How do I find a job?

[liars_paradox]

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[liars_paradox]

Join the Army.

I thought about that. To be honest, I think that I need surgery in my big toes because have these osteocytes around the, what I think is called, the metatarsophalangeal joint. So, if I had surgery in my toes and maybe my elbows as well, then I think that I wouldn't have any physical reasons keeping me from joining the military.

However, there is the ADHD diagnosis which prevents me from being eligible for military service but it might be possible for me to get a waiver.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I've been through months and months of interviews and when asked, depending on the interview, I have said, "I think, at times, I could relax more and not take myself so seriously."

I've researched this topic thoroughly and while its annoying to play with the politics of an interview, the person interviewing doesn't want to hear "I'm lazy." or "I have anger issues." Something like, "I am a perfectionist and I dont like to make mistakes" is a solid answer.

I would say things like that and it is the truth about me, but I think so many people may say the same thing that it isn't taken seriously maybe?

 

[Everlasting33]

I would say things like that and it is the truth about me, but I think so many people may say the same thing that it isn't taken seriously maybe?

Sure, there is the risk but it's all a game. For instance, if I were to give my actual weaknesses, that I tend to be selfish and prone to laziness, I doubt I'd get the job. Employers don't want to hear that but they want to hear a weakness that is somewhat positive.

I made the mistake of giving my weakness at an interview...I said I had "low energy" when I was applying for a child care position!

Needless to say, I didn't get the job! And I don't blame them because of my response above.

 

[christianjeenn]

I am too looking for an online job... I am applying everywhere.. No responses yet.I sometimes in lack of sleep due to asking some employers to hire me as a data encoder, online researcher or typist. Sigh... I am comfortable working at home as I do have back pains. I maybe have this back injury...

Hope to touch someone's heart here to give me assignments online...

 

[znr]

One piece of advice that I could really find useful is how to answer "What are your weaknesses?" question. I don't want to actually tell them what my weaknesses are because then they might not want to hire me.
How would I actually be able to go about answering this question without ruining the job interview?

"In the beginning I tend to isolate my focus. Once, after being on the job for a few weeks this resulted in my not noticing that a co-worker was trying to get my attention. After a little practice I found that I could easily manage my tasks and surroundings"

Blech. But it has worked for me in the past.

 

[bsd31]

OP you seem to be dead set on not working outside of your chosen field. Why are you so intent on it? If someone offered you a job at $8 an hour stringing barbed wire fence would you do it? In other words do you really want a job or do you just want your father to stop nagging you?

 

[liars_paradox]

I've been looking for a job via the internet for 8 months now, still no luck. Most places I call about applying for a job they tell me to apply online, I feel like i'm running out of options.

It depends on what kind of jobs you're applying online for. For many full-time jobs, there's security and maybe even fences which prevent unauthorized people from entering their campus. I remember at my last interview, me and the other guy who were waiting to be interviewed had to both go to the bathroom and a security guard actually had to be notified and we were escorted to the restroom. For places like this, you have no choice.

If it was something like Food Lion (I don't know if you have that where you live), which always tells people to apply online, you can still apply online and still talk to the manager since it's the manager that does the hiring anyways. You can just say to them, "Yeah, I already did that. Is there anyone that I can talk to about any positions that need to be filled?" or something like that I guess.

 

[liars_paradox]

Think about volunteering your computes skills now. This gives you something to add to your resume, and another source of a reference that are current.

Meanwhile, do you have someone who can look over your resume and help you improve it? Many churches and other organizations are offering seminars on job seeking skills like interviewing and resume writing.

On my local campus, they had a student career services center, or something like that. I listened to most of their resume advice but decided to go with the resume samples that I was shown by different people for other parts of it. Particularly, the length.

At my last interview, I saw that the other candidates had short, one-page resumes just like the people on campus told me to do. I didn't know that they wanted me to bring my resume, so I didn't. The woman who contacted me for the position had to print out my resume. She sounded annoyed when she commented on the fact that it was six pages in length.

But, I'm not sure if the length turned out to be a good thing or a bad thing. I just am not sure how smart a single page resume is for most job applications.

