Stryfe

I've been out of work for almost two years now. I graduated college in December 2009. I have worked steadily from the time I was a teenager up until June 2010. I worked the overnight shift in a warehouse until the warehouse shutdown and moved out of state. I haven't been able to find steady work since. I worked in a produce warehouse last year for a few days but quit because no one at the job spoke any english and the cost of gas ate up too big of a chunk of what I was earning at the place working minimum wage. I got hired by a temp agency a little over a week ago and they don't have any work yet. I'm afraid they might never have any work.

I have had nearly ten interviews for jobs in my college-educated field of study since graduating. However, some of these interviews were nerve-wracking group interviews where I was looking at my competition of 7-8 people in the face all clamoring for a single available position. In other interviews was told that I was competing against much more qualified candidates who had years and years of professional work experience. I did an internship before I graduated college. I have been volunteering in creating and updating a local church's website for free for a year now to gain experience. However, I feel these efforts may be in vain seeing as even Ivy-League graduates and people with decades of work experience are among the ranks of the long-term unemployed these days.

I am willing to work anywhere. However, it is hard as hell to get any job these days. Illegal immigrants dominate all manual labor and basic service jobs where I live. And every American-born Tom, Dick and Jane goes to college and is fighting for the very few available White collar jobs around.

Most people who have had steady jobs for years are not very understanding of your situation when you are unemployed in this economy. People act like it is easy as breathing to get a job and that there must be something wrong with you if you can't get a job. Even many people in the program act like this. When you don't have a job, most normal people talk down to you and don't want to be around you. Unemployment isolation exacerbated my alcoholism before I came to AA six months ago. Although I had no money, I was still finding away to get drunk almost everyday. I was doing crazy things to get money like pawning in old car batteries and stealing from my family as well as hanging around shady dangerous people who would let me drink for free but they would get violent and unpredictable after a few drinks. I was on a fast track to alcoholic self-destruction because I had no job, no money, no friends and everyone was treating me like a loser.

I don't know what to do at this point. I make sure I get to an AA meeting everyday and stay in contact with my sponsor. Is anyone else in this position? Has anybody been in this position before? How did you beat the odds?

ACT10Npack

I can understand your hardache with not working. Finding work is really hard and more so if you have a drinking problem. a lot of grad students are not finding work. It's what we are in the world today. Hang in there and just keep yourself sober. Try to go to the unemployed office and see if they have anything for you. That's my best advice to give.

eh1988

I'm one of those people who doesn't believe it's impossible to find a job right now. You have to open your mind a bit, you aren't going to find the best jobs right now, it's just a sign of the times. Be open to getting a job to hold you over until the economy picks back up and you can get a job in your field. There's a ton of jobs out there right now, albeit they are not great paying, there are jobs. Hope you find something soon, more importantly hope you stay sober. Best of luck!

sugarbear1

work your AA program for now. be there for the newcomer and get out of your own way. keep putting out applications when you can. maybe your higher power doesn't want you to work yet, but it will come. believe that everything is as it should be in your higher power's world. keep praying that your job comes. it will work out, I've seen this happen with so many people, including myself. your job is out there waiting for the right time.

have you worked through the 12 steps? that's a great beginning!

Keep strong, it will all work out!

Justfor1

Stryfe, Just wanted to say that I can relate to being unemployed yet still finding the money to drink. I also hung around dangerous alcoholics/addicts & drank the days away. Pawning, panhandling, borrowing ect... to get $$$ to booze. It wasn't too hard but got a bit old after a while. Try to hit a few aa meetings to sober up & network with others for potential jobs.

