SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - That's gotta be at least my seventh application...

Posted: Oct 14 2008 02:32 pm

Why must jobs be so annoying to get? Anyone else have troubles finding a job?

Posted: Oct 14 2008 02:43 pm

Depends. How old are you? I had a hell of a time getting a job before i turned 18, mainly because I avoided fast food. After 18 however, I have spent a total of 2 weeks unemployed. I don't know that I'm good at getting jobs, I usually am just content with the ones I get and stick around for a while. I'm starting to look for another job right now in the same field, and it may be a challenge as there is not a big market for what I do where I live.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 02:54 pm

I'm 18, at first I tried to avoid fast food(And Wal-Mart), but nowadays I try to apply to jobs I know I can do. Although, I've heard from friends that Target sucks so that's pretty much the only place I'm avoiding.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 03:05 pm

Hmm... You guys have an Office Depot around your parts? That place used to kick ass, and your about the right age to work there. They pay more than minimum wage too, which is a bonus. They make you take a test now (I still know people there) and your chances of an interview are almost entirely based on how you score on their in-house test. Just answer every question as dishonestly as possible and strongly agree on everything that is reliabiliity.. customer service related.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Ba‘al wrote:

I'm 18, at first I tried to avoid fast food(And Wal-Mart), but nowadays I try to apply to jobs I know I can do. Although, I've heard from friends that Target sucks so that's pretty much the only place I'm avoiding.

So you are looking for part time work?

This is very different than looking for a career type job.

The best way to get a part time job, especially at age 18, is to try and get a good internship. Ask your parents friends who work at corporations if they have internship opportunities.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 04:05 pm

I've been trying to get a job for a few months. I'm currently applying to the Car Fresher plant (yes, the place that started making the little trees to make your car smell nice) and am waiting on the results of the drug test. Around here, a lot of companies are reevaluating their budgets with the economic downturn and whatnot, so not a lot are hiring. I picked a bad time to switch jobs, it turns out. >_<

If this doesn't work... I'll probably have to do fast food... at least until I can hammer something else down. They tend to hire pretty quick, I've heard, but I just... I don't know. Most restaurants have buzzers that go off and tend to be microtones apart and, even being a customer, it drives me nuts. It's a lame excuse, but I feel like my sense of sound is being drained from my being.

We also have a lot of trouble here because of Fort Drum. Fort Drum tends to bring in people who are only here temporarily, so companies like to hire them to a) support the soldiers/war, but mainly b) because people aren't here for very long, they can get a decent work output from them and not have to provide so much in terms of raises and benefits. These make soldiers and their spouses much more appealing to be hired, giving the locals a difficult time getting a job.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 06:53 pm

I actually miss working in the public domain. I had some of the best relationships, ie friends, working at Best Buy, FuncoLand, and numerous Fast Food places. I have friends AT work but we don't hang out outside of work.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

It took me about five months to find a job in a busy college town where people are always hiring. I had good references, good job reviews, and I always went to interviews well-dressed and what-not, but the managers always said I looked "too up-tight." I'd notice later that they hiring some sloppy fat idiot (yet, like "relaxed, dude"), and that there would be another help wanted sign up in the same business a few weeks later (and you'd never see the sloppy fat guy again).

Managed to find this crappy parking lot job. Man, I was a clerk at a law office over the summer, but I can't make over $8 an hour shoveling shit now.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 09:01 pm

Last summer I applied at Wal-mart, Dollar General, Central Frick's Market, and a bank...and I haven't gotten hired. And I spent a month applying, calling, re-applying, calling, and asking in person to try to get hired at Wal-mart, and I still haven't even gotten an interview.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 09:29 pm

I swear to god you have to be of a certain income level, education level, desperation level, to get a job at wal-mart. I see some of the biggest wastes of life working there. I know they are wastes of life because I went to school with them. "I'm gonna drop out" "Dude you have like 3 weeks to go" "Yea I know but I can't stand it anymore, my girlfriends pregnant and I need to find a job."