You're probably right about the volunteering part. It helps to have been working on something while you weren't working. And, depending on the project, the people that I would be working with could be good references. I think that the ones that I've recently volunteered for, which are PC games, are coordinated by kids, lol. But, even if I worked with kids it's still something, plus I might be able to find a project that businesses are likely to find attractive.

 

[liars_paradox]

I was looking for work from May until last month (when I finally found a job). I definitely sympathize on the interviews, though -- I hated them so much. I got way too worked up over them.

Right, they aren't pleasant. It's like you have to deal with people scrutinizing you and so you have to be careful of what you say or do more so than any other time.

Some of the better companies don't plaster ads all over job databases -- they wait for people who come to them. If you can think of an ideal place to work, research it and send your resume every few months.

Right, that might work. Thanks.

I would say things like that and it is the truth about me, but I think so many people may say the same thing that it isn't taken seriously maybe?

I would think the same thing myself, but someone on campus told me that it wouldn't matter if it what I said cliche or anything. They're just looking to get to figure out what you would do at work if given the job.

Sure, there is the risk but it's all a game. For instance, if I were to give my actual weaknesses, that I tend to be selfish and prone to laziness, I doubt I'd get the job. Employers don't want to hear that but they want to hear a weakness that is somewhat positive.

I made the mistake of giving my weakness at an interview...I said I had "low energy" when I was applying for a child care position!

Needless to say, I didn't get the job! And I don't blame them because of my response above.

Right, they want to hear about weaknesses so that they can determine if your weakness will be a problem at work. From what I was told on campus, you want to mention a weakness that you're improving or already improved on. But, I suppose that problems that aren't likely to be problems at work all are just as fine.

The thing about what they told me about campus, I had completely forgot about it when I posted the comment about avoiding the weaknesses part but recalled it some time afterward. However, I haven't thought about a response that would have a positive side to it yet.

"In the beginning I tend to isolate my focus. Once, after being on the job for a few weeks this resulted in my not noticing that a co-worker was trying to get my attention. After a little practice I found that I could easily manage my tasks and surroundings"

Blech. But it has worked for me in the past.

That's a good example of what I was talking about. You mentioned a problem that you later improved on, thus making no longer a weakness really. I suppose that you're really avoiding answering the question by mentioning past weaknesses instead of weaknesses that currently have now. It would seem that this is dishonest, but I guess employers don't look at this as lying.

In any case, I don't like questions like these because most people who haven't researched these types of questions and have had time to rehearse their lines are going to answer the question in a way that would keep them from getting a job. If this was a normal conversation, you wouldn't answer a question like this anyways.

When I first graduated, I looked up these interview questions on video.google.com and found alot of interviewing tutorials. I just haven't taken the time to watch them all and rehearse them. When during the first few months, all job interview or phone interview questions were not at all like this, I kind of thought that it was pointless to go through this. But, lately, I had phone interviews where the interviewer asked me some of those questions. So, I guess that I might want to look at these as well.

For technical jobs, it's not always certain if the behavioral interview questions are going to be asked because they really might not think that these questions are likely to be indicative of your ability to do the work I guess. But, I think that it's likely to be asked at non-technical jobs so it wouldn't hurt to look up behavioral interview questions online.

 

[iamjcs]

Look for a job by checking help wanted ads in the newspaper, checking bulletin boards around town, posting your number & your qualifications on bulletin boards around town, & in church - asking for prayer to find the job in computers.

 

[liars_paradox]

Dude! Times are tough, lots of folks struggling. Spend some time identifying exactly what is a barrier to you. . . (jobs don't care about grades 9.7/10ths of the time and the .3/10ths that do are in academia. Seriously. Consider working out of field, do whatever you can get your hands on and start angling for what you want, what you really, really want & where you want it.

I would agree, but from my own experience it really seems that grades, or test scores, or how well you can answer the interviewer's questions matter alot. These things are ways to gauge how much of a return that I'm likely going to produce on the prospective employer's investment. For someone to hire me, it means that they're investing their money into me based on the intent that I would make them more money for them than what it would take to pay me.

