I had a job. The company didn’t realize that they actually had to sell product to stay in business. Almost all of the workforce was let go or furloughed. I’ve been unemployed for over a month now.
I’ve filled out dozens upon dozens of job apps, starting even before I lost my job. I have my resume public on job listings sites for employers and hiring agencies to find, and I’ve sent my resume to employers and hiring agencies directly. I look through the listings on job boards for each day, mostly limiting my search to a wage that would allow me to make ends meet at home. I’ve solicited and implemented advice from resume design experts. I’ve had one in-person interview, a few preliminary phone interviews, and a couple of message conversations between recruiters and myself. The one in-person interview I had would not have paid enough for my monthly expenses and I was overqualified for the position; they decided against hiring me. I had another interview scheduled and confirmed via a hiring agency’s AI text bot and a human agent’s text; I drove to the scheduled interview place and time and they had no idea that I was supposed to be interviewed. All other communication has either been flat-out rejection or just left me hanging.
I have a Bachelor’s of Science degree from a top 25 ranked university in the US. I have no criminal record. I do have multiple disabilities but they are generally mitigable enough to not affect my work. I have references of my (now) former boss and a (now) former coworker who both praise my impact and aptitude in the factory and office workplace. I’m evidently overqualified for positions that don’t require higher experiences and I’m underqualified for nearly everything else; I can’t get experience in most niche or broad fields because nearly every position requires these experiences to have already been met. I try to follow all the invisible rules of applying and social etiquette. I am too physically ugly to sell my body. It feels like there’s always been a magical aura about me that makes people dislike me no matter how much I try to do the ethically or socially right thing. How am I supposed to get an income to survive?
USA. End goal of work is engineering or design but I’ll settle for factory or shop floor work or something in between if it pays the bills for the time being.
The equivalent to Job Seekers Allowance for me is Unemployment Benefits, with rules varying from state to state. Copied from another comment of mine: “[T]he state deadline to [apply] was by the Friday after losing the job, and buried in the fine text is a line mentioning that certain info has to be submitted at least a day prior to that Friday. I didn’t have required information for the bureaucracy at that time and I really didn’t expect the process to take so long or to be so absurd.” In other words, that ship has sailed. Edit: The state’s phrasing confused me, ignore the strikethroughed text
Lower paying jobs tend to think I’m overqualified so they expect to lose me to higher paying job and don’t want to waste training on me. This is something I also experienced before my previous job, which only hired me because they had plans for me to later advance in their company and utilize my qualifications but this never came to fruition.
I’m locked in a lease that is really cheap for the region and with lots of great amenities and is in the vicinity of multiple industrial centers. I could pay a chunk of change to break the lease but I have nobody whom I could ask to help me move. For my minimum pay ask, I don’t want the commute to be more than 30 minutes, especially with the winter weather coming; if the pay is substantially more than my minimum ask, then I’d accept a longer commute.
My constants for monthly expenses are rent and internet/cell plan, and electricity and natural gas are both roughly constant and are provided some leeway with the winter cold coming. Factoring these values in with how much of my wage would be deducted to taxes and benefits, this is how I arrived at what I would need in income monthly to pay for groceries, gasoline, and misc. essentials.
I feel for you. I’m not in the same field as you, and I’m not the same person you replied to either. I’m just chiming in. I’ve been unemployed for over a year; your post makes me think you are starting to feel stressed and this is the first step towards depression. I went down that route and getting out of it was very tough; I’m still working on it.
In short, I want to say, try to get a plebe jobbe now instead of waiting to land something good. It’ll keep you going and you won’t care much about it if you lose it or need to quit.
I’m currently in retail, I actually have two part time jobs. It took me a while to get them, and I had to tailor my resume for it. I had to remove experience from it to finally get interviews in lower positions. Nobody at the shopping mall cared how long I worked in a studio elsewhere or what I did. And trust me, I have plenty of dim witted, ugly coworkers (as well as smart ones and good looking ones) so don’t think you have an unhireable aura. There’s plenty worse than you out there, I’m absolutely certain.
Good luck OP
What kind of engineering? Designing what? How’s your local market for those positions? Is it something that can be done remotely, and thus you could apply to positions nationwide?
The really short version is that if you aren’t finding positions, you’re in the wrong line of work or location. If you’re finding positions and applying, but not getting any responses, then your resume/etc is bad. If you are getting responses but no offers, then your interview technique is bad.
End goal of work is engineering or design but I’ll settle for factory or shop floor work or something
And there’s the problem. You are selling yourself for cheap. They recognize that, inevitably. That’s why you are getting such terrible, impossible offers.
Start to think reasonably about yourself, then present yourself reasonably.
But you need a friend or two to help with this. It’s not easy to do such a change on your own.
There is a dissonance between the echelons of positions. The employers for the lower jobs see your degree and wonder what’s wrong with you for you not to be in a higher position. The employers for the higher positions skim past the degree and don’t care about you unless you already have several years experience in the position.
I may sell myself short because I need income and none of the big fish show any sign of biting.
You don’t necessarily have to tell all prospective employers about all experience. If you think your resume is getting bounced from some kinds of openings because they think it is odd they you have this degree, don’t list the degree when you apply to those sorts of positions. Don’t talk about having the degree. If asked point blank if you have a degree, say something about your personal philosophy on why degrees aren’t important, or how your life’s goal would be to get a Ph.D. in art history or some other discrete and personable non-answer.
I’m assuming they’re more referring to something closer or related to a manufacturing engineering position as opposed to an assembly worker, both of which are normally stationed on the same floor.
Some positions do require industry (like semiconductor, medical, green, etc…) experience/knowledge, which isn’t uncommon for people just entering into to take a lesser role while getting acquainted, certified, or whatever.