bskeys1404

I'm going on a year this month so I know how ya feel. I was working as a personal trainer at LA Fitness and I have a couple of slipped disc and ended up going to the doctor one day cause of the pain. Well he wrote me a drug called Nucynta . I had never heard of it .He knew I was an opiate addict and he told me they were like Ultram. Non-addicting so don't worry about it. I didnt even think to look it up. Well after I ran out I became sick and the drug did produce some euphoric effect but nothing grand thet would want me to take more. Well i finally decided to look it up and of course it was a schedule 3 drug. It could be crushed and snorted and injected and what not. So I called my manager who I thought me and her had become really good friends. I said I just needed to take a couple of days off so I could get my head straight or i was gonna be in a world of ****. She said no problem. So I immediately called a doctor and he gave me something to get through the withdrawals cause my cravings were kicking now and I knew I had to get help right away or I was gonna be in trouble. So when I come back which ended up just being a four day weekend I had no clients but like two and trust me that place pays absolutely nothing to the people that really work. After a month a picked up a few client just by calling some of the old ones. Well I asked my manager if i could have some more clients and she asked how long it had been since the incident and I said about a month and a half. She said you really think your ready for more clients? I was like uhhh yeah. It's not like I went crazy and got all messed up and went to treatment I was just taking care of myself. Well I called the EEOC and found out that since i went to the doctor to get help they were by all means disciminating against me. The EEOC really wanted me to take it to court but stupid me just got into it with the manager and quit. I still get unemployment. A whole 98.00 bucks a week. Thank God my wife makes really good money or i'd be totally screwed. I'm on my last tier of unemployment and it sucks. I've tried every gym. I mean I have 3 world records and have been doing this since I was twelve. I have put in apllications everywhere. Well over a hundred and I've had 3 interviews. I have never had such a hard time getting a job.It 's so bad and i live near Tampa which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state if not the whole dam country. I've put in at places I wouldn't even think of going to in the past and I still can't find a job. I hate that my wife supports me .That's not how i was raised . It feels awful that I barely contribute. But God bless her .Sh'es never once gave me a hard time and is always positive about the situation. Hang in there I hope you find something soon I feel your frustrations. Boy everyday I regret that I didn't take LA Fitness to court!!! UGH!!

recoverywfaith

Stryfe,

Very much relate...I was laid of summer of 2010 and still looking for work. Currently, I am on three different temp. agencies, attend a job skills class every two weeks...since the end of last year, sent countless resumes and have been on many interviews. Last week I applied for a job and within a week they had 1,000 hits. Therefore, I try to stay very current with the listings as to try to get at the very beginning of their job queue. Since attending the job class...I revamped my resume in the hopes to get more interviews and it worked...I have had more interviews...now the next step, getting a job. Maybe revamping your resume would help (have you including your volunteer work on your resume)?

Keep working your program, submitting applications and don't give up. Drinking will not solve any problems...but make matters worse.

All my prayers that you find suitable employment soon.

Nirvana1

I feel you on this. I graduated in 2005 with a B.S. (pretty much what it is anyways!) and have many hard to get securities licenses. The only jobs I've been able to get are when the financial companies are hiring multiple positions during up markets. Well every year there has been a "hiccup" in the market and I've been the first to be let go, as I was just part of the mass of hires anyway. It's happened 4 times in the last 4 years. When I was still applying to all different jobs up until late last year, I wasn't even getting an initial call back for positions that are laughable in my field.

I've always thought, even when I had the crappy corporate jobs, that there had to be a better way. I found it impossible to be motivated in the financial industry. My jobs were like office space with 8 different bosses, but instead of worrying about being hassled or getting laid off, it was actually happening all the time.

So, I've found that I needed to start my own business. If I was going to "fail" this time, it was going to be because of me and not some company who needs to trim expenses to make it look good for stockholders that quarter. I've been working on my own business for about 7 months and It has been a better experience than all my other jobs. I get to call my own shots, and focus on what is good for growing the business. I've learned so much about business and start-ups, that even if this business model fails, I have many other ideas that I could implement.

Basically, I've been learning skills to depend on myself for an income and who knows, I could end up one of those success stories who creates jobs, etc. The best thing I've done is just let God take the reigns and have Him put the right people in front of me, and if I'm supposed to do well or not, so be it. It has really taken the pressure off of me, and I've accomplished a lot more than normal by not worrying about controlling every aspect.

Being unemployed stinks so I finally threw in the towel of being in the rat race and made a change. I'm way happier now even though the financial part isn't even taken care of yet.

bryangt

Part of living or working in today's given economy & 'down-sized' world is acceptance. Thru AA I have learned about acceptance and now have to learn to apply it to 'life'. 10-12 years ago I was making great money, had an expense account, benefits etc...today I have none of that. I am barely getting by with a job I don't really like. But, even as hard as it may be, I am trying to accept this circumstance in hopes of a better tomorrow.
The Serenity Prayer comes in very handy...daily...