I should probably acquire some sort of job skill

[Flubber]

People can get ahead from any start. I sat on a plane next to an Executive VP at mult-billion dollar company. he started as an ELECTRICIAN and went from there to a union shop steward and then a management job inside the union and then a management job back with his employer.

There are still lots of jobs out there for diligent people once you get your foot in the door somewhere. Some places are dead-end but in a bigger company there are usually lots of room for advancement-- In my company we have lost 3 legal secretaries from our group in the last couple of years to supervisory positions. WE have two more that we transitioned into "contracts analyst" jobs to reflect the fact that they were far more than legal assistants.

[Elok]

I'd be inclined to settle for an AA opening, honest, except I haven't heard back from a single one I applied to--aside from the blatant scam I posted here a few days back. And I think the reason I haven't is that I'm competing, not only with dozens of veteran secretaries recently laid off due to the crummy economy, but also with hordes of essentially unskilled SOBs like myself. If you look in the WaPo Sunday jobs section, you see three major categories with openings: education, health care and "tech jobs," ie computers. I'd really like to break into one of those. Education, of course, is out of the question for people with my social skills...Asher, what kind of course could I take to become at least a little competitive? I asked my dad and he said Microsoft issues database management certifications that would make me extremely competitive, but that it would take several years of work to get that. Is there a less rigorous option?

[Asher]

It depends what you would like to do.

Do you want to be an IT guy? The guy who keeps servers running and maintains infrastructure?
The guy who maintains databases? There's a lot of good money being in DBA or DB management, but it's a harder route.
A programmer?
A tester?
A web designer?

Lacking a technical university degree and lacking real-world experience, you will need some kind of diploma or certification to get people to take you seriously. It'd probably be for something specific (eg, PHP certification, MS SQL certification, Oracle certification, etc)

[C0ckney]

if you have a little money saved up, and you're not having any luck with companies, why not try to start your own thing?

when i got laid off, i decided to buy some ice cream vans and go into business for myself. it's not easy, working for yourself and it does take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make a success of it, but the rewards are fantastic. you learn so much, so quickly, because you have to. there's also the feeling that you're not busting your balls to make someone else rich, it's all yours, which is hard to beat.

[Kuciwalker]

Well you're awfully cryptic. I ask because I was a Finance major and I couldn't get my foot in the door in any financial firms.

Given the understanding you've displayed here...

[Al B. Sure!]

Given the understanding you've displayed here...

Did that show up on my resume? Because they wouldn't call me for even a phone interview. It's always been instant rejection.

[C0ckney]

perhaps they're just very good at screening out people like you.

[Al B. Sure!]

perhaps they're just very good at screening out people like you.

Oh like in Britain:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2004/jul/12/discriminationatwork.workandcareers

Research into jobs advertised in commerce, sales, the media and leisure found that candidates with English-sounding names were nearly three times as likely to get an interview as those with names indicating that they might be Muslim. Applicants with names indicating they might be black Africans were half as likely to gain an interview as those with English names.

Researchers found that the white candidates - John Andrews and Jenny Hughes - were successful in getting interviews 23% of the time while the black African applicants - Abu Olasemi and Yinka Olatunde - had a 13% success rate. For Fatima Khan and Nasser Hanif, the Muslim candidates, the success rate was just 9%.

[Kuciwalker]

Did that show up on my resume? Because they wouldn't call me for even a phone interview. It's always been instant rejection.

I was thinking more along the lines of "they dodged a bullet".

[Kuciwalker]

Who would think someone named "Albert Speer" was Muslim?

[Al B. Sure!]

Who would think someone named "Albert Speer" was Muslim?

Is your real name Kuciwalker?

[C0ckney]

well by 'people like you' i, of course, meant idiots...

[GePap]

If you have good editing skills, all sorts of companies need people to edit stuff - including tech companies putting together instruction manuals - that is a line of work to look into.

You could always try the teaching English overseas route, if international travel and teaching have any appeal - lots of demand there.

As for quick job skills, getting training in some common office programs can help - while Microsoft Office is pretty universal, it is incredible how little knowledge people do have of those programs, particularly Access and Excel, though I think Excel is better to know.

[Ben Kenobi]

Whatever you do, work in an office environment. Take it from a humanities grad who found jobs in a tough job market: you will find a place eventually. Bugs and Snotty also seem to have experienced how this works.

This. Excellent advice.

I'm in the same boat as you Elok.

[Asher]

Elok is single, unemployed and crashing on people's couches in a foreign country?