<p>Have you considered relocating to a different area with more opportunity, at least to get started?</p>
<p>What about buying a book and studying for the real estate licensing exam.</p>
<p>The problem is money. There’s no way to relocate without any money. I literally scrape by, even living at home. I don’t make nearly enough to cover all of my bills and rent and gas. </p>
<p>The real estate idea could work. I just don’t really have much of an interest in pursuing that long term and I feel like a tech degree may put me in a better position long term than a real estate license. Maybe I’m wrong. I just don’t see myself selling property well. Its pretty cut throat too, which is why I didn’t get the jobs as a leasing agent. I’m not a great salesperson and I’m not outwardly assertive or super competitive.</p>
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<p>Sales is not an innate skill. It’s a learned skill. Consider learning it. There is actual intellectual content to sales. I think it especially meshes well with psychology a lot of what’s called “emotional intelligence” involves reading people and developing strategies to reach them. No business occurs without sales. It’s a very important function in any business. Take some books out of the library and read them. </p>
<p>Most people think of sales as sleazy, but in reality, it’s about learning how to listen and probe customers to understand what they really want (not necessarily what they tell you), and helping them achieve their goals. Most sales involve selling things to people who are already looking to buy.</p>
<p>It’s a learned skill. </p>
<p>High tech is great, but right now you don’t have much to offer, nor any means to get more training. You need to earn, and you might as well work in an area where you can develop some expertise. That expertise is often gained through the school of hard knocks, but it’s gained nonetheless.</p>
<p>I just honestly would rather work in an administration, research or HR than sell something. Sales administrative support appeals to me more than actual sales. Its not part of my personality and I hate jobs where depending on commission becomes the means of keeping food on my table. I would rather work in an environment where I am guaranteed to make a certain amount an hour and don’t have to worry about meeting quotas. I’m the type of person who thrives on deadlines, not so much on sales goals. I can work in high pressure but its a certain type of high pressure, more like an ER environment than a real estate closing environment, if that makes sense. Would rather do data entry than sell cars or software.</p>
<p>I realize that sales are essential to business, but I just don’t see the appeal in it at all really. I think maybe a temp agency may be the way to go so I can work in a more administrative position.</p>
<p>You have an excuse for everything. I don’t know how to help you. </p>
<p>Almost anyone can do entry-level HR or administration, they require very little talent, and as a result are really commodity jobs. You really don’t want to go in this direction because the pay is lousy and all of the jobs are taken anyway. </p>
<p>You need to learn something that is valuable, can generate revenue for you and allow you to personally grow as you gain experience. You need to develop talent. Why do you assume that sales is high pressure, that you won’t be able to meet a quota, and will be worried about your next paycheck? Because you haven’t had the training that’s going to teach you how to do it. Do you think the customer service representatives at a bank look like they are under high pressure? Do the sales people in a furniture store? A shoe store? No, they start out green, get trained, learn about their products, learn how to read people for buying signals, how to make them comfortable, and they make a sale where both parties are happy. People who walk into a business are looking to buy. </p>
<p>Here is another idea. </p>
<p>Check out
[Unemployment</a> Rates for Metropolitan Areas](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm]Unemployment”>http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm)</p>
<p>Midland TX has a 3.4% unemployment rate. You should be able to move there, find a job there. </p>
<p>Burlington VT has a 4.1% unemployment rate. It is an area with a lot of educated people. </p>
<p>Washington DC are has a low unemployment rate, lots of opportunities and a metro.</p>
<p>Go through the job listings in locales with low unemployment. Sell your car, and buy a bus ticket or a plane ticket. Go before these places are flooded with students coming back from college for the summer.</p>
<p>Get out of your comfort zone. It’s not such a great place anyway.</p>
<p>I agree, apply for jobs out of your area. You don’t have to move there until you get the job. As far as contacts, think about where your friends are employed. Having a friend working at a company can get you in the door before anyone else.</p>
<p>I thought about it more about what’s bothering me. </p>
<p>GETTING a job involves sales. It involves selling your services. You need to learn about sales no matter what. You need to make a case that you are worth hiring. You’re not making that case. </p>
<p>So far in your posts, everything is about YOU not about your customer (the potential employer). Your “me” attitude is not that attractive to an employer. While you say you are willing to try things, you really don’t appear to be open to much that has value. </p>
<p>Today is a new day. Start from scratch. Instead of asking what do “I” want to do, ask what can I do for YOU (the potential employer). Be open to anything. Look for opportunities to grow even if you have to start at the bottom. Learn the business. Any business. Start developing expertise and sophistication about business. </p>
<p>Sales is the single best entry point. Learn how to sell, learn it well, and transition to selling something more expensive. I look at the rental car opportunities I keep seeing, and it looks like a great opportunity. I see furniture sales. Insurance sales, etc.</p>
