bringing in about 150k a year. His company downsized three or four times and finally he was laid off as well. He took a job making 13.50 an hour until he could find something better. Eventually you will get where you want to be, but you have to start somewhere man. If you start somewhere at 8.50 and prove your worth it will all work out.

[Proudiddy]

If you worked for me for two days and quit i probably wouldnt make an effort to find you and pay you either. And how is working three hours at a wendys taking your lumps? I think your problem is you think more of yourself then potential employers do. If $8.50 is what they are willing to pay why would they give you $14.00, just because you think you deserve it? When i was in high school my dad was bringing in about 150k a year. His company downsized three or four times and finally he was laid off as well. He took a job making 13.50 an hour until he could find something better. Eventually you will get where you want to be, but you have to start somewhere man. If you start somewhere at 8.50 and prove your worth it will all work out.

Apparently that example wasn't taken the way I intended it to be. I lived in SC for about 3 months and basically was sent there by my family. My uncle demanded I take the jobs to give me something to do. The landscaper was supposed to pay me by the day. They didn't. The second day, they dropped me off at a site and left me there, which was not planned, to pick weeds out of landscaping and they did no other work there IIRC. So, I didn't go back. It was very sketchy those two days I was with them and I never even filled out any paperwork, yet it was a "connection" through their church. They didn't pay me for the work I did and made no effort to contact me after the fact.

I went to Wendy's after, thinking I would be staying there longer than 3 months, and found out I was getting sent back home, which I was ready for at that point... So, I never went back and didn't get paid for that either. Mind you, I was an 18 year old HS dropout who was told I would end up in prison or dead by my HS coach (despite never being in trouble with the law). That story was to illustrate the extremes that I dealt with and how I had two worthless jobs that I wasn't paid for in just a month or two's time frame, even though I didn't do anything to hasten that. That is all.

I didn't give that as an example of "taking my lumps."

It's possible that I think more of myself than they do. But, when did confidence become a negative? I also say that my wage rate is negotiable when I go to those interviews. But, how insulting is it to offer me a wage that I made before I even went to college? Doesn't that count for anything? Why don't you put me in the fast track to work my way up into a better position because of that instead of offering me 8.50 to decorate cakes? There's a difference between being humbled and being an idiot, and admittedly, I must not be doing a good job of differentiating.

[ladypanther]

AND TO EVERYONE that has or will respond to this thread, I truly thank you and appreciate it. It really does mean a lot. I've kind of been sitting on this for a few months now and don't want to put it on Facebook at the risk of coming off as a complete trainwreck and failure - which I'm okay with on the Huddle, LOL. So, to have all of you giving me meaningful advice and feedback... It's awesome. It IS like the old Huddle. And I do take heed and analyze each and every thing you guys have suggested.

Thanks again.

Don't put anything on Facebook!!

So, what do you really want to do? I think what you said was write. My advice, do not see that as an event, but a process. I had a friend tell many about many writing/blog sites, that sometimes a person had to write for free, before anything got picked up for pay. Start looking for them. Start looking for writers' workshops. In the meantime, find something, anything, to contribute to your family's income. See it as the means to an end, working toward your dream.

Identify your goal. Do not expect to reach your goal without sacrifice (i.e., Zod's post). Make a plan and identify the first steps towards the goal/dream. Be careful about setting timelines...they can be traps. Just identify steps....small ones are best.

Good luck.

[toldozer]

Degrees arent worth much. I wasnt trying to insult you sorry if it came off that way. Confidence isnt bad, but being insulted by being offered less then you think you should make isnt helping you get a job. Maybe find a place you want to be, take the wage they are offering with the mind set that you are going to make it impossible for them not to promote you. are you in charlotte? Maybe try the time warner call center. I had a friend that was promoted out of the call center in under a month because he out worked lazy people that had been working there for years.

[pstall]

network...network...network...network.

you have to build that first and foremost. i think you said you played hoops or was good at it. man, the # of jobs or leads i have gotten just from playing hoops consistently has been amazing.

plus, while doing that, you build lifetime friends and alot can be learned about someone when they play a game and some adversity comes up etc. those guys you play with can give you insight many of us can't because we aren't around you.

the right person can spend time with you and help unlock some things inside of you that you didn't know existed.

don't look at a job as marriage. like, ok she's the one. im like scrum. my path has been all over the place but my ability to adapt and excel has helped. sure im a contrarian and don't go by the book but those up the food chain know what i can do.

in addition to building your network. find places you can volunteer at. that can get you in front of some power brokers pretty quickly and bam.

