BTW, I am just relaying what I know about the test from psych classes. I don’t like them either. I think it’s bordering on “thought crimes” to try and discover the potential people have for crimes and discriminate against them. It’s obvious the tests are not just about criminal behavior, but also want to discover your propensity for questioning authority vs. total fealty. However, being a reprobate and anti-establishment liberal, I’ve still managed to cut the mustard on those things just by answering truthfully. I think I even wrote “FUCK THIS GODDAMN TEST” on the margin. OK, maybe not.
Not to be a total wet towel but Dice.com had been one of my job sites I checked for positions and submitted resumes through on a daily basis for over a year. Not one single telephone call from literally hundreds of submissions. I put it 2nd to Monster.com in terms of being a completely useless resource.
Airman - I know it is a cliche but keep your head up. You are not alone in your situation. Myself and many others share your frustration, pain, and at times depression due to unemployment. A year and a half-ago I lost a job paying 80K a year and today I cannot even get a job at Blockbuster after interviewing with the district manager. I’m either a.) over-qualified or b.) 99.9% qualified but in a saturated market employeers can turn you down for someone else 100% qualified. It sucks and just starts to kill your sense of self-worth in being a provider for your family, a contributing memeber of society, etc. You are entitled to your bad days but keep going, it will turn around for you eventually.
Peace,
MeanJoe
There’s a lot of good suggestions here. The restaurant idea strikes me as a particular good one. I think if you’re willing to scrub toilets, then you probably won’t have to.
I just want to say, based on personal experience, that I don’t think you should get sucked into temping, unless you have a passion for annoying office work. I think your time and energy would be much better spent looking for a real job.
You might consider driving a bus or truck. It takes some training to get the license, but that training might be given by the employer. I got paid a whopping $7/hr to get a commercial license to drive a bus.
Truck driving is so icky that some companies work with a community college to get drivers trained. Around here, Swift does that.
You can look into other trades like airconditioning repair or diesel mechanic.
Grubby work, but it supplies the beans until things get better.
Not that you’ve ever said you’re doing this, but don’t limit your applications to places that have ads in the newspaper. A former HR boss of mine said that when the job market is like this they get enough unsolicited applications in the mail and don’t need to spend money advertising their openings. Send your resume to any office, factory, construction company etc. you think you might want to work for whether they’ve got an ad in the paper or not.
If you do get an interview send a follow-up letter. Don’t just thank them for the interview. Use it to point out the places where your skills match what they’re looking for (or where you have the aptitude to learn such skills). Point out the specifics of how you’d be a good fit for the job and say that you want the job. This is also a good place to expand on any questions they asked in the interview that maybe you didn’t answer so well when you were on the spot.
And I agree with all who said not to overlook the temp agencies. I’ve gone that route before. It brings in money while you’re still looking and even if it doesn’t become permanent you can get experience in things that might come in handy someday.
Good luck. I’ve never had the misfortune to be unemployed for any length of time but that possibility is always lurking in the back of my mind.
Those tests are dumb, I agree. I got ‘beginner’ in pretty well anything, because you’d automatically fail a question if you checked more than one drop-down menu or not know multiple ways to do the same thing (ie. “while it’s simple to do it this way, do it without doing it that way”).
However, lots of temp agencies hire for places like customer service, telemarketing, etc. - if you’re really desperate for work, start applying and temp agencies and you’ll dig up SOMETHING. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is make sure you let them know you’re flexible about where and when you work. I got no luck with my temp agency until I volunteered that I’d do up to an hour commute.
I had to fill out one of those stupid psych tests when I applied at Pizza Hut a few years ago. PIZZA HUT for god sakes.
I feel you, Airman, I currently have a job, but they won’t give me more than 4 hours a week. The boredom is the hardest to handle for me. Your concern for your family is heart-warming and I’m sure that things will work out for the best.
I don’t know if it’ll give you any hope, but my dad raised my brother and I as a single parent. Single dads were practically unheard of in the eighties, and still pretty rare now. We went through some hard times, but I have infinite respect for what he did for us. Your concern reminds me of my father’s. Keep at it, things will get better.
