For a few years I was desperately trying to find a job. I felt so disgruntled and repelled from any form of work due to either not being qualified or never getting a response from any employees.
It was frustrating. Every time I would go to a site that said “we are desperate for workers,” I would get declined immediately.
At some point, I thought there wasn’t a point in getting a job if I was just going to be consistently rejected for even applying as a cashier at McDonalds.
However I am grateful for the job I have now. It’s a good temporary job for being in college, and actually works around my schedule. Yet it took me so many job interviews, seasonal jobs and constant phone calls of rejection for me to get here.
Many people aren’t lucky enough to have that job opportunity.
Some jobs ask too many college students for consistent scheduling and demand their full attention for work. I made a Google Form survey for students about their experience with finding a job or having a job while in college.
From the 24 respondents, about 66.7% are currently employed, and about 75% are in school. The main question I asked was “What are some challenges when it comes to finding a job?”
The most common answers were scheduling conflicts and being underqualified.
This always seems to be the root of the issue when it comes to finding a job. I know when I was searching for work, I would often get denied or ignored due to my college schedule. I noticed often that if I have more availability then they will give me the opportunity to have an interview with them.
Same goes with being qualified, some jobs won’t require you to have any experience or certain qualifications. Yet when you apply, they will entirely ignore you.
What’s the point of saying “no qualifications needed” or “paid training” if that’s not what they are looking for in the first place?
I wish that high school got people prepped for the real world instead of teaching us things that we will forget in three months. Back in my high-school time there weren’t many programs or opportunities, unlike in college, to actually find a job. Unless you were in CART (Center for Advanced Research and Technology) but only a lucky few students were able to actually get into that.
I won’t deny education is very important, school comes first before anything else. Without any form of education you can’t get a better future for yourself or a high paying job. But I would have liked to have experienced those building blocks of having a job and prepping for reality. Prepping for the disappointment and rejection, then building myself up and knowing that I can find a job that needs my skills.
Before high school, having a job was a necessity put on the back burner. Then you actually realize the value of a dollar and the survival instincts in the real world. For some students you get taught in one singular semester of home economics. I took it in middle school and the only thing I remember from that experience was trapping my friend in a cabinet with a spoon.
But now being a young adult being pushed forward into the grasp of adulthood, it’s nerve-racking.
I think a lot about my parents, both who are stuck in jobs that they aren’t completely happy in. And they have consistently told me that they hope I don’t end up like them. That makes me so nervous about my future. Very few people actually succeed in living their dreams and doing what they love. But the other percent is left behind, left being miserable and that is scary. Getting a job now is just to survive in an expensive economy where the rich get richer and the poor get kicked around in the dirt.
My dad once said to me, “Just because someone says no, doesn’t mean no one else wants you. At some point you will be someone’s yes.”
And after many interviews and many rejections, I am actually at a job that I really enjoy. It works with my schedule, and it gives me time to actually do my school work. But there are effects when having a job, to the point where it just gets draining. In my Google Form survey I asked the question, “how do you balance your work and school life?”
The survey participants of 42.1% are actually able to find a balance while the 26.3% struggle with it. The other 26.3% was not applicable, 5.2% denied, and 0.1% didn’t answer. However, I noticed something that got pointed out, the lack of social free time that we have.
Life gets so busy that we don’t have time to hang out with the friends and family we care about. It’s like a weird cycle. If you have a job and are in school, you are able to do the things that you want, yet you don’t have time for friends. In comparison, if you don’t have a job you have time to spend with your friends but you don’t have the money to go enjoy certain activities.
Jobs aren’t supposed to be fun. If you are lucky enough you will find a job that you can tolerate or enjoy. Or maybe the job makes good money to the point where you can live comfortably. But there is the fear that is seen everyday of being stuck at a dead-end job forever. I feel like that might be a huge fear for young adults. What is our future gonna look like five years from now?