[sunbunny]

come work at dish. you start off at $14.5/hr. paid training. Only qualifications is good driving record, HS diploma/ged, and can lift 100 pounds. You will work 4 days a week, normally about 11 hrs a day. full benefits and $70 credit per month to go toward your dish tv bill. you can earn up to a $200 bonus each check based on your productivity. There are many other perks such as discounts on cell phone etc. I receive an 18% discount with sprint for being a dish employee. Dish is always hiring and the office is located off of Tyvola in charlotte. you can go here to apply. http://careers.dish.com/

Is there an age minimum? I didn't see anything on the site.

[Kevin Greene]

. There I was, strikingly good looking, and working a job that required me to sound a horn, and flip some switches.

Bullshyt.

Just straight talk keepin' it real brother.

[Kurb]

Bullshyt.

Just straight talk keepin' it real brother.

LOL. Ok it required more than a couple flipped switches...

[Catalyst]

I hate to be blunt but you are not going to get the ideal job right off the bat. The college degree is not a bypass around low paying job. If you are bright, and it sounds like you are, the $8.50 an hour job at a grocery store shouldn't take you long to start moving up the ladder and then you will have experience on your resume.

See, now this I disagree with. No job worth having is going to consider a job at a grocery store viable experience on anyone's resume. I don't think there are many recent college graduates out there these days that haven't hit this brick wall about a thousand times.

Everyone wants experience but nobody wants to give someone an opportunity to gain that experience. It'd sure as hell help if there weren't so many experienced workers out there also looking for work due to the poor economy.

[Squirrel]

This is the problem with more employees than jobs. Sometimes you have to take a stepback to move forward.

[PhillyB]

PD, I haven't read through all the responses so I don't know if I'm repeating something that anyone has already suggested, but have you considered going to bartending school?

Bartending is really about the best paying flexible-schedule job you're going to find as long as you land at the right spot (which isn't hard in Charlotte.) I've been in the same position a number of times in my life. Long story short I got back from trekking around the world for a third of a year, on a high, ready to take the next step in my life, and bam, couldn't find a job, was completely broke, barely owned anything, and I ended up slaving away in the kitchen of a shitty wings restaurant for months in utter stagnation where the highlight of my day was getting to take the trash out because it meant I could get away from the worst boss I've ever had in my life. (You know you're fuged when you eye the trash can to see if it's getting full enough to have an excuse to take it out.)

Anyway so I ended up biting it and spending 800 bucks on bartending school and it's more than paid off. I started tending bar three and a half years ago and it's given me money superior to what you'd make waiting tables, but flexibility that's superior to any kind of a career job that locks you into 9-5 hours with vacay time. But the biggest advantage is that those two things, combined, let you pursue other things independently because you can afford them and because you can fit them into your schedule. I'm busting my ass right now working about 60 hours a week bartending, but it's enabled me to go back to school full time. I couldn't get a job with my BA in history, but now I'm finishing up an anthropology and archaeology degree (equally useless lol) and then transferring to grad school at UNC where I'll get a masters, and then a doctorate, and teach at a university and build my commune.

So I don't have anything to offer as far as what specifically you should study, where you should go back to school, what degree you should get, etc. But if you think of something and you're looking for a way to afford it, by all means, hook up with a bartending school (I think PBI has one in Charlotte) and invest in a course. It'll pay back in spades, I assure you.

Good luck dude.

[PhillyB]

I was fortunate enough to get a job in college that paid 13 bucks an hour/40 hours a week for a fortune 500 company. It was warehouse work, but it allowed me to go out with my friends, buy everyone drinks, and spend money the way most college students dream about. I worked my ass off at the job, became friends with the management and propelled myself to assistant manager by my senior year. When I graduated, i worked there for a little less than a year learning as much as a possibly could about how the company is run inside and out and how to manage people. I was offered a ridiculous salary for someone right out of college in a city up North. I managed one section of the Second largest warehouse in North America. Managing 40 people at a time, fast paced, in a very holistic manner (if that makes sense). I was living it big, living in a large city with an apartment downtown (for a 23 year old I thought this was the dream), but I wasn't happy. I didn't enjoy what I was doing, and I was stressed out all the time. City life was awesome, but I couldn't really enjoy it with the amount of stress that job put me through.

So I quit. I told my bosses that my heart wasn't in it anymore, and that i didn't want to lead this life. I wanted something more fufilling. We have one life to live, why waste your time? They respected me for coming up to them and expressing myself that way, and both wrote me letters of recommendations and wished me well on my future endeavors.

Now I'm living in the mountains in a cabin, working contractor work with a family members company, and enjoying every second of my life. I've saved enough money that I am planning a cross country trip out to where I grew up with plans of emerging myself in the city and finding what the hell i want to do with my life. I'm excited and nervous but I wouldn't have it any other way. This was the best decision I could have possibly made.

eternal pie for this post