Spotty work history! Help, please!

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Sure and you need to have the Exact Experience to get any one of those jobs that you listed above (except maybe trucking where you have to pay $30,000 to 'train' first)... and of course be under the age of 30.. If you are in your 20's employers are much much more forgiving and you have many opportunities than someone 15 years older out of work where there are few if any options.

Anyone can do the work of most jobs but if you don't have that Alpha personality & demeanor you don't last.. I get fired because of vague reasons I stated 'not the right fit', 'didn't ramp up or learn quickly enough even though I ask for work and experience much downtime'

Um, no.

I started working as a rigger over the age of 40 with no prior experience.

The meat packing plant I worked in was Agriprocessors. The site of the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. They were importing illegal aliens from all over the world to work there. The meat industry will hire anyone.

I paid $2,500 to a community college to for an 8 week truck driving school and had a job before I finished the class. I left OTR and went to local driving and did that for 6 years.

In the North Dakota oilfield, they'll hire anybody. Walmart is paying $20/hour out there because they're desperate.

Lol!! ! Where do I sign up for these jobs in North Dakota. ? I have a business I am mot making money on that is 'costing me' over $1,000 a week to keep operating while I am insolvent & unemplloyable.... Can net $220,000 from the sale

The miracle drug adderall hasn't exactly helped... Again got fired from a temp assignment (where I was taping receipts to copy paper) because I wasn't 'ramping up quickly' enough and they didn't have confidence I could do real work.. surprised because I noticed significant improvement with the Adderall. I would sometimes goto 60 or 80MG a day but this wonder drug has not helped....

I have found that all these non office jobs are even more strict on the exact experience especially these mythical oil field jobs.. Tell me are there unicorns & rainbows as well in this fantasy land

About 5 years ago I got on with a global I.T. company that was desperate for people with basic computer smarts to work for their low pay rate. It's a frustrating job and totally annoying job at times, but I've been there over 5 years now so I must be doing something right.

Then why are you on this board if you are doing so well?? You sound like one of these "I got mine' uppity neo liberals....
I don't have that 'alpha male' personality and it seems that everyone for some reason wants to screw with me so I unfortunately cannot get a job and feel locked out of the regular job market.. I was diagnosed with ADHD & Depression. Medications are the ONLY way.. Therapy is BS..... Adderall is amazing and my doc knows all the troubles I have had with the disposable worker mentality of most of the USA job market.

Okay so what about someone 8 years out of leaving school who did nothing for 4 years and then had a job for 4 years that's so shameful they're not even sure if they want to put it on their resume who wants to start a first (not second) career at age 26.

Oh c'mon, it couldn't have been that bad. Unless it was something illicit, in which case you couldn't cite it if you wanted to.

shameful why? if it was legal, it is respectable. if nothing else you show you can work hard at something you don't like for four straight years. that is an asset in anyone's book. you can explain in your cover letter/interview why you want to change jobs/fields. "opportunity to grow/expand skills" is always a good one, also "wanted to change directions" doesn't hurt. tell us more - i know i won't judge. we do what we have to do, to survive; anyone worth working for will understand that.

Okay so it's not illegal.

It doesn't prove that I can work hard because it's not that hard of a job.

It's a supported wage job for the disabled. There are some other aspies there. My employers are tolerant of me and won't fire me for making some trivial mistake like in the stories I've heard from other posters. They don't expect me to work super fast, which is good because sometimes I can't clear my mind of whimsy. They're more concerned about how methodical I am instead of how fast I am. Basically the job is to be an assistant Mac operator to some graphic designers. Some of the time I actually enjoy this lite work even though I'm not artistically inclined.

It's only 8 hours a week which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because such short hours won't make me feel overworked or overwhelmed and it's a curse because with only 8 hours a week it makes me feel like I'm not in a "real" job. It's not a complete cake walk. I still have to put effort in to complete the work but the hours are less than what normal people have.

Most shamefully of all, it pays $3 an hour in a country wear the minimum wage is $16.37. Most of my money comes from a disability support pension but at least so long as I keep this job I get an extra $83 a fortnight added to the pension to cover petrol costs.

I don't do it for the money at all. I can already live on the $975 a fortnight pension. I only do it so when people ask me what my job is I can say I say I've got one. I say I work at a graphic design firm, which people think is really cool but I don't explain to them that it's a supported wage and then I feel like I'm lying to them.

I need to get a real job so I can stop hating myself and not be a welfare bum. I have no idea weather or not I can handle a real job or not. At least I don't suffer from social anxiety like some WP posters. I enjoy being around other people. The thing that's held me back is work anxiety. I've gotten to the point were my self-loathing has started to outweigh my work anxiety.

