Who the crap do I have to stab to get a job?

As you may have heard I had gotten laid off from my first real job, here's why.

The job of Asst. building maintence was a good job I had, paid very well and my boss ruled. But the reason I got the job was thanks to the State of Michigan WIA (Workforce investment act) designed to get unemployed high school students local work paid by the state. They only pay you for 75 hours of work, then after that the place you work at has to let you go with only a reference for another job application or they can keep you and pay you themselves. Obviously I got the mooses end deal and got screwed after 75 hours.

So to validate this topic, have you ever been fired or laid off from work ever in your life?

OOC: Does anyone know of a website where I can electronically apply for work in my local area without a college degree? Because googling only gives me places that put in apps for college degree earners.

Stab? Is that what they call it now? :smash:

Well both acts do involve jamming random hard things into your body.

My dad 'fired' me so that I could get unemployment insurance during my first year of university. However UI can only be given to people actively seeking work, so that didn't go well. Other than that, I don't think any official 'pink slips' were issued to me...I just....stopped working every so often.

dude, they give you a job for 75 hours because they want to give you work experience so it's easier to find another job. The state of Michigan can't afford to pay you indefinitely. Be happy you got anything at all.

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Originally Posted by Tsunami Bren

dude, they give you a job for 75 hours because they want to give you work experience so it's easier to find another job. The state of Michigan can't afford to pay you indefinitely. Be happy you got anything at all.

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Agreed.

While most well paying jobs are easier to get with a college degree, there are also some out there that do not require one. Try dedicated job search engines like monster.com, or hotjobs.com But don't think that it's a submit one, get one type of deal. I have a degree in computer engineering (or will have on in a couple weeks) and I applied to upwards 300 jobs, only getting 3 interviews and finally landing one job after more than 6 months of searching. It's tough, but keep at it and you'll get one sooner or later.

There is no real way to get a job. It's all a matter of applying to every place you can, even if you wouldn't enjoy the job. Because, if you're really that desperate to get a job, it won't even matter if you enjoy it or not. Eventually, you'll get an interview, and depending on how well you do at that, you'll get it or not get it. My sister has been searching for a job for 3 years, and still has never gotten anything. And this is actively seeking employment, too.

I've never been fired. I quit my umpiring job because it took up too much time.

let me just say that I have qualifications in IT (not a degree but close to one) and the fact remains that I apply for jobs I should be able to walk in to (office junior positions mainly or secretarial work) and some person who left school with two GCSE's but got a job as a office junior or secretary on a tempoary basis gets the job, why? cause although I am the better qualified (infact some times they consider me over qualified for the job) the other guy has experience in the area of work, that automatically makes them the better candidate. Now I'm on the Dole (benefits Job seekers allowance) and the Job centre have decided that they have to find me a job within the next 13 weeks and it's actually my only chance of finding a job at the moment. Still some of the jobs pay 15 - 18k a year which for your first real job is brilliant, still I got to get through the interviews first.

I've read your journal a couple time, (mainly for laughs, but whatever) and your approach to getting a job is all wrong. You apply to one place of employment and exect them to call you. That's not how it works. You have to apply to every place you can and if you get lucky they'll call back with an offer. So yeah, do that. You are not garanteed a job, just because you applied. Remember that it's likely that 30 people or more have applied to the same position before you. So yeah.

Or you can do what I did and go to the store the day it first opens and say "You guys need another driver?" Works like a charm.

Also, oral sex wouldn't hurt.

I guess I've been lucky. Both jobs that I've had, they couldn't fire you. Albertsons was Union, so they could only fire you if you did something REALLY bad. I got away with so much stuff. Back talking to custmers being the main thing.

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Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

I've read your journal a couple time, (mainly for laughs, but whatever) and your approach to getting a job is all wrong. You apply to one place of employment and exect them to call you. That's not how it works. You have to apply to every place you can and if you get lucky they'll call back with an offer. So yeah, do that. You are not garanteed a job, just because you applied. Remember that it's likely that 30 people or more have applied to the same position before you. So yeah.

