Job Search Venting Thread

[discouraged]

All I can say is that us 'baby boomers' fought for our rights and in many ways we did great. There are now laws about domestic violence, knowledge of sexual predators, discrimination, child care regulations, many, many things we brought into the open and fought for.

We made the world better for our children and then we stopped fighting and became good citizens and raised our children in a better climate. But, somewhere along the way we did not let our kids know how to fight for their rights.

It's not only us older ones that are losing everything. We wanted our kids to have college degrees and now, even with them, they are unable to find jobs.

I don't have the answer. The kids are the ones who will have to start fighting for their rights. I, personally, am too darn old and just want any kind of job. They have their whole lives before them and hopefully they will be the ones who demand answers from congress.

And I hope no one forgets that this is where our tax dollars go.

[helpme2010]

Over a thousand views on this thread. It really shows the interest and fear of many of us. I am seriously worried about the unemployment extensions running out, especially as I am a 99er. I swear to you, I am looking every single day, 7 days a week. I even try my networked contacts (they tell me I have to apply through the company career board). Recruiters are providing nothing, other than the scam artists that want me to work for nothing in the hopes that their crappy service will one day pay me a small commission for a product or service nobody wants.

Retirement, this bites, I used up my entire 401k, ss will be small, and I can't find any work. When I do find work, it doesn't last long.

[discouraged]

I worry too. I just re-applied for UI and it says my account is -0-. I'm hoping that does not include the extension. If it does, I'm sunk. Guess I'll just have to see how they determine it next week when I check in. I also used up all my 401K trying to keep this house, until I ran out and realized it wasn't worth it. Not old enough yet for SS. (57)

Guess it looks better for the bk. Was waiting until this temp job ended until I applied for it, but that's about it. Thankfully I saved quite a bit from the temp job and that will see me through. After that, who knows what will happen?

[helpme2010]

I worry too. I just re-applied for UI and it says my account is -0-. I'm hoping that does not include the extension. If it does, I'm sunk. Guess I'll just have to see how they determine it next week when I check in. I also used up all my 401K trying to keep this house, until I ran out and realized it wasn't worth it. Not old enough yet for SS. (57)

Guess it looks better for the bk. Was waiting until this temp job ended until I applied for it, but that's about it. Thankfully I saved quite a bit from the temp job and that will see me through. After that, who knows what will happen?

I recommend you put away as much cash as allowable for the bk exemption. And then buy tons of supplies you need to hold you for home - this will help you cut down on your future grocery expenses post-bk.

I used up my 401k a long time ago and wiped out my life savings just to pay the bills inbetween jobs. I know how this feels. There is nothing worse than wanting a job, looking as hard as you can, and being turned down for job applications or interviews, when you know how good you really are.

[helpme2010]

I did something clever I hope. I constantly get these job boards trying to sell me services, like resume writing, job help placement, coaching, the works. I found a recent one that wanted to sell me a service rewriting my resume, and they listed some problems with my resume. I knew of a couple of these and looked at some good feedback and suggestions they provided me, so I rewrote my resume. I think it looks better now and I saved the $$$ they wanted to charge me.

I am frustrated with companies that force you to fill out their online forms on their career board section, as these companies keep posting for the jobs and I wanted to try to reapply again with my new resume, but it just keeps showing that I already applied and won't let me reapply.

[enuffznuff]

Exactly! I guess we should all just drop everything, forget all that education and experience, and become cosmetologists, after all the rich will always need their hair done!

Wish that were true. Nearly Bankrupt hairdresser here. My business dropped by half in 2009, I lost my salon and had to go work in someone else's, business still declined, people stopped tipping. started coloring their own hair and just getting haircuts.

You'd be surprised, the rich don't pay well and they don't tip. That's how they stay rich, ya know.

Just to add, every single hairdresser I know is in the same boat. I'm sure if you work in a high end salon in nyc you aren't, but those of us in regular salons in regular towns are. Every girl in the salon I worked in last was on food stamps. EVERY ONE.

[tobee43]

My husband filled out an application for Best Buy today and you would have thought he was applying for a job at the Pentagon! And I should know, since I have Dept of Defense clearance with my job! It's ridiculous that you have to answer 100+ hypothetical questions just to submit an application for a minimum wage job!

And let's get real, if someone is stupid enough to answer those questions with a "yes" as to whether they've stolen from their employer, done drugs while at work or had a fist-fight with a customer, the'yre not likely to have gotten that far through the application anyway! They'd probably still be stuck on the first page trying to figure out if it was okay to put their previous cellblock number down as their prior address.

well...dee...i do hope he gets the job...and maybe that's why i haven't gotten a job yet...i of course STOLE from my past employers...i was doing drugs in the bathroom...as much as i could since i could afford the drugs in those days...LOL!! what are they nuts???

