Any words of encouragement for those of us who graduated in the last few waves and still haven’t found a job? I’ve sent out hundreds of resumes and applications (local, retail, national, government), and rarely get contacted and have never been offered an interview. My impression is that the smaller places don’t want me because they feel pressured to pay me more than an undergrad, and the bigger places don’t want me because they are not up for taking a gamble on a new grad. Two days a week I do volunteer interning work related to my field, but there is no chance of hire at that location.
The lack of income has put me back into my parents’ rather toxic presence, which I would love to leave, but without a job, I lose the health insurance (parents would remove me from theirs).
Unemployed and Stuck
Posted in Uncategorized
“Two days a week I do volunteer interning work related to my field, but there is no chance of hire at that location.”
In the current job climate, doing what is cited above, is a very intelligent response to to the situation.
By doing so, this person is ‘staying in the game,’ ‘maintaining a semblance of currency in his/her field,’ and demonstrating a work ethic that will encourage future employers to hire him/her.
it is intelligent but it does not pay the bills. I am approached all the time about doing free web sites in return for everything from hotel rooms, vacation homes, even pork BBQ. I always reply, how are you paying your bills – with cash or stuff you have traded for?
Businesses, whether large or just individuals with a skill to sell, rely on financing for their cashflow, which traditionally they have looked to the banks to provide. The banks are chary of lending to businesses in this climate, so they don’t have the money to trade goods and their skills.
So #2 Chris, I think we are seeing everyone from large businesses to individuals resorting to barter where the cash is not available as a medium of exchange. It is less good than cash, because it relies on matching the needs of each party with what the other has to offer. It is not ‘free’, it is just an offer more difficult for you to trade than cash, and it does not pay the utilities and the monthly payments for mortgages etc, to banks and utilities who are not interested in pork or hotel rooms.
Interestingly, when you look at trade between governments at an international level, things look increasingly like barter – trades of wheat for oil etc, although those exchanges will be denominated in dollar quantities to determine the relative quantities each party will receive.
That is what happens in a financial squeeze, and what other option is there for people? Money is only a development out of and facilitator of a barter market, which people tend to forget.
Maybe there is a role for the church in all this helping people match each others needs although I haven’t thought that through as yet.
I neglected to mention (Comment #1.) that by ‘staying in the game’ and working as a non-paid intern, an unemployed person can establish a referencial professional reputation, i.e. become a known quantity by word of mouth among potential employers and make contacts, that will prove to be far more effective than painstakingly prepared resumes.
Another problem with resumes is that they are often first screened by personnel managers, who have their own personal prejudices and often glaring gaps in knowledge/actual requirements of the specialty field for which the hiring is being done, and as a result of personnel department screening, a resume may never reach the person actually doing the hiring.
My preference when hiring was to look at the resumes of all applicants regardless of personnel department preferences in order to avoid ‘screening out’ possible ‘hires.’
I felt most confident in hiring when I had a personal reference from someone whose judgement and objectivity I trusted. My worst personnel situations were the result of problem legacies left behind by my predecessor or which were thrust upon me by incompetent personnel managers who ‘had the ear’ of my reporting seniors.
My oldest son in California has been unemployed since June, when he graduated from college with a bachelor’s in business administration. None of his friends can find work. We’re still paying for his apartment (along now with his younger brother’s tuition and apartment at his college). He’s visiting us now, when he goes back his plan is to walk through two shopping centers near where he lives and leave a resume at every store, even if they all still say they’re not hiring, in the hopes that he will get a response for some sort of work.
He had worked as a clerk/cashier at 7-11 during the summers in college, but the 7-11s in our area stopped taking seasonal workers in 2009 even if they were already trained so he already couldn’t get a job for the summer between junior and senior years. But that’s the kind of job he’s looking for now.
[i]Any words of encouragement for those of us who graduated in the last few waves and still haven’t found a job?[/i]
Move away from states like California/Michigan/Nevada to Texas or Oklahoma where business conditions are better.
Sidney,
Please don’t. We’ve had so many people come here to Texas and our unemployment rate has climbed. Our crime rate has, too, in my city because of desperation. We simply can’t accommodate everyone who has come without jobs in hand. I kid you not, after ABC News did a series on “booming Texas” over a year ago, we started seeing vehicles and Uhauls from many other states all over our city. Our local unemployment rate jumped up over 6 percent (it had been less than 4 percent) and continues to climb, especially after Mrs. Baird’s Bakery closed their plant here. The charities have reported large increases in need.
By all means, apply for openings in Texas because we are faring better than many other states but don’t come unless/until you have been hired. I’ve had inquiries from the alumni network at my alma mater and that’s the advice I’ve given.
My son has wisely stepped up loan repayment even though he’s still in school. At least he has a part-time job now and I hope he can hold onto it because who knows what will happen after he graduates. My heart aches for these young people, leaving school with degrees and thousands of dollars of debt with no good prospects.
Teatime2,
That’s interesting. Thanks for the on-site update. I live in California and know people who could look for and possibly get jobs in places that are farther from beautiful beaches (like the Central Valley), but refuse to. Hence my ‘advice.’