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Umm dude, If you actually read the newer stuff, not the old stuff, you'd know that I applied at Home Depot, Blockbuster, Meijer, Chuck E. Cheese, Little Ceasers, Macninos, 2 coney Islands, Wallgreens, and KMart. Still the phone never rings.

it's cause you have only a little experience and also how good is your reference? see although it is illegal (in the UK atleast) to give a bad reference saying "this person is crap at their job wouldn't know how to do it if it slapped them in the face with a sign showing them in pictures with captions how to do it" they can leave bits out of a reference making it appear that although you did everything they asked they really had to ask you and sometimes you were slow and failed to meet deadlines.

N.B: Sometimes oral sex does hurt. Just my two cents.

You don't have to critically wound anyone in order to get a job.

Keep filling out those application forms, and be patient.

true enough I have been searching for almost 3 years for work be it temp, part time or full time and you know I can only look forward to a job now cause I got help from the government in getting my ass of state benefits and getting in to work all of the employment agencies I went to including the very big Blue Arrow company that are nationwide here in the UK for help and blue arrow told me I needed at least 3 months exp to sign on to their books and I have 0 days exp let alone 3 months. I suppose it is medical advances fault that jobs are getting so hard to find before when people died at 50 or so they'd hire the younger person due to the fact that a thirty five year old would only live around 20 years more now we live to ages over 100 and work till we're 65 it makes a untrained 18 or 19 year old fresh out of schools work very hard cause the 35 year old guy with the exp is going to get the job. So damn fraustrating but there is nothing you can do only keep trying and being very charming. I find I have better interviews if it is a woman performing it as I naturally flirt with all women therefore I charm the pants of them but if the second interview is a guy then I can kiss goodbye to my chance.

Let's see.

-I worked at a local supermarket when I was 15 about 10 hours a week. I ended up quitting on the spot when I dyed my hair and was given the choice to dye it back or be fired.

-Then I worked at Circuit City full-time after I graduated for about a year. That was pretty cool and I really enjoyed my friends at my job (but the management was terrible) and the pay was enough to keep me working whenever I wanted to quit, plus I was really good at it (the best, actually :D). I quit after I found a gift card and spent it. I was given the choice to either resign or be terminated, but before my boss could finish his sentence I said "I quit." What I did was done by many other associates there and done without consequence. I think I was kicked out for the reason many others are - because I was making too much money and I could be replaced by someone who is willing to work for cheaper pay. Sure, I would sell more than the next guy, but proportionate to our payrates, he's more profitable. The bottom line is all that matters to insensitive and soulless corporate slaves.

-Immediately afterwards I got hired at Target, but I'm not stupid enough to be content with working at a department store. (No offense to anyone who does.) I quit after two days.

-I lived for several months on back pay from workin at Circuit City until I got a warehouse job which I quit after a week because of the crappy hours. (6 PM-sometime between 2 AM and 5 AM.)

-Then I got a job at Best Buy which sucks ass. I still work there and I've been there for about three months. Best Buy is more like a cult than a store. The mentality they feed the your average underpaid associate is from the same handbook that the queen ant of a colony reads from in order to keep all the worker ants subservient, and somehow it works. Somehow people care about how much money they can generate for people who are already rich by pressuring customers into buying things they don't need. It's incredibly dishonest when the associates (that the name they give you to make you feel like more than a disposable piece of a a machine) and the managers all put on an act about being so devoted to the customer and then turn around after the customer has left and talk about how much extra money they milked from him.

