I am so tired of not having a job. I went to a good university, I got excellent marks and just because I have limited job experience at the ripe old age of 22, I don’t get hired. I actively look for a job every single day and have been doing so for more than a month. I have exhausted every single method of job hunting. I have both lowered my standards and broadened my search and still no luck. I am a fully competent, hard-working person who just wants to enter the work-force. What do I need to do to get a foot in the door of an organization here? I do not want a minimum wage job that is no way related to my education or my future goals. So frustrating! —Jobless in Halifax
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.
If you need to pay the bills right now, holiday seasonal work can work for you. Minimum wage, yes, but you won’t be tied down to it and you have one more thing to stick on a résumé.
If that doesn’t float your boat, try volunteer work somewhere. Sure it’s unpaid, but if you can find something remotely close to what you want a job in, then you can’t say you’re completely inexperienced, can you?
Go West.
Transferrable skills and passion. Probably two things missing from your resume and your interview answers.
You might have to swallow your pride and take a minimum wage job for now. And don’t think you won’t get something out of it. I’ve seen kids develop incredible people skills working retail. Otherwise, volunteer your services in your field as PDG mentioned.
Employers want to see experience, so offer to volunteer partime, while also working some other mindless job (just to pay the bills). The voluntary experience with the company is a foot in the door, and allows you to learn of future openings in the company.
Networking is still the tried and true way to a career not just a job. You can contact your former profs for a lead as well as the schools career centre. Shit, they may even hire you.
You don’t mention your degree. If it is a BA, it’s best use is for toilet paper. Regardless a degree is in no way a guarantee of any job and definitely does not mean $50,000 out of the starting gate. Like everyone else you have to start at the bottom and work your way up.
Nobody in the real world cares if you made an A in English Lit., OP. While at it, don’t think that because you’ve got a bachelors degree that you’re going to be a VP or CEO or management immediately. Lowering your standards means you probably have to look at some min. wage jobs. McDonalds is always hiring.
And McDonald’s has a university.
TL;DR: I have zero experience and I am wondering why nobody is hiring me
Have you tried a temp agency? That’s how I got my current job *shrug* Led to a permanent job where I got my “foot in the door” and have lots of room to move up. Making enough money to cover my loan payments, rent, other bills and save a few bucks at the same time.
I got the placement that led to my current job 3 days after I registered.
Also: ngf’s right — marks generally don’t mean shit in the “real world’…should’ve at least done co op. You’d have a year experience then. Still, get some experience through a temp agency.
suck it up baby, and go for a menial job, like tims,micky d’s, or a host of others that offer quick jobs with no brains. but they might make you a manager.
Yeah go out West to Fort Crack…greeeat idea! My step dad sometimes has to go there for work and says it’s such a hole! Drugs everywhere, filthy dirty dirty and bums outside of every corner store asking for some change because they’re “twenty bucks shy of an 8-ball man” when they could probably make that in one hour if they actually got a job.
I second the temp agency suggestion. It’s how I got my job. Along the way to getting the permanent job, I worked in some great places and learned many new skills that you just can’t get in school. It all added up and made me more employable so that when I got to the right place, they didn’t want to let me go.
If you sign on with two or three places, they should be able to keep you busy enough that it’s almost like having a constant paycheque coming in. And some placements are really long, I once did a temp job for 18 months. Temp work is often undervalued as an option, but it can be very beneficial.
Op i understand why you wouldn’t want to work for minimum wage in an unrelated field. If u could atleast find work in your field, even something min wage for now atleast, doors will eventually open up; it’s amazing what a little experience can do. When i moved abroad 6 years ago (due to the same frustrations as you, plus boredom of halifax) i took min wage in my field. After 6 months there, i literally got 3 jobs offers in 1 day and my salary jumped so high my wallet got the bends! (cheesy joke, I know) keep in mind that as shitty as it might be, i met so many eductaed people who had come from other poorer european countries who were just so relieved to have found work that they still took pride in their jobs…there was nothing to be ashamed of. Keep looking, you will find something eventually. Even if you have to volunteer within you field and work at The Gap on the side, it will give you the experience you need. Good luck!
OP…Ralph’s Place is always looking for girls.
Experience doesn’t seem to be as important as physical characteristics ~;)
Plus you could use your BA as background for a ‘graduating female’ & come out in the academic regalia (black gown & mortarboard )
The crowd would go wild !
My shop is looking for a counter sales person …know anything about Industrial supply ?
ANother young person thinking everything will just fall on thier lap…Suck it up princess and go for the minimum wage job and work your way up like everyone else with or without your degree.Its a tough world out there so you better learn to swim or you will sink…
Look for jobs outside of Hali. Its the black hole of job markets. There’s tonnes of great paying jobs when you expand your horizons.
You’re not going to get a job in your field without some kind of experience. University doesn’t qualify you for a job.. I can’t stand people who think they are above common jobs. Be a waitress, work at a call centre.. anything to prove that you’re capable of holding down a job .. then you’ll be ready for the real world.
‘I do not want a minimum wage job that is no way related to my education or my future goals.’ – that’s exactly the kind of attitude that won’t get you employed.
Why do so many university grads think they can just waltz into a good paying job by benefit of ‘their good marks’? Boy, you are soooooo naive for a 22 year old.
i made $2.50/hr at my first job, mind you i was 14. before cars and planes^^
I remember working for 6 bucks shoveling ice and sorting clams…
yep, SORTING clams.
you know how insane you get when you sort clams on a concrete floor for 9 hours a day, go home, relax, and then dream for 7 hours of sorting clams before you have to go sort clams for another 9 hours?
I would have licked the manager’s shoe to get a McJob back then.
but your a better person for it right? do you like clams?
You must have smelled terrible!
My little brother used to prepare lobster bait bags and his clothes always reeked when he got home. I don’t remember how much he got paid, though.
Clam sorter – wouldn’t that make you feel a little like a gynecologist?
The hospital is always hiring cleaners. Starts at 13 an hour.