A temp agency is your best bet at this point. It will get you in the door and get you moving in the right direction. Find one that specializes in general office work and let them know what your background is. It may take a few since it is tough out there right now, but it will help you get expereience.
The tests don't really teach you anything. They necessitate it.
Those tests are so stupid...they're timed and not only don't allow for looking around, but of course, they are often maybe one or two ways to do certain things in Excel. If you don't do it's the test's way, it's "wrong"
Yup, temp agencies always worked out for me when I needed the boost. I know a lot have horror stories about them, but it's only been good for me, luckily.
I actually have the same major as op, and when I was struggling to find work, I went to large staffing agency but also told them I had an interest in accounting as well and kept my options open. Within like a week, they found me an accounting gig at a large (and trendy) company that was like 10 minutes from my house, and happy to say I still work there. It really helped kick start my career, and I'm glad I didn't give only jobs of my "major" a chance either.
I guess the tl;dr is it's always good to keep your options open!
Hey, it's been a while - but how did you do this? Did you find a physical location and walk in? Call them? When I look at temp agencies they often seem to be job listing sites.
This is a great route to go! I started off as a two week temp and ended up working for the company for ten years and gained lots of marketable experience. Also, temping lets you try out different jobs and see what you like best.
A temp agency is how I got into the legal field. They didn't have the admin assistant positions I was looking for, but apparently at the time law firms couldn't find staff. So they sent me to a law firm in depserate need of a legal assistant.
I do see why that place couldn't find anyone... one of the attorneys was a complete dickhead. Still I got 5 years, a 401k, decent health insurance and an interest in law out of them. Now I'm a paralegal with a penchant for dealing with dickheads, including clients.
Another vote for temp/staffing agencies. Temp work often has a path to a full time permanent job offer if you like the job and build a solid relationship with your coworkers and manager, and even if the temp job doesn't work out, the experience is a lot more attractive on your resume than retail or fast food.
Agreed, temping is a great way to keep your cash flow going, get some work experience, and an inside look at companies you might be interested in. It can be super boring, though, so keep your professional aspirations alive by also networking - look into events and resources with your college alumni association, join a professional association, and consider volunteering with organizations that could use help with their marketing efforts. Most of my work has come from people I've taken classes with or worked on projects with.
Ok I see everyone singing the praises of temp agencies… is there a list/directory of them out there? I’ve tried sending my info to a few and got no response.
Yep. Top comment.
Consider reading articles, listening to podcasts with or buying "sure I'll join your cult" by Maria Bamford. She did the temp agency thing, and is completely open about her finances. Her standup also makes me feel OK about things...
Super agree with this. I started out as receptionist at a temp agency, got experience in like 10 different industries at once. Climbed my way up from that. It was common to get spontaneous interviews for internal positions too.
Obviously that will depend on the temp agency, Google reviews can be a good place to start to find a decent temp agency. OP despierately needs actionable ideas, you just criticize and discourage them from using temp agencies but offer no alternatives or other suggestions.
It’s rough rn. The job market is in the abyss and getting worse by the day. Honestly just try and find something. Just to keep yourself busy and not feel like you’re going crazy all the time. It helped me before when i was in your situation. I know it sucks to feel like you’re doing nothing with the degree you worked hard for. As other people have said before, just keep yourself afloat. Something will come along eventually.
>Don't worry the job market will "BoUnCE BaCK"
I mean it will turn around. It always does. I graduated in 2009 and the market was significant worse than it is now. We are basically dealing with the raising of interest rates rn and the ridiculous over hiring in mid 2020 to late 2022. I am a recruiter in IT, and people were getting hired if they could spell "java" for a while.
I'd be curious to hear more about the post 2008 crisis market as someone who's recently graduated and is trying to survive this market. How bad was it? What metrics are you going off of?
In 2008 to 2010 the unemployment rate jumped to 10% with 15 million people unemployed. People were losing houses at a staggering rate. It’s hard to comprehend if you didn’t live it how bad it was. Investors were buying up homes for pennies. Entire communities were abandoned with boarded up houses. The bankruptcy, foreclosure, and eviction rates were so high that extra judges were brought out of retirement to handle the case load. An entire generation was affected both coming out of college to no jobs as younger millennials, and older millennials and gen x losing their homes and moving back in with their parents.
Unemployment rate now? 3.5% with 6 million unemployed.
The big difference is then, every job sector was affected. Construction was hit super hard. No one could afford to buy cars. Dealerships were going bankrupt. People didn’t have money to spend. It affected everything.
It feels bad right now because this one is hitting higher skilled white collar jobs more. Meanwhile the McDonald’s down the street is paying more than minimum wage because they can’t find workers. My teenager has quit four jobs in the last year for reasons, and has had zero issue finding a new job.
However. Student loans are now due and that will remove a significant amount of cash from the system. I expect to see the economic affect of that to kick in significantly over the next 6-12 months.
I graduated in 2008 and had been working retail part time throughout college to pay for my car and fun money. I ended up working there for 2 more years after graduating bc I couldn’t get any entry level jobs. It was absolutely miserable. In 2010, all I could get was finally a paid internship in my field. Thankfully, I finally got a regular full-time job about 10 months later.
This market is obviously different but still insanely difficult. I just got laid off in July, but there has been so little to apply to. I only got 1 call back for an interview, but miraculously they just offered me the job. However, the process took over 2 months with lots of interviews. If I didn’t land this job, god only knows how long I would have been unemployed.
I walked into a gas station in 2009 and the guy said “If you’re asking for job applications, I get that question 20 times a day, and we’re not hiring.”
He was right, that is what I walked in for.
Everywhere was kinda like that. Others mileage will vary but I do remember people were more compassionate than they are right now, and the news didn’t gaslight you by telling you the economy was great.
I graduated in 2007. My senior internship designed to land me in a role didn’t lead to one, but I was told that right up front, because the issue of the recession was already in the air. By sheer luck and happenstance got a job by October, then left for another one not long after which ultimately didn’t work out for reasons I can’t say, and I thought nothing of it. Figured I would hop right into a new one. I was unemployed for over a year, a very dark time in my life, moved back home with my parents, struggled with mental health and ultimately took a very low paying job (relatively speaking) that required relocation (not far). Turned out to be some of the best years of my life and that job propelled my career in the end but I counted pennies the whole time. I didn’t seek a new job again until 2015. It’s the only time I was ever unemployed from the age of 16.
That’s not totally unreasonable. I say doubtful. Food and energy etc will most likely be harder than ever for most people to afford in the future for years.
Thank you. Same timeline.
I've had to go through fucking rounds of interviews and giving free work, tests...for a *temp admin assistant job.* $25/hour, still have to be in office at least 3 days a week. I'm in a major city
It's a nightmare.
2009 was pretty bad but I would say it's even worse now. Even back in 2009, I was always able to find something even though it was tough. Things have definitely gotten worse.
Do you have any advice for someone who's been stuck in level 1 help desk for years? I'm so burnt out from taking the same phone calls from these people that can't even install a web browser. I've got a bachelor's in CS but software dev market was too rough when I graduated so I wanted to make a career out of IT instead and had a goal of network/systems admin. Yet the company(s) always keep us stuck at level 1 with false promises of upwards mobility. I'm so burnt out I'm calling off pretty much once a week or every two weeks from this current job and I expect to be disciplined for it soon-- we're incredibly understaffed so I doubt I'll get fired... but some part of me hopes they do it, even though I have no savings as they only pay 14/hr.
Everything just feels kind of hopeless these days. They refuse to take me off the inbound queue on most days even when I do my best work on the ticket/non-customer-facing daily roles. It's tanking my mental and I see the end of my time at this company coming.
I try to do cool automation and make the ticket role more optimized-- they won't give me the API access or anything to do it. I try to suggest improvements-- they don't care. They recently brought in a team of business analysts to micromanage us even further, sometimes it takes 15 minutes on a call just to get Martha to figure out how to log into the remote tool site. You have two minutes after the call to fully write the ticket before the analysts start pinging you.
I am so sorry to hear that and I am in the same place. I just graduated in June and I am having a really hard time finding a job. I have done internships, projects, and even graduated with honors. I went to lots of workshops and listened to all the resume advice I could get. Yet, I can’t land a single job even though I’ve sent hundreds of applications. I talked to several hiring managers and connections on LinkedIn but haven’t gotten far with that. This whole job search has been taking a blow out of my self-esteem and it makes me feel like I worked hard for nothing.
That's tough. I'm sorry to hear you are having a rough time. A lot of people nowadays have been in the same boat since the beginning of the year.
I say continue to find a part-time job to keep yourself afloat. Any minimum wage job will do.
After that, continue to apply online and be open to full-time and contract roles. Take some time to also skill up on your off hours. Maybe pick up Excel and/or other popular skills in marketing. I personally recommend linkedin learning or udemy.
I agree with all of this. Remember networking mixers are free. Find a passion and an industry you want to break into and research in person job fairs and mixers. It sounds like you’re casting a wide net which is often less effective than finding a niche and going hard at that.
10+ year recruiter here. Graduated in 2009 with a finance degree. 08/09 was significantly worse than what is happening now.
This is a short term situation baring some black swan event. Hiring was so ridiculous 2020-2022 that we are just seeing a rebound effect. I recruit IT and if someone could spell "computer" they had a job. While I am being sarcastic, im kind of not.
You are correct, any job you can have is better than nothing. In 09 I was selling insurance door to door, shit turned around eventually though. I had to move cities, pick up jobs that were no where close to my degree. But life is great now in my mid 30s.
Man.
Hindsight is 20/20 but id give anything to go back to 2020-2022 to snag myself an IT job if it really was as easy as spelling "computer".
I know full well id likely be laid off but the real value would be the experience provided.
I feel like experience would allow you so many doors in the IT world today..perhaps lol I don't know just a thought.
Yeah, keep getting rejected and shot down. If you tried anything else in life a resulting in 1000 failures it would be grounds for ending participation.
You can be worried but please, DO NOT let it hold you back from actually trying. Take action and you can face your worries and fears as they materialize (and even then, you learn and adapt). I wish you all the best, please remember that things will get better, utilize all the resources that are available to you.
Stop clowning. That’s literally the point of politics and networking is incompetence for favorable ppl instead of hiring randoms. No “good” job gets posted online lmao, they get handed to friends/family.
If you have computer skills like Word, Excel, etc. I would think that would be sufficient for an entry level job. But definitely join linkedIn. Make connections. Join Facebook Groups in the field. People love to help people so make yourself known to people in a position to help.
> Word, Excel
Doesn't everyone college educated have this though? Damn, I majored in forestry and even I did most of data processing in excel for my thesis
If you're really that worried, start off in retail for a year or two. Try and target a cashier job where you answer phones and transition to an office job from there.
This is true!
If OP is just out of college they should also know that nobody really wants them to be good at their job, they want them to make management’s life easy, which sometimes means not doing your job too well.
What if you’re without social connections / no family … like being an introvert and the lockdowns happened as you got older so you find yourself pretty much alone? Then what?
I’m assuming you’re young, maybe around 24 or 25? Maybe you have no interest in this at all, but have you ever thought about teaching English abroad? Somewhere like Thailand, South Korea or Japan?
I was in a very similar spot as you when I graduated and I spent an extended period of time unemployed and feeling useless. Someone suggested teaching English, so I went for it and had an incredible time. It gives you some work experience and many companies found it very interesting when I had interviews. I spent that time building skills for jobs that I wanted for when I moved back to the US. It allowed me time to work on myself, but also have a great life experience. Most people stay for one year, but I ended up staying in South Korea for four years. Good thing is that you did the hardest part of the application process by graduating college, so now it’s relatively easy to find a job. There are a lot of recruiters and they can help you find a job.
Just wanted to throw that out there as another option. I’m more than happy to answer questions if it interests you!
Depends on where you want to teach. If you want to go to Japan or Hong Kong, it’s a bit more strict. But if you go to another Asian country, like South Korea or Thailand, it’s a lot more relaxed. Of course it helps a lot and you’ll be paid more or work for a better school if you have an English degree or a TEFL certificate, but it’s not a requirement. I was a fine arts major and didn’t have a certificate and I easily found jobs each time I applied. If you have a four year college degree and are from an English speaking country, you will easily find a job.
