I need a job!

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, I also agree with the "look hard" "look wide" comments.

JM

[Arrian]

Similar to my situation ten years ago...

History major, another humanities minor. At least I had job experience during HS and college (summers). Still, it's hard to say that painting and washing cars helped me land a real job. I had one internship at a major company (McGraw-Hill publishing) that might have helped a little bit. Not sure it was worth the commute into midtown Manhattan, though. Ugh, that sucked.

I ended up in insurance. Not something that many people aspire to, I'll grant, but ultimately I got a good job (my 2nd - the first sucked, as it was in sales) that requires good analytical & writing skills - which are essentially all guys like Elok and I have.

My advice would be not to ignore a job opportunity because it's not the sort of job you really want. That initial sales job helped me get the 2nd one (same company, thus I had an advantage over outsiders), which I've now been doing for... 8 1/2 years.

-Arrian

[East Street Trader]

Yes.

To illustrate, my ex wife took a job with our local council. Low grade clerical work - filing, keeping people's diary, making tea for meetings, whatever. For peanuts.

But this was in a small health and safety team in the council and she is energetic and personable. Soon enough she was doing better stuff - devising ways to show health and safety trends graphically for council meetings, organising the H&S library and subscriptions, stuff like that. She moved rapidly up through the council's clerical grades and started earning decent money. Then she started helping out with site visits and actual H&S work, really buckled down and passed the professional exams, took a full fledged H&S job with the council, made a reputation in the field, left the council to go freelance as a consultant and for quite a number of years now has earned more than I do as a lawyer.

So the moral of the tale is to get started somehow, apply yourself to what you finish up doing and look to take advantage - from the inside - of whatever opportunities then come your way.

But you need to get started. I don't know what you have been doing over the last few months but you really don't want still to be doing it in a year's time.

It is nonsense that you are unemployable. And nonsense that your studies have not developed you, they have. But they haven't put a silver spoon in your mouth. Like many another you now get to show energy and persistence.

[Elok]

Originally posted by DanS
What's "effectively in the DC area"?

I mean that I'm going to be moving into the DC area to get a job. I'm not going to find one I can work at from my parents' house, that's for sure. We live out in the boonies; I love the privacy, low crime rate, and all that, but there are no jobs.

Lori: what would a data-entry job be listed under in the classifieds? Clerical?

[Lorizael]

If you stop calling me Lori I'll see if my company has any openings for tech writers.

[Elok]

Please do, Lorizael. I don't suppose there's an abbreviation acceptable to you?

[Dis]

Originally posted by DanS
What's "effectively in the DC area"?

Maryland?

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Elok
I have no HS work experience because I was an arrogant little twerp in HS and figured, despite all parental advice to the contrary, that employers would be lining up to hire me when they saw how smart I was. I had no need for spending money at the time, so I blew it off.

You didn't work in college either?

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Elok
Please do, Lorizael. I don't suppose there's an abbreviation acceptable to you?

I uh, I don't actually care. You can call me whatever you want, Elo.

Also, it appears that the only technical writer positions available at my company right now require top secret clearance.

[Japher]

Maybe you should look at some entry level jobs in fields other than whatever you are looking into. Maybe finance? Politics, they let anyone do that? Journalism?

Edit: also, to overcome the gap in employment history/school you should blog your experience.

[Dis]

so I'm looking at jobs and I wonder what a collector does? anyone know? what do they collect? dead bodies?

[Wezil]

debts would be my guess

[Dis]

makes sense as it was under banking/financial. just wanted to make sure there wasn't some conspiracy in the banking industry.

not for me. I don't want to harrass people over the phone. bad enough I have debt collectors looking for my brother.

[Dis]

k now I find a job called provider. Doesn't say what they provide. I'm thinking it's a prostitution job

[Wezil]

Probably. You are in Vegas.

Harassing people by phone for anything should be punishable by death.