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I can't get a job

Lux

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I certainly understand this, with the way the economy is it can be very difficult to find the job that you want, or just a job in general. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. It's frustrating when your motivation doesn't turn into the results you want.

I have questions for you, though: Are you getting call backs from the companies that you apply to and then an interview, and never hear back from them, or, are you just not hearing anything back when you apply? Do you have a resume?
 

prplchknz

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I certainly understand this, with the way the economy is it can be very difficult to find the job that you want, or just a job in general. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. It's frustrating when your motivation doesn't turn into the results you want.

I have questions for you, though: Are you getting call backs from the companies that you apply to and then an interview, and never hear back from them, or, are you just not hearing anything back when you apply? Do you have a resume?
I have a resume, and i am getting a few call backs for interviews but not as many as other people
 

Lux

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Okay so if you're getting some calls back for an interview but it goes no further, it could be the interview. Many people are qualified to get the interview but are either unprepared or very nervous (not confident), each of those performances in an interview can lessen your chances of employment. I interview a lot of candidates for the organizations I work for and may be able to help you in this. Honestly, in my company we require a degree, but, if someone impresses myself or the other Managers, we'll move on with them in the interview process. So that's not a make or break thing. The way you present yourself is the most valuable asset you have when trying to get a job. If you want me to go through it, let me know. :)
 

prplchknz

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Okay so if you're getting some calls back for an interview but it goes no further, it could be the interview. Many people are qualified to get the interview but are either unprepared or very nervous (not confident), each of those performances in an interview can lessen your chances of employment. I interview a lot of candidates for the organizations I work for and may be able to help you in this. Honestly, in my company we require a degree, but, if someone impresses myself or the other Managers, we'll move on with them in the interview process. So that's not a make or break thing. The way you present yourself is the most valuable asset you have when trying to get a job. If you want me to go through it, let me know. :)
I'd like that I'm good at reading people, bad at responding approiatley in social situations, ie i often don't know the approriate response to a situation
 

Lux

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Cool, so with interviews, honestly the trick (for me) is well thought out answers and confidence, which comes from preparation. Can you give me some of the interview questions that seem common for you and we can go over them together and then you can practice them. Practice builds the confidence and makes the words you're saying more.. appealing. So give me some questions and I'll tell you from an interviewers perspective (mine) what the answers are. :)
 

prplchknz

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Cool, so with interviews, honestly the trick (for me) is well thought out answers and confidence, which comes from preparation. Can you give me some of the interview questions that seem common for you and we can go over them together and then you can practice them. Practice builds the confidence and makes the words you're saying more.. appealing. So give me some questions and I'll tell you from an interviewers perspective (mine) what the answers are. :)

here's one: WHy do you want to work for us?
 

Lux

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here's one: WHy do you want to work for us?

"I'm looking for growth and opportunity. Based on the research I did, your company can bring me that. I'd like to learn new skills and to become an asset to the company. I also really like a challenge and I'm willing to put the work in order to benefit everyone involved."

This is obviously a vageish answer as I don't know what you're interviewing for. As an interviewer, I prefer short, concise, and thought out answers that show someone wants to work for what they want and are willing to learn what they don't know. Also, eye contact, even if you're not comfortable with it, just maintain eye contact at intervals. I'd be hard pressed to bring someone back if they didn't look at me the whole time, it wouldn't feel like they were invested or interested.

What sorts of jobs are you looking for, what strengths do you have?
 

prplchknz

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"I'm looking for growth and opportunity. Based on the research I did, your company can bring me that. I'd like to learn new skills and to become an asset to the company. I also really like a challenge and I'm willing to put the work in order to benefit everyone involved."

This is obviously a vageish answer as I don't know what you're interviewing for. As an interviewer, I prefer short, concise, and thought out answers that show someone wants to work for what they want and are willing to learn what they don't know. Also, eye contact, even if you're not comfortable with it, just maintain eye contact at intervals. I'd be hard pressed to bring someone back if they didn't look at me the whole time, it wouldn't feel like they were invested or interested.

What sorts of jobs are you looking for, what strengths do you have?

thanks, I'm just looking for a minimum wage entry level position, something monkeys can do. I can email you my resume if you want to look it over. the other problem is I don't have a lot of experience
 

Oeufa

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I don't have much to offer in the way of practical advice, but I just wanted to say chin up! The jobs market is in the gutter right now, especially for minimum wage retail. It took me 3 years of applying for 50+ jobs a week before I got a single interview, which was for Subway. Lucky for me I got that job - I don't think I could have stood another 3 years of rejection and silence. It's tough.

In the interview, pretend you're a confident person who loves <insert job here>. It's all lies and bullcrap - they know it and you know it, but if they think you can put on a good customer face and lie through your teeth for the organisation, they'll hire you. Also not being a smelly weirdo helps, so maybe have a shower or something beforehand :p

Good luck!
 

kyuuei

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thanks, I'm just looking for a minimum wage entry level position, something monkeys can do. I can email you my resume if you want to look it over. the other problem is I don't have a lot of experience

The problem is, most people want you to think of that minimal-wage entry level job as this golden ticket opportunity. You sort of almost have to sell it back to them as being way better than it really is. I have no idea why this overly PC flowery wording came into the workplace.. I wish business was still business and not PC networked people selling BS to one another.
 