What have I learned with my experience? Retail electronics stores are the home to the most dishonest people I've ever dealt with, but the worst part is that these people don't even own up to how deceptive and greedy they are. Most bank robbers would agree that they're thieves, but no one in Best Buy or Circuit City seems to own up to their reality, they only deny until you get tired of arguing. I've also learned that working for any chain of any store makes you the lowest stop on the totem pole. You don't matter at all, you're disposable and worthless, and if you get too good at what you do and deserve/demand more money you'll be replaced by someone less skilled than you who is willing to work for less money. These places are so big and powerful that they can strive for mediocrity and profit more from it than from doing the best they can. Anyone who works in sales at Best Buy or Circuit City (which does pay significantly more than BB) and is below a management position doesn't even make enough money to sell the products on which he or she is supposed to demonstrate expertise. If these places went back to commission pay and dropped the paper-thin "we love the customer more than anything" act I'd be much easier on them, but they're dishonest in their methods and even more dishonest in their words. Best Buy makes its employees tell every customer that "we're not paid on commission so feel free to trust us" but the only difference between commission stores and non-commission stores is that in non-commission the customer isn't the only guy being pissed on, it's the employee too.

So anyway, I don't know where I was going with that, but I started typing and got so angry that I kept going. Try applying for construction jobs or hospital kitchen jobs, something that helps someone.

You've also got to kind of stay on top of the places you apply to, calling back every so often and inquiring about the position. If they say they'll call you and they don't, then call them. Works for me.

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Originally Posted by Joel

Umm dude, If you actually read the newer stuff, not the old stuff, you'd know that I applied at Home Depot, Blockbuster, Meijer, Chuck E. Cheese, Little Ceasers, Macninos, 2 coney Islands, Wallgreens, and KMart. Still the phone never rings.

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Be patient. Sometimes it take a while for them to call. If they don't call for about a week or two, I'd suggest calling them. When I got my job at Taco Bell, it took them three weeks for them to call me. I forgot I had even applied there. So yeah. Calm down.

Spiff is right, Joel.

This is also a bad time for the economy and what not. Finding a job is never easy. I really really want a new job myself, but I'd be insane to quit the one I have until I find another one. And so far I haven't.

Okay, to answer the question, yes, I've been laid off from a job once. It was never a permanent job to begin with. I worked it for about eight months and they laid me off, telling me that they would call me back in about four months if I was still interested. I ended up getting a different job before that.

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

You've also got to kind of stay on top of the places you apply to, calling back every so often and inquiring about the position. If they say they'll call you and they don't, then call them. Works for me.

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Yeah it shows you want the job. When I first started working at mcdonalds I had to call them like 5 times.

I've never been laid off or any such thing. Apparently, based on everyone else's experience with job hunting and job losing, this chick is high in demand. :skull3:

Apparently, Joel is very close to bagging a job in some sort of chemical factory that smells of chlorine.

At least that's what I derived from our conversation yesterday.

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Originally Posted by Jayren

Apparently, Joel is very close to bagging a job in some sort of chemical factory that smells of chlorine.

At least that's what I derived from our conversation yesterday.

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Hey, that's great. Remember, the important thing (especially for the first few jobs you have when you are a teen and have no expertise in any particular field) is that you HAVE a job. Enjoying it is secondary. When you build up enough experience, then you can start looking for jobs that you want to keep for life (and those are the ones that you probably want to enjoy).

Umm dude, If you actually read the newer stuff, not the old stuff, you'd know that I applied at Home Depot, Blockbuster, Meijer, Chuck E. Cheese, Little Ceasers, Macninos, 2 coney Islands, Wallgreens, and KMart. Still the phone never rings. - Joel

Just keep going, Joel. I finished university last year, and I must have applied/ wrote letters to 40 different places. I even offered to work for free if the place of work was local. Eventually I got a (paid) job, but it took a few months.

I'm just wondering, are you looking for full time, permanent work? Or something just for the summer until you go to college or something? Because if you're looking for permanent work, it's a lot tougher, and that's when you have to be really aggressive. But for part time/summer work, it's a little bit easier, and just going around to your local retail outlets/restaraunts and getting applications is usually enough.

Tell them you're living in a car and turn up to interviews with ripped jeans and smelly t-shirt. Oh, and don't shave. Then you're sure to not get hired.