Advice on Job

If this is inappropriate for this thread, please tell me where I should move it and I will do so.

I can't believe I'm even considering this.

Been unemployed for 5 years. Had a break down, applied for disability, denied, still in appeals but hope for approval is slim.

Have tons of bad "tapes" in my head about hating work, hating society. Still think about suicide almost every day.

Even before my break down, I had difficulty keeping a job. Have no one to offer as references. Would probably not be a good idea if my former employers were contacted. I would usually get depressed and just stop going. Ashamed about my depression, I would usually lie in the process.

Before today, the possibility of work seemed like something quite a way down the road yet.

However, I came across a part-time job posting that matches something I've done in the past and, though I'm not sure I'm ready and I'm pretty sure I have almost zero chance of getting it in this job market, I think I'm going to apply for.

I haven't had a resume in forever and I'm hoping someone has some advice on how to deal with my work history and my lack of employment for the last five years. And, how do I deal with the references thing?

Do I have a chance in Hades? Should I even be trying? Will a rejection set me back? Can I handle employment?

Part of the job deals with other mentally ill people. I want to disclose my own struggles with mental illness in my cover letter as an asset in being compassionate and relating to the mentally ill. Do you think this is a good idea?

Any help you can provide would be appreciated. I'm hoping to get this done over the weekend.

Still can't believe I'm doing this.

Thanks, in advance, for any advice.

Hi, Chaddiwicker! I see applying for the job as a kind of win-win situation. They might hire you, or, if they reject you, the application serves to document your attempt to rejoin society and the rejection may serve as evidence of unemployability -- both valuable in your disability struggle.

I can't remember where I read it, but I seem to recall that disability specifically DOES NOT consider employability -- only disability. Which means, I could apply for a 100 jobs, be rejected because of unreliability or whatnot, and they could still deny me disability if someone doesn't believe I match guidelines.

Not exactly sure if it's the same for SSI.

Slightly different, but along the same lines, is there anyone here who works in a legitimate work from home job? That would be ideal for me, with my social anxiety. I'd love to do data entry from home but the things I've seen online are mostly fake (marketing, mlm, etc...) or pay ridiculously low amounts. Key For Cash, for example, pays something like .20 per 1000 keystrokes and people are only making like $20 a month from what I have read.

Because of crappy political policies, most data entry jobs have gone overseas anyway.

Chad,

I wrote you before because I am like you in that I have a bad work record. It is up to you how you feel about your ability to do a part-time job. Do you have a T to talk about this idea to? As far as a resume, I don't know much about that. I would put any jobs you had that lasted six months or more. If they lasted less, they may not need to go on the resume.
It will be hard to get into the workforce, and while you can divulge your issues to potential employees, do so only if you feel like it would help YOU. They have no right to know you're personal stuff.
Don't rush into anything and I would just say about any job that you might deem as possibility, only go forward with the application process if you know that you can handle rejection so as to protect yourself.
Z

If anyone else is working on their resumes, I found this resource to be helpful...

http://www.exampleresumes.org/

I would give it a try, never hurts to try. Give it your all if you get the job and do the best you can. That is all any of us can do. Even if you lose the job, at least you tried! Trying is what matters in the end, not success.

So, I got the cover letter done yesterday. Was planning to do the resume today. Woke up with anxiety (mutant butterflies in my stomach). Have had heart palpitations on and off throughout the day. Haven't started the resume.

Doing so means having to look at the failures in my life. How many different jobs I've had. How I've failed to keep those jobs. How few choices I have left in my life.

I'm having a hard time remembering the dates of some of my jobs and I'm struggling with how to organize things on paper. Do I go with a functional resume which focuses more on my past experiences and skills, but is sometimes seen as an effort to cover up an unstable work history (which it is) or do I go with the typical chronological resume which will show, without a doubt, that I've had an unstable work history? I'm tempted, even though I know it's wrong, to fudge (lie) about some of the dates. And, how do I deal with the issue of references if they ask for them. I am not in contact with any former co-workers or bosses and I quit most of my jobs (due to depression) so most of them wouldn't give me a good reference.

Everything is feeling overwhelming and thinking about both the past and the future leaves me feeling hopeless.

I've been writing on here a lot lately and hope that I'm not too much of a burden or seen as "attention seeking". I don't feel like I can talk to anyone in my real life. I just discovered this place recently and it does help a bit to be able to say it and not just keep it inside.

My mood improved this evening. Helped, in part, by a call from my mom.

I have a draft done. Will probably do some tweaking to it tonight and hopefully have it proofread by my roommate so I can send it tomorrow. I can't erase the past, sadly, and the resume is not going to be ideal. But, I did it.

We can't erase the past, but thankfully the future we can paint.

Be proud of yourself for actually doing the draft!
Z

Cover letter and resume submitted.