I’m really surprised you can’t land a job waiting tables. Restaurants have VERY high turnover and in my 6+ years experience in the food service business, we truly did hire anyone with a pulse. The money can be fantastic, it was enough for me to pay rent/utilities and pay for 3 years of school at a cheap in state college back in the early 90s.
There is a little outlay at first, you’ll probably want to buy REALLY comfy (and non skid) shoes as well as whatever shirt/apron the restaurant will require (sometimes they are handed out by the restaurant, sometimes you have to buy them in advance).
The best part, if you work at night, you have the afternoons free to interview/look for a job you really want while still making rent money. (it worked for me).
TaxGuy, an apology would be about the only thing you could say here. You really put your foot in it … I say you’re in it about up to your neck right now.
Sven, have you considered donating blood? One of my wife’s co-workers is making a couple of hundred dollars a month by lying on a couch twice a week while they take out her plasma to develop some kind of anthrax vaccine. Call around, check it out. Could get SOME money flowing your way.
Also, if there’s ANY way you could get into some kind of government assistance program, that would really BURN TaxGuy’s ass. So you would be doing well by doing good.
Good to see you’ve been paying attention, but you could not be more wrong. I’m the most humanitarian person you’ve ever met in your life, and I have nothing but even sven’s best interests at heart.
Yep. There you go. El cruxo de lo problemo.
Also, there was a thread after the one you linked to where I had this same conversation with even sven and she acknowledged that she’s being a big ol’ crybaby and (if I’m not mistaken) promised to stop whining. Promise broken.
even sven, I’ve told you before and here I go again: you can find a fucking job if you want to. Stop being such a whiner. Get up off your college educated ass and go find a fucking job.
Check out this little snippet from the OP that some of y’all skipped over in your rush to {{{{{{even sven}}}}}}}:
Um, sitting on your ass all day? SITTING ON YOUR ASS ALL DAY!!
You come here whining (a-fucking-gain) about not having a job, you talk about all the valiant efforts you’ve been taking to find a job, and then–when your little “pity poor ol’ me” face was looking the other way–you let slip that you’ve been sitting on your ass all day. If you were really out looking for a job you’d barely have time to sleep on your back all night let alone sit on your ass all day.
Ye olde sympathy level’s waaaaaaaaaaaaaay fucking down, you ass-sitter, you. Now shut the fuck up and go find a goddamn job for christ’s sake!
Get your ass out of your (boyfriend’s) house, knock on some fucking doors, get in some people’s faces, and shake some fucking shit up!
Don’t go asking for a job with a hungry hang-dog look and the dull patina of defeat in your eye. Tell them how you made it through college and studied all kinds of shit that will make you a better <whatever you’re applying for>. Tell them how you are so interested in getting THAT job that you may join a nunnery if they hire someone else. Tell them you are even fucking sven and, as Og is your witness, you will never go hungry again!
You’re starting to sound like a real loser, even sven, and nobody likes a loser. Go be a fucking winner, girl!
Love,
TaxGuy
[size =1]P.S. After you get a job, email me if you need my address to send me a thank you card for this motivational speech.[/size]
Been to every minimum wage and non-minimum wage employer within 90 minutes of your location via public transportation/bicycle? If not, there’s still a few places left – sure, you may have to take the bus an hour each way to a job that pays peanuts, but it’s a broader horizon and a start.
Good luck, and remember creative ways to cook ramen!
even sven, I hate to say it, but TaxGuy has some good tips and I agree with him.
Having been in a similar situation, I can identify, but get off your ass and do something! Hell, go pick fruit in Watsonville or something, anything but feel sorry for yourself. It doesn’t suit anyone, least of all you.
I echo what gobear just said & although this might be getting myself competition for a job opening, here goes:
Hie ye to www.linglist.org and see what’s available overseas for teaching ESL. Some such jobs don’t require more than a Bachelor’s and not all of those stipulate that your degree be in Education, English, or Linguistics.