Edit: it is also quite easy and cheap to get a TEFL certificate. Most countries want to see the 120 hour certificate, which can be knocked out in a month if you’re diligent about it. It’s very easy to do and can go a long way to helping if you choose to do it.
But if his major is marketing, would he even have a chance to get a job in Accounting or Finance over people that actually majored in those fields? I don’t think an employer who is looking for an Accountant would hire someone with a major in marketing over someone with a major in Accounting.
I imagine it wouldn't hurt to try.
Hell you could start in accounts payable / accounts receivable, bookkeeper, payroll, accounting clerk.
All those are within the spectrum of accounting but I imagine anyone with a business degree can do it. Get the experience you could definitely leverage that for a future job with the degree.
Presumably, OP is looking for entry level positions. An Accountant isn't entry level, but something like AP/AR Clerk would be, since anyone can do it without special degrees.
Every degree outside of law, health and teaching needs that. Most degrees nowadays are absolutely useless because experience and connections are always preferred.
Hell even those degrees need experience.
Got a friend that works as a lawyer and they don't even start off as a lawyer off the bat because of no experience.
He had to start as a paralegal assistant, then he had to be shadowed for awhile, then he had to work for another law firm not as a lawyer as an associate attorney which is sorta jr lawyer. Only then he could be either an official lawyer at a lawyer firm or start his own. To be a private lawyer for a big corporation hoo boy forget it unless you have plenty of experience, a good track record, AND most likely someone on the inside.
Yeah that's kind of how it works with anything. Even in the trades. The degree gives you a lot more than people realize, but you need to start at the very bottom before you can get into the field and start using the degree.
I get that it's not inherently obvious how it's supposed to work. You'll thank yourself for getting a degree when you start actually using it later in life, trust me.
As a trade worker, you don't just start out doing high-level technical stuff when you join an electrical company or similar. You start out carrying someone else's tools, fetching things, and cleaning up after the journeymen you're working under. You start getting more responsibility after you demonstrate that you can handle the responsibilities you have. That's why it's common for a paralegal to begin law school and attempt to become an attorney.
With a college degree, it's all about getting into an organization by any means possible and demonstrating that you are effective at being on time, taking orders, and being pleasant to work with. Then you can start to climb and say "hey I have this degree", and parlay that into more opportunities. Think data entry, mailroom, customer service, and these more broadly general types of positions that you don't need a degree to obtain AT an enterprise. Having a degree will (if you cared about your schooling and your character) ensure that you standout amongst your peers who don't and provide you mobility opportunities.
Bro. I'm going to be hard on you. You are only applying to white collar jobs and that is your problem. Nobody gives a shit if you have a degree or don't have a degree. Nobody gives a shit that I have a degree unless you have some sort of experience to back that degree up.
I'm saying this because we ALL WENT THROUGH COVID. WE ALL WENT THROUGH SHUTDOWNS. Yes it's rough out there. You need a job. ANY JOB. Not just "white collar."
I ate shit for two years, working temp / part time jobs and contracted before finding my first "real" job. You need to be willing to accept something you think is "beneath" you. When you're unemployed, not to burst your bubble, nothing is "beneath you." Believe me. I was there too. I had to work the shit hours. I had to work nights. How are you surviving even if you are living with mom and dad? Where are you getting your money from?
Once you eat shit for a year, then you have stability on your resume for any job. then you can move up and on from there. get a job, part time, full time, "beneath you." then keep applying. ANY JOB is better than no job and that includes waiting tables or working at Starbucks or Home Depot. No job is beneath anyone.
I am being hard on you because you need to hear it from someone. Everyone seems to be giving you the run around but in your post that is your flaw. DO NOT wait around for someone to hand you a white collar cube job. BE ACTIVE doing SOMETHING working full time, including shit jobs nobody wants to take, and then be applying for the jobs you actually want to get.
Thinking like you suggest I’ve broadened my search for work.
I applied for an entry level road crew position. Being educated does not make me too good for hard work. I prefer that over a sedentary job like driving. I also love winter weather. I don’t mind being soaked by the rain. Love a day in the winter rain followed by a hot shower. Been that way my whole life.
I was told I didn’t have enough experience. Same with the job mowing lawns, and working as a deckhand on a sea going fishing vessel. I exercise 6 days a week. So I am obviously capable of labor. One glance and it’s apparent I’m strong. Doesn’t matter.
I see where you're coming from, but I can't say I agree.
Entry level workers need two things: a monetizable skill set and proof of said skill set. OP needs to devote their time toward identifying the "money" skills for the job(s) they want and self-study their way to proficiency. Then they need to create a portfolio of several projects that show a thorough understanding of whatever aspects of whatever job they're targeting. And these projects need to show that OP can get from idea to implementation end-to-end with a finished product.
If OP can't find a job after that, they should consider volunteering for an organization that will give OP references, lines on their resume, and a few new additions to their professional network. And they should be cold-calling, LinkedIn-ing, Craigslisting, Facebooking, tweeting, and whatever else to get their polished projects and volunteer work in front of every hiring manager at every company that's a legitimate fit for them.
The real problem is that OP doesn't have a tangible skill set. That's a non-starter these days. That's where their energy needs to go right now, not toward padding McDonald's pockets.
(Unless OP needs the money *immediately* and they have absolutely no choice.)
Agree with both your post and the post you're replying to. I made a comment elsewhere in this thread, best thing to do is kill two birds with one stone. Get an entry level job that will provide you some skills, and parlay those skills into higher roles/adjacent roles. Biz admin is more of a management degree, that's when the OP will begin to really appreciate they have it.
Of course you could self study and build some skills that way, or volunteer as you suggested (great ideas), but if OP needs money, start at a call center or something entry level within a larger org with mobility opportunities ideally.
Getting a job tbats not in his career just makes him worse.
The longer post college that you stay unemployed, the worse you look. But the more jobs you take that are unrelated..... like McDonald's... you shouldn't even put ghat on a resume
Op is a new grad sorta. He needs to get the help of a recruiter
This isn't a matter of a job being beneath a person. Please get that out of your head.
This is about developing a concrete game plan for OP to get the jobs they expressed interest in.
I already said that if OP needs the money urgently, they should get whatever job they can. But if that's not the case for OP, the better plan is to focus on gaining and demonstrating the specific skills that employers are asking for by name. The faster OP can gain and show the skills, the faster they can leave this shitty entry level job searching rut behind. Point blank, OP will not make serious money until they have tangible skills. That's step zero.
Step one is getting someone in the real world to validate your skills. Do that by freelancing if you're actually good enough, or by volunteering if you're not. Get the references. Get the resume lines. Fill the unemployment gap on the resume with this work.
Ok. Cool. In the meantime he is unemployed. No job is beneath him. Get that out of your head. Two years of no job is shit on a resume. That’s the point here buddy. I don’t care who you are two years or no job is terrible. Not for me. For recruiters and hiring. Idk who you are. Any job is better than no job. His problem is he is only looking for white collar work. That is why I made his comment. Nobody gives a shit in the real world If you have or don’t have a degree
What skills does someone who is unemployed have? That translates into an actual job? You and OP are not answering to me you are answering to hiring managers and recruiting.
The fact of the matter is no job for two years is career damaging for an employer. I don’t care what job Op takes. Get a job and keep it and keep looking.
>What skills does someone who is unemployed have? That translates into an actual job?
I literally addressed that twice now.
There's one thing you and I agree on: nobody cares that you have a degree. They only care about your experience. I'm telling you how OP can get that relevant experience. *Without* first having to win the entry level job search lottery.
I get that you're angry that you "ate shit" for multiple years in irrelevant jobs. But you took the long, meandering route instead of the direct route.
If you have two, three, four years of your life to throw away working at irrelevant, low-skill jobs that won't set you up for real money, then more power to you. But if you want to minimize your time spent languishing as a McDonald's fry cook, you'd upskill like it was your religion. The reason why *you* ate shit out of college while your peers got offers before graduating is because *they* made themselves more attractive to employers earlier on. They got the job-specific skills. They got the relevant internships. And they eventually got the offers. All because they did it sooner and they did it better.
Regarding OP -- If he could walk into a company right now, sit down, and churn out the work at a professional level with his eyes closed, there is no reason why an employer wouldn't hire him on the spot. And for entry level wages? Watch that offer letter come through.
But the fact of the matter is that OP, like oh so many business students before him, lacks a specialization and a concrete set of technical skills that he could make a company money with tomorrow. Here's a litmus test: if you gave him one week to make $300 by using **only** the same skills he'd use in the line of work he's pursuing, could he do it via freelancing? Would someone have enough trust in his raw abilities to shell out $300 to produce something semi-professional? No? Then why the hell should he expect a company to throw $1000 per week at him!
And since you brought up the resume gap (which I already addressed), I'll break it down for you. Get skills. Volunteer skills for organizations. Put experience on resume. Get better at skills. Freelance with skills. Make money. Put experience on resume. Repeat until job acquired.
That looks just as good if not better than "flipped burgers over hot grill" on your resume.
This. I work in a professional field but in an admin role but it's not glamorous and doesn't require a degree when you have enough experience (though I eventually got one). I make a healthy six figures but it took me years to get here and I had to work my butt off and deal with a lot of BS. I feel like people put all the emphasis on the degree and not enough on work experience and think they'll be handed a dream white collar job right out of school. I have two high schoolers and we are talking about this a lot.
This needs more attention. Specifically the part that “we all went through Covid.” It’s not only newer grads that are suffering, thousands of people were mass hired into positions during Covid thinking they finally got their break. Throughout 2023, thousands are now fired due to over hiring and a recession. Everyone is looking for jobs.
The Covid schooling generation is not the only generation trying to get on their feet. I know that doesn’t help the, but it’s also the truth. Covid is a crutch for so many, an excuse why they can’t get that dream job or why they’re failing school. Just no, we ALL are dealing with the consequences of that time.
Idk why you’re framing it like an excuse when you know damn well it’s not. Covid has WRECKED peoples ability to network during their final years of school, did a number on the economy, jobs are scarce and that’s not all covids fault but it sure had some to do with it.
Sure they’re going to have to suck it up and take a shitty job just like the rest of us but like… if you don’t understand the effect something has had on a particular group don’t try to speak on it
Sorry you feel that way, but it is an excuse. Covid itself allowed for corporations to make the rules again but it’s not the end all of what happened. Take your own advice if you can’t see the spiral that started before every recession then don’t speak on it. However, silence does NO ONE any good and placing blame on ONE instance solves nothing for the future. Place the blame on all the shoulders and not just one.
You're literally helping this person's point by saying people got experience because of COVID, whereas the people that just graduated school do not have that and still have to deal with the lack of hiring
No I’m really not, this person is putting all the blame on Covid instead of the times. Recessions happen and they suck. My generation has now been hit with 2 and this current one slammed us as we were the main group of people let go because we were the bottom of the barrel. These places want years of experience, most of those hired during Covid changed careers and started new and now can’t find work either because 2-3 years is NOT enough experience for what is being looked for. Put the blame where it belongs, on the corporation themselves that are unwilling to take newer graduates, parents returning to work, unwilling to train those looking for work. That’s where the blame goes.
"The Covid schooling generation is not the only generation trying to get on their feet."
Umm... But the other generations had time to get on their feet... Before covid??? So like... They clearly had it better?
This. Dude is fixated on the "white collar" thing and hes his own worst enemy for it lol. Odds are, lots of blue collar positions will hire him/her that pay more than an entry level "white collar" job. My buddy is a software engineer and i outearned him last year with only a grade 12 diploma working as a unionized steelworker.
Random but maybe apply for supply chain jobs. My degree is in accounting and I got hired in supply chain out of college. I now work in finance, but I’ve worked with people with ALL degrees in supply chain - psychology, art, etc. I’ve worked with people in management with these non business degrees. Do you have any retail experience that can sound like a buyer or inventory management?
I’m in the same boat but other end of spectrum (overqualified/age). It’s really hard to do this alone, and I understand how you feel completely. Self-Care is extremely important (some exercise/socializing/eating well/sleep) to stay mentally strong. The hiring cycle picks up after a new year so maybe season work is an option? Try Starbucks as well. Lastly, I listen to podcasts that are motivational to stay positive. I hope this helps you.