Vasilisa

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“Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking.”
― Ignatius Reilly, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
 

Falcarius

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Falcarius sympathises with anyone struggling with the current job market. It was not that long ago when he hardly had a job himself, he now has three jobs. :shock:

Falcarius' only advice is to stay positive, work hard, and try different things.
 

ygolo

My termites win
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Aug 6, 2007
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seriously this is ridiculous people stupider than me can get them. why can't I? I'm seriously depressed and give up, because apparently I'm not human enough to work a job. There is something wrong with me, but no one will admit it to my face. why doesn't someone take me out back and shoot me between the eyes. I don't know whats wrong with me.

prpl, I just found out that I may be in the same position as you in two weeks because apparently there may not be enough TA positions over this summer. Don't take rejection for a position as a reflection on you personally. Some of it is random, a lot of it is just matching the right person for the job, some of it is just hiring policy (like my old company does not hire short term, nor will they give contract work to former employees within a certain time period), but most of it is just who applied first to the position that was open.

The most likely explanation for why you didn't get a job is that someone got there first. It seems like you are going after leads that a lot of people already know about. That puts you a step behind on average.

My plan is to go to all the departments in my university to look for positions. I am also looking at a campus canvasing job (you know the people who try to get people to sign up for Save the Children and so on. I like Save the Children, and childhood poverty is one of the biggest problems in the world right now, so I think I'll try to canvas for that.) I can also see if there are research positions open, but these are generally not advertised. I have to ask around.

Generate leads, follow them up, and try to get to an opening before anyone else does. We ALL have to hustle in this economy.

Or if you have the guts and it fits with your long term plans, start your own thing.

I am looking into setting up a high value tutoring service: Full tutoring for High School students preparing for college engineering or science programs, or undergraduates struggling in such programs...math, physics, chemistry, computer science, statistics, electrical engineering, even some material science/chemical engineering, bioinfomatics, and biochemistry. I would charge steep rates ($50/$60 hour). Online tutoring possible, group discounts possible. I don't think there are many people who can tutor people to write a stochastic differential equation solver in C/C++ for applications in chemistry and physics, program a BLAST like tool for sequence analysis in Perl, or to program the time evolution of a quantum mechanical system in Fortran/Octave/MATLAB/Mathematica (yes. Any of them. MATLAB and Octave are essentially the same).

So the supply is low. I need to find out where the demand is.
 

Lux

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thanks, I'm just looking for a minimum wage entry level position, something monkeys can do. I can email you my resume if you want to look it over. the other problem is I don't have a lot of experience

Got it, PM me your resume and I'll look it over and we can go from there. Experience is something that many many people lack so it may not be an end all be all, especially if during the 'what are your weaknesses' question you call it out. "I'd say at this point my weakness would be experience, but, I'm a fast learner and eager to learn new skills." Most companies have some sort of training, especially for entry level, and you are in the same boat as a lot of others - so you have to stand out in the interview so they choose you to put their effort in training on you.

Going back to experience - many people who go to college don't do what they studied in school, so the job market is crowded in a lot of the areas that in the past were more open, (entry-level) with people looking outside of their respected subjects.

Also, with my responses to these questions, they're general enough that you should put your own personality into them because you want to be genuine, and as long as that is the 'message' in your own words it will increase your confidence which will then make for a better interview.
 

prplchknz

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Got it, PM me your resume and I'll look it over and we can go from there. Experience is something that many many people lack so it may not be an end all be all, especially if during the 'what are your weaknesses' question you call it out. "I'd say at this point my weakness would be experience, but, I'm a fast learner and eager to learn new skills." Most companies have some sort of training, especially for entry level, and you are in the same boat as a lot of others - so you have to stand out in the interview so they choose you to put their effort in training on you.

Going back to experience - many people who go to college don't do what they studied in school, so the job market is crowded in a lot of the areas that in the past were more open, (entry-level) with people looking outside of their respected subjects.

Also, with my responses to these questions, they're general enough that you should put your own personality into them because you want to be genuine, and as long as that is the 'message' in your own words it will increase your confidence which will then make for a better interview.

Thanks, yeah the weakness,strength,and why you want to work here questions, always stump me. I sent you the resume i took off my contact info though
 

rawr_sheila

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[MENTION=360]prplchknz[/MENTION]
Updates? Found a job yet?

Thank you for making this thread. And thanks to everyone's awesome feedback. :) I'm pretty much in the same position as you, so my sympathy goes greatly to you. Many people do not understand how difficult it is to get a job, and to those people I'll have to say that you don't know what it's like unless you've been there. I've done literally everything I can think of, everything that is listed on those tips/advices, articles and news about how to find jobs, how to increase your chances, networking, improving interview skills, resumes, etc. I'm also looking for a minimum wage job as a person with limited work experience background. I've done volunteer work and I am still doing it. It's really hard, it's been like this for over a year now. But I've got to stick it out, keep applying. I just need to believe that all of my efforts will come to something good.
 

rawr_sheila

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never getting a job, gonna die jobless

Don't give up. Keep yourself busy. Be positive and persistent. It's hard, but I know it will be worth it. The experience just makes you stronger and prepares you for the future. And remember that you're not alone in the struggles and search. There are many just like you; I'm here with you. :)
 
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