Quote:
Originally Posted by radcliff
I must be toxic to employers because I've been looking for a job for six months with no success. Job searches are stressful enough, but my job search is coming off two years of dealing with severe depression which makes it even harder. I'm really starting to feel hopeless and that everything is futile.
The problem is that I haven't worked in four years (I'm 23) and haven't been in school since 2015. I had to drop out of school two years ago because of depression and haven't done anything since. So here I am looking for a job with very little experience and no degree. I'm starting to feel like no matter what I do, there will always be more attractive candidates with more experience. This is really killing me because I have student loan payments breathing down my neck and I literally only have $50 in my checking account. Everyone keeps telling me to write a resume but that won't change my past. The jobs I'm applying to are minimum wage jobs in food service and retail, and those job listings get well over 100 other applicants. There's nothing I can do to make myself stand out from that many people. There just isn't.
I'm so tired of people telling me that I have great attributes and to "stay positive." I know I can do the work and the employers probably know I can do the work too, but they're never going to pass over someone with more work and college experience for someone like me, who hasn't done anything in four years. The longer I go without work, the more toxic I become. The sad thing is I didn't have any trouble finding work in 2012. I got several interviews after just looking for two months, and multiple job offers. Now that I'm 23 and dealing with depression and a lack of job experience, finding work seems impossible.
I haven't posted here in over a year, but this job search is killing me and I needed to vent.  |
Have you considered Job Corps? (just a thought)
I know the feeling, when I was in my 20's the economy wasn't good and I hadn't completed college then. I was used to going from one min. wage job to another and they dried up. I found that being unemployed itself is a big mark against you for no rational reason. I was once unemployed for nearly a year----finally, when I applied for the next job I said I had "taken time off to help friends build a camp"---although it was true I helped friends do this it was not true that I had not been working by choice. I got hired. (it was a soldering/assembly job and they said "You must like to work with your hands....". So, think about your abilities/things you have done that relate to the job ---and if you can think of a way of presenting yourself as new, fresh, and not working by choice vs being involuntarily unemployed it may help.
Now I am ready to pull back on a professional career and, perhaps retire. My 20's were often hand-to-mouth....I remember. If you volunteer in your community you may make connections that will help also----
