Free Career and Job Search Advice

Sacjobseeker · Guest

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I found it by typing, "career advice" in the Yahoo search engine. I have a rather complex issue I'm dealing with, and I'm having a very difficult time finding a job. I come here, admittedly, in an act of desperation. I am feeling very frustrated and panicked at this point in time. The nest egg is running out, and 40+ resumes sent out so far has only yielded 2 responses. I even registered with a temp agency almost 2 weeks ago, and haven't heard from them either.

I'm 39 years old, "jack of all trades, master of none" type person. My last job that I worked at I threw down my ID badge and walked out. I did this because of a very unscrupulous and nasty supervisor who was making my life a living hell at work for the past 8 months since she came aboard, and she said something to me that was "the straw that broke the camel's back" so to say, and I walked off the job.

That was almost 2 months ago now, and looking back in retrospect, I wish I wouldn't have done that because I'm finding out how difficult it is to land a decent job with an acceptable salary. One of the HUGE mistakes I keep making over and over again, is that I resign from a job that I'm unhappy with before I have something else lined up.

Going back 10 years with my employment history is what is hurting me the most. I was a cop from 1995-1998, but that wasn't for me. I couldn't stand the job, the politics of the department, and over half the people that I worked with. The only reason I stayed there for 3 years was because of the pay and benefits. I resigned when I just couldn't take it anymore.

Then I sold cars for 2 years. There were ups and downs, as in most sales professions, but mostly downs. I did chock up some moderate successes though, as I made "salesperson-of-the-month" twice. My salary was insufficient due to the economic recession we were in, in the late 90's to early 00's, so I resigned.

Then I tried selling advertising for 6 months. I wasn't making enough money there, so I also resigned from that position.

Then I saw an ad in the paper for "entry level loan officers - no experience needed." I went to the interview, and was offered a position. At one point, I had 10 refi's in the "pipeline" and the commission structure was pretty decent. It was $10.00/hr. + $800 commission for each refinance written. Well, the leads given to us were starting to become "rewashed/recycled "B" leads, and sales came to a screeching halt. We were then expected to do cold-calling and prospecting and being a "go-getter" lol. Nobody was doing well in the office, and eventually, corporate decided to shut our office down. The job itself was kind of fun before the cold-calling requirement came into play, so I applied for a couple loan officer positions with banks and credit unions. At the interview I kept hearing that 6 months experience wasn't enough, and that they require a minimum of 2 years exp. So, off to a new career...

I decided to join one of the "skilled trades." I enjoy building and working with wood, so I decided to join the Carpenter's Apprenticeship. Well, this was a good, and bad, move for me. Work was very happenstance. Anybody who's worked in the skilled trades knows exactly what I'm talking about. You work on one project, and then when it's finished you go back to the union hall and get on the "out of work" list, and hope to get a phone call. I was collecting a LOT of unemployment checks. Well, that went on for 2 years, so I decided to move to a different area, yet continue being a union carpenter. I then registered with a different hall in a different city. Unfortunately, the same thing happened there.

In a one year period, I worked one 2-month job, and 2 2-week jobs. We were told that we could not work for a non-union company while we were waiting for a job call from the hall, because it would be a $3000 fine if you get caught, and then if you do it again, you get "blacklisted" from any unionized skilled trade. For some reason I wasn't able to qualify for unemployment in this new state, so I had NO income coming in whatsoever.

I then went to a career fair to explore some other options. I met a gentleman that worked for GE Financial, and he represented GE's (now Genworth) long term care insurance. He dazzled me with his positive attitude, awesome demeanor, and the income potential and relative ease with breaking into this career. So, I enrolled in the A.D. Banker Life insurance course, which was one week long. Then I tested with the state and passed. I got my Life license, and went on to take a couple of long term care courses to get certified in that specific area.

I then bought some home office equipment to get my business started... business phone, business #, fax machine, office supplies, business cards, etc. When you work for GE or Genworth, you're an independent agent representing their product, not an employee of GE or Genworth. Leads were furnished to us, but as "newbies" we were only furnished with those notorious rewashed/recycled "B" leads, because "A" leads were very expensive supposedly, and you had to "earn" them by closing x-amount of leads from the "B" lead stock. Hmm, I wonder why the rep at the career fair failed to mention that little tidbit of information when I signed up... Anyway, it cost me damn near $2000 to get everything set up and get going. I made approximately 300 phone calls a day. It was very exhausting. Out of thousands of phone calls in a 4 month period I managed to get 8 appointments. Out of those 8 appointments I sold 0 long term care policies. I applied all their training and skills I could muster up. Sharp suit, firm handshake, eye contact, smile, positive attitude, "needs" profiling, product knowledge, etc. The recurring answer I kept getting from everybody I sat down with was that it was "too expensive." I tried several responses they trained us to handle those kind of statements, but nothing worked. So, four months - zero income, and nearly $2000 to set up. Time, once again to move on...