WOW :eek: !! 40 Whole applications ? And you’ve been looking for a job 30 whole days?
No offense, but from what I’ve read in some of your other job-related threads, I think the problem might be with you and your narrow job requirements.
Hey, there’s been some good news in the past few days.
I may not have a job, but for the rest of the year my family has insurance I’ll have to pay a fee of some sort, but at least it’s not going to be the $8,000 that other places wanted. That’s a relief.
Also, I’ve been giving some thought to going back to school. Here’s the deal:
- I have tuition paid for via the military
- I get around $700/month stipend if I’m attending school
- I can collect Guard pay for flying and for UTAs
- I’m going to apply for a dock job at a local truck terminal (ABF). It’ll only be a casual thing, but they’re offering 20 hours a week at $15.25/hour. Add that up and that’s around $1,200/month gross, around a thousand net, and if I can weasel my way into a few more hours, between the stipend and the work pay that’s around $2,000/month, which is right around what I made when I was AD.
Until I can find out about enrollment, however, this is just a pipe dream, and I still need a job for the next few months if I go that route. To that end I have a call to make. Robin gave me a message to call someone, and I’ll be doing that in a little while, I think.
Thoughts, anyone?
Airman, I don’t know if you got my e-mail, but the jist of it was MOVE out of central PA. Seriously, I know it’s probably not what you want to hear, but you’re trying to find a job in a depressed area of the country - as most of it is right now. The good news is, here in DC, Bush’s big government is still rolling right along. You say you’ve got a clearance - well, this is the place to use it! About the only people hiring around here are defense contractors and the US Govt. Almost every job in the paper requires a clearance, and they can’t fill the positions because not enough people have them. The pay they are offering is very good - in some cases outrageously high. Come down here where you’ll be appreciated.
Besides, we have terrible cheesesteaks, and I hear you make good ones. 
Kiger, I got your e-mail. It’s a good suggestion, but first I’d have to find something worth making the move. Then I’d have to figure out how I can be down in DC and still make it back up to my Guard unit to fly regularly.
Lots of complications. That doesn’t mean that I won’t look in to it. Thanks for the suggestions. 
Some of these psychological assessments are worthwhile - some are crap. And some can’t be used any more these days.
From what I understand, the industrial psychology ‘industry’ started during the 1940s as the US government wanted another way to filter potential officers. To simplify the situation, they’d give an assessment to a set of officers, see how the ‘best’ ones answered various questions, and then use those as potential indicators for future success. As more and more people took the assessments, the questions (and predicted results) became more refined.
Supposedly, back then a psychologist could ask an applicant “How often does your typical sexual relationship last?” Those who answered “Between one and two weeks” tended to be the most successful officers. Of course, that’s not the only thing that says whether someone can lead men in combat or not – but it’s an indicator. That question can’t really be asked today.
For the questions that seem so bleedin’ obvious – “Have you ever lied?” “Have you ever watched TV?” “Have you ever ridden in a car?” are indicators to see if you’re paying attention to the test. Answer enough of them incorrectly, and your results will be flagged as someone who potentially answered everything randomly. If the employer (for lack of a better word) has thousands of applicants to sort through, they may eliminate these results as a first step to reduce the number of people to sort through.
Some questions are single-elimination. These are usually selected by the employer and are not part of the assessment itself. The questions generally are things like “How much C++ experience do you have? 0, 1, 2-3, 4+” and any answer other than 4+ (or whatever the employer wants as the cutoff) eliminate the applicant from consideration. Again, this is a way to reduce the applicant pool.
The rest of the questions are weighted in certain ways. Answer question X in this way, get +2 to one category and -1 to another. Answer question Y in that way, get +1, +1, 0, -4. At the end of the assessment, the employer is presented with the summary of the applicant’s scores and can choose whether to continue the interviewing process.
After decades of testing and millions of applicants, and tracking the success (or failure) of those who took the test, the assessment can eventually be used in a predictive manner and say with some certainty whether the hypothetical applicant will be suited for the type of job in question.
