this isnt going to be very well written or coherent but:
look, I'm not trying to be the classic reactionary STEM grad who feels entitled to a high-paid tech position because I stumbled through three years of lectures. I'm not that. I've done a couple of years since graduating in hospitality work and that was generally horrible/couldn't get enough hours to pay rent/got misgendered whenever my bosses were having a bad day. Now that sector is in big trouble too so there aren't any jobs going, even if i could stomach going back into it. And apparently chef's work is a black mark on your CV and a lot of employers will write you off based on that anyway?
people say "networking is more important than qualifications". Well, that's great, but as someone who comes from a working class family, I have no idea how to do that, and never knew it was necessary until after the period I was apparently given the greatest opportunity to do it (university). and now it's like, what, am I just supposed to message people on LinkedIn out of the blue begging for work? with no experience? Where do I even begin with that?
I would love to work on the railways or in local government or something but I don't hear anything back from those roles. My best asset is that I spent 2 years setting up a tenant union in a major city, but apparently that's not good enough to even get an interview for support worker role at a charity that literally supports tenants and homeless people. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Every time I get close to a job, it always ends the same way - interview, feel like I did well, get a call back a couple of days later saying "thanks but somebody else had more experience". My experience was literally on my CV, if it wasn't enough then don't waste my time calling me in to interview!
thanks for reading
There is a significant reactionary faction here that condemn all higher education and think being able to bear the burden of being a laborer is somehow anti-left. I wonder what the Soviets would have thought of that. Don’t let them gaslight you.
Keep at it, my friend. Every organization out there has been cutting heads for years. There’s no magic bullet except to keep looking and submitting tailored applications and staying motivated enough to land a job before funds run out.
Personally I took a 15% pay cut and reduction in responsibilities after my last layoff, working my way back up again. Being overqualified is what got me into the role because competition was so tight.
I hope this doesn’t come off as saying you’re not trying hard enough. I fully understand the cash runs out before the offer comes in despite all the effort. Just want to emphasize it always feels hopeless until the offer finally comes in.
It took about 6 months of fully using my weekends to apply to jobs for my previous position (while still employed: was looking for an upgrade), and this current time took 6 months of applying Mon-Fri 8 hours a day to find my current position. It’s bad out there for sure but I hope that cheers you up. It’s not some personal failing on your part that it’s this hard.
This is a general misunderstanding of the position if the forum, almost to the point that if you weren't a low volume poster I would believe it was deliberate.
The position of the forum in general is that higher education exists specifically to indoctrinate and acculturate people into liberal values. It is not a condemnation of higher education writ large, but a condemnation of higher education as a revolutionary socialist pursuit. It has never been denied here that having a degree from higher education will almost always significantly improve your chances of finding and retaining a job, even the less marketable ones, but that is looking at the your education as valuable from a liberal perspective, which we are not prone to encourage because there are thousands of other places on the Internet that will tell you that. The important part is understanding the level of debt or time that these things will take and weighing it with the potential benefits. To that effect, pursuit of a technical degree is likely a better choice if that is available.
No one is gaslighting anyone.
I would also caution against 'Well it was hard for me too, but I got through it so should you even if it's just hard out there.' advice. The whole point of this economy is that some people are not supposed to make it.
That said @revolut1917@hexbear.net there are some less-alienated ways of pursuing employment than just firing off resumes into the void.
I absolutely agree with what @Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online said and that you should pursue some level of familiarity with your local professional organizations. Most people don't do this basic kind of networking in college, they learn about it later in their twenties and thirties. And don't just stick to your field, there are hundreds of professional organizations across the U.S. and they often times are recruiting for all kinds of positions all across the field, especially industrial HR, which it sounds like you would be over-qualifed for, but some orgs would love that. You may have to work for porky that thinks he's a good person at the end of it though, which is it's own little misery.
Shoot some emails their way and see what they have to say.
I haven't seen much anti-education sentiment here there is definitely a streak of resentment here that occasionally gets people to lump in PMC with petite bourgeois which kinda conflates the two. I have definitely seen arguments that have a "education is good, the job you get with education makes you a bad person" underpinning them.
That is because successful PMC are the core of the liberal elite, and are far more hands-on in their choking of the working class. They are often just as culpable as the bourgeois in their actions. And it often hurts more because PMC are class-traitors who would have all the world to gain if they weren't liberals.
Working for porky doesn't make you a bad person, but if you ever catch yourself calling yourself a democratic socialist while say, designing flight components for Raytheon (real guy I met), you may want to think about if you are just lying to yourself for the sake of being on the side of popular opinion. Point is there is no shame in trying to make money, there should be shame around believing that making money makes you a good person.
Brutal, applying for jobs is a full time job in itself.
thanks. Motivation is really difficult. It's so hard to feel like working through these long-ass applications that demand three essay-length questions written in specific format, when half the time you won't even hear back from them, let alone getting an interview! I wish they valued unemployed people's time more.
I just have to keep at it. You're right that it feels hopeless until you finally get somewhere; the worst thing for me right now is the number of times i've gotten somewhere, gotten an interview or a phone call, and then it's "sorry, we really liked you but someone else had more experience". So many times that now I'm already telling myself not to bother applying for roles because I can only imagine they'll have a bunch of people with years of experience in that industry applying too!