Since I spent all that money to break into the insurance biz, I decided to give it another shot. I got on with a State Farm agent as an "agent assistant." Her offer was $12.00/hr. + a commission for every appointment she closed that I set up for her. She was relatively new and had recently become an agent and she needed help growing her business and "book." I thought, "wow, I can make some big bucks." I FILLED her appointment book for 2 months solid. I was sending her on 2-3 appointment PER DAY. Guess how many appointments she closed? ZERO. My attitude was beginning to sour, because I was trying sooooo hard to do the right thing and make money for her, but it just wasn't panning out. One day she called me into her office and said that she could no longer afford me anymore, and so she let me go.

So, here I go again on the job hunt... One of my problems, or challenges, so to say was that I only had an associate in arts degree in general education. I know that was hurting me so I decided to go back to school and finish up my business degree. I found a very reputable east coast college which was under the same accreditation as Harvard and Yale, and so I applied for government student aid and enrolled in the college. It was entirely online, so that was a big plus for me. I was lucky that years ago, I decided to take all my lower division business classes in college, and I also finished all my general education, so all I had to do to graduate was to take only upper-division business classes. I chose the major of "Organizational Leadership."

I started on my job hunt again while I was taking the classes. I was at the point where I was looking for not only a permanent "career" type job, but also just a job to get me by. I applied at places like Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, Sam's Club, Costco, etc. etc. etc. I also had applied to a big health insurance company. The big health insurance company is the job I got. I was pretty excited because they are HUGE, and I saw a lot of career advancement opportunity with them. However, the entire year I worked for them, I was checking their HR site every day to see what kind of openings they had. I was only doing processing work, and I wanted a job that paid better and one where I could use my education and analytical thinking skills, but there were never any jobs available. At this point I had graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership.

The manager that hired me had quit, and then we got a new manager, and she was the spawn of satan. We butted heads right from the get-go, and she had the audacity to place blame on me, and other people, when she should have taken the responsibility for her mistakes. She had NO respect from ANY of the staff. Nobody liked her, and she had a terrible personality. She used to send one of my coworkers to Starbucks to get coffee for her. Imagine that! How unprofessional. Anyway, things grew worse and worse for me. I talked to HER boss on a couple of occasions to let him know what was going on. He was based 7 hours away and didn't always know what was going on at this campus. He told me, "wow, I'm going to talk to her about this so that she stops" and at one point when I told him I was so fed up with her that I wanted to walk out, he said, "I wouldn't blame you if you did." I also talked to HR about her. But nothing ever happened.

Then when it was time for my performance review, she said some things that made me almost have a stroke because of my anger. I threw down my ID badge and walked off the job. I know, I know... BIG mistake. I called HR and spoke to the generalist there and asked her if I burned any bridges by doing that, and she said "no, I don't think so, but if you apply for another job here, that manager may talk to your old supervisor and she may not have nice things to say about you."

So, that was almost 2 months ago now, and I've been scouring the internet for jobs daily. I do my daily check on Monster.com, Yahoo HotJobs, Career-builder.com, as well as checking for county jobs, city jobs, specific employers websites, etc.

So, here I am with a multitude of job backgrounds, a Bachelor of Science degree, and a willingness to work hard and get ahead. Nothing is happening though. I bought that book "Resumes for Dummies" and followed their "pro resume" format, and have had several people check it for me. I don't know what I want to do. The only thing I do know is that my nest egg is once again running out, and I now need a $16/hr. job to survive (rent, utilities, car payment, car insurance, gas, food, etc). Why are there no jobs that pay a measly $16/hr.??? Everything I'm seeing pays $8-$12/hr. I have a Bachelor's degree that I paid $11,000 to get. I've applied everywhere I can think of. I just read a statistic on the internet that says the average salary for a person with a Bachelor's degree is $50,000, and the average starting salary for a person with a Bachelor's degree is $34,000/yr. Where are those jobs? I don't want to do sales, or do backbreaking blue collar work. I need a job where I'm in a cubicle, or meeting people, solving problems, analyzing, etc.

We don't exactly have a booming economy now, but it is much better than what we had in the late 90's and early 00's. And our unemployment rate is at the lowest it's been in YEARS. Why can't I get a job? What is the problem? What am I doing wrong? Somebody... please help me. I can use all the advice I can get. Yes, I know that I shouldn't have walked off my last job. But, I don't want to flog that dead horse any longer. I need to look ahead... look forward... remain positive. Thank you!

lwilso02 · Newbie Joined: 30 Jul 2008 Posts: 2 Career Advice: +0/-0

I would also be interested in the reply to this post... I'm working on a Bachelor of Science- Organizational Leadership. I'm working on this degree mainly because it is much easier to do when working all day & having a family, raising kids, etc....
The degree plan is not as specific (at least at the college I'm attending), and more of the classes are available online.
(I worked on an Accounting major, which I know would pay much better, but with everything going on right now, and with very few of those classes being offered as online classes where I attend, I had to change my major). I'm planning on finishing this degree and then taking Accounting classes when I can.

Anyway, my question is- what types of job opportunities are there with the BS- Organizational Leadership? Is there any chance of making a good salary?

Thanks so much!

lep04ivp · New User Joined: 29 Oct 2008 Posts: 6 Career Advice: +0/-0

I have read all your story! but your post was in April...have you found a job yet?

Join our Newsletter
CopyRight © 1999-2008 cvtips.com This material cannot be published under any form or condition.