Last edited by RetroGamer87 on 19 Oct 2013, 11:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

This is the best sentence ever. The next time I can't be bothered to pull myself out of my own mind and socialize/pay attention/concentrate, I'm going to say that I can't clear my mind of whimsy.

No really. Sometimes I'll blank out for a few seconds and think about something that isn't work related. Especially lately that I'm off the Risperidone. I have more energy without it but I can concentrate better with it. What a conundrum

Depression's gotten the better of me for my employment.
Wake up one morning, and the thought of having to go to work was so overwhelming I just don't go. Calling in sick doesn't cut it, as that in itself is cause of anxiety, especially when I know it's not true, not in the sense that it should mean...nearly every morning I wake up there'd be that same, awful feeling lurking in my mind, and if I can just avoid it and go to work, it goes away. So it's not a permanent thing, it's brought about by the idea of working. Anyways, I've sabotaged numerous jobs I've had because of that. Just didn't go in, didn't call, and of course that I was so irresponsible I felt incredibly guilty, and that I didn't call the previous day, I'd probably not go in the day after that...I've quit nearly all my jobs that way.

Another serious problem I have with working, in general, is putting up with BS. I had this one pretty sweet part-time job and I just couldn't deal with the stupidity of it. The day I quit I left a few thousand word document bitching about how terrible working there was because of how they ran things, not because of the work itself. *sigh* I'm dumb.

I guess I should feel lucky that I've never actually been fired from a job like so many here.

As to being fired if you don't pick things up fast enough, the best work-around that is if you can manage to train yourself into a highly specialized position. Not only will it make more money if you can find employment, but the learning curve for what you're doing (not learning the ropes of the business you're working for though) won't be a concern because it's taken care of in your studies or training already.
Unskilled jobs can be really hard because you're expected to pick things up quickly because they're not supposed to be hard things to do. That and they tend to be very time-sensitive. That's just my experience of them at least.

I'm not so sure about that. College isn't the real world. Some have graduated without any idea of what their chosen profession is actually like.

personally, having three degrees and virtually no employment prospects, i think college is now an expensive joke. unless you are getting into law, accounting (CPA), neurosurgeory, research, or something lucrative that absolutely requires a degree, or doing something you vastly love, if i had to do it all over again, i'd go to trade school. the employment market is much better, the money is good, the investment is substantially less, there's more room for less political types, and when the world economy comes crashing down, there will be more of a demand for tradeskills than white collar skills (by and large).

and yes, i do think the end of the world as we know it is coming.

Totally agree. Those who went to University here are usually working crap jobs and the "dropouts" who went college are generally pretty well off. Unless you know what you are doing, a University Degree is WORSE THAN WORTHLESS and can actually hold you back. As well, 'dropouts' tend to be real and accepting of ASDs and other 'weird' things and are FAR easier to work with. White collar jobs might seem like they are filled with superior people but that's only because they are skilled at wearing a mask in general. I figured that out firsthand As a result, I work in a 'light blue' collar job and have focused on blue collar training exclusively.


Yes it is. I see that firsthand where I live. "Luxury" condos and apartments are going up everywhere around here and are getting filled with people who make less money than I do. I can't afford them (and the housing prices are nothing short of outrageous) so I think it's save to say those in them are up to their eyeballs in debt. It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down and evolution has taught us those who are overspecialized are going to be hit the hardest. The fact every second local commercial is a debt relief/bankruptcy/payday loan company should be a chilling reminder of what's to come. That's why I'm in no rush to get a mortgage: housing prices in this part of Canada are going to collapse because nobody can afford them.

Isn't that the truth! I got a degree in Economics, thinking it would be perfect for a shy, introverted person who like to crunch numbers and cares about humanity. I thought that being a Banker would be perfect. Boy, I could not possibly have been more wrong on that one!

When I graduated in the late 1970s a degree was worth a lot because education was respected. That is long gone. Education is disrespected. People who are educated or are in the education field are viewed as lazy pointy heads who took down the economy. It is social skills and multitasking ability that will get you far. If not you see the results here everyday.

What we have seen the last few years is only the beginning of the crash of America. To big to fail is worse then ever. The bailouts of the late '00s only continued the ponzi scheme known as the US economy. Message has been sent loud and clear you screw up and you are big not only will you not be criminally punished but the government will come to your aide. Factor 2 of the crash is that short term thinking has replaced long term planning, get it done yesterday damm the consequences if you want to keep your job. Factor 3 as mentioned before is consumer debt, are all those people waiting on line for days to buy the newest apple product really able to afford them? Factor 4 is what I discussed before you just have less bright people running things. Yes Jobs and Gates made billions without a degree. They are brilliant, and creative people and they are the exception. For a person of average intelligence social skills alone while making you a ton of money won't make you a productive worker. Factor 5 is the political divide discussed endlessly elsewhere. If these factors continue how can anybody see the US doing anything but to continue to implode?