What's the longest amount of time you've been unemployed for?

[PorkChop]

I left uni in May, and I've had a string of temporary jobs since but I can't find a full-time job to save my life. I'd say since May I've applied for 300 - 400 full-time jobs (several of which were hundreds of miles away) and I've only had one interview - needless to say, I didn't get the job. I have reasonably good grades, a first-class degree and lengthy work experience in several fields, but I just can't find anyone who will take me on. I've been turned down for several part-time jobs such as stacking shelves in the local supermarket as I'm overqualified. That was a real kick in the teeth.

I have an assessment tomorrow for another full-time job, a halls of residence advisor at a university, and I have to pass this assessment in order to get an interview. I'm a bit disheartened though as it turns out I know one of the other candidates through a friend of a friend, and this guy has worked for various colleges and universities throughout his life in pretty similar roles to this one. So, unless I ace the assessment and dazzle them in the following interview, he'll probably pip me to the post. I'll do my best though.

What experiences have people here had with unemployment?

[Everlong]

I once had a similar experience to you but for about a full year. I graduated in May 2010 and it was labeled the worst year for college graduates in terms of the job market in the US in more than 30 years. I picked up a freelance gig that fall but it barely paid anything, and didn't really have anything resembling full time employment until summer 2011.

It was rough, man, I just called it my retirement

[Hanley!]

19 years.

After entering the wonderful world of employment though, I reckon the longest was 4-5 months. Similar situation to Tim, in that I was graduating just as the economy turned to shit and jobs weren't there for graduates. And my degree wasn't exactly stream-lined anyway. It didn't give me one obvious field to move into.

It also didn't help that I lived in a small town and there weren't many opportunities around there at the best of times. 4-5 months after leaving university, I got a job on checkouts in a supermarket in a nearby town for a couple of months. Just over the Christmas period. After another 4-5 months of unemployment (it might have been less actually, I can't really remember), I found another supermarket job this time in my home town.

Really at that point I was just killing time until Kirbi could get a transfer to an office up in Dublin. Which unfortunately took a year, so I was working in the shop for longer than I might have liked. But once the transfer went through, we moved to Dublin and I found a job working in insurance and have been doing pretty well out of it since.

[Kein]

3 months off is the longest I have gone since I got my first job. For me it has always been about who you know and not what you know when it comes to job opportunities.

I see a lot of my highschool mates who were working at starbucks or something and it was weird, because I know they just got back from university. I know someone with his doctorate and he still cant even find work, its a sad place.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I'd say about a year which was in 2013 before I got this job I'm in now.

After graduating, I was out of work for about 7 months. It's incredibly tough and demoralising but I found doing voluntary work helped me in every aspect. Lifting my confidence, gave me a recent reference, and I'm sure it was what helped me get my current job but completely understand, it's difficult to do that for people who have bills to pay etc but it's worth considering.

[Camstud]

It's odd that you're struggling so much to get a job. As you know I graduated myself this year, only with a 2.1 and after applying for about 15 jobs in a month I managed to land 4 interviews and have myself a full time job.

With a first class degree and experience you should be receiving offers left, right and center. At Uni I attending a special guest lecture about CVs which helped loads, feel free to PM me your CV (blurring out whatever details you wish) and I'll be happy to give you a couple of tips I picked up for how to possibly improve it.

I just find it really odd that you're a decent guy, with a good education, and experience yet we've had two totally different experiences.

Have you gone for any postgrad jobs?

[Twister]

Technically I've been unemployed for around 1.5 years, as I handed my notice in at my previous job at the end of my maternity leave around July last year. Although I'm not sure if that counts since I'm not actively looking for work at the moment, by the time I intend to start looking for work again I will have been 'unemployed' for almost 3 years. Before then I think the longest I've been unemployed was for around 3months or so between jobs, so not long really.

[Westcoastvibes]

4 years, I am trained in the construction field, have mucho experienco and can do anything from dirt to roof. In 2008 the US housing marking was in the process of bursting, the owner of the company I worked at died, 6 months later his daughter died (who was running it after him) and it went belly up. I went from making damn good money to making none, my skill sets were a dime a dozen because there was no market. In 2012 I started at my current job doing the same shit but for a government agency at about half the pay of what I was making in 2008. It was 4 years of hell, living with consistent collection, final, and disconnect notices, had 2 cars repoed and drove a huge wedge in my marriage.

[PorkChop]

Well, I smashed the assessment and was offered an interview which I had this morning. It could have gone better though.

They asked me about 30 questions, a lot of them were so incredibly similar that it was difficult not to repeat myself and actually say something insightful each time. I'd prepared pretty extensively for today yet they managed to avoid asking basically every question I'd prepared for. It was a pretty frustrating interview, easily the most difficult I've had.

I'm not sure how well I'll fare, I'm not too hopeful but I'm naturally a pessimistic bastard.