If I am meant to work out of my originally desired field, then I hope that God shows me what to work in because I really don't know what I can do right now.

 

[dyanis]

It is a brutal market out there. I like the people who make comments like, "Work at McDonald's" These comments are completely void of any thought. I guess an apt description is knee jerk.

Exactly. In case some people haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a huge recession with nearly 10% unemployment. "Go work at McDonald's" isn't going to amount to anything in most places. We have three McDonald's in the town I'm from. They're really easy to find - they're the ones with the large "WE ARE NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS" signs in their windows.

OP, the only advice I can really give is pray and apply to every job you can find, even if it's outside of your field. New college grads have an unemployment rate of something like 16%, so you have a lot of competition out there for entry level jobs, not including those who have been laid off and are trying for entry level jobs too. If you have to move, move. If you have to settle for part-time work in a restaurant, take it.

I graduated with a second degree in August. I had to apply to 78 different jobs in over 30 states until I found one that was even willing to INTERVIEW me. They ended up hiring me, and I start next week. I have to move far away from my family. Yeah, the situation isn't perfect, but it's the best I got, and I feel blessed to have a full-time job with benefits at all.

 

[liars_paradox]

I had a phone interview today, which I think that I did absolutely horrible on. It was much worse than my last in-person interview. I tried to come up with answers with my strengths and weaknesses questions - the generic Behavioral interview questions. And, I also looked at my Java flash cards in case the interview was going to be technical. And, I also looked in my Software Engineering text book for information regarding the Agile Philosophy the night before the interview because I knew that this was the type of software development process that the company uses.

However, I still did terribly on it. It's starting to get really depressing for me right now.
Here are the interview questions that were asked:

• Have you ever worked with Struts before?
• Have you ever worked with Ajax?
• What kind of work environment do you prefer? Do you prefer one that's quiet or are you okay with working in an open office area?
• Do you have any experience with the Agile methodology?
• What does an Agile organization do?
• What have you been doing since you graduated?
• How did your part-time job work out?
• What kind of open source projects have you been working on?
• What was your favorite course in school?
• What did you learn in e-Commerce?
• What kind of grades did you make in school?
• What was your graduating gpa?
• Do you have any more questions for me?

So, nothing that I did to prepare for the interview was either enough or the right thing. In the end, it doesn't matter. I'm a loser and so being a loser it's expected that I will lose.

To be honest, and I know this sounds crazy to some people, but I have been trying to stay away from watching any pornography for a long while - thinking that it might help with the possibility with a job. Although, there would be no guarantee that I would get one, at least I could feel more comfortable with the outcome if I thought that the outcome was in God's best interest. If I sin, it seems hard to believe that the outcome is by God's will anymore than the fact that I sinned was due to God's will.

I had managed to stay away from this for about one month, I think, but for the last week I had felt strongly tempted - even had dreams involving sex. Ultimately, I ended up looking at it the night before yesterday and yesterday. And, so, it would seem, that my bad job interview experience was due to looking at pornography.

I know that there are, however, rational explanations as to why this would happen. Maybe lack of sleep, or just coincidence that has nothing to do with whether or not I looked at porn, or something else. But, I seem to notice alot of bad-luck instances when I do look at porn for sometime after I had looked at it, as opposed to when I don't for a while.

Like, my last in-person job interview seemed to have been the best for me, and I hadn't looked at any pornography for weeks. Today's terrible phone interview, on the other hand, happened the day after I looked at some porn. Of course, they could be just coincidental but I do believe that God has a plan for people and that our sin can turn His face away from us.

I do want to point out, though, that some time before I looked at pornography that I did have some doubts about that idea. That maybe it's all just b.s. and I am just being crazy for thinking like that. So, my doubt might've had an effect on my ability to stay away from temptation in the first place. I'm not sure, because there are other explanations for things and even if what I believe is real there is no certainty that God actually works in the way that I think that He does.