After going through the job hunt more than once, I can honestly say that I saw even sven’s comment as referring to the time which was not devoted to the actual job interviews. One can sit on one’s tush whilst perusing the want ads. Searching at home for the job, to me, just did not feel as productive as the actual interview. & not all of the interviews, of course, were productive. Read “productive” as “getting my tush payed!”
Oh, yes, don’t forget to sign up with www.caljobs.ca.gov. They’re the state’s Employment Development Department. You may post your resume on that site and can peruse want ads by different search criteria: locale, type of job, etc.
Oh, yes you do. You were chewing Sven out for quitting a job in which her boss was in fact abusive. Screaming at her and having her in tears is abuse, it’s not being “weird.” You and I both know it’s a hard world at times, but having to work for an abusive whack job doesn’t make it a tough world, it makes it a SICK world, and by claiming that Sven was under some sort of duty to put up with that shit, you made the world just a little sicker.
Here’s the quote:
The guy was an abusive nut case, and chewing someone out for not putting up with THAT kind of shit is not acceptable.
Evil Captor, you might want to lay off TaxGuy because he does have a valid point; Even Sven doesn’t want help, she wants pity. I gave her a perfectly good suggestion that got me out of my doldrums and she dismissed it. Then she posted this, “I’ve been looking for a temp agency in town, and it doesn’t seem like there is one.”
Bullshit!
I just now looked for temp agencies in Santa Cruz, CA, through Yahoo Yellow Pages and look what I found:
Labor Ready
(800) 245-2267
Adecco
(831) 458-1661 725 Front St # 100
Santa Cruz, CA
Bay Staffing
(831) 476-8367 2395 Delaware Ave # 56
Santa Cruz, CA
Dental Check Staffing
(831) 459-8390
Santa Cruz, CA
Express Personnel Svc
(831) 462-1202 9029 Soquel Ave # A
Santa Cruz, CA
Kelly Services
(831) 425-0653 1414 Soquel Ave # 105
Santa Cruz, CA
Sun Personnel Svc
(831) 458-5301 4520 Arana Creek Way
Santa Cruz, CA
Now if I, sitting in the DC suburbs on the other side of the continent, can find 7 temp agencies in 30 seconds, why can’t Even Sven do the same when she is in Santa Cruz?
And Asia is a good idea that will help Even Sven save money and get international experience that might help her in future when she returns to Cali.
I wasn’t commenting on TaxGuy’s advice, but on his attack on her for not staying in a job with an abusive boss. She does need to find a job, but I seem to recall she claims to have applied for a lot of minimum wage jobs without results. To wit:
As has been pointed out, her technique is not the best, but she did visit a few dozen employers ON FOOT which takes a certain amount of time and energy. A bicycle could considerably extend her range, I think. But that’s a technique thing, not an energy thing. Visiting serval dozen employers on foot is in fact getting off your ass.
And yeah, Even Sven is asking for sympathy. What’s wrong with that, exactly? You afraid if you give out some sympathy you might run out of good feelings about yourself or what?
I think it would be good if a few more brains got engaged before posts were written here.
Evil Captor, when someone claims they have been looking so hard for minimum wage jobs, but another in Virginia has to show her the way to the Yellow Pages in CA which it lists seven temp agencies for her city, when she said she didn’t seem to think they even had one, wouldn’t this at least have you questioning her sincerity?
No driver’s license, no bike, I’ve been looking for roller skates in thrift stores but havn’t found any my size, decent public transportation system, but it’s a small town and if I can bus it, I can walk it. Most of the temporary agencies here are either for specific situations (medical professionals etc.) or else they run ads and have a fairly traditional hiring process for temporary positions (which I’ve applied to many of them). I admit I havn’t gone to labor ready, but judgeing from my friends’ experiences working there, I don’t think I’d fare to well doing hard manual labor with the kind of people who need to be paid cash at the end of the day (largely transients).