Posted: Oct 14 2008 10:03 pm

I spent last summer handing out resumes. My grand total was 32. I even applied at Wal-Mart after much deliberation. They called me in for four interviews and I didn't get it because I had a part-time job at the time. It wouldn't interfere with Wal-Mart, but they expect you to take a Wal-Mart job as a career Rolling Eyes

Anyway, I work at a meat packing plant because they were the only ones who gave me an interview (besides wal-mart)

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

Douche McCallister wrote:

I actually miss working in the public domain. I had some of the best relationships, ie friends, working at Best Buy, FuncoLand, and numerous Fast Food places. I have friends AT work but we don't hang out outside of work.

That's a big and important thing. I met a lot of cool people working in grocery and later in the wine department of the same store. I still hang out with the people I met and some didn't even work there :p They were Wine Reps who passed through to stock their stuff.

At some other jobs you simply don't have that.

I've worked at K-Mart and a mom and pop grocery store. Both were useful experiences, but I'd take the mom and pop store as the job. Besides a better environment, the owners usually have HOT daughters Wink

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Ghandi wrote:

Douche McCallister wrote:

I actually miss working in the public domain. I had some of the best relationships, ie friends, working at Best Buy, FuncoLand, and numerous Fast Food places. I have friends AT work but we don't hang out outside of work.

That's a big and important thing.

I agree that at some point working that type of job is good for everyone. It definitely gives a person perspective, and the social aspect is wonderful as well.

I was a bagger at a grocery store for my first real job and my wife was a cashier there. My relationship with her never would have taken off if we hadn't become work friends first.

Still, once you have had a few jobs like that, an internship is great for networking. It really is about who you know when you want to find a good job.

I had a family friend get me an internship with a major corporation when I was 19-20. That internship looked great on my resume and helped me get some of my jobs later on in my life.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 11:07 pm

I don't know if I'll be able to get an internship anywhere around here, my dad already told me jobs might get harder to get due to Cape Fear being a tourist location and it's now approaching Winter. I'll ask around my dad's friends though. I'm just in a situation where money could be very well needed, I could get loans elsewhere for college, but it would still be nice to start a savings.

Posted: Oct 14 2008 11:26 pm

word of advice... never work for wal-mart... worst company in the world and it's scarred me for life. Wal-Mart motto "The customer is always right (unless their complaint will cost us money)" no lie. That's what my manager told me one night when I was trying to assist a customer.

Posted: Oct 15 2008 02:55 am

I work in my mum's shop. It kicks ass, except for hobos (hoboes?) who enter the shop only to steal beer.

Heh. I think this was in Megatokyo. St34l th3 b33r.

Title: Title: Title: Title Joined: Sep 18 2008 Posts: 258

I worked at OfficeMax and it blew ass. Too many corporate rules that limited how you talk to people. They want you to speak like a robot which I can't stand. Now I work Tech Support for a packaging plant and do QA Testing for Activision here in Minneapolis.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Nekkoru wrote:

I work in my mum's shop. It kicks ass, except for hobos (hoboes?) who enter the shop only to steal beer.

Heh. I think this was in Megatokyo. St34l th3 b33r.

Both hobos and hoboes are acceptable for describing more than one hobo. However they are unacceptable when they steel beer.

Posted: Oct 19 2008 08:16 pm

im not gonna lie, the job market sucks my asshole right now.

it took me about a month to get a job this last time. and my friend has been unemployed for about 3-4 months now.

and i applied everywhere. even costco. but i guess i mightve been overqualified for costco.

anyhow, keep looking homie. you'll get a job soon if you havent already

Posted: Oct 19 2008 08:41 pm

Pad your resume with things you know you can master quickly, go to a temp agency and demand a certain dollar value when they ask what kind of money you are interested in making.

They're gonna send you to all sorts of crappy places, when you find one that's suitable either hide in the back corner as long as you can while remaining completely neutral to any politics / bullshit, or bust your ass to become indispensable . (depending on the like / dislike)