Unemployment

[darkling]

I applied for foodstamps last week. I am circling the drain now.My job search has borne no success. And searching for a job when you are at your lowest doesn't help matters any. The whole process of selling yourself when you feel like a worm is positively surreal.  I've been rejected left and right and while I know I am not supposed to take rejection personally, it still stings. I sleep all the time now and have become reclusive. I am ashamed of my financial failure and my medications aren't helping me the anxiety.

[lonelyforeigner]

41 minutes ago, darkling said:

And searching for a job when you are at your lowest doesn't help matters any. The whole process of selling yourself when you feel like a worm is positively surreal.

Sadly this is true, same with making friends or dating. People will pick up on someone feeling low and tend to think that we have nothing to offer. Anxiety makes it worse because it can seem like we're dishonest and trying to hide something bad.

Wish I could tell you that it'll get better but usually it won't on it's own, best thing you can do right now is ask your doctor for a medication change if what you're currently taking isn't working for you. Keep looking for work though, while it's obviously difficult to find something in that situation you don't want to end up missing out on a possible opportunity. 

[darkling]

Thanks.

I'm signed up with 2 temp companies. I've done admin assist work my entire life and I am a good touch typist. There are just no jobs!

[Mark250]

I've been out of work since last year after a job didn't work out. And yes, having to go to interviews while suffering with depression and anxiety is extremely difficult. Suffering with long-term depression myself, sometimes I can't even face going outside let alone putting myself through a job interview. My medications weren't helping me either and have stopped taking them. 

I find that with employment related stuff, it just all comes down to perseverance and resilience. I wish this wasn't the case. There's no external support. 

[darkling]

Someone at the depression group I sometimes go to said that I also suffer from anxiety. I wonder if I need to add another medication to my cocktail. If I didn't take Remeron, I wouldn't get to sleep.

Best of luck in your situation.

[Doommantia]

Sorry for how youre feeling, Im in the same boat. Ive been unemployed for over a year now and theres no signs of me getting one any time soon either, im beginning to lose hope. I cant even leave my house now.

[SailingSoul]

20 hours ago, lonelyforeigner said:

Sadly this is true, same with making friends or dating. People will pick up on someone feeling low and tend to think that we have nothing to offer. Anxiety makes it worse because it can seem like we're dishonest and trying to hide something bad.

Wish I could tell you that it'll get better but usually it won't on it's own, best thing you can do right now is ask your doctor for a medication change if what you're currently taking isn't working for you. Keep looking for work though, while it's obviously difficult to find something in that situation you don't want to end up missing out on a possible opportunity. 

You always give the best advice.

[StoniumFrog]

Dunno if already suggested but have you tried voluntary work or retraining initiatives? Something to occupy your time.

[darkling]

I am looking into retraining and applying like mad. I spent a little money on Mother's Day my mom. That kept my mind off the anxieties for a little while.

[StoniumFrog]

Good going - sometimes its good to just forget about the bigger picture and focus on the important things :-)

[Mark250]

On 15/05/2017 at 10:09 AM, Misanthrop said:

First, sad fact: employment isn't about what you know,but WHO you know.

Yes, I've heard this before. It's particularly demoralising. And it feels all too true in my case since I've been estranged from my family for a long time now whilst getting nowhere in the job market. God damn capitalism: money first, people second. 

Good luck though, darkling. 

[Sherri]

Unemployment and job searching really suck. If you are qualified they do not want to pay you. They say the job status is growing but I would like to know where they get the numbers from. I see more people without jobs for longer than before. It is terrible and causing more anxiety than is already there.

[darkling]

It doesn't help that job-hunting rules I'd grown up with are changing. For instance: resumes are no longer just a list of accomplishments. Now, there are Infographic Resumes that are flashy and full of bling. Or the whole re-enter your resume information again in some system that thats 45 minutes after you'd uploaded the resume. (Only to never hear from the job, even a Thank You for applying message). It's demoralizing.

 

[Mark250]

2 hours ago, darkling said:

 For instance: resumes are no longer just a list of accomplishments. Now, there are Infographic Resumes that are flashy and full of bling.

That's pretty interesting. This might be just an American thing (I'm assuming you're in America). British employers tend to detest resumes (or CVs) that are 'decorated' with graphics and the like. This isn't something that would come natural to me being that I'm an introvert and possess very few attention-seeking qualities.

[skblue]

4 hours ago, darkling said:

It doesn't help that job-hunting rules I'd grown up with are changing. For instance: resumes are no longer just a list of accomplishments. Now, there are Infographic Resumes that are flashy and full of bling.

Er, as someone who was a career advisor until very recently, I don't think Infographic Resumes are really a thing unless you happen to be in a creative field, so I wouldn't worry about that.

It doesn't help that it's harder to get a job when unemployed - employers don't like to see gaps on resumes. But if you can show that you're doing something now like volunteering or taking classes (even free online classes that will give you a skill you could use), that should make up for the gap.

Volunteering is good, too, because you can keep up your skills and demonstrate your ability to others you work with, which can give you more current references or possibly even lead to a job. Is there a big hospital in your area, maybe?

Or are there any job fairs in your area? If there's a One Stop Career Center around you, they might have listings of job fairs.

[lonelyforeigner]

5 hours ago, skblue said:

Er, as someone who was a career advisor until very recently, I don't think Infographic Resumes are really a thing unless you happen to be in a creative field, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Yeah, they're definitely not a thing outside the creative field. There's a good chance they could even be counterproductive...

Most jobs I applied for in recent years forced me to spend 30 minutes copy/pasting my resume into an online applicant tracking system and many other companies will simply upload whatever documents they receive to an ATS so any non-standard format that makes it hard for computers to analyze the document will likely just be thrown out. The good old days of someone actually looking at all the resumes are pretty much over (at least in the corporate environment), they'll just have a computer narrow the selection down by analyzing keywords before someone actually takes the time to review the top candidates.

[StoniumFrog]

@darkling - how goes it? Hope you are keeping perspective and not aligning your worth to this soul crushing process.

Went to meet with a volunteer group just there and 1-2 ideas were thrown out at me which I may take up on. One distinct group that would be very beneficial for you to possibly work with is Coder Dojo ... they try to get young people up to speed in relation to computing and would have links to the computing industry.

Edited May 17, 2017 by StoniumFrog