i've been searching for a job for about 4-5 years now and until a month ago i haven't received a single returned call. at first i was really psyched because it was from a company i really wanted to work for, because they give their employees free cable tv and internet, unfortunately after the call was over i suppose despair would be the most accurate description as they only called to confirm my lacking work history,

recently i've been thinking about how companies call their selves "equal opportunity employers", equal opportunity itself sounds nice because it implies that there is an equal chance for everyone who applies to be offered a job, but it's only meaning is equal opportunity based on race and beliefs, so it seems to just a catch phrase to make the company sound nice.

i'd like to ask a specific question of this community, for those of you who didn't have a friend or relative's help to get you your first job, how did you manage to get your foot inside the "locked door" of work experience that employers cherish more than anything else.

Probably nothing you haven't already tried, sadly: months and months of sending out applications to everyone I could think of, both in response to ads and speculatively. Eventually found my first job for far less pay than I would've liked and a much, much longer commute than I wanted. Still, nice company to work for, at least until a sales droid took over and embarked on selling the company itself. :rolleyes:

It was a frustrating experience, though: I followed the business press and all of the companies at the time were endlessly moaning and whining that there weren't enough trained staff available for hire... but none of them wanted to do it themselves and were engaging in this foolish merry-go-round of poaching staff off each other. Last time I was in the job market a few years ago there was a similar problem, only this time it was that employers were exclusively using agencies to appoint staff, and very few of them were any good at matching candidates to a potential employer (a typical example being one idiot who suggested that I take a 30% pay cut so he could shove me into a job that I had neither experience nor interest in) and in essence worked as a sort of comprehensive employment prevention system.

It's possible it may be worth scouting out agencies to find a good one, but since the good ones are in a single-figure percentage of the whole I'm rather loath to suggest what's likely to be a frustrating experience, so all I can do is wish you good luck and hope your fortunes change for the better.


Edit: oh yeah, nearly forgot, in the interim I was prepared to take just about anything that was available and got a generic office job in a local factory which seemed to be only as temporary as I wanted it to be. Not quite my ideal career choice, but it brought the money in and being in active employment probably helped me get my first "proper" job, eventual though it was.

I'm also a bit suspicious of employers who like slogans such as "investing in people": seems a bit of a case of protesting too hard, a genuinely nice employer probably wouldn't feel the need to make a point of it.

What field of work is this?

I applied, I got an interview, I got a job in a hotel.

-next job-

Called asking for work, got a job in retail.

Easy enough.

If its your first job you can't be picky. Apply to anywhere and everywhere, doesnt matter if it's crap pay or crap work. In fact it most likely will be both. So go to every retail place and hand in a resume, repeat every couple weeks. Then go through the paper and basically apply for everything.

Even doing that it took me ages to get my first job, but if any opportunity pops up take it. A crappy job is still better than no job.

What are your skills?
What jobs are you applying for?
Are you catering your resume to each job?
How old are you?
Have you literally never had a job?
Where about in the world are you?

This.

Also, to the OP: if this is the first job you've ever had, you can supplement your resume in a lot of ways that can make it more attractive to employers. Volunteer work and freelancing are both good, even if they're not in the career field you're aiming for. It suggests to employers that you're not just resting on your laurels, or sitting around waiting for them to call you.

As an example...I've been technically unemployed for going on 7 months. Last week I had a phone interview in which the hiring manager asked me, "now, what have you been doing since you left [previous job location]?" Since I've been working on a freelance basis I was able to tell him about that, and some of the types of work I'd been doing. I honestly think that's what won me the in-person interview I've got today.

Depending on what you're looking for volunteering can be a great "foot in the door," too, and at the very least a good way to meet people and make contacts. My first job in high school was at the city library. I started out volunteering there, so the staff got to know me / how I work, which probably gave me a bit of a leg up when I turned 16 and could finally apply for a part-time job there.

Luck. Being able to talk and communicate.

Also, its always easier to find a job when you have a job. So I've been told, and so I've noticed.



This.