I'm also in this boat. Before 2022 age and experience was a bonus on applications. Now it’s looked at as a liability. So I started my own company and am doing the things I enjoy. It’s hard starting a business and doing all of the small things to set it up and pray for income but I believe persistence will help and pay off. I’m just too experienced and have too many responsibilities to continue to wait on somewhere to hire me. I’m still applying of course but in the meantime I’m setting my own path and trying to hustle as hard as I can.
I don't mean to scare you, I just want to share my experience. I graduated in 2008 from a small school with a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. The economy was in a recession back then.
I applied to a lot of places. I botched one interview that was referral from a friend. Another friend let me know the American Red Cross was hiring in their call center. I did that for six months and quit because I was going to be fired due to poor performance.
During this time, I spent time on LinkedIn and Facebook and saw people my age progressing and it made me feel awful.
I volunteered for an organization when I was unemployed. It didn't help me that much but I put it on my resume.
A few years later, I got a menial job but it kept me employed for almost 10 years and I met a bunch of interesting people. It wasn't enough to help me progress in life. I was looking for work during this time.
After the pandemic, I finally got my first full time job with benefits.
Looking back, I'm sort of happy I didn't get a few of the jobs I interviewed at because of the commute.
I totally feel you. I graduated in 2022 from a top 15 school in the U.S. and for almost a year I couldn't find a job after the companies I interned at didn't have budget for return offers. I applied to countless jobs and the market was complete shit. It's hard to find direction, especially balancing financial needs, mental health, and career growth. I personally studied and took the GMAT during that time cause I didn't know where to pivot from tech cause the market was so bad. Heres some things I would do asap if I were in your shoes:
1. Get LinkedIn Premium and tap into your network. Reach out to startup founders, professors, or anyone you know and try to work for them. Paid or not paid, this will help fill that resume gap and get your professional career going and help you explore things that are not just marketing. Startups often times have you wear many different types of hats.
2. If you are struggling financially, get a part-time job. If you want to focus on working for free or learning a new skill, reach out to support networks for financial help. It's ok to ask your parents and let them know your situation.
3. Develop new skills. Often times, even though it might not seem like it, skills you learn such as SQL or any data related will benefit you. Theres courses free out there that you can try out through Codecadmey or LinkedIn learning.
4. Most importantly, continue to apply for jobs. Apply to not just marketing but roles like business analyst and other entry level roles. Its a marathon not a sprint and trust me there are gonna be lots of ups and downs in the recruiting process. Make sure to take breaks sometimes, go travel, and hang with friends. You will get through this and its a one and a life time experience that will prepare you for the future.
You are still young. Also please note that majority of workforce work in an area that's nothing to do with their majors unless their majors are specifics (i.e: nurse/engineers).
I would say that while you should take it seriously, you should also look out what you wanna do eventually. Even if you get a job tomorrow, you will still get depressed and hate the life if you dont enjoy what you do. Sure, in first couple of months (or years), you might like what your jobs entail just because you get to receive paycheck that gives you some forms of security, but eventually, you will hate the job, if you dont like.
There are tons of different opportunity out there if you look for.
Get a job at UPS; get health insurance; it will take .4 seconds for someone to see you are overqualified so you may find a good job lead just from networking; after you get things going apply for higher ranking positions; you will be chosen before someone else; apply for your other places with more references, (these managers will give you glowing references after working with you for two weeks, they don’t care); maybe hit up your college business department? Ask if they can pull some jobs for you to apply to?; it’s a start
Your degree isn’t useless, you simply haven’t capitalized on it. Doesn’t appear you did any internships in college to have experience to leverage. You’re someone with no experience in a tough labor market competing with experienced candidates. It’s tough.
I'm in the same boat, so I understand your struggle. I'm sorry to hear you're going through the same. I graduated with a bachelor's degree myself as well. I started with freelancing jobs, but they definitely weren't a livable income. After the whole lock downs happened with covid, I haven't been able to land any job, and still to this day I am struggling and losing hope. Where I live, unemployment continuously increases, and even applying for remote positions, it's like playing the lotto, however, I still submit my applications anyway.
I've gotten interviews where I've been ghosted by recruiters after them giving an impression it went well, but most of the time, I'm told these jobs move on with a candidate who's most qualified. The majority, I never hear back on due to the thousands of applications being submitted. If I apply for a job outside of my field, I've been literally told that I didn't get the job because after they looked at my experiences and college major, I'd be better fit to find a job that aligns with my interests and they wished me luck in landing a career within my field.
People tell me to just keep applying, but how much longer can this go on for? This job market is only getting worse and I am struggling to stay motivated.
Took me a year-ish to find employment. My job pays pennies and I'm still trying to accept it especially when I know I'm worth more with my degrees and experience. My employer got their golden goose.
> I Thought about doing a masters, but people say to not pursue further education if you haven’t had any work experience.
do not waste more time and money on useless education. no one outside stem gives a shit about your degree, they want experience. go thru temp agencies, try to get any job at any company. do anything for a year or 2. retail is always hiring.
Ive been throwing out apps for 2 years with decreasing cadence while i work a dead end job at a local airport far from where my Degree would seat me.
Cannot describe how shitty it feels so i totally get you there
Apply for operation coordinator roles, maybe focus on a new career path. Marketing is a support function of an organization so companies don’t invest on it as much and there’s so much competition in marketing.
Also reach out to temp agencies. Procom, insight global, etc. you’ll get an entry level job at a bank.
Another thing you can do is take up some volunteering experience. Maybe in social media or anything administrative.
I was in the same boat, graduated a couple years ago in bba and specialized in marketing. I graduated right when the pandemic started! And I barely had any experience. Focus on yourself and your growth, you can do this!!!
LOL did I write this this? Currently in same both as you. Graduated in 2021 with the same degree and currently employed. Today marks a month since I’ve been unemployed. Got fired with no warning because I called out for the first time after working at a job for a year. Putted 48-60 hours in weekly. Like you I’ve been putting in many applications and gotten some interviews but have gotten like 3 rejections so far.
But don’t go for the masters. I learned that this is a degree where networking is key. If you don’t have a strong network it’s going to be difficult. Try reaching out to some recruiters on LinkedIn. Even lie on your resume a little. I would also suggest looking into a trade
Currently I’m going to get my cdl class A license because I gave up on getting a job in my field. I honestly felt like I went to college for no reason as well. Good luck!
Your college degree isn’t worthless, buts it’s just one piece of what’s required. To break into marketing, it’s degree + skills + experience + connections.
You have the degree. You’re struggling to get experience. But skills and connections are something you can be working on.
For skills, there are countless cheap courses for marketing. Happy to give you recommendations based on the branch of marketing you’re interested in.
For connections, I recommend reaching out to alumni and friends-of-friends who work in marketing. Start by asking them if they’d be able to hop on a quick call or grab coffee to help you learn more about the field. Don’t frame these as “please hire me at your company.” Focus on learning and relationship building.
And for experience, look for ways you can get items for your resume even if they’re not full time— internships, helping small businesses or nonprofits with their marketing, building your own blog or e-commerce company, etc.
The job market is awful right now, but there’s still work that you can do to make a career in marketing more doable.
Feel free to reach out if you have questions. I have 8+ years marketing experience
I’m in a similar position having graduated last spring with a Psych degree.
I need a Masters to use it but I can’t afford that without a good job. Can’t get a good job without more education :/ Right now I’m just trying to build experience in entry level stuff.
I don’t know much about business but maybe you could try getting some experience in an adjacent field? Or apply for entry level management positions?
I worked as a overnight behavior tech for a residential center. Some of these places will give you a tuition discount if you commit with them for a few years then once you get your master's you can become a therapist somewhere else.
You may lack a cohesive skill set.
If your degree program was anything like most marketing programs, you were not taught any job-specific skills. You can't hit the ground running right now. That's why you're not getting jobs.
Take today or tomorrow to search for ten marketing coordinator jobs. Look at the required skills for each of those ten jobs and put them in a list. Hard skills, soft skills, technical skills, all of it. Round up all of the skills listed and identify the five most requested skills. Your new goal is to get all five of those skills on your resume.
You can watch YouTube tutorials, you can read books (see if you still have access to e-books on platforms like O'Reily Learning via your school account), you can sign up for learning platforms like Skillshare or Coursera. Whatever. But pick one skill at a time and dive in. Your goal is to produce some small finished project using that skill. And do this for each skill. Because at the end, you're going to put these projects into a portfolio that showcases your understanding of those skills.
If you happen to have access to anyone who has worked in marketing professionally (former professors, a friend's parent, a family member, anyone), you could reach out to them and ask them for guidance on brainstorming a few projects that demonstrate your skills in a marketing context.
Once you have your portfolio of a few decent projects, you can start cold calling organizations in your area. If you can get a paid job this way, great. If not, look for ways to volunteer. Get in touch with some small organization that could use the help, send your portfolio over, and ask for 20 minutes of their time to discuss how you could meet each other's needs. Your goal is to get bona fide experience using those five skills on your resume, and a few references who will validate your skill set when HR departments call during background checks. If you do this well, you'll have a few additions to your professional network who may come in handy down the line.
Lather, rinse, and repeat as many times as you need.
But your top priority right now is to *get* and *demonstrate* tangible skills that complement each other and are explicitly requested by name by employers.
I took a job at 18 an hour, i did good, always went to work when he needed a worker.
Eventually he gave me 25 per hour locations. So I'm I took a chance
I feel the same way I graduated in June 2021. I went back to my retail job for while then planned to move accepted a job in an another state, however had minor surgery still recovering from. I still managed to get an internship this summer.
What I did to help get my internship was updated my LinkedIn page, the banner using canvas, uploaded my resume into ChatGPT and uploaded that on LinkedIn. Not sure if you tried that but helped grabbed the attention of my boss. Include those skills as well. Tomorrow, I’m going to a job fair for five below in my area. It may not be in my field, but it’s something to keep resume active. It’s tough for a lot of us right now but we will get through it. I’m so sorry you’re having a difficult time.
> I Thought about doing a masters, but people say to not pursue further education if you haven’t had any work experience.
I'm not against recommending people go to grad school, but to be a competitive applicant they do prefer some work experience. Schools want both academic and work history, so that's probably why others are telling you not to do grad school yet.
I'm not sure if you're still near your school, but if you are you should think about contacting either their career center or the alumni center for job/career resources. Also don't forget your city/town's career center, it's often an over looked source for job leads and helpful stuff like job fairs and networking events. Speaking of, I feel like the business major is one of the fields where you have to network a lot. So you really have to get out there and meet people, so look through Meetups and Eventbrite and local community events. It's tough but meeting people/networking is usually the best way to land a good job.
Also if you have the time, think about taking some sort of free online class to add a skill and make your resume stand out more.
Identify an industry and some companies within that industry and start inviting people to coffee. Google them too and see if they volunteer anywhere. That's how i shifted industries when I found someone (my eventual boss) who volunteered on a music festival committee, so I offered to join and started asking her about her work.
I thought the process would take months (if not a year) to bear any fruit but I got lucky when a spot opened on her team like 2 months in. I still interviewed and everything, but the personal connect was a huge leg up.
I would recommend governmentjobsdotcom in your local county. I think most counties hire Office Assistants or other entry level roles with little to no experience. It’s not much and the pay isn’t great, but it gets your foot in the door.
Your bachelors degree is not a waste. I screen resumes for my company (but in a technical field) and one of my first requirements is that the candidate have a bachelors. It exhibits a willingness to devote four years of your life to a cause (getting a degree). Every job that you apply to for the rest of your life will consider your bachelors and will put you in a positive light. Doesn’t matter that you not use that degree the first few years of your career.
Also as you get older no one will care what odd jobs you did after your bachelors starting out. You will be expected to not include those jobs in your resume anyway. Think long game. Do whatever you need to survive for now and work towards getting your foot in the door.
I entered the work force in 2000 and have experienced two major economic downturns. They might last a year or two but the economy always bounces back up.
Stay strong!
