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Any advice on escaping employability rut?

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Sabreclaw
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27 Oct 2021, 10:07 pm

Hey, guys. So I had a stable but totally dead-end job doing outdoor maintenance and was going nowhere in life. I decided to leave it to pursue a Computer Science degree, which I really enjoy and am (so far) quite good at. Problem is I haven't been able to work a job since I left my last one in April. First few months I needed to 100% dedicate myself to university because I had been out of education so long I had totally forgotten how to study and my brain was just slow in general. Then got caught in a lockdown for months. Now things are opening up but I'm finding the job market impenetrable. Obvious things like retail or hospitality seem to only want to hire people with prior experience or teenagers, and I don't yet have the skills to break into IT. My prior job left me very socially isolated so combine that with the less effective social skills inherit with having AS and that makes things other options like sales bad fits.

I don't really know what to do here. I'm terrified that I've basically doomed myself to a life of poverty by chasing this silly fantasy of becoming a programmer one day. I'm not young anymore - I'm 25. I don't have the kind of time to sort my life out that I did when I was in my young adulthood. Blew all that time by suffering from severe depression. I don't have any friends or network because I pushed away the few I had while young and worked in an isolated job so couldn't meet new people, so I'm totally on my own in trying to build a life.

I guess I'm just looking for some advice on how to escape this rut.



rse92
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28 Oct 2021, 8:37 am

What do you mean by you are finding the job market impenetrable?

Have you applied several places and been rejected?



TB_TB_TB_TB_TB_TB
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28 Oct 2021, 11:02 am

Sabreclaw wrote:
Hey, guys. So I had a stable but totally dead-end job doing outdoor maintenance and was going nowhere in life. I decided to leave it to pursue a Computer Science degree, which I really enjoy and am (so far) quite good at. Problem is I haven't been able to work a job since I left my last one in April. First few months I needed to 100% dedicate myself to university because I had been out of education so long I had totally forgotten how to study and my brain was just slow in general. Then got caught in a lockdown for months. Now things are opening up but I'm finding the job market impenetrable. Obvious things like retail or hospitality seem to only want to hire people with prior experience or teenagers, and I don't yet have the skills to break into IT. My prior job left me very socially isolated so combine that with the less effective social skills inherit with having AS and that makes things other options like sales bad fits.

I don't really know what to do here. I'm terrified that I've basically doomed myself to a life of poverty by chasing this silly fantasy of becoming a programmer one day. I'm not young anymore - I'm 25. I don't have the kind of time to sort my life out that I did when I was in my young adulthood. Blew all that time by suffering from severe depression. I don't have any friends or network because I pushed away the few I had while young and worked in an isolated job so couldn't meet new people, so I'm totally on my own in trying to build a life.

I guess I'm just looking for some advice on how to escape this rut.


"I'm not young anymore - I'm 25."

I'm going thru the exact same thing at 35.. I wish I was 25 again, it's only too late if you don't start now! Focus on creating your future.



Sabreclaw
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29 Oct 2021, 5:44 am

rse92 wrote:
What do you mean by you are finding the job market impenetrable?

Have you applied several places and been rejected?


I wish I was being actively rejected. A courteous "go drop dead" would be nice. Instead I just never hear back from them. Also, most job postings online use very specific phrases that aren't open to interpretation, "must have x years minimum relevant experience", etcetera.

And my social skills are terrible. I'm perfectly fine at getting along with people professionally, but I'm completely incapable of making people like me, so I'm only ever a last resort for hiring.



Texasmoneyman300
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31 Oct 2021, 11:24 am

Sabreclaw wrote:
rse92 wrote:
What do you mean by you are finding the job market impenetrable?

Have you applied several places and been rejected?


I wish I was being actively rejected. A courteous "go drop dead" would be nice. Instead I just never hear back from them. Also, most job postings online use very specific phrases that aren't open to interpretation, "must have x years minimum relevant experience", etcetera.

And my social skills are terrible. I'm perfectly fine at getting along with people professionally, but I'm completely incapable of making people like me, so I'm only ever a last resort for hiring.

I would just go ahead and apply for the jobs that require experience because the worst thing they can do is turn you down.I have been going through the same thing myself so i wish you the best of luck.



kraftiekortie
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11 Nov 2021, 9:54 am

Have you gotten your degree yet?

Perhaps you could pursue IT internships?

Perhaps your university has some sort of job service?

If you have your driving license, you could get some sort of driving job, while you’re pursuing your IT job.



smartHulk
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11 Nov 2021, 11:15 am

There are many low threshold entry level "McJobs" in IT paying $8-$15/hr, like HTML/CSS templates. You could learn basics of HTML/CSS and how to create templates for some CMS like Wordpress, Drupal or whatever has the optimal supply/demand ratio at the moment and apply for hundreds of openings on freelance platforms. These are "easy to learn, hard to master" skills, there are some experts with a lot of experience, but majority are trying to get a higher level job when they gain more experience and skills, so expectations are naturally kind of low.