No Stupid Questions

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Network

For every 200 applications you submit, you’re putting in as much energy as you could with one quality lead where you know someone. You gotta leverage connections, do informational interviews, etc. The reality is that a lot of job postings for skilled positions are put out there because the employer has to do it. They already know who they want.

Honestly my dude. Lie.

Find a job you're interested in and then tell them that you have the experience needed to do that job. Make shit up if you have to. Get the job and then learn how to do it as you go.

I'm probably going to get down voted for this. I don't fucking care. It's the truth. If you're telling recruiters the absolute Rock solid truth then you're giving them all of the cards and they are going to try to get you to underbid your abilities and skills but if you'll put the effort in and just reach a little bit you'll be fine.

Like, I wouldn't say apply to be a doctor when you don't have a medical degree or anything but apply for that senior position when you only have a Junior's skill. Go for executive vice administrator or senior associate programmer or sysdmin Ii or whatever the fuck is a step above your actual capabilities and then do your God damnedest to grow into the role in the first six to eight weeks of the job and more than likely you'll be fine.

Back in the day I did very similar and it has worked out swimmingly for me and I believe you're a smart person and that you're capable and that you can succeed if you're given the opportunity and if you have to lie to get your foot in the door then fucking lie and go for it, and once they let you in turn that fucking lie into the goddamned truth.

I recently ended my job hunt not too long ago. You need throughput in putting out resumes and cover letters. Use ChatGPT and have it generate cover letters for each job posting. Edit it so it doesn't obviously read like it was generated from an LLM and get rid of any experiences it hallucinates on your behalf. It works better if your template resume is similar to the job posting in wording.

Generating matching resumes and cover letters used to take up about an hour for me per application before ChatGPT. Now it takes about 15 minutes per application. Use that speed (and decreased mental labor) to your advantage. More jobs applied to means more potential hits.

Applying for jobs is the suck, so use whatever tools you can to lessen the suck.

I know you're looking for more immediate and stable income, but: Are you able to make anything? If you want to try your hand at a business, I'd be glad to help you with the tech stack side of things pro bono. I can get you set up with domain, email, website, and a marketing suite at least; I've also started four companies of my own so I can help you with the paperwork and structure stuff for that if you wanted.

I do this sort of thing entirely via email and video call for SMEs at my day job. It wouldn't be steady at first and you might have to stop when you find a job... But in the meantime, while you're looking, it's work you can make for yourself. And who knows? Maybe it would become enough to sustain you on its own.

Just spitballing, anyway. Offer's there 😊 Good luck!

I'm an idiot, I'm blue collar, I've had about 20 jobs I've kept for at most, 3 years, and I could quit my job and have a new one tomorrow, for more money.

and that isn't fair to you. People like you dedicate your life to knowing your topic. People like me live my life knowing how to do as many different possible things as I can, and a monetary balance needs to be in place here somewhere so academics with more rare skills are still upheld so their abilities are still useful when needed.

A safetynet, for smarties to be paid to be smart, to keep them around even if unnecessary right then.

You just have to keep applying until you find something.

Also, have you applied for unemployment? If not, do so immediately.

Can you get in touch with the other colleagues that were let go alongside yourself and ask what they're doing? Maybe they've found something and will put a good word in for you.

It has taken me, on average, 6 months to find new work each time I do it and I send hundreds of resumes. So I think you are doing the right things. It just sucks. Sometimes you can get a lead from someone you know and that gets your foot in the door.

Remember, you are reviewing them as an employer too. If they have a shitty applicant experience, that should play into your decision process (easier said than done when you just want to make rent).

Feel free to message me if you would like resume or other search help.

I will say in advance that I'm sorry this won't help you and it might make you feel worse, so don't read on... when I was in high school back in the 90s, we had a regular substitute teacher. Dr. Bronk. Dr. Bronk had a PhD in some very obscure area of botany and couldn't get a job in his field, so he was a substitute teacher. Even back then I felt bad for him.

I love how everyones advice here is pretty much "just lie". Really says somthing about our society hey.

It’s a really tough job market. Don’t be afraid to take something shorter term if it moves your income from zero to something. Even if that something is not enough for the long term, it will buy you time. And should this continue on and on, you can look at what options you have to lower your living costs. No one wants to make such sacrifices, but they too can buy you time.

Best of luck with the search.

Sell feet pics on only fans.

Does your resume pass an ats import? Try a tool like jobscan.co (don't pay for it, not worth it)

What country are you in? What field of work are you in?

Are you able to get job seekers allowance (or equivalent)?

Job hunting is exactly this kind of grinding numbers game. It's tough. Nobody enjoys it.

If your CV has been given the ok by design experts then you've got nothing different to do there.

So besides making "getting a job" your job and continuing to apply relentlessly and chase down opportunities your other task is to downsize your outgoings and expectations until they reflect your reality.

Apply for lower paying jobs. It's a backstop that doesn't meet your income goals but it's better to be searching for a better job while earning 60% of your target than being unemployed and earning nothing.

Finally be prepared to put everything on the table. Are you resisting moving? How far away does your search span? What would it look like if you made your outgoings 80% of what they are now? 70%? 60%?

Are you eligible for unemployment in your state?

That last bit about your unlikeable aura, you should get someone to give you honest feedback on what you're doing wrong.

This year in particular has just been a fucking awful job market. I lost my job in January and had severance last a couple months, but even after spending every day reading job boards and filing job applications until I was emotionally exhausted, I had zero callbacks for seven months. It was only a few months ago that I got two interviews, and I got offers from both. As soon as I accepted, I had some other companies suddenly crawling to me with offers. I'm still recovering from my debts accrued in that time, but I'm finally in a much better place now. Keep going at it, and I promise something will crack.

In my experience unless you're friends with someone at the company. You need to be a unicorn candidate when applying on your own.

Entry level is an illusion they want people to take entry level pay with 10+ years of experience.

I was able to get my first industry job through the career services department at my school. So if your university is as good as they claim they'll have something akin to that.

I mean, fundamentally you're not supposed to obtain income. The system that distributes money is not actually designed to give people money to live, and nobody is really steering it to make it do that. It just happens to sometimes do that. I'm not sure anyone has actually "designed" it to do anything, but it seems at least much better at concentrating money and power than it is at creating plausible jobs or job-housing-food combinations for humans.

I hope you find some good advice as to how you can get income to survive. I don't really have any, other than shake all your friends down for jobs (since hiring is usually done by knowing somebody rather than by weighing the merits of an unbiased stream of varyingly qualified applicants) and be prepared to search for employment for many months (a thing you might have had to have started doing before now for best results). But it's not hard because you are somehow not doing it "right" or the way you are "supposed to", it's hard because the problem you are facing it isn't actually constrained to be solvable. You can do it all right and still not succeed.

Apply to some staffing/temp agencies in your area.

Have you applied for civil service jobs?

What is your degree in?