This isn’t much consolation if you’ve been eliminated by one, I know, and I do feel sorry for you. I think that eliminating people from consideration based on yes/no questions does unjustly eliminate some strong applicants, but if an employer has a thousand applicants for one position, it’s impossible to interview all of them and the pool needs to be trimmed in some manner. (Better this way, at least, than a possibly-apocryphal story of a hiring manager who throws away the top half of the stack of resumes, saying “I won’t hire an unlucky person.”)
For those who suggested answering “No, I’ve never lied” or “No, I’ve never had a bad thought, ever”, well, depending on the test that may be good or bad. See above.
Good luck again with the job-hunt.
WOW! I tend to experience chafing and rawness after the first hour or so.
All kidding aside – what about working on the Bush campaign? This isn’t a political slam. The campaigns will be requiring much labor. Most of it will be volunteer, but there are paid workers as well. Given your political bent this could be enjoyable work for you. You could also make valuable connections that could lead to bigger things.
Just a thought.
Oh come on, if there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that you don’t actually have to report for ANG duty!
Yes, that was a cheap political shot, and after Scylla admonished and everything.
Seriously, can’t you transfer to another unit? As for your plan to go back to school and pick up hours on the dock, it sounds good, with the caveat that going to school full time and working part time, especially at something that sounds as physically demanding as working a loading dock, can be hard. Harder than maybe you’re expecting. Not that I don’t think you can’t handle it; just suggesting being prepared.
If you can financially handle going back to school, it’s a good option. Having the degree will open up a lot of doors for you. It sounds like the financial burden is going to be a little easier on you than it would on someone else.
Just being in school will open up some decent opportunities as well. I remember that down in Charlottesville there was a firm that would contract out students with computer skills to local businesses. I never went there, but knew several people who did, and they made decent money. There’s a good chance that there’d be something similar in your area.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, hon. Like I’ve said, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help…
Been there. After I got out of the Navy (and the economy was alot better then under the Bush Sr. recession thank goodness) I had I hard time getting decent work even in a milder recession. I did get some luck with temp agencies. Another really good source of work is UPS- they are always looking for package handlers- the pay is pretty good, but the work is physical. For weekend work look to your local Pepsi and Coke outfit- sometimes they need guys to stock stores (vendors stock their own stuff at Supermarkets).
Still for 2 years, I was the chew toy for the employment dog, basically.
What changed it was going back to school. I started with two years of Community College (which is cheaper, has night classes and often gets you preferred admissions to the State university system), I totally was a gunner because that was my only chance. After two years, I was admitted to UC-Berkeley, UCSD and UC-Davis. I went to Berkeley, then law school. The undergrad stuff should have plenty of Financial Aid available- each community college has a Financial Aid office- start there.
Also, amusingly enough- jobs that would dig you for being overqualified, don’t if you’re a college student.
So my advice is try UPS or the job you mentioned for part-time work and go back to school- even if it takes 5 years or more. Just go. Don’t forget technical school if you are good with your hands (sadly I am a hazard tool wise), HVAC and Plumbing guys make good money. My brother went that route and is now a master electrician making quite good money.
dig = ding.
sorry!
Airman,
I am so glad to hear that you are going to consider retraining in college.
Please stick with it.
It means a hard four years, but it might be the best thing to ensure your family can be comfortable by the time you retire.
I have phenomenal respect for you.
Also, I have been silently wondering, in this thread, what is your monthly budget for expenses. Just so I can have an idea while I privately worry. If you want to say.
Airman Doors,
Sorry to hear about your situation. I’m not entirely sure of your military background - you are currently in the guard, right? From what I’ve gathered from your previous posts, you at one time were active duty. I would think that you would be eligible for some assistance/guidance from the Veteran’s Administration. While it appears that you are still active duty with the guard, a local Veteran’s Administration rep might be helpful in providing some guidance/job leads.
In addition, you might want to check with local VFW’s and American Legion posts. The people there might not be able to help you directly, but they could provide you with some leads. Vets like to help out other vets, but given that you’re currently serving in the guard (and the fact that you’re currently serving at a time the US is at war) I would think that someone with current/previous military background would be willing to help you out in some fashion.
Anyway, just a suggestion - good luck and hang in there!!