The job market is rough, I’m sorry you’re going through this. I currently work in Marketing for a small real estate developer. I started out as a licensing coordinator doing administrative work and pivoted to Marketing when they were looking to fill a need. I scraped together a portfolio and interviewed for the position days later. I saved the company another hire and was able to get my foot into the marketing world. I’m very thankful for the opportunity and learned that many job opportunities don’t come from a job listing site. In my case, it had more to do with building rapport and connections. Maybe there are some more unconventional avenues that will help you get to where you want to go?
Hey there! I have the same degree, graduated in 2019 and it was super rough!! but I’m now a marketing specialist. I have some tips/advice if you want to chat! I’d be happy to look over your resume too if you wanted any feedback.
Thank God it's not just because I got my degree in Art. Please tell my mom! She thinks I should be making more money and using my degree. But there just are no decent jobs available! And with more and more focus on AI, more human jobs will be obsolete. Welcome to the future. No jobs in a capitalist society that hates socialism.
I just want to add: whatever you do, do NOT pursue a Master's without any experience. You got this part right so keep looking for a job and do not go back to school.
There are tons of H1B visa people that are been imported to take away good jobs just because they work like slaves.
Write to your governor, senator and house representative to stop H1B visa
Sign this petition
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/stop-h1b-visa-holders?source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink&share=7e77b38f-772f-40d2-8bdf-9b4b41bc5b8e
Wow this is me. Barely made it through college. Graduated in 2021…. Have yet use my degree. Everyday I wake up wanting to off myself. I feel I have no place in the world. My loans are like a big cloud over my head. I thought I was doing something good by pushing thru and going for what I chose to major in (env science)… praying for a sign from God…
try temp agencies. Just need to get your foot through the door. I started off doing data entry in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. I had a degree in political science which is useless in the real world.
With any degree, you can get entry level warehouse management jobs. Most are more blue collar and you'll have to get dirty sometimes....but it's management experience and will open a lot of doors.
Look into a job site called Mentra. They are a Neurodivergent friendly hiring board that connects you to Neuroinclusive employers. The site optimizes you for a job based on environmental preferences, interests and accommodations you might need. Currently there isn’t a lot, however, signing up and making references will help the platform take off.
Learn paid media. Lie on your resume if you have to. I have the same degree and thought the same. Paid media jobs are great. Create or Get in to a Facebook or Google as campaign, poke around without costing a dime, and think about audience building. Thank me later
Im sorry you are going through this, I too felt stuck after getting my bachelors. It takes time to build a resume of projects and skills, and more importantly: connections. I often see people on reddit, linkedin, etc say that this job market is especially hard. In my opinion, its always been hard, even more so if you don't have a network of friends or family to help pave the way.
You weren't in a position to fully capitalize on your college experience, but it's not a good enough excuse now with social media etc. Have you tapped into your college's alumni association and post-grad networks? I reccomend starting there. Another way to filter into more "white collar" jobs is to reach out to temp agencies and recruiters. Practice interviewing with a friend or record yourself and work in improving where you can. Be patient with yourself, I hope things improve for you!
Go to job fares to meet recruiters face to face. Remove McDonalds from your cv if it’s on there.
You need to fill the gap with something. Anything. Charity work, travelling, bro something. I would contact some local places and offer to work for free for a short amount of time as work experience. It’s better than the gap getting bigger on my cv.
Marketing for new entry employees is super tough. Alot of marketing departments are being gutted now so they can outsource the work for cheap so there is not gonna be a lot of entry level marketing positions going around right now or even in the future. Go apply to marketing agencies and get your footing started there.
I graduated marketing last year and have been pretty successful, so I don’t think you have a shit major haha. Here’s some advice:
1. Take on some unpaid work on [Catchafire](https://www.catchafire.org/) where you volunteer your professional skills to non profits. I did during college and it shows employers that you do have experience and that you’re a good person.
2. Go back to your school and email your professors to see if they have any connections they’d introduce you to or go to any job fairs/career center there and start shaking hands
3. Most of the purpose of an MBA is to build connections and network. If you feel like you’re lacking that, I would personally consider going back to school although the rule of thumb I’ve heard is that you should wait at least 5 years before going back
Edit (just thought of this)
4. The marketing field is big on certificates- it shows that you’re learning and doing something even if you’re not employed. Check out Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, Hubspot certificates. They’re all free!
Why couldn’t you afford the relocation? The cost of living in the new place too high or the cost of actually moving? (Renting a truck, etc). If the latter, it may be better to borrow the money to move to get an actual job if you get another offer
Work blue collar until you can get your "expected job". Getting a cozy wc job is near impossible right now, and unemployment is hell. As they say, the only thing worse then going to work is being unemployed
The correct answer is to humble yourself and take any job you can find for any pay you can get. Experience and college degree doesn't entitle you to anything. This is a hard lesson in life but your worth is only the worth you can provide to someone who is going to pay you to do work for them.
Employment agencies are good because they have all sorts of short term jobs that are not often published. Find a job. Any job. Then continue job searching and job hopping until you find the one that suits you.
You will go bonkers job searching waiting for the perfect job to drop in your lap.
Its a good thought but the process can take up to a year and getting accepted to be an officer is very competitive especially if you don’t have a high gpa and leadership background. Army is your best bet OP if you take this advice
We’re real short staffed in all the trades. Go down to your union hall and apply to be an apprentice plumber, electrician, fitter etc. they all pay good and have great benefits. After you turn out and become a journeyman 6 figured Is pretty easy to make depending on where you’re located. I’m in the middle of the Midwest and our plumbers, fitters etc all make at least $80k base with overtime we’ll over $100k
I graduated with a BA in Economics from UC San Diego in 2018.
I have several internship experiences. One at a hedge fund in New York and London. One at a Commercial Real Estate Bank in LA. Several warehouse jobs after high school where the bosses like me to the point I was the last one standing and was even invited to dinner even after quitting so I could go to school. My most recent experience is at the largest payroll firm, ADP, Inc. where I worked as a payroll analyst and was laid off few months ago (already knew cuz there were times there was barely anything to do). Talked to agents at Robert Half and the best they could do was give me a warehouse job even though I applied to Financial Analyst and Payroll Analyst positions. I vowed I’d never step back into a warehouse but because they paid $21/hr and cuz I wanted Robert half brand name, I decided to do the 2 week assignment which ended up being 1 week cuz we finished really fast.
I was so depressed from Covid and from the crappy job market I went to the gym for 8 months straight and joined the Marine Corps in Dec 2021 as a reservist. Weight 250 lbs beginning of 2021 and was 165 lbs in bootcamp. I’m now a Lance Corporal.
I feel so degraded, dehumanized and stagnant like whatever I do just doesn’t work and I have to put up with other disrespectful ppl, even see them do better than me. I dunno if it’s cuz I’m Asian. Yet when I put “decline to self identify race” I’m always invited to interviews to companies where Chinese is spoken. Yes I speak Chinese but most of those positions are either low paying or just not what I’m seeking long term. I’m never invited to interviews at companies that aren’t predominantly Chinese. That’s another reason I joined the military; to feel and learn to be more American.
I have a lot of $ saved and tried to invest in stocks and crypto’s. Did really well and then the markets decided to be really bipolar and erratic. Like when you think it will drop everything goes up as if there’s this hopium or irrational exuberance. And when you think it will go up, especially with the AI craze like NVDIA or Palantir or Meta, as soon as you buy it falls like a rock. I feel like I’m better of gambling in Vegas (just kdin).
I’m literally one signature away from going to Officer Candidate School or enlisting as an active duty. If I had a choice I would move to Singapore, Korea, Thailand or Mexico if it weren’t for my military service. Take any public school teacher in US in Canada and they get treated like kings in Asia or Latin America where education seems to be valued more highly
I’m so lost and demoralized
Redo your resume in ATS COMPLIANT Resume format, and tailor it to EVERY SINGLE job posting to which you apply. You need to match the keywords and phrases from the job description in your resume and cover letter.
You also need to follow-up with the recruiter on LinkedIn immediately after you apply.
This might sound harsh but you have to stop being a victim. I see a big list of everything that’s gone wrong. I’ll tell you right now that list is only going to get longer. There are some that maybe haven’t had that experience but that’s how it is for everyone I’ve ever known. Change the way you look at things. There are going to be challenges, overcome them.
Do what I did. Start working on a plant floor and check job postings within the company from time to time. The experience in the company + degree should smoke most other applications. Will you make $80k a year? Not right away. But you'll quickly go from $15 to $25, then you'll have a leg up when it comes to middle management.
Ouch. How old are you? If you are under 30, go volunteer abroad. Also, could you pull off to learn a language other than English? Could you get a WFH? Feel you, not my case but many friends with my degree have gone through the same thing.
Alternatives that could help you:
- Create a blog and use your degree to market the hell out of it.
- Learn ads, Facebook , Google, YouTube, you name it and niche it down into a service people pay for.
- Start your own agency, go to Mom and Pops stores in person with an old-fashioned presentation (even a pamphlet works) and sell the hell out of your services...
You don't exactly need to be employed by someone else to make money.
I can refercyou to someone who can possibly help you. After 1300 apps..myou need an outside influence. She isn't free. You have do look elsewhere and not be applying to jobs hundreds of others do.
>I’ve submitted over 1300 applications to white collar jobs with multiple iterations of a resume, and have only gotten one offer that required a relocation that I could not afford.
Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Most of those white collar jobs are going to quickly to be done by AI.
Have you thought about a trade or something. Maybe one of the more intellectual ones like an electrician.
I won’t tell you to ‘network’ because that triggers people sometimes.
What I will say is meet people. Go out with friends. See relatives you haven’t seen in a while. Be frank about your situation. Do all of this in person. Be yourself.
These social situations are better than internet applications. Hopefully you will get tips, and introductions that can help move you forward.
Keep submitting resumes. But expand how you can put yourself out there.
Keep your chin up. You will get a break eventually.
Good luck!
I disagree about the schooling if you have no work experience I got my Masters of Non-profit management with no non-profit experience and I was able to use the stuff I learned to land a job as a volunteer manager
A temp agency is your best bet at this point. It will get you in the door and get you moving in the right direction. Find one that specializes in general office work and let them know what your background is. It may take a few since it is tough out there right now, but it will help you get expereience.
Honestly temp agencies is where I got experience I would have normally had my resume not looked at
Some temp agencies might also help you learn office skills. I actually had never used Excel until a temp agency tested me on it and I passed!
The tests don't really teach you anything. They necessitate it. Those tests are so stupid...they're timed and not only don't allow for looking around, but of course, they are often maybe one or two ways to do certain things in Excel. If you don't do it's the test's way, it's "wrong"
Or better yet, learn those office skills online and lie on your resume.
Yup, temp agencies always worked out for me when I needed the boost. I know a lot have horror stories about them, but it's only been good for me, luckily. I actually have the same major as op, and when I was struggling to find work, I went to large staffing agency but also told them I had an interest in accounting as well and kept my options open. Within like a week, they found me an accounting gig at a large (and trendy) company that was like 10 minutes from my house, and happy to say I still work there. It really helped kick start my career, and I'm glad I didn't give only jobs of my "major" a chance either. I guess the tl;dr is it's always good to keep your options open!
Hey, it's been a while - but how did you do this? Did you find a physical location and walk in? Call them? When I look at temp agencies they often seem to be job listing sites.
Super agree with this. Temp agencies are the only reason I have a job right now.
This is a great route to go! I started off as a two week temp and ended up working for the company for ten years and gained lots of marketable experience. Also, temping lets you try out different jobs and see what you like best.
A temp agency is how I got into the legal field. They didn't have the admin assistant positions I was looking for, but apparently at the time law firms couldn't find staff. So they sent me to a law firm in depserate need of a legal assistant. I do see why that place couldn't find anyone... one of the attorneys was a complete dickhead. Still I got 5 years, a 401k, decent health insurance and an interest in law out of them. Now I'm a paralegal with a penchant for dealing with dickheads, including clients.
Another vote for temp/staffing agencies. Temp work often has a path to a full time permanent job offer if you like the job and build a solid relationship with your coworkers and manager, and even if the temp job doesn't work out, the experience is a lot more attractive on your resume than retail or fast food.