<p>I get that you don’t consider salesmanship to be in your wheelhouse. But here’s a different way to look at it (or anything that you don’t think you’re “good” at)… Right now you’re in a holding pattern. Right now you don’t have a job, or even bites, in the areas you would like. So why not try something in an area outside your comfort zone? Most sales jobs involve a compensated training period before putting people on strict commission. What if you plug into a local enterprise, go through their sales training program, try it out, and if it really doesn’t work, at least you’ve learned something… gained some experience in something different, outside your comfort zone. In the meantime, nothing is stopping you from continuing to apply for other jobs. The worst thing that could happen to you is that you go through the training program, try it for a week/month, and if it doesn’t work out you check the “been there done that” box.</p>
<p>It’s not as simple as selling my car and moving. I bought it for 4,000 4 years ago. It has essentially no value now. I’m lucky if I could sell it for $300-500. I’m not going to sell my car and I’m not taking off on a plane with no money, no job and no living situation. That’s not “getting out of my comfort zone.” That is foolish and I will end up homeless on the streets. I don’t have enough money to stay in hotels and go on job interviews in another state or town.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is easy as you are making it out to be, ClassicRockerDad. When I say I have applied for jobs, I have. The problem is not the interview. I interview extremely well. The problem is beating out other applicants to get the interview spot. I can sell myself well and I received every internship and undergrad job I have applied for. Its not that I am selfish. I don’t go to interviews automatically assuming that I will hate the job and it’s not for me. I am not close minded. I don’t mind starting from the bottom which is why I am still applying for low paying jobs. When I do have a job I go above and beyond. You can ask any of my coworkers and supervisors at the restaurant or any previous jobs I have had. All of them say I am the hardest working person they know. These posts make it seem like I’m lazy or just not looking hard enough. I don’t think a lazy person would have kept looking after this many failures. I don’t think a lazy person would be taking full time grad classes, working nights and looking for a job in every free moment she has. </p>
<p>The problem is getting the interview. Its not as simple as putting in an application and getting a call. It looks like a great opportunity because I’m sure it is. But I don’t know how many times I can say that I have been looking for jobs like that and it hasn’t been working by just applying online. So rethinking my strategy is necessary.</p>
<p>I had a collections job with Chase bank for 3 months. I went through their equivalent of sales training and I learned the ropes. It was a nightmare. I would go home in tears everyday. I hate the environment. I had a commission retail job for 2 years in college and I hated it. I hate the stress of a manager telling me that I am not meeting my quota. How am I supposed to do that when people don’t have money? That’s the reason they are in collections, not making payments on their credit cards or claiming bankruptcy in the first place. </p>
<p>My manager told me I wasn’t cut out for sales or collections and that I should think about resigning. I am not a quitter, but I left that job because it made me feel suicidal. I really don’t want to go back to a similar environment.</p>
<p>Here’s another thought. Try <a href=“http://www.firstjobs.com%5B/url%5D”>www.firstjobs.com</a>. A website where employers are looking to hire recent grads (0-3 years). See what kind of jobs are avail for people like you. It costs nothing and is certainly worth a look.</p>
<p>Gnome- if your co-workers and supervisors think as highly of you as they do, then why were you so quick to shoot down my suggestion that you embark on a networking campaign starting with people who know you and like you? That’s how people who are having trouble landing an interview get jobs- they start with the people who already know their work ethic, personality, etc. and then go from there.</p>
<p>I want to help you. I think I can help you. But if every poster kicks up a hornets nest with you the temptation to turn the page is extremely strong.</p>
<p>Got it- you don’t want sales.</p>
<p>Some of the posters here are suggesting (and I think with great tact and restraint) that you need to start by figuring out who is actually hiring. Not what you don’t want to do. Not what you can’t do. Not what makes you suicidal. But who is hiring. Then- move from that list of who is hiring to “what job can I talk myself into”.</p>
<p>If you are the hardest working person that your colleagues have ever known, you need to start with them. You need to tell them that you’ve decided not to go to grad school right now but you want to launch an all-out job search and if they know anyone who might be in a position to hire you’d love to know about them.</p>
<p>Tell your dentist that if any of their medical suppliers are hiring you’d appreciate knowing about it. If the association that runs their continuing education programs and training programs for hygienists are looking to hire someone with great people skills you are interested.</p>
<p>Tell your Rabbi/Iman/Minister that if any of their congregants own a business and need a great Jack of all Trades you are interested.</p>
<p>My point is not to tell you that you have to become a sales person if you hate sales. My point is that you are becoming your own worst enemy by finding a reason (or two or three) why every suggestion people make here is not feasible for you.</p>
<p>Do you have a cousin, Aunt,Uncle, God parent, college roommate who lives in an area with more economic activity that you can stay with for a few months? Trade housekeeping or babysitting for room and board? </p>
