First Job

[SarSardonic]

Hi all,

I recently found this forum (there are so many here to choose from...) and thought this would be a good place to ask advice....

I have never had a job. Ever.
I am 26.

I need a job that will provide an income of at least $500 (what I was getting for disability before the US government [Social Security] decided I was cured of my mental condition) a month AND pay for daycare for 2 toddlers in a somewhat high cost of living area.

I am very shy. I can't really talk on the phone. I have a difficult time leaving the house by myself. I have a really hard time talking to people in person and being seen in public.
But, I desperately need a job.

How do normal people find jobs with no references?
(No friends, never volunteered/babysat/did odd jobs, no college, very few family members whom I don't know very well, don't belong to a church yet....)

Is there anyone out there who got their first job as an adult (and not a teen/high-schooler)?

Any ideas about what jobs I should look into?
(I've applied at every fast food place and every store around, but I never heard back, and I don't think my income from those places would cover daycare.)

Thank you.

God bless.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

That kind of income will be hard to come by without prior experience; especially in the retail world. Consider getting some government help and maybe go to school for a trade or something else that strikes your fancy so that you can gain the ability to get a better job.

There is also the obvious "seek better help with your issue" answer so you can overcome them rather than rely on the government to simply send a check every month, but those cases are a lot of the time easier said than done and I'm sure you've been seeking that. Maybe look at this as an opportunity to force yourself out of your comfort zone so that you can overcome these issues as well.

 

[Shabby]

That's got to be tough! I would look at large corporations that have outstanding benefits and perhaps get a job with them. I used to work for Bank of America and they had amazing benefits since they were such a large company. Five hundred a month should not be difficult to find if you are going to be working full time, and if you are going to be part time you might be hard pressed to find benefits supplied to you.

 

[AlexBP]

Have you tried speaking about this issue with your priest or pastor? It's part of a minister's job, at least in most denominations, to keep in touch with the network of charitable organizations in his or her area. There are usually organizations devoted to helping people like you who need an entry-level job and don't have experience. At the very least, your minister should be able to put you in touch with someone who knows how to help.

Good luck! I will be praying for you.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

Since you need daycare for two toddlers, maybe you should look into daycare jobs. They might offer reduced price daycare for your children. If you have children of your own that's a start in terms of experience for that kind of job. You will probably need to be willing to get CPR and first aid training and maybe take some classes about things like local laws, nutrition, and abuse and neglect and such. A daycare provider could provide such training for your or at least point you in the direction of how to get it. They may give you a certain amount of time to have the training completed after you're hired.

Another thing you could look into is something like a job at the YMCA or a similar type of place. I think they have daycare there so it would seem like a benefit of the job might be reduced price daycare.

A job I had when I was a teenager was working for a boarding kennel for dogs and cats. That job doesn't pay a lot or have benefits but it wouldn't require you to talk on the phone or interact with a lot of people. Mostly it would be feeding animals, taking dogs outside, cleaning, etc. It is not a glamorous job, though, and you would be getting dirty sometimes. You could also look into kennel positions at vet clinics -- that would probably pay more than a boarding kennel would but you might have more responsibilities such as giving medications and taking care of sick animals or animals that are recovering from surgery. It might require charting and more interaction with people because you would need to communicate to other staff and clients about the patients.

And you could always offer to babysit for other people's children at your own home and have them hang out with your own kids during the day.

You could also do pet-sitting or house sitting for a little bit of money.

 

[highlife]

This is just the beginning, the gov is being forced to be accountable for it spending so I think this is just the tip of the ice berg, we will either get control of our spending or the US dollar will go down the toilet. I did not have a job until I was 21 but was going to school full time for engineering.

Jobs should be a little easier to come by these days because the gov passed the tax cuts and so buisness now has some assurance of tax liability but they only passed the tax cuts for 2 years so they really just kicked the can down the road so while hiring may pick up a bit I would not expect a bull job market until even more tax breaks are implemented and are made permenant (2 years goes quick).

Times are going to continue to be hard, you need to pray about it, seek the bible and start building your network, in my profession networking is really important.

The first question you have to ask yourself (and I asked myself right before I graduated high school) is what do you want to do, they have books at the library that are huge dictionarys of various colleges and professions, I dedicated 2 weeks to just go to the library and do research (of course I already knew I wanted to do something technical so it was just a matter of what area of special interest), you may have to spend a month or 2 months if you have no idea.

Always make sure you have enough time to reinvent yourself (like another poster said) but work enough to pay the bills, if your working to much you wont have time for training or research, if your not working enough you cant pay bills.

Unless you or your kids are constantly having very expensive medical bills I would just find an employer that will let you sign up for a HSA high deductable plan as catastropic insurance, medical insurance can really eat up your paycheck, most employers dont cover it anymore they take it out of your check and its not cheap (unless you work for the gov or are in the military, but since the military is down sizing thoes fatty bennifits are going away except for military), the only other "bennifits" I can think of are 401k matching and thats almost unheard of these days.