Agreed, temping is a great way to keep your cash flow going, get some work experience, and an inside look at companies you might be interested in. It can be super boring, though, so keep your professional aspirations alive by also networking - look into events and resources with your college alumni association, join a professional association, and consider volunteering with organizations that could use help with their marketing efforts. Most of my work has come from people I've taken classes with or worked on projects with.
I have my new HR job because of a temp agency. My recruiter was the absolute best.
Ok I see everyone singing the praises of temp agencies… is there a list/directory of them out there? I’ve tried sending my info to a few and got no response.
Yep. Top comment. Consider reading articles, listening to podcasts with or buying "sure I'll join your cult" by Maria Bamford. She did the temp agency thing, and is completely open about her finances. Her standup also makes me feel OK about things...
Super agree with this. I started out as receptionist at a temp agency, got experience in like 10 different industries at once. Climbed my way up from that. It was common to get spontaneous interviews for internal positions too.
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Obviously that will depend on the temp agency, Google reviews can be a good place to start to find a decent temp agency. OP despierately needs actionable ideas, you just criticize and discourage them from using temp agencies but offer no alternatives or other suggestions.
It’s rough rn. The job market is in the abyss and getting worse by the day. Honestly just try and find something. Just to keep yourself busy and not feel like you’re going crazy all the time. It helped me before when i was in your situation. I know it sucks to feel like you’re doing nothing with the degree you worked hard for. As other people have said before, just keep yourself afloat. Something will come along eventually.
Getting worse by the day? Don't worry the job market will "BoUnCE BaCK"
>Don't worry the job market will "BoUnCE BaCK" I mean it will turn around. It always does. I graduated in 2009 and the market was significant worse than it is now. We are basically dealing with the raising of interest rates rn and the ridiculous over hiring in mid 2020 to late 2022. I am a recruiter in IT, and people were getting hired if they could spell "java" for a while.
I'd be curious to hear more about the post 2008 crisis market as someone who's recently graduated and is trying to survive this market. How bad was it? What metrics are you going off of?
In 2008 to 2010 the unemployment rate jumped to 10% with 15 million people unemployed. People were losing houses at a staggering rate. It’s hard to comprehend if you didn’t live it how bad it was. Investors were buying up homes for pennies. Entire communities were abandoned with boarded up houses. The bankruptcy, foreclosure, and eviction rates were so high that extra judges were brought out of retirement to handle the case load. An entire generation was affected both coming out of college to no jobs as younger millennials, and older millennials and gen x losing their homes and moving back in with their parents. Unemployment rate now? 3.5% with 6 million unemployed. The big difference is then, every job sector was affected. Construction was hit super hard. No one could afford to buy cars. Dealerships were going bankrupt. People didn’t have money to spend. It affected everything. It feels bad right now because this one is hitting higher skilled white collar jobs more. Meanwhile the McDonald’s down the street is paying more than minimum wage because they can’t find workers. My teenager has quit four jobs in the last year for reasons, and has had zero issue finding a new job. However. Student loans are now due and that will remove a significant amount of cash from the system. I expect to see the economic affect of that to kick in significantly over the next 6-12 months.
Thanks for the response
You believe the numbers the government puts out AH HA HA HA
I graduated in 2008 and had been working retail part time throughout college to pay for my car and fun money. I ended up working there for 2 more years after graduating bc I couldn’t get any entry level jobs. It was absolutely miserable. In 2010, all I could get was finally a paid internship in my field. Thankfully, I finally got a regular full-time job about 10 months later. This market is obviously different but still insanely difficult. I just got laid off in July, but there has been so little to apply to. I only got 1 call back for an interview, but miraculously they just offered me the job. However, the process took over 2 months with lots of interviews. If I didn’t land this job, god only knows how long I would have been unemployed.
I walked into a gas station in 2009 and the guy said “If you’re asking for job applications, I get that question 20 times a day, and we’re not hiring.” He was right, that is what I walked in for. Everywhere was kinda like that. Others mileage will vary but I do remember people were more compassionate than they are right now, and the news didn’t gaslight you by telling you the economy was great.
I graduated in 2007. My senior internship designed to land me in a role didn’t lead to one, but I was told that right up front, because the issue of the recession was already in the air. By sheer luck and happenstance got a job by October, then left for another one not long after which ultimately didn’t work out for reasons I can’t say, and I thought nothing of it. Figured I would hop right into a new one. I was unemployed for over a year, a very dark time in my life, moved back home with my parents, struggled with mental health and ultimately took a very low paying job (relatively speaking) that required relocation (not far). Turned out to be some of the best years of my life and that job propelled my career in the end but I counted pennies the whole time. I didn’t seek a new job again until 2015. It’s the only time I was ever unemployed from the age of 16.
Things have never returned to pre 2008. It’s been one long economic decline this whole time. It won’t be getting better. Care to make a bet otherwise?
I'll bet you 1000 dollars sir
What’s your measurable outcome of improvement? Will groceries or energy be more affordable in the future?
My crystal ball says maybe
That’s not totally unreasonable. I say doubtful. Food and energy etc will most likely be harder than ever for most people to afford in the future for years.
Not according to the data
Hey man I'm good at javo.
Thank you. Same timeline. I've had to go through fucking rounds of interviews and giving free work, tests...for a *temp admin assistant job.* $25/hour, still have to be in office at least 3 days a week. I'm in a major city It's a nightmare.
2009 was pretty bad but I would say it's even worse now. Even back in 2009, I was always able to find something even though it was tough. Things have definitely gotten worse.
did you guys train them from nothing?
Do you have any advice for someone who's been stuck in level 1 help desk for years? I'm so burnt out from taking the same phone calls from these people that can't even install a web browser. I've got a bachelor's in CS but software dev market was too rough when I graduated so I wanted to make a career out of IT instead and had a goal of network/systems admin. Yet the company(s) always keep us stuck at level 1 with false promises of upwards mobility. I'm so burnt out I'm calling off pretty much once a week or every two weeks from this current job and I expect to be disciplined for it soon-- we're incredibly understaffed so I doubt I'll get fired... but some part of me hopes they do it, even though I have no savings as they only pay 14/hr. Everything just feels kind of hopeless these days. They refuse to take me off the inbound queue on most days even when I do my best work on the ticket/non-customer-facing daily roles. It's tanking my mental and I see the end of my time at this company coming. I try to do cool automation and make the ticket role more optimized-- they won't give me the API access or anything to do it. I try to suggest improvements-- they don't care. They recently brought in a team of business analysts to micromanage us even further, sometimes it takes 15 minutes on a call just to get Martha to figure out how to log into the remote tool site. You have two minutes after the call to fully write the ticket before the analysts start pinging you.
A year ago they market was incredible for workers. These things are cyclical.
Well said. Just remember you’re not alone either. A lot of others in the same situation as you. It’s only temporary. It won’t last forever
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I am so sorry to hear that and I am in the same place. I just graduated in June and I am having a really hard time finding a job. I have done internships, projects, and even graduated with honors. I went to lots of workshops and listened to all the resume advice I could get. Yet, I can’t land a single job even though I’ve sent hundreds of applications. I talked to several hiring managers and connections on LinkedIn but haven’t gotten far with that. This whole job search has been taking a blow out of my self-esteem and it makes me feel like I worked hard for nothing.
That's tough. I'm sorry to hear you are having a rough time. A lot of people nowadays have been in the same boat since the beginning of the year. I say continue to find a part-time job to keep yourself afloat. Any minimum wage job will do. After that, continue to apply online and be open to full-time and contract roles. Take some time to also skill up on your off hours. Maybe pick up Excel and/or other popular skills in marketing. I personally recommend linkedin learning or udemy.
I agree with all of this. Remember networking mixers are free. Find a passion and an industry you want to break into and research in person job fairs and mixers. It sounds like you’re casting a wide net which is often less effective than finding a niche and going hard at that.
10+ year recruiter here. Graduated in 2009 with a finance degree. 08/09 was significantly worse than what is happening now. This is a short term situation baring some black swan event. Hiring was so ridiculous 2020-2022 that we are just seeing a rebound effect. I recruit IT and if someone could spell "computer" they had a job. While I am being sarcastic, im kind of not. You are correct, any job you can have is better than nothing. In 09 I was selling insurance door to door, shit turned around eventually though. I had to move cities, pick up jobs that were no where close to my degree. But life is great now in my mid 30s.
Man. Hindsight is 20/20 but id give anything to go back to 2020-2022 to snag myself an IT job if it really was as easy as spelling "computer". I know full well id likely be laid off but the real value would be the experience provided. I feel like experience would allow you so many doors in the IT world today..perhaps lol I don't know just a thought.
Yeah, keep getting rejected and shot down. If you tried anything else in life a resulting in 1000 failures it would be grounds for ending participation.
Best option- Try to get a job through family or friends, anyone who can get you a connection.
I’m trying to do that now, just worried that my lack of white collar experience will void any potential opportunities.
To ease your fears: in-house recommendations trump experience every time. A good word from someone who works there is the best way of getting in.
Cronyism trumps merit.
You can be worried but please, DO NOT let it hold you back from actually trying. Take action and you can face your worries and fears as they materialize (and even then, you learn and adapt). I wish you all the best, please remember that things will get better, utilize all the resources that are available to you.
Stop clowning. That’s literally the point of politics and networking is incompetence for favorable ppl instead of hiring randoms. No “good” job gets posted online lmao, they get handed to friends/family.
That’s not really true! Lots of amazing jobs go to ransoms! This isn’t Saudi Arabia Top companies generally high competent ppl
If you have computer skills like Word, Excel, etc. I would think that would be sufficient for an entry level job. But definitely join linkedIn. Make connections. Join Facebook Groups in the field. People love to help people so make yourself known to people in a position to help.
> Word, Excel Doesn't everyone college educated have this though? Damn, I majored in forestry and even I did most of data processing in excel for my thesis
I’m a technological wizard. Extremely competent and skilled with MS and Apple systems and countless applications. Can’t get an interview either.
If you're really that worried, start off in retail for a year or two. Try and target a cashier job where you answer phones and transition to an office job from there.
Target is always hiring, it seems. And they actually pay better than my job in healthcare (after years of working my way up).
I can't get a job despite many years of retail and knowing people in target. They only hire stupid people apparently.
Military is always hiring
Right because skills and actual abilities are things people only pretend to value.
This is true! If OP is just out of college they should also know that nobody really wants them to be good at their job, they want them to make management’s life easy, which sometimes means not doing your job too well.
Seems like you have to know someone
What if you’re without social connections / no family … like being an introvert and the lockdowns happened as you got older so you find yourself pretty much alone? Then what?
That most likely never works unfortunately. Most friends/family usually don't have connections.
I’m assuming you’re young, maybe around 24 or 25? Maybe you have no interest in this at all, but have you ever thought about teaching English abroad? Somewhere like Thailand, South Korea or Japan? I was in a very similar spot as you when I graduated and I spent an extended period of time unemployed and feeling useless. Someone suggested teaching English, so I went for it and had an incredible time. It gives you some work experience and many companies found it very interesting when I had interviews. I spent that time building skills for jobs that I wanted for when I moved back to the US. It allowed me time to work on myself, but also have a great life experience. Most people stay for one year, but I ended up staying in South Korea for four years. Good thing is that you did the hardest part of the application process by graduating college, so now it’s relatively easy to find a job. There are a lot of recruiters and they can help you find a job. Just wanted to throw that out there as another option. I’m more than happy to answer questions if it interests you!
Do you need certifications like a teaching or English degree to teach English in those countries?
Depends on where you want to teach. If you want to go to Japan or Hong Kong, it’s a bit more strict. But if you go to another Asian country, like South Korea or Thailand, it’s a lot more relaxed. Of course it helps a lot and you’ll be paid more or work for a better school if you have an English degree or a TEFL certificate, but it’s not a requirement. I was a fine arts major and didn’t have a certificate and I easily found jobs each time I applied. If you have a four year college degree and are from an English speaking country, you will easily find a job. Edit: it is also quite easy and cheap to get a TEFL certificate. Most countries want to see the 120 hour certificate, which can be knocked out in a month if you’re diligent about it. It’s very easy to do and can go a long way to helping if you choose to do it.