[tobee43]

Wish that were true. Nearly Bankrupt hairdresser here. My business dropped by half in 2009, I lost my salon and had to go work in someone else's, business still declined, people stopped tipping. started coloring their own hair and just getting haircuts.

You'd be surprised, the rich don't pay well and they don't tip. That's how they stay rich, ya know.

Just to add, every single hairdresser I know is in the same boat. I'm sure if you work in a high end salon in nyc you aren't, but those of us in regular salons in regular towns are. Every girl in the salon I worked in last was on food stamps. EVERY ONE.

got that right enuff....rich people are rich because they don't give a dime to anyone. i have heard that over and over...terrible tippers etc...

now...i think wrinkle removing is the new way to go!! LOL!!! us baby boomers can grab a wig or two...but get those little creases off my face and i'd be a happy camper.. now the rich always do that...and their nails i think???

so sorry you lost your business...

[JackBondLove]

Flipping burgers is beginning to look good right now. ahahahah

McDonald's just had a job fair - 1 MILLION folks showed up, but only about 60K got jobs.

[JackBondLove]

It seems to me that the only possible endpoint for the middle class person is to embrace socialism, that way the proceeds of the economy - which used to be shared from the capitalist class to the labor class - will now be shared with what used to be the labor class. Now, there is no need to go with full USSR communism, in which the capitalist class is outlawed, but rather a hybrid, in which the capitalist class is well soaked for taxes, and those taxes, along with plenty from the labor class as well, can pay for a massive public jobs program. Any other endpoint just simply makes the labor class all impoverished in a Dickensian brutish society.

[shark66]

It seems to me that the only possible endpoint for the middle class person is to embrace socialism, that way the proceeds of the economy - which used to be shared from the capitalist class to the labor class - will now be shared with what used to be the labor class. Now, there is no need to go with full USSR communism, in which the capitalist class is outlawed, but rather a hybrid, in which the capitalist class is well soaked for taxes, and those taxes, along with plenty from the labor class as well, can pay for a massive public jobs program. Any other endpoint just simply makes the labor class all impoverished in a Dickensian brutish society.

You don't seem to quite understand the concept of socialism...which is *exactly* what was seen in USSR, China, Cuba and former Eastern Europe, since no one has ever claimed to have actually reached "communism" - which was meant to be the society of the future...and all of these societies had their own "red capitalist" class that lived way better than the ordinary folk...I was born in one such system and remember it extremely well.

What you're calling for is essentially more welfare, and we've got an overabundance of it as it is. All the European safety nets ever did was bring immigrants from poor countries to become leeches sucking on them...while the idea might be noble, the experience teaches us that these nets never protect the ones they're supposed to and are abused almost all the time.

Once the Berlin wall fell twenty something years ago, all bets were off but most of us were clueless at the time. This is the aftermath of the game that has been going on for decades.

We will see the unemployment skyrocket, and at some point the minimum wage laws will be thrown out of the window, which is exactly why the jobs were outsourced over the last 15 years. No one *really* wants to build stuff in China. They will much rather get it done here, as soon as it becomes cheap enough, and we're closer to that point than any of us would like to admit.

We will be working three or five part-time jobs, never making the ends quite meet, and be indebted throughout our earthly lives and thereafter.

My $0.02 only...

Good luck to us all.

[keepinitreal]

After being laid off in 2009 and sending out hundreds of resumes with no success, I'm just very grateful my wife is still employed (knock on wood)!

[IamOld]

If I may add...the thing in Europe is...no one goes bankrupt because of medical bills, and oustside of the UK and IReland, PERSONAL debt is non existent virtually.

the USSR etc did not really practice socialism - rather state owned capitalism.

If the powers to be were willing, we could restart teh econonomy simply by restoring the tariffs that would make Chinese goods expensive, and we'd see manufacturing and literally millions of jobs return to the US. NO OTHER COUNTRY - NONE - has opened their doors to economic suicide like the US.

[helpme2010]

Hey I started this thread eons ago. I have to admit, regarding socialism, I wish we had more of it here. I believe for example unemployment extensions should not be cut off for people who lost their jobs during the recession. There is no time line as to how long it takes to find a job. I have run across many republicans who called me lazy and demanded my benefits be cut after 6 months. Had that happened, I would have ended up homeless, then never been able to find a job. Or they said get a job at McDonalds or Walmart. Do you honestly think those two companies would hire a business professional like me. No, because they know the second I find that higher paying job, I would bolt. Plus, honestly, that is not enough money to even survive, period.

I now have a very high paying job and have been paying a boat load in taxes. But I am happy to pay the taxes.

Until the economy returns and the companies begin hiring and the unemployment rate drops to normal, you can't cut off the unemployment extensions for the unemployed, or kill medicare and social security which will destroy most of the retireees. All this while giving billions and now wanting to give over a trillion to the wealthy? This is morally wrong on all levels.

[IamOld]

Exactly helpme - it's not about "socialism" it's about common human decency.