<p>Agree that if your online applications are not yielding fruit you are wasting time by applying to more. So that leaves networking- which you seem unwilling to do. Or finding a place to live with a more robust economy.</p>
<p>How can we all help you given your constraints?</p>
<p>Ok, fair enough. You can’t be in a position that makes you feel suicidal, and I didn’t mean to imply that you were lazy, I meant that for every suggestion someone made, you seemed to have an excuse, and part of that was because you seemed to focused on yourself and what you wanted. It’s like going into a store and having the sales person say “Please by this item because I need the money.”</p>
<p>Why don’t you try looking for jobs remotely in places with low unemployment and less competition and see if you can line up some telephone or skype interviews. I scanned ads in Midland TX, and there are entry level jobs with a BS with no experience necessary. With a 3.4% unemployment rate, an intelligent and educated person like yourself could be a very attractive candidate for a number of roles. I saw one ad for an insurance brokerage that just wanted someone to do office duties who was intelligent enough to learn the business. Would you be willing to relocate if you had a job offer?</p>
<p>What about contacting a temp agency in an area of low unemployment instead of where you live. </p>
<p>I don’t see how you can be successful without relocating. You need to gain some tangible skills, and where you live is preventing you from developing them. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Blossom- I’m not shooting down everyone’s suggestions. There have been some great suggestions on here. I’m looking into the civil service exams, I’m looking into a temp agency, I’m looking into going back to a community college for some quick certifications to gain footing.</p>
<p>I have already thought of relocating and I can’t physically do it without saving any money first. Its just not a possibility right now. I would love to. But I can’t. I can look into the skype interviews, that could work. Its just entry-level jobs rarely provide relocating expenses and I’m back to square 1. </p>
<p>Blossom, its not that I don’t want to network, its that I’ve already asked around. I don’t have a minister to ask, I go to my school’s dental office/health center because I don’t have insurance and its low cost for students. I don’t talk to my neighbors and my parents friends have said they would keep an eye out for me. I don’t have the contact information of my old roommates. I never played sports in high school. I don’t have the networking capabilities you are speaking of-other than going to my college career center. I don’t have extended family. I have my parents, sisters, and uncle who lives nearby and that’s it.</p>
<p>That’s the problem-the constraints I have frustrate me to no end and there is no plausible way for me to escape. I am trying to do the best I can with what I have but I don’t have an infinite number of resources. I have thought through some of these suggestions already. I am not in the position to implement all of them. If it infuriates you, you don’t have to answer. But at the same time, I’m not facing a wide open job market with all kinds of networking opportunities. I honestly am doing the best I can with what I have. As a server, I know several regulars working in different environments. They are helping me look as well. I’m just saying some of this advice that could potentially be applied if I was in different circumstances may work, but I also am constrained by what I have to work with right now.</p>
<p>One more think I just thought of. </p>
<p>With those online jobs, don’t apply to jobs through recruiters. Recruiters basically take 30% of your first years salary, and many jobs that the recruiters list can also be obtained directly from the employer. Now in an environment where there are many candidates, resumes that come in through recruiters are at a distinct disadvantages. </p>
<p>At a previous company that I worked at, we COULDN’T hire someone who came through a recruiter because there was a sufficient number of candidates who came direct. Basically, applying through a recruiter ensures that you can’t get the job. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s the way the recruiting business works. Go direct to the employer if you can. Many ads that are listed with recruiters are also listed directly with the company. Cut and past the ad into google to try to find the company directly and do not submit to the recruiters.</p>
<p>That recruiter idea is the ticket. That thought never occurred to me. I have applied through a few recruiter websites. I will definitely be looking to apply directly from now on. Thank you for all of your help.</p>
<p>I’m just going to start saving what I can and keep working at it.</p>
<p>It doesn’t pay all that well, but it is easy and would give you tons of time to study if you were back in grad school - Probation or Parole Officer - they like psych majors (or did back in the day I defaulted into that out of college).</p>
<p>Certification in so many things takes about 18 months. If you were mine, I would suggest researching which certification at the junior college is in the most demand and pays the highest. I’d let you move in with me for 18 months and keep working your server job and going to classes. At the end of the 18 months, you have a job that will support you, and then you can reassess future plans. </p>
<p>If you are interested in the HR route, perhaps you could get a Masters in Business. That could actually open a lot of doors for you.</p>
<p>Another thing you might be able to do is get some help with your resume and tailoring it for a specific field. With a Psychology major and some work in engineering, you might make a good Quality Auditor. You could get in at an entry level at an engineering company, and then go to ASQ and get some certifications and you’d be all set in your new career.</p>
<p>Another related job that has really high turnover (go figure) is Child Protective Services. They are often hiring.</p>