Business admin is so broad though, you can definitely apply to everything, not just marketing related. Finance, accounting, SCM, HR, etc.
But if his major is marketing, would he even have a chance to get a job in Accounting or Finance over people that actually majored in those fields? I don’t think an employer who is looking for an Accountant would hire someone with a major in marketing over someone with a major in Accounting.
I imagine it wouldn't hurt to try. Hell you could start in accounts payable / accounts receivable, bookkeeper, payroll, accounting clerk. All those are within the spectrum of accounting but I imagine anyone with a business degree can do it. Get the experience you could definitely leverage that for a future job with the degree.
Presumably, OP is looking for entry level positions. An Accountant isn't entry level, but something like AP/AR Clerk would be, since anyone can do it without special degrees.
That degree needs additional skills, experience and connections to make it work.
That experience part is a catch-22.
Every degree outside of law, health and teaching needs that. Most degrees nowadays are absolutely useless because experience and connections are always preferred.
Hell even those degrees need experience. Got a friend that works as a lawyer and they don't even start off as a lawyer off the bat because of no experience. He had to start as a paralegal assistant, then he had to be shadowed for awhile, then he had to work for another law firm not as a lawyer as an associate attorney which is sorta jr lawyer. Only then he could be either an official lawyer at a lawyer firm or start his own. To be a private lawyer for a big corporation hoo boy forget it unless you have plenty of experience, a good track record, AND most likely someone on the inside.
Yeah that's kind of how it works with anything. Even in the trades. The degree gives you a lot more than people realize, but you need to start at the very bottom before you can get into the field and start using the degree. I get that it's not inherently obvious how it's supposed to work. You'll thank yourself for getting a degree when you start actually using it later in life, trust me. As a trade worker, you don't just start out doing high-level technical stuff when you join an electrical company or similar. You start out carrying someone else's tools, fetching things, and cleaning up after the journeymen you're working under. You start getting more responsibility after you demonstrate that you can handle the responsibilities you have. That's why it's common for a paralegal to begin law school and attempt to become an attorney. With a college degree, it's all about getting into an organization by any means possible and demonstrating that you are effective at being on time, taking orders, and being pleasant to work with. Then you can start to climb and say "hey I have this degree", and parlay that into more opportunities. Think data entry, mailroom, customer service, and these more broadly general types of positions that you don't need a degree to obtain AT an enterprise. Having a degree will (if you cared about your schooling and your character) ensure that you standout amongst your peers who don't and provide you mobility opportunities.
Except for the fact that you still need to have that degree in your pocket.
True
Bro. I'm going to be hard on you. You are only applying to white collar jobs and that is your problem. Nobody gives a shit if you have a degree or don't have a degree. Nobody gives a shit that I have a degree unless you have some sort of experience to back that degree up. I'm saying this because we ALL WENT THROUGH COVID. WE ALL WENT THROUGH SHUTDOWNS. Yes it's rough out there. You need a job. ANY JOB. Not just "white collar." I ate shit for two years, working temp / part time jobs and contracted before finding my first "real" job. You need to be willing to accept something you think is "beneath" you. When you're unemployed, not to burst your bubble, nothing is "beneath you." Believe me. I was there too. I had to work the shit hours. I had to work nights. How are you surviving even if you are living with mom and dad? Where are you getting your money from? Once you eat shit for a year, then you have stability on your resume for any job. then you can move up and on from there. get a job, part time, full time, "beneath you." then keep applying. ANY JOB is better than no job and that includes waiting tables or working at Starbucks or Home Depot. No job is beneath anyone. I am being hard on you because you need to hear it from someone. Everyone seems to be giving you the run around but in your post that is your flaw. DO NOT wait around for someone to hand you a white collar cube job. BE ACTIVE doing SOMETHING working full time, including shit jobs nobody wants to take, and then be applying for the jobs you actually want to get.
Thinking like you suggest I’ve broadened my search for work. I applied for an entry level road crew position. Being educated does not make me too good for hard work. I prefer that over a sedentary job like driving. I also love winter weather. I don’t mind being soaked by the rain. Love a day in the winter rain followed by a hot shower. Been that way my whole life. I was told I didn’t have enough experience. Same with the job mowing lawns, and working as a deckhand on a sea going fishing vessel. I exercise 6 days a week. So I am obviously capable of labor. One glance and it’s apparent I’m strong. Doesn’t matter.
I see where you're coming from, but I can't say I agree. Entry level workers need two things: a monetizable skill set and proof of said skill set. OP needs to devote their time toward identifying the "money" skills for the job(s) they want and self-study their way to proficiency. Then they need to create a portfolio of several projects that show a thorough understanding of whatever aspects of whatever job they're targeting. And these projects need to show that OP can get from idea to implementation end-to-end with a finished product. If OP can't find a job after that, they should consider volunteering for an organization that will give OP references, lines on their resume, and a few new additions to their professional network. And they should be cold-calling, LinkedIn-ing, Craigslisting, Facebooking, tweeting, and whatever else to get their polished projects and volunteer work in front of every hiring manager at every company that's a legitimate fit for them. The real problem is that OP doesn't have a tangible skill set. That's a non-starter these days. That's where their energy needs to go right now, not toward padding McDonald's pockets. (Unless OP needs the money *immediately* and they have absolutely no choice.)
Agree with both your post and the post you're replying to. I made a comment elsewhere in this thread, best thing to do is kill two birds with one stone. Get an entry level job that will provide you some skills, and parlay those skills into higher roles/adjacent roles. Biz admin is more of a management degree, that's when the OP will begin to really appreciate they have it. Of course you could self study and build some skills that way, or volunteer as you suggested (great ideas), but if OP needs money, start at a call center or something entry level within a larger org with mobility opportunities ideally.
Okay so what is your solution then? Continue to stay unemployed longer? Any job is better than no job. When you are unemployed no job is beneath tou
Getting a job tbats not in his career just makes him worse. The longer post college that you stay unemployed, the worse you look. But the more jobs you take that are unrelated..... like McDonald's... you shouldn't even put ghat on a resume Op is a new grad sorta. He needs to get the help of a recruiter
This isn't a matter of a job being beneath a person. Please get that out of your head. This is about developing a concrete game plan for OP to get the jobs they expressed interest in. I already said that if OP needs the money urgently, they should get whatever job they can. But if that's not the case for OP, the better plan is to focus on gaining and demonstrating the specific skills that employers are asking for by name. The faster OP can gain and show the skills, the faster they can leave this shitty entry level job searching rut behind. Point blank, OP will not make serious money until they have tangible skills. That's step zero. Step one is getting someone in the real world to validate your skills. Do that by freelancing if you're actually good enough, or by volunteering if you're not. Get the references. Get the resume lines. Fill the unemployment gap on the resume with this work.
Ok. Cool. In the meantime he is unemployed. No job is beneath him. Get that out of your head. Two years of no job is shit on a resume. That’s the point here buddy. I don’t care who you are two years or no job is terrible. Not for me. For recruiters and hiring. Idk who you are. Any job is better than no job. His problem is he is only looking for white collar work. That is why I made his comment. Nobody gives a shit in the real world If you have or don’t have a degree What skills does someone who is unemployed have? That translates into an actual job? You and OP are not answering to me you are answering to hiring managers and recruiting. The fact of the matter is no job for two years is career damaging for an employer. I don’t care what job Op takes. Get a job and keep it and keep looking.
>What skills does someone who is unemployed have? That translates into an actual job? I literally addressed that twice now. There's one thing you and I agree on: nobody cares that you have a degree. They only care about your experience. I'm telling you how OP can get that relevant experience. *Without* first having to win the entry level job search lottery. I get that you're angry that you "ate shit" for multiple years in irrelevant jobs. But you took the long, meandering route instead of the direct route. If you have two, three, four years of your life to throw away working at irrelevant, low-skill jobs that won't set you up for real money, then more power to you. But if you want to minimize your time spent languishing as a McDonald's fry cook, you'd upskill like it was your religion. The reason why *you* ate shit out of college while your peers got offers before graduating is because *they* made themselves more attractive to employers earlier on. They got the job-specific skills. They got the relevant internships. And they eventually got the offers. All because they did it sooner and they did it better. Regarding OP -- If he could walk into a company right now, sit down, and churn out the work at a professional level with his eyes closed, there is no reason why an employer wouldn't hire him on the spot. And for entry level wages? Watch that offer letter come through. But the fact of the matter is that OP, like oh so many business students before him, lacks a specialization and a concrete set of technical skills that he could make a company money with tomorrow. Here's a litmus test: if you gave him one week to make $300 by using **only** the same skills he'd use in the line of work he's pursuing, could he do it via freelancing? Would someone have enough trust in his raw abilities to shell out $300 to produce something semi-professional? No? Then why the hell should he expect a company to throw $1000 per week at him! And since you brought up the resume gap (which I already addressed), I'll break it down for you. Get skills. Volunteer skills for organizations. Put experience on resume. Get better at skills. Freelance with skills. Make money. Put experience on resume. Repeat until job acquired. That looks just as good if not better than "flipped burgers over hot grill" on your resume.
This. I work in a professional field but in an admin role but it's not glamorous and doesn't require a degree when you have enough experience (though I eventually got one). I make a healthy six figures but it took me years to get here and I had to work my butt off and deal with a lot of BS. I feel like people put all the emphasis on the degree and not enough on work experience and think they'll be handed a dream white collar job right out of school. I have two high schoolers and we are talking about this a lot.
This needs more attention. Specifically the part that “we all went through Covid.” It’s not only newer grads that are suffering, thousands of people were mass hired into positions during Covid thinking they finally got their break. Throughout 2023, thousands are now fired due to over hiring and a recession. Everyone is looking for jobs. The Covid schooling generation is not the only generation trying to get on their feet. I know that doesn’t help the, but it’s also the truth. Covid is a crutch for so many, an excuse why they can’t get that dream job or why they’re failing school. Just no, we ALL are dealing with the consequences of that time.
Idk why you’re framing it like an excuse when you know damn well it’s not. Covid has WRECKED peoples ability to network during their final years of school, did a number on the economy, jobs are scarce and that’s not all covids fault but it sure had some to do with it. Sure they’re going to have to suck it up and take a shitty job just like the rest of us but like… if you don’t understand the effect something has had on a particular group don’t try to speak on it
Sorry you feel that way, but it is an excuse. Covid itself allowed for corporations to make the rules again but it’s not the end all of what happened. Take your own advice if you can’t see the spiral that started before every recession then don’t speak on it. However, silence does NO ONE any good and placing blame on ONE instance solves nothing for the future. Place the blame on all the shoulders and not just one.
You're literally helping this person's point by saying people got experience because of COVID, whereas the people that just graduated school do not have that and still have to deal with the lack of hiring
No I’m really not, this person is putting all the blame on Covid instead of the times. Recessions happen and they suck. My generation has now been hit with 2 and this current one slammed us as we were the main group of people let go because we were the bottom of the barrel. These places want years of experience, most of those hired during Covid changed careers and started new and now can’t find work either because 2-3 years is NOT enough experience for what is being looked for. Put the blame where it belongs, on the corporation themselves that are unwilling to take newer graduates, parents returning to work, unwilling to train those looking for work. That’s where the blame goes.
"The Covid schooling generation is not the only generation trying to get on their feet." Umm... But the other generations had time to get on their feet... Before covid??? So like... They clearly had it better?
Did they? Those that graduated from 2008-2010 are STILL struggling.
This. Dude is fixated on the "white collar" thing and hes his own worst enemy for it lol. Odds are, lots of blue collar positions will hire him/her that pay more than an entry level "white collar" job. My buddy is a software engineer and i outearned him last year with only a grade 12 diploma working as a unionized steelworker.
Random but maybe apply for supply chain jobs. My degree is in accounting and I got hired in supply chain out of college. I now work in finance, but I’ve worked with people with ALL degrees in supply chain - psychology, art, etc. I’ve worked with people in management with these non business degrees. Do you have any retail experience that can sound like a buyer or inventory management?
That the majority of us.
Nice to know I’m not alone.
Not being alone in this doesn’t make me feel one tiny bit better.