Another problem is that I am not too sure if I am overly worried about the wealth of this world or not, if my worry about what happens to me in my life has an effect on the things that are going on in my life. It seems that it would only be natural for me to be concerned with what happens to me in my life, but it's not like money is my God or anything like that. I just want to be able to afford to live on my own and to be able to handle my debt from my student loans. Sure, I'd like to have alot of money but it's not a goal that I actually have in mind right now.

I keep thinking about how the Atheist doesn't think like me. Because, he/she doesn't believe that God exists, that they really don't look at the things in the life to anything remotely like how I look at my life. It could be that I can't communicate the ability to do the work so well, for what ever reason, and the circumstances that I find myself in are just there by chance and have nothing to do with whether or not I sin in life - unless they're somehow directly related. That is, my "sin" might allow for certain circumstances to happen or prevent them from happening because people might know what my sin was, but there isn't some intelligent being who watches out over me that mandates what happens in my life.

So, with that in mind, I do find myself falling into doubt very easily. But, I still believe, I think. Just because things don't always work out for me doesn't mean I should start questioning the existence of God or anything. Maybe God exists but He doesn't care about my getting a job, or maybe God has some special plan set for me, or whatever. I still know that there's more to life than what's in front of my face and I believe that God is real and that what's written in the Bible is true. I don't know if I always will, but I hope that I will continue to believe for the rest of my life.

But, back to the topic of finding a job, I do want to point out that I am the only person that I know, who graduated from my school with my degree, who is actually going through this situation. People that I knew who graduated with a Bachelor's in computer science have all found jobs before and are either working or are waiting for another 2-or so year contract with another company.

But, I can't even get past a single job interview! Whereas some of my peers are wanting to find work again, I can't even get one single job experience beyond the one part-time one that I had few months ago. And, the people in who graduated before me who said that they hated their professors, I have seen going to grad school right after they had graduated. I spoke with someone who I knew a while back, who I thought was pretty smart, was back in grad school because he had a hard time finding work after he was let go from his job which he had across the country from where we live.

So, it seems that all worldly evidence seems to point to my having to go back to school again, but I don't want to live with my my mom and dad for two more years. But, it's either I live with them for two more years or I live them indefinitely if I get some stupid part-time waitering/fast-food job.

However, I don't know if it's come down to that yet. I'll continue to look for work right now until I have to get a part-time job to pay off my student loans. In which case, the idea of going back to school will then be considered more seriously.

 

[liars_paradox]

nm

 

[liars_paradox]

Judging by the fact that I'm the only one who still posts here, it seems that most people have kind of just ran out of suggestions - which is cool because there's only but so much that a person can suggest. Either way, thank-you to everyone who's given advice, and I apologize to anyone if I came off as angry or anything and maybe ungrateful for any advice that you had to give.
I just spoke with someone on the phone about a certain position dealing with Java Enterprise concepts. There were quite a few concepts that I was unfamiliar with, even though I had advertised J2EE on my resume.

Anyways, I guess that I just need to study more of the J2EE stuff using my E-Commerce textbook and online tutorials. There's so more interviews for me today, so I hope that they go well. Yesterday's phone interview was pretty good, so I thank God for the fact that I have been showing improvement in my ability to be interviewed. Hopefully, the next couple will be pretty good.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

I think people just stop replying because the thread stops showing up in their user control panel. Good luck with your interviews!

 

[Eurasia]

You go places where people have the kind of job you want work. Then you talk to people there about how to get one of those jobs.

Good advice

 

[liars_paradox]

Good advice

Please, then, explain to me how to go about doing that if that's good advice. I'm not trying to be argumentative or ungrateful of any advice that people could give. But, I really don't see how I can do that for some of the companies that I apply to work at.

Not only do my parents not live in our state's technology core, but I really don't know where most of these places are actually located. And, not only that but many of them have security guards that watch the place - who won't let me in unless I have business there.

Maybe I'm too stupid to understand TigerKanga's advice, but if anyone else knows what he means and can explain exactly how I can go about doing this without getting myself into trouble then please explain it to me.

 

[liars_paradox]

I think people just stop replying because the thread stops showing up in their user control panel. Good luck with your interviews!

Thank-you.