Anyway, I’m gonna check this place in Aptos out on Monday.
I’m sorry, you all. All my friends moved out of town when they graduated. I know something like three people, so I don’t really have many people to talk to. I had to let somebody know I didn’t get this job. I’ve tried very hard to post the positive things in my life here, and it’s been about three months since I’ve complained much. But it gets lonely when my conversation for the day is summed up by “Are you hiring or accepting applications?” and whatever I can say to my cat when I know that nobody cares at all about the most pressing issues in my life- such as that I can’t pay the rent and havn’t been grocery shopping since May.
I went to that waitress job today. There were about thirty people filling out applications when I was there. Extrapolating from the amount of time they were accepting applications and how long the applications take to fill out, I estimate they got around 500 applications today. The job market really is that intense. I’m hoping my willingness to be a dishwasher/busser gives me that edge.
I’ve been working really hard at this, but I admit I’ve sometimes given into false hopes (“they’ll surely call me back today…”), the untreated manic-depression that makes me feel like I am on drugs all the time, and the fact that the harder I try, the greater the sheer quanity of rejection letters and phone calls I get.
Anyway, I’m really sick today from eating some week old beans. Bleeergh. I’m gonna to try not to thow up.
That may be part of it. When my bipolar isn’t controlled, I start saying all kinds of crazy things, often in inappropriate situations. I’ve also been told that I give off an odd vibe, like I’m not quite all there. (It’s hard to describe.)
Since you’re unemployed, you’re probably eligible for Medi-Cal, so you can get treatment.
I didn’t chew her out for quitting that job, fuckhead, I chewed her out for complaining that she was poor when she chose being poor (at least temporarily) over working for that guy.
Sorry, hard to follow the logic in that one. Maybe you shouldn’t project your own self-esteem problems on others, mmmkay?
Now, back on-topic:
Go to the fucking doctor already! Jesus! I’m sure there’s a place that treats poor people where you live.
Why are you still focusing on all your fucking problems instead of focusing on the goddamn solution?
OK, so you let us know. Thanks. But I don’t remember ordering the extra side of whining with that info.
. . . where you live. Maybe you should move (or join the military, teach English in Asia, something).
Here’s a little perspective for your ass: I’m 26, a year out of law school (I went straight from undergrad to law school), I have a wife, a cat, a mortgage, and a car payment. I like my job and make pretty good money and the opportunity for advancement is definitely there, and I’m generally happy and satisfied with everything, but I’m not exactly leading the most exciting life in the world. We’re working toward a time when the wife and I can do whatever we want without having to clock in at the office every day, but that time is definitely quite a ways off.
I would absolutely love to have just graduated from college and to have the entire world open to me. You said you have a boyfriend, but it doesn’t sound too serious if he’s threatening to kick you out, so that isn’t really holding you to the city you live in.
Besides all the other great suggestions (teaching English, military), you cold join the Peace Corps, be an au pair, work on fishing vessels in Alaska (OK, maybe not that one), or just go to a new city and see what turns up.
There’s so much cool stuff going on in the world, and you’re sitting on your ass at home complaining to some strangers on the internet about how no one will hire you to wait tables.
This is crazy. I can’t comprehend that you’re completely unable to find any work in three months. When my standards were pretty damn low in college, it never took me more than a day and a half to find work. I was in food service.
Something’s not right. Period. There’s gotta be a reason that you can’t find anything. It’s just not…natural. I think Ms Robyn made a valid point. You’ve gotta be giving off some kind of vibe or something that’s making people not hire you. If you can’t get a job in a fast food place, something is terribly wrong. And I dont think it’s the job market.
I never thought I’d see myself saying this, but I’m with taxguy on this one. There’s either something you’re not telling us, or something you’re not even aware of, something like Ms Robyn mentioned.
There is no explanation I can come up with, for not being able to find any work in the past three months. There’s something very unusual in effect here.