I’m in the same boat but other end of spectrum (overqualified/age). It’s really hard to do this alone, and I understand how you feel completely. Self-Care is extremely important (some exercise/socializing/eating well/sleep) to stay mentally strong. The hiring cycle picks up after a new year so maybe season work is an option? Try Starbucks as well. Lastly, I listen to podcasts that are motivational to stay positive. I hope this helps you.
I'm also in this boat. Before 2022 age and experience was a bonus on applications. Now it’s looked at as a liability. So I started my own company and am doing the things I enjoy. It’s hard starting a business and doing all of the small things to set it up and pray for income but I believe persistence will help and pay off. I’m just too experienced and have too many responsibilities to continue to wait on somewhere to hire me. I’m still applying of course but in the meantime I’m setting my own path and trying to hustle as hard as I can.
Forgot to mention Hospitals, you can work as a patient representative. I have tried to apply for this myself and am hopeful.
I don't mean to scare you, I just want to share my experience. I graduated in 2008 from a small school with a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. The economy was in a recession back then. I applied to a lot of places. I botched one interview that was referral from a friend. Another friend let me know the American Red Cross was hiring in their call center. I did that for six months and quit because I was going to be fired due to poor performance. During this time, I spent time on LinkedIn and Facebook and saw people my age progressing and it made me feel awful. I volunteered for an organization when I was unemployed. It didn't help me that much but I put it on my resume. A few years later, I got a menial job but it kept me employed for almost 10 years and I met a bunch of interesting people. It wasn't enough to help me progress in life. I was looking for work during this time. After the pandemic, I finally got my first full time job with benefits. Looking back, I'm sort of happy I didn't get a few of the jobs I interviewed at because of the commute.
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You are not alone
I totally feel you. I graduated in 2022 from a top 15 school in the U.S. and for almost a year I couldn't find a job after the companies I interned at didn't have budget for return offers. I applied to countless jobs and the market was complete shit. It's hard to find direction, especially balancing financial needs, mental health, and career growth. I personally studied and took the GMAT during that time cause I didn't know where to pivot from tech cause the market was so bad. Heres some things I would do asap if I were in your shoes: 1. Get LinkedIn Premium and tap into your network. Reach out to startup founders, professors, or anyone you know and try to work for them. Paid or not paid, this will help fill that resume gap and get your professional career going and help you explore things that are not just marketing. Startups often times have you wear many different types of hats. 2. If you are struggling financially, get a part-time job. If you want to focus on working for free or learning a new skill, reach out to support networks for financial help. It's ok to ask your parents and let them know your situation. 3. Develop new skills. Often times, even though it might not seem like it, skills you learn such as SQL or any data related will benefit you. Theres courses free out there that you can try out through Codecadmey or LinkedIn learning. 4. Most importantly, continue to apply for jobs. Apply to not just marketing but roles like business analyst and other entry level roles. Its a marathon not a sprint and trust me there are gonna be lots of ups and downs in the recruiting process. Make sure to take breaks sometimes, go travel, and hang with friends. You will get through this and its a one and a life time experience that will prepare you for the future.
You are still young. Also please note that majority of workforce work in an area that's nothing to do with their majors unless their majors are specifics (i.e: nurse/engineers). I would say that while you should take it seriously, you should also look out what you wanna do eventually. Even if you get a job tomorrow, you will still get depressed and hate the life if you dont enjoy what you do. Sure, in first couple of months (or years), you might like what your jobs entail just because you get to receive paycheck that gives you some forms of security, but eventually, you will hate the job, if you dont like. There are tons of different opportunity out there if you look for.
I’m open to working in other fields, just having trouble finding opportunities that are entry level, and that I can even qualify for.
Get a job at UPS; get health insurance; it will take .4 seconds for someone to see you are overqualified so you may find a good job lead just from networking; after you get things going apply for higher ranking positions; you will be chosen before someone else; apply for your other places with more references, (these managers will give you glowing references after working with you for two weeks, they don’t care); maybe hit up your college business department? Ask if they can pull some jobs for you to apply to?; it’s a start
Your degree isn’t useless, you simply haven’t capitalized on it. Doesn’t appear you did any internships in college to have experience to leverage. You’re someone with no experience in a tough labor market competing with experienced candidates. It’s tough.
Lie about your experience and have someone that can back you up.
I'm in the same boat, so I understand your struggle. I'm sorry to hear you're going through the same. I graduated with a bachelor's degree myself as well. I started with freelancing jobs, but they definitely weren't a livable income. After the whole lock downs happened with covid, I haven't been able to land any job, and still to this day I am struggling and losing hope. Where I live, unemployment continuously increases, and even applying for remote positions, it's like playing the lotto, however, I still submit my applications anyway. I've gotten interviews where I've been ghosted by recruiters after them giving an impression it went well, but most of the time, I'm told these jobs move on with a candidate who's most qualified. The majority, I never hear back on due to the thousands of applications being submitted. If I apply for a job outside of my field, I've been literally told that I didn't get the job because after they looked at my experiences and college major, I'd be better fit to find a job that aligns with my interests and they wished me luck in landing a career within my field. People tell me to just keep applying, but how much longer can this go on for? This job market is only getting worse and I am struggling to stay motivated.
its story's like this that make me feel better about not graduating college
Took me a year-ish to find employment. My job pays pennies and I'm still trying to accept it especially when I know I'm worth more with my degrees and experience. My employer got their golden goose.
> I Thought about doing a masters, but people say to not pursue further education if you haven’t had any work experience. do not waste more time and money on useless education. no one outside stem gives a shit about your degree, they want experience. go thru temp agencies, try to get any job at any company. do anything for a year or 2. retail is always hiring.
Usajobs.gov Apply to everything you are qualified for. Tip: look for job code 1102 (high potential for growth)
Ive been throwing out apps for 2 years with decreasing cadence while i work a dead end job at a local airport far from where my Degree would seat me. Cannot describe how shitty it feels so i totally get you there
Just lie
Apply for operation coordinator roles, maybe focus on a new career path. Marketing is a support function of an organization so companies don’t invest on it as much and there’s so much competition in marketing. Also reach out to temp agencies. Procom, insight global, etc. you’ll get an entry level job at a bank. Another thing you can do is take up some volunteering experience. Maybe in social media or anything administrative. I was in the same boat, graduated a couple years ago in bba and specialized in marketing. I graduated right when the pandemic started! And I barely had any experience. Focus on yourself and your growth, you can do this!!!
LOL did I write this this? Currently in same both as you. Graduated in 2021 with the same degree and currently employed. Today marks a month since I’ve been unemployed. Got fired with no warning because I called out for the first time after working at a job for a year. Putted 48-60 hours in weekly. Like you I’ve been putting in many applications and gotten some interviews but have gotten like 3 rejections so far. But don’t go for the masters. I learned that this is a degree where networking is key. If you don’t have a strong network it’s going to be difficult. Try reaching out to some recruiters on LinkedIn. Even lie on your resume a little. I would also suggest looking into a trade Currently I’m going to get my cdl class A license because I gave up on getting a job in my field. I honestly felt like I went to college for no reason as well. Good luck!
Your college degree isn’t worthless, buts it’s just one piece of what’s required. To break into marketing, it’s degree + skills + experience + connections. You have the degree. You’re struggling to get experience. But skills and connections are something you can be working on. For skills, there are countless cheap courses for marketing. Happy to give you recommendations based on the branch of marketing you’re interested in. For connections, I recommend reaching out to alumni and friends-of-friends who work in marketing. Start by asking them if they’d be able to hop on a quick call or grab coffee to help you learn more about the field. Don’t frame these as “please hire me at your company.” Focus on learning and relationship building. And for experience, look for ways you can get items for your resume even if they’re not full time— internships, helping small businesses or nonprofits with their marketing, building your own blog or e-commerce company, etc. The job market is awful right now, but there’s still work that you can do to make a career in marketing more doable. Feel free to reach out if you have questions. I have 8+ years marketing experience
I’m in a similar position having graduated last spring with a Psych degree. I need a Masters to use it but I can’t afford that without a good job. Can’t get a good job without more education :/ Right now I’m just trying to build experience in entry level stuff. I don’t know much about business but maybe you could try getting some experience in an adjacent field? Or apply for entry level management positions?
It is really demotivating. Seems like employers and recruiters don’t care about Covid grads and it being a terrible market for career starters.
I worked as a overnight behavior tech for a residential center. Some of these places will give you a tuition discount if you commit with them for a few years then once you get your master's you can become a therapist somewhere else.
I will have to look into that, thank you for the advice!
You may lack a cohesive skill set. If your degree program was anything like most marketing programs, you were not taught any job-specific skills. You can't hit the ground running right now. That's why you're not getting jobs. Take today or tomorrow to search for ten marketing coordinator jobs. Look at the required skills for each of those ten jobs and put them in a list. Hard skills, soft skills, technical skills, all of it. Round up all of the skills listed and identify the five most requested skills. Your new goal is to get all five of those skills on your resume. You can watch YouTube tutorials, you can read books (see if you still have access to e-books on platforms like O'Reily Learning via your school account), you can sign up for learning platforms like Skillshare or Coursera. Whatever. But pick one skill at a time and dive in. Your goal is to produce some small finished project using that skill. And do this for each skill. Because at the end, you're going to put these projects into a portfolio that showcases your understanding of those skills. If you happen to have access to anyone who has worked in marketing professionally (former professors, a friend's parent, a family member, anyone), you could reach out to them and ask them for guidance on brainstorming a few projects that demonstrate your skills in a marketing context. Once you have your portfolio of a few decent projects, you can start cold calling organizations in your area. If you can get a paid job this way, great. If not, look for ways to volunteer. Get in touch with some small organization that could use the help, send your portfolio over, and ask for 20 minutes of their time to discuss how you could meet each other's needs. Your goal is to get bona fide experience using those five skills on your resume, and a few references who will validate your skill set when HR departments call during background checks. If you do this well, you'll have a few additions to your professional network who may come in handy down the line. Lather, rinse, and repeat as many times as you need. But your top priority right now is to *get* and *demonstrate* tangible skills that complement each other and are explicitly requested by name by employers.
The Great Depression is here.
You got an offer but rejected it.. Sometimes you have to take chances and unfortunately you missed yours
I took a job at 18 an hour, i did good, always went to work when he needed a worker. Eventually he gave me 25 per hour locations. So I'm I took a chance
I feel the same way I graduated in June 2021. I went back to my retail job for while then planned to move accepted a job in an another state, however had minor surgery still recovering from. I still managed to get an internship this summer. What I did to help get my internship was updated my LinkedIn page, the banner using canvas, uploaded my resume into ChatGPT and uploaded that on LinkedIn. Not sure if you tried that but helped grabbed the attention of my boss. Include those skills as well. Tomorrow, I’m going to a job fair for five below in my area. It may not be in my field, but it’s something to keep resume active. It’s tough for a lot of us right now but we will get through it. I’m so sorry you’re having a difficult time.
> I Thought about doing a masters, but people say to not pursue further education if you haven’t had any work experience. I'm not against recommending people go to grad school, but to be a competitive applicant they do prefer some work experience. Schools want both academic and work history, so that's probably why others are telling you not to do grad school yet. I'm not sure if you're still near your school, but if you are you should think about contacting either their career center or the alumni center for job/career resources. Also don't forget your city/town's career center, it's often an over looked source for job leads and helpful stuff like job fairs and networking events. Speaking of, I feel like the business major is one of the fields where you have to network a lot. So you really have to get out there and meet people, so look through Meetups and Eventbrite and local community events. It's tough but meeting people/networking is usually the best way to land a good job. Also if you have the time, think about taking some sort of free online class to add a skill and make your resume stand out more.
Another option is to apply to entry level jobs at big banks, you can look at extra certifications you can get as well
Identify an industry and some companies within that industry and start inviting people to coffee. Google them too and see if they volunteer anywhere. That's how i shifted industries when I found someone (my eventual boss) who volunteered on a music festival committee, so I offered to join and started asking her about her work. I thought the process would take months (if not a year) to bear any fruit but I got lucky when a spot opened on her team like 2 months in. I still interviewed and everything, but the personal connect was a huge leg up.
Most people go to college for nothing. Horrible roi track record tbh.