[Viazon]

Probably about 3 to 4 months. The store I worked in was closing down. Me and my friend would have gotten redundancy money if we stayed until the end. But we found out that apparently the two years we worked there before we were 18 didn't count. So that's two years of redundancy money we weren't gonna get. Also, apparently because we weren't working there as long as some people were, we weren't entitled to as much money as we first though. We didn't think it was worth staying until the end and left about two months before it closed down. We hated it so much we didn't care that we weren't gonna get any money. It was a heat of the moment decision and probably wasn't the best one at the time as I had just spent over £300 on a PS3, which was money that I could have used later on. But it all worked out in the end.

I managed to avoid signing on. It was something I had no interest in doing. I know not everyone on the dole are lazy, weed smoking , losers with multiple kids my multiple partners, but most of them are. And the job center in my town isn't just where they got their money from, it's where they all seemed to congregate. The absolute bottom rung of society hung out there and it was just an area I had no intention of going to. Luckily I didn't have to.

I had some money saved and my parents helped me out a bit. I had a huge wrestling DVD collection and I resorted to selling them on eBay to make some extra money. I didn't have a lot of money but it was enough to be a bum for a while. I decided that I was just going to do nothing for a while. My life consisted of staying in my room all the time, watching DVDs and playing video games. Only leaving my house on Saturday night to go out for drinks with my friends. I'll be honest, I would even go days without showering. It was pretty sweet to live like that for a while, with no worries and just doing what I want. Fucked up my body clock though. I would just stay awake until I felt tired, sleep for a few hours, wake up and repeat. I would wake up at like 3am thinking it was noon. After a while, my money started running low so I decided it was time to get a job.

It wasn't all that hard to find one. I went to a job agency in town and told them I needed a job. They contacted me when a warehouse they worked for needed workers and ended up working there for four years.

[Twister]

Well, I smashed the assessment and was offered an interview which I had this morning. It could have gone better though.

They asked me about 30 questions, a lot of them were so incredibly similar that it was difficult not to repeat myself and actually say something insightful each time. I'd prepared pretty extensively for today yet they managed to avoid asking basically every question I'd prepared for. It was a pretty frustrating interview, easily the most difficult I've had.

I'm not sure how well I'll fare, I'm not too hopeful but I'm naturally a pessimistic bastard.

Always the way with job interviews. Good luck dude.

[PorkChop]

I didn't get it.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I didn't get it.

Did you ask why or some feedback? You probably get told some old shit but I would.

I know I mentioned it before, but you not thought about volunteering? Even if it was an hour, might help? Certainly with a new, up to date reference. I'm certain that the references I got from my volunteering place helped me get the job I'm fortunate to have.

[PorkChop]

I know I mentioned it before, but you not thought about volunteering? Even if it was an hour, might help? Certainly with a new, up to date reference. I'm certain that the references I got from my volunteering place helped me get the job I'm fortunate to have.

I volunteer in a charity shop currently, 6 hours a day, 4 days a week. I fucking hate it, but it's work.

It just seems like finding a full time job is an impossibility for me.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I know I mentioned it before, but you not thought about volunteering? Even if it was an hour, might help? Certainly with a new, up to date reference. I'm certain that the references I got from my volunteering place helped me get the job I'm fortunate to have.

I volunteer in a charity shop currently, 6 hours a day, 4 days a week. I fucking hate it, but it's work.

It just seems like finding a full time job is an impossibility for me.

Good to hear and I hope your volunteering pays off for you. How do you find it working there out of interest? Feedback I had from some people when they did it was that it was a tad disorganised.

It's incredibly deflating, can sympathise with what you're going through especially after completing University. I eventually found work in call centres, didn't last long in them tbf, but just a brief stay was enough until I had enough. Would suggest agency work but that's probably not long-term or the type of work you might be looking for.

[PorkChop]

I've had some agency work. I recently had a security guard gig through an agency.

As for the volunteering, disorganised is an understatement. There's a room at the back of the shop which is just filled with binbags of dead old women's clothes, just waiting for me to sort through. Some old woman donated a box of tampons today. She just got them out her bag, put them on the counter in front of me, politely smiled, and walked away. Like, what is fucking wrong with you, you old slut. No charity shop is going to flog your leftover tampons. Christ.

[Twister]

I've had some agency work. I recently had a security guard gig through an agency.

As for the volunteering, disorganised is an understatement. There's a room at the back of the shop which is just filled with binbags of dead old women's clothes, just waiting for me to sort through. Some old woman donated a box of tampons today. She just got them out her bag, put them on the counter in front of me, politely smiled, and walked away. Like, what is fucking wrong with you, you old slut. No charity shop is going to flog your leftover tampons. Christ.

Da fuq? Why didn't she just donate them to the local food bank? Surely they'd be of more use there. I don't think anyone will go into a charity shop, see a box of tampons and be like "YES, these are exactly what I was looking for!".

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job though, hopefully you'll get something permanent soon.

[PorkChop]

Bumping this thread as I got a job.

If you show any emotion other than extreme joy, you will be banned.

[Daz]

Well let's see, there was that time from birth until, yeah, today. So good luck beating 24 years and 6 months.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Bumping this thread as I got a job.

If you show any emotion other than extreme joy, you will be banned.

Nice one mate!