Just Get Any Job

DesperationSmells, so JustGetAnyJob until you are able to find a good one.

If that's what it takes to avoid financial ruin, yes, but only as a last resort. In the mean time, between OutOfWork? and OnTheVergeOfBankruptcy?, if you're losing out on jobs because you're acting desperately, lower your standards until you're supremely confident you can get/do the jobs you're applying for.

Keeping mind and body active during time of low job is equally important to money, this is done to maintain spirits. You are doing something useful.

And if they'll hire you. They'll probably reject you as overqualified. After all, they've probably hired computer programmers and found that they don't get along well with the regular grunts who work there. So they'll naturally assume the same thing is true for you. -- Besides, McDonalds is laying off and closing restaurants; they posted their first quarterly loss not too long ago...

Gimme a break, McDonalds will hire anyone if they're willing to work there and for minimum wage. But that's besides the point, which is that you must do what it takes to get a stepping-stone job, which will provide you with an opportunity to get back on your feet and get the job you really want. What exactly that stepping stone job is, is irrelevant. The important thing is that you've got something stable and paying a bit of money.

Actually been turned down for "any job" once it was clear that I had computer skills. They really didn't want someone with computer knowledge handling the register. Other "any job" applications in that same time period failed because they (rightly) assumed that I would not be content to stock_shelves/run_register/clean_store/etc where dollars<accustomed_wage and that I would leave_for_better_pay at the first opportunity.

While getting "any job" may be a necessity, be aware of the costs and risks. When you are working full-time, it is difficult to find time to search for a better job. Having a bad job on your resume may hurt when you interview for that good job you are hoping to get someday. You might look like a job hopper or like someone who doesn't care about what they do.

Taking a job that you feel is "beneath you" can wreak havoc on your self-esteem and on your sense of professionalism. If all you want out of your career is a paycheck, then this may not bother you, but for those who are looking for new challenges, increasing responsibility, and so on, then a step downward/backward may seem like a rut you won't be able to get out of. People in jobs they hate are more prone to BurnOut. Remember that it is only a temporary situation, find some worthy non-job-related goals to achieve, and work hard to find that job you really want.

Actually, most McJobs and WalJob?s only hire part-time, so they don't have to give benefits, so it should leave you plenty of time to search for a real job -- unless you need to work two of them to make ends meet.

I found that getting hired after leaving the job plane without my parachute involved a number of things that a) you don't learn in school and b) you don't learn while working at a job:

Learn their domain, or at least learn about their domain.
Actively learn at least one new thing that wasn't already on the resume.
Refresh knowledge of stuff "already known" since interviews are often like board orals, prying into darker corners of typically forgotten material.
Review your accomplishments. List specific items that apply (or most apply) to the domain. Don't put that list in your resume, but build a portfolio (or more than one) of related expertise.
Talk to everyone. Especially those out-of-band acquaintences cultivated in the course of working at a job.
Rehearse. Practice. Use a mirror. Use a spouse. Use someone you know in the domain. Get someone to grill you. Do this until you can face an interviewing panel without sweating.

I wound up getting a job in the area I was least expert in. The fact that I could communicate, could discuss the domain, was willing to learn whatever was needed, and was willing to "take the pay cut" while probing for the possibility that I could improve on it, seemed to make the difference.

The fact that I was able to do this successfully seven times in two years as the market crumbled around me leads me to conclude that there is merit in this approach.

I went and got any job. Ended up being with a company that made their money by tricking search engines and fooling customers. Sometimes they'd even help out customers by sending in rebates for them... I knew something was wrong the second I walked in the door and no one was over 28 except management, but I left after a month because there's only so many showers one can take in a day. I'm unemployed but I can feel good about myself.

See HowToSurviveInaJobMarketThatSucks, DesperationSmells

CategoryEmployment