I was sixteen and I applied for a seasonal job at Sears. I got the job and that one month provided work history. Seasonal positions are awesome 'cause they barely require work experience.

skills, i can do just about anything that doesn't require a permit
applying to any place i hear is hiring plus any place i know of and might not be hiring
just about every place i've applied doesn't want my resume, just their printed out application sheet filled
23
aside from the "do it yourself" stuff for the family which typically only takes one day to complete there isn't any work experience
ohio in the united states of america


i tried volunteer work before, but the only lead i had on places of volunteer work was incredible difficult to get in contact with because they were never answering their phones and when they would answer they wanted me to drive upwards of 30 minutes away from where i lived and i can't afford the gas bill


i haven't limited myself to any field of work, i've applied anywhere i can find

Holy cow, don't wanna sound like a jerk, but to be 23 with no work experience is crazy. Many employers are probably wondering how you are that old and never had a job. Be prepared to address that in an interview.
My suggestions:

Find internship, take an unpaid one if you must to get exp.

Tell perspective employers to just let you work for free for X amount of days to see if they like you and to prove you can do the job.

If your attending college, look for a campus job, most campuses have job placement programs.

Take jobs you feel are beneath you. I.E. crappy jobs with horrible hours.

Find someone to vouch for you. Use those networking skills

And take this last one with a grain of salt: LIE about having experience, just be able to back up your claims.

already graduated college, and received my diploma December 2010, well i actually received it mid january the month after but the diploma says december
their job placement program is online and pretty much has the same things you can find at monster.com, including that fake job postings...
i have 2 references i list in all my applications, neither of them have ever been contacted, and i've applied to a company where someone i knew worked for at a different location, it didn't help at all even after i had called them and even let them know i would be okay with a position of dish washer

What degree do you have? I.e. What are you trained to do?
Don't tell me about what you would be WILLING to take. What do you WANT to do for a career.....NOT a "job". Is this what your degree is in? If not, why not?

On my campus, students on financial aid are given priority to campus jobs.

I wouldn't read too much into this: I think I've only ever had one occasion where someone I asked for a reference has been contacted. I think it's more a case of showing you can provide references rather than actually going to the bother of following them up, whatever stage of the interview process you get to.

For the record, the one manager who did check up on my references was a complete control-freak, an utter bell-end who was the worst person I've ever worked for, so it may even be considered a warning sign.

well.. I might not be the best source of information, will explain later, but I got the idea/feeling that you get a better chance if you visit the company yourself, instead of calling or writing.
I got this feeling because a friend of mine, and myself, once applied for jobs all around the same time.
Me and that friend both did this over the internet, via a form they had on the site. It also said they would contact us when needed.
Neither of us heard anything from the company. So I went there myself. Turned out they did not even read those forms.... All I had to do was fill in a paper, and 3 days later I was working.
My friend never visited the company, he never worked there.

Maybe it is because it's so much easier to "discard" a possible employee if he/she "is" only a voice on the other side of the phone, or only some ink on a piece of paper.

But, as I said, I might not be the best source of information.
My first job was at a local grocery and I was hired by my nephew.
My second job was at the above company. Some friends of mine already worked there. So perhaps that was a reason to hire me so easily.
My third and current job is at a company owned by the father of a good friend of mine.
So I never actually got a job all by myself. I just used whatever network I had.

the degree is in Computer Network Administration and Security (Unix/Linux option)
my preferred career would be working with computers, but the closest lead i've had to that which didn't require 2-4 minimum years work experience in that field wanted me drive for a bit more then an hour to participate to a job seminar in the opposite direction of the location i actually applied to work at and stated that they didn't guarantee anyone an interview or job, and the worst part was that it was for Apple in an area with 10 times higher crime rate then where i currently live




unfortunately a majority of the places i visit tell me they only accept applications online... (blockbuster just to name one that told me they don't accept applications at the store)

Although the crime rate isn't nice, the other elements aren't out of the ordinary: my first job was a two hour daily commute working in a position that wasn't ideal, but I actually loved it after a while. Never did like that commute, however, though if it bothered me that much I figure I could've started looking elsewhere in a year or two. I also wouldn't pay too much attention to the "requirements": they're usually a wish-list, and I've found companies who've been very flexible, as well as those who've come out with all sorts of additional demands that weren't part of the job description.