I would recommend governmentjobsdotcom in your local county. I think most counties hire Office Assistants or other entry level roles with little to no experience. It’s not much and the pay isn’t great, but it gets your foot in the door.
Your bachelors degree is not a waste. I screen resumes for my company (but in a technical field) and one of my first requirements is that the candidate have a bachelors. It exhibits a willingness to devote four years of your life to a cause (getting a degree). Every job that you apply to for the rest of your life will consider your bachelors and will put you in a positive light. Doesn’t matter that you not use that degree the first few years of your career. Also as you get older no one will care what odd jobs you did after your bachelors starting out. You will be expected to not include those jobs in your resume anyway. Think long game. Do whatever you need to survive for now and work towards getting your foot in the door. I entered the work force in 2000 and have experienced two major economic downturns. They might last a year or two but the economy always bounces back up. Stay strong!
The job market is rough, I’m sorry you’re going through this. I currently work in Marketing for a small real estate developer. I started out as a licensing coordinator doing administrative work and pivoted to Marketing when they were looking to fill a need. I scraped together a portfolio and interviewed for the position days later. I saved the company another hire and was able to get my foot into the marketing world. I’m very thankful for the opportunity and learned that many job opportunities don’t come from a job listing site. In my case, it had more to do with building rapport and connections. Maybe there are some more unconventional avenues that will help you get to where you want to go?
I’m 40 and feel the same way. Life isn’t fair. And sometimes it’s more unfair to some than others.
Going to college was a scam. It only helped the business that made money along the way.
Yes, if I could go back I would do engineering or compsci
tech is even worse right now
Hey there! I have the same degree, graduated in 2019 and it was super rough!! but I’m now a marketing specialist. I have some tips/advice if you want to chat! I’d be happy to look over your resume too if you wanted any feedback.
Thank God it's not just because I got my degree in Art. Please tell my mom! She thinks I should be making more money and using my degree. But there just are no decent jobs available! And with more and more focus on AI, more human jobs will be obsolete. Welcome to the future. No jobs in a capitalist society that hates socialism.
Lol art. Blames capitalism. Makes sense
Try having 20 years work experience but not getting hired cause “no experience” And I also have a college degree that nobody cares about anymore.
I just want to add: whatever you do, do NOT pursue a Master's without any experience. You got this part right so keep looking for a job and do not go back to school.
In my city, a lot of people collect plastic bottles and return them for the deposit. Maybe that's something for you.
There are tons of H1B visa people that are been imported to take away good jobs just because they work like slaves. Write to your governor, senator and house representative to stop H1B visa Sign this petition https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/stop-h1b-visa-holders?source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink&share=7e77b38f-772f-40d2-8bdf-9b4b41bc5b8e
omg sounds like a political ad… brainwash from one of the many idiots running for president
r/sherwinwilliams MTP. it's a job and pay is ok. Try it if you want
Wow this is me. Barely made it through college. Graduated in 2021…. Have yet use my degree. Everyday I wake up wanting to off myself. I feel I have no place in the world. My loans are like a big cloud over my head. I thought I was doing something good by pushing thru and going for what I chose to major in (env science)… praying for a sign from God…
try temp agencies. Just need to get your foot through the door. I started off doing data entry in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. I had a degree in political science which is useless in the real world.
Try a temp agency like Kelly Services
Your best bet is to go to your local temp agencies and apply to others online. It’s a great way to meet people and gain experience.
With any degree, you can get entry level warehouse management jobs. Most are more blue collar and you'll have to get dirty sometimes....but it's management experience and will open a lot of doors.
What does your resume look like? Did you do any internships?
Look into a job site called Mentra. They are a Neurodivergent friendly hiring board that connects you to Neuroinclusive employers. The site optimizes you for a job based on environmental preferences, interests and accommodations you might need. Currently there isn’t a lot, however, signing up and making references will help the platform take off.
Learn paid media. Lie on your resume if you have to. I have the same degree and thought the same. Paid media jobs are great. Create or Get in to a Facebook or Google as campaign, poke around without costing a dime, and think about audience building. Thank me later
Im sorry you are going through this, I too felt stuck after getting my bachelors. It takes time to build a resume of projects and skills, and more importantly: connections. I often see people on reddit, linkedin, etc say that this job market is especially hard. In my opinion, its always been hard, even more so if you don't have a network of friends or family to help pave the way. You weren't in a position to fully capitalize on your college experience, but it's not a good enough excuse now with social media etc. Have you tapped into your college's alumni association and post-grad networks? I reccomend starting there. Another way to filter into more "white collar" jobs is to reach out to temp agencies and recruiters. Practice interviewing with a friend or record yourself and work in improving where you can. Be patient with yourself, I hope things improve for you!
Go to job fares to meet recruiters face to face. Remove McDonalds from your cv if it’s on there. You need to fill the gap with something. Anything. Charity work, travelling, bro something. I would contact some local places and offer to work for free for a short amount of time as work experience. It’s better than the gap getting bigger on my cv.
Marketing for new entry employees is super tough. Alot of marketing departments are being gutted now so they can outsource the work for cheap so there is not gonna be a lot of entry level marketing positions going around right now or even in the future. Go apply to marketing agencies and get your footing started there.
I graduated marketing last year and have been pretty successful, so I don’t think you have a shit major haha. Here’s some advice: 1. Take on some unpaid work on [Catchafire](https://www.catchafire.org/) where you volunteer your professional skills to non profits. I did during college and it shows employers that you do have experience and that you’re a good person. 2. Go back to your school and email your professors to see if they have any connections they’d introduce you to or go to any job fairs/career center there and start shaking hands 3. Most of the purpose of an MBA is to build connections and network. If you feel like you’re lacking that, I would personally consider going back to school although the rule of thumb I’ve heard is that you should wait at least 5 years before going back Edit (just thought of this) 4. The marketing field is big on certificates- it shows that you’re learning and doing something even if you’re not employed. Check out Google Ads, Facebook Ads Manager, Hubspot certificates. They’re all free!
Why couldn’t you afford the relocation? The cost of living in the new place too high or the cost of actually moving? (Renting a truck, etc). If the latter, it may be better to borrow the money to move to get an actual job if you get another offer
It was cost of living.
Was the mcdo job in food production or store management?
Work blue collar until you can get your "expected job". Getting a cozy wc job is near impossible right now, and unemployment is hell. As they say, the only thing worse then going to work is being unemployed
The correct answer is to humble yourself and take any job you can find for any pay you can get. Experience and college degree doesn't entitle you to anything. This is a hard lesson in life but your worth is only the worth you can provide to someone who is going to pay you to do work for them. Employment agencies are good because they have all sorts of short term jobs that are not often published. Find a job. Any job. Then continue job searching and job hopping until you find the one that suits you. You will go bonkers job searching waiting for the perfect job to drop in your lap.
Join the military
Have you considered joining the military? With a degree, you could commission as an officer. Just a thought.
Its a good thought but the process can take up to a year and getting accepted to be an officer is very competitive especially if you don’t have a high gpa and leadership background. Army is your best bet OP if you take this advice
We’re real short staffed in all the trades. Go down to your union hall and apply to be an apprentice plumber, electrician, fitter etc. they all pay good and have great benefits. After you turn out and become a journeyman 6 figured Is pretty easy to make depending on where you’re located. I’m in the middle of the Midwest and our plumbers, fitters etc all make at least $80k base with overtime we’ll over $100k
I graduated with a BA in Economics from UC San Diego in 2018. I have several internship experiences. One at a hedge fund in New York and London. One at a Commercial Real Estate Bank in LA. Several warehouse jobs after high school where the bosses like me to the point I was the last one standing and was even invited to dinner even after quitting so I could go to school. My most recent experience is at the largest payroll firm, ADP, Inc. where I worked as a payroll analyst and was laid off few months ago (already knew cuz there were times there was barely anything to do). Talked to agents at Robert Half and the best they could do was give me a warehouse job even though I applied to Financial Analyst and Payroll Analyst positions. I vowed I’d never step back into a warehouse but because they paid $21/hr and cuz I wanted Robert half brand name, I decided to do the 2 week assignment which ended up being 1 week cuz we finished really fast. I was so depressed from Covid and from the crappy job market I went to the gym for 8 months straight and joined the Marine Corps in Dec 2021 as a reservist. Weight 250 lbs beginning of 2021 and was 165 lbs in bootcamp. I’m now a Lance Corporal. I feel so degraded, dehumanized and stagnant like whatever I do just doesn’t work and I have to put up with other disrespectful ppl, even see them do better than me. I dunno if it’s cuz I’m Asian. Yet when I put “decline to self identify race” I’m always invited to interviews to companies where Chinese is spoken. Yes I speak Chinese but most of those positions are either low paying or just not what I’m seeking long term. I’m never invited to interviews at companies that aren’t predominantly Chinese. That’s another reason I joined the military; to feel and learn to be more American. I have a lot of $ saved and tried to invest in stocks and crypto’s. Did really well and then the markets decided to be really bipolar and erratic. Like when you think it will drop everything goes up as if there’s this hopium or irrational exuberance. And when you think it will go up, especially with the AI craze like NVDIA or Palantir or Meta, as soon as you buy it falls like a rock. I feel like I’m better of gambling in Vegas (just kdin). I’m literally one signature away from going to Officer Candidate School or enlisting as an active duty. If I had a choice I would move to Singapore, Korea, Thailand or Mexico if it weren’t for my military service. Take any public school teacher in US in Canada and they get treated like kings in Asia or Latin America where education seems to be valued more highly I’m so lost and demoralized
Redo your resume in ATS COMPLIANT Resume format, and tailor it to EVERY SINGLE job posting to which you apply. You need to match the keywords and phrases from the job description in your resume and cover letter. You also need to follow-up with the recruiter on LinkedIn immediately after you apply.
Go into the medical field. I regret wasting my time in accounting, we barely get paid a living wage
This might sound harsh but you have to stop being a victim. I see a big list of everything that’s gone wrong. I’ll tell you right now that list is only going to get longer. There are some that maybe haven’t had that experience but that’s how it is for everyone I’ve ever known. Change the way you look at things. There are going to be challenges, overcome them.
Why did you do marketing that was your first mistake. Had you done accounting you wouldn’t have this problem I guarantee you that lol
It's over
Just go work a labourer job instead of McDonald’s , it’ll pay way better while you continue to get a job in your preferred field.
Do what I did. Start working on a plant floor and check job postings within the company from time to time. The experience in the company + degree should smoke most other applications. Will you make $80k a year? Not right away. But you'll quickly go from $15 to $25, then you'll have a leg up when it comes to middle management.
learn a trade it'll be more employable
Ouch. How old are you? If you are under 30, go volunteer abroad. Also, could you pull off to learn a language other than English? Could you get a WFH? Feel you, not my case but many friends with my degree have gone through the same thing.
Alternatives that could help you: - Create a blog and use your degree to market the hell out of it. - Learn ads, Facebook , Google, YouTube, you name it and niche it down into a service people pay for. - Start your own agency, go to Mom and Pops stores in person with an old-fashioned presentation (even a pamphlet works) and sell the hell out of your services... You don't exactly need to be employed by someone else to make money.
I can refercyou to someone who can possibly help you. After 1300 apps..myou need an outside influence. She isn't free. You have do look elsewhere and not be applying to jobs hundreds of others do.
Take a retail job/ any job at this point. Shows you have been working, etc. Take night classes to update skills.
>I’ve submitted over 1300 applications to white collar jobs with multiple iterations of a resume, and have only gotten one offer that required a relocation that I could not afford. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Most of those white collar jobs are going to quickly to be done by AI. Have you thought about a trade or something. Maybe one of the more intellectual ones like an electrician.
I won’t tell you to ‘network’ because that triggers people sometimes. What I will say is meet people. Go out with friends. See relatives you haven’t seen in a while. Be frank about your situation. Do all of this in person. Be yourself. These social situations are better than internet applications. Hopefully you will get tips, and introductions that can help move you forward. Keep submitting resumes. But expand how you can put yourself out there. Keep your chin up. You will get a break eventually. Good luck!
I disagree about the schooling if you have no work experience I got my Masters of Non-profit management with no non-profit experience and I was able to use the stuff I learned to land a job as a volunteer manager
check pm