Interviews are never really guaranteed, though they're 100% guaranteed to not happen if you don't turn up. I've turned up for a lot of them that looked like they'd be an utter waste of time. Most were, except for the job I finally got, something I could've said "don't fancy that, and they probably won't employ me anyway".

Is it a particular industry that you are trying to break into?

Regardless of the industry, job hunting svcks. It usually has a lot to do with professional relationships/friendships, but it is also a numbers game, if you think about all the 100s or 1000s of companies in your area that you'd be willing to work for, there must be at least one of them that you can connect with if you call every single one of them and follow up in polite, persistent manner. Don't give up, and keep in constant, friendly contact with all the people you meet who work in your industry.

My first job was at age 11 or 12 as a door to door salesman of newspaper subscriptions. From that time, I always had some sort of job or side business, and saved up enough to travel to Europe and Asia after high school.

I would say that my first job in the film industry, where I've made my career came about around 12 years ago through a friend from college. It was an overseas job and I'm pretty sure the boss didn't even look at my resume.

A few years later I had an opportunity to move to Los Angeles for a job that seemed to good to be true. SPOILER ALERT: it was too good to be true. The company in question was in financial trouble and couldn't afford to pay any salary after I already moved all my stuff halfway around the world to work for them. I ended up temping and then fell into a great job with a major film studio. Worked there for about 8 years and then started my own business.

You have a college degree yet no job?

What the [censored] is wrong with this world?

Get some voluntary work. They're usually screaming out for people and aren't too fussy... Okay, so you don't get paid, but you'll get something money can't buy - work experience.

I've got work experience, but I want to change careers - so I'll be doing some voluntary work soon.

i remember hearing a story of one woman suing the college she attended because the college made promises of how easy it would be to get a job with their degrees

If youre just looking for job experience (or some money), check out several temp aganecies. Couple years ago I walked into one when I needed a job and couldnt find one. The next week I was working, two years later (after being laid off) I did the same thing and was working again within a week. It probably wont be the job you want, mine was working in a warehouse at the time doing assembly line work But they have everything from office work, assembly line work, fork lift operators (a lot of companies will train you for the fork lift if you've never used one) and more. A lot of temp agencies will require either 90 days or up to 6 months of working through them before they let the company hire you on, but that also usually means a raise once they do. Just make sure, you are NEVER late and you dont call out when you are working for these companies that might be interested in hiring you. If you show up on time every day and dont call out, then these temp agencies will jump through hoops to help you out if you ever need them again. Basically the better you do, the better it makes them look and the more clients they can get. Like I said it may not be the job you want, but it will give you a job history and most of the jobs I looked at while going through the temp agency paid more than I would get in some "entry" level job in a fast food chain or some such.

Oh my ...

I suppose I would say I am in the same case you are in.

In summary, I have done as you have, and recieved next to no calls back. Actually, the only time I have was for city library -- which was awesome -- but they never hired me, even after an interview and reference check, .

I am 19, and for my whole life I have never independently got a job in the normal sense (grocery store, libray). The jobs I were able to get by myself were internet job posting site ones, spefically advertising (handing out flyers).

That's it. Luckily, I was able to get a job walking my neighbours dogs when I was 12 (did that until 18 about), and that my dad was able to hire me part time and full time on occassions.

My advice is: if you want to get a job, you can.

For an absolute fact I know many people that have gotten jobs at grocery stores, libraries, and so on, with absolutely no experience.

Want to know the secret (aside from having links [i.e. family and friends])? Timing. Just have to apply at the right time.

With that said, if you apply every day at the same establishments you want in, they will either see your iniative and let you in, or it will just be the correct time.

Also, for lack of experience, you can volunteer.

Seriously, there's jobs everywhere, you just have to find them (assuming you live in a city).

Sounds like it's pretty hard to find work these days. Luckily my brother told me he has a friend who can get me a job at Best Buy working on the weekends once I turn 16 which is very soon.

I imagine it should be easy enough after that.

Also, before I heard of that I wanted to do some EMT volunteer work during the Summer for work experience, it's like a volunteer Paramedic or something. It sounds fun and should get you experience you should probably try doing that and hell, you might even actually be able to get a job as a Paramedic thanks to something like that.