I feel like I’m grasping at thin air.
I’ve applied to countless jobs and I’m not even getting to the interview stage on anything. Even on things I feel I’m beyond qualified for. My background is in desktop support. If no one will hire me I thought of trying to wing it myself and put fliers up offering tech support.
I never finished college. So I don’t have any degree aside from highschool. My prospects are looking and feeling bleak.
What would you do if you were me Lemmy?
It’s been a while since I was in the job market (I’ve been disabled almost 15 years), but the advice I consistently received was ‘call them’. If you apply online or file a resume or even drop one off in person, you’re just one name in a sea of applicants. File the resume, give it 3 days or so, then call them. Talk to the hiring manager if you can. Tell them who you are and what you’re looking for. Find out if they have a timetable on when they’re hiring. If they don’t give you one keep calling them every few days until they hire you or say ‘no thanks’. At that point you go from being one rando among dozens or more to being that one really persistent person who seemed super interested in the job and whose name is now memorable when they get around to looking at your resume.
It’s absolutely not a job for everyone, but assuming you’re in the US, damn-near every 911 dispatch center in the country is always short-staffed and hiring, and usually only require a high school diploma or GED.
Since you have a computer background, I think it’s safe to assume that you can type at a halfway decent WPM, that’s a pretty big chunk of our aptitude test that a lot of people fail on.
A lot about this job varies from one jurisdiction to another, but in general pay is livable but not amazing and the hours are usually weird, but the benefits and job security are pretty solid.
Background checks, drug testing, etc. are of course usually part of the hiring process, and again it’s just not a job everyone is cut out for.
And the pay?
As I said
pay is livable but not amazing
I personally came up just a hair short of 69k last year, I’m paying my bills, treating myself to some luxuries, and usually manage to save a bit, but I’m not rolling in it by a longshot.
But like I said that varies a lot around the country, I believe that’s a decent bit above the national average, but not a ridiculous outlier either, it’s fairly average for my area.
For context, I’ve been there about 6 years, so I have some seniority, but I’ve also elected not to pursue some training and certifications and such that could have given me a bit of a pay bump. I rarely come in for overtime, but that’s always available if you want it (there have been a couple years where one of our supervisors ended up being one of if not the highest paid county employee here because the man is an overtime machine, he’s a supervisor so he of course makes more than me to begin with but not so much more that you’d expect him to be in the running for that without the insane amount of overtime he does)
On average the county I work for is fairly wealthy and we’re not hurting for funding. We’re not union (although every few years someone starts talking about it, hasn’t gotten off the ground yet but we’ve gotten close a few times) but most of our surrounding counties are so that helps keep our pay competitive.
Applying for jobs can often be a numbers game, but if you’re not reaching the interview stage at all you may want to have someone review your resume for you. It might be that you’re not highlighting your skills and experience in a way that the systems will pick up on - every industry seems to have it’s own buzzwords - or you might also have a resume format that the ATS can’t parse correctly.
I had someone look at my resume, and they said it looked ok. But they are retired and maybe not the best to evaluate. It likely doesn’t help that I now have a work gap of 5 years roughly.
I thought I was starting a business with someone, but it all kind of blew up in my face. So I just waited around burning through my savings and finally started hunting for work the past 2 months.
A second opinion on your resume certainly couldn’t hurt. If money’s a concern, I think there’s a community on Reddit that allows you to submit your resume for review? Tread with caution, of course, but it could be worth a shot. Or I’ve seen people on LinkedIn or various job sites that help give back to their respective communities by providing resume feedback - I’d probably look for people in HR or who work as hiring managers.
That sucks about your business, but I think being honest about it is your best bet if/when it comes up. Businesses fail for a variety of reasons, plenty of which won’t necessarily reflect poorly on you. And if the gap is the last five years, well, there’s definitely been enough going on in that timeframe that you won’t be the only one with an employment gap.
Sounds like you operated a small business that unfortunately went belly up because of the recent economic turmoil. What were you, CEO?
I tend to disagree with people on the “numbers game” thing. The barriers to submitting a million resumes to a million jobs have never been lower, so people in charge of hiring are inundated with applications from people who’s skillsets and stated interests make it clear that they have not even read the job posting. It makes it so that people who are fitting for the job are like a needle in a haystack. It also doesn’t help that the people reviewing applications are not often the people who you’d be working with, and they don’t necessarily know all the right things to be looking for; they just have a list of magic words that they are filtering for. You might have a synonym of the right word on your resume, and they’d never notice it.
These days, knowing someone is especially the key in my experience. It doesn’t even have to be someone you know well enough that they’d give you an actual “recommendation”. You are probably better off sending your resume to 10 people who already have the job you want than submitting 100 actual applications.
It’s not the best resume in the giant stack who gets interviewed, it’s someone’s niece’s college roommate’s former coworker’s step-cousin.
Near term: you may be able to find some temp administration n or even light tech work over the summer. Pays not great, but better than zero.
Resumes: resumes are a numbers game, like 500+. It sucks. You may be able to up your odds by running your resume and the job posting through AI (like Gemini or copilot) to ensure a more custom application.
Networking: I often refer former colleagues to others for roles or informational interviews. Considered reaching out to an old coworker or two to see if they have heard of anything. There are also networking groups (city chamber, industry, etc.) that could help to extend your reach.
Best of luck!
I ran outta money before the degree arrived, unlike my bro who got 3 of 'em on sponsorship.
But I never stopped working. Almost 30 years since.
At my shop there’s a ‘24’-level (clued but accessible, no super-niche shit) 75%-remote (1/4 rotation in the package receipt point for FedEx deliveries, and the only job in the company which requires any onsite time) desktop support guy. I think it’s 80k-105k(yr5). It’s in the v8x area, so unfortunately not in America.
You only need to win once. Please keep looking.
Are you currently working? If not, register as a sole proprietor and become “self employed”. Even if only for the sake of having a job on your resume.
Good luck. It’s tough out there ❤️
I’m not. I have a huge work gap now, and it’s probably part of the problem, you’re right.
I spoke with a career coach after I was laid off and she would end her sessions with, “there’s a place for you somewhere, and whoever gets you wins.”
If it doesn’t resonate, feel free to ignore… I wanted to share what felt comforting to me, but we all have different journeys ❤️
Are you on LinkedIn? You should be if you’re not and make your profile strong. Add all of the key terms that a recruiter would be looking for for roles you’re targeting.
Reach out to recruiters directly and message them about any opportunities they are aware of. Some may be contract but may lead to a perm gig.
Good luck!
https://lemmy.world/comment/13583456
I have this one saved and I have no idea if it’s super helpful, but I hope it is.
I am not you in any respect. Just recycling advice I’ve seen in many similar threads. Which is that you might do better with a personal touch because you wont get through the resume robots. If you can get yourself in socially with people who are in a position to help you out. So you need to figure out who those people are, specifically (like by looking on linkedin). And how to get into the mix with them. Which could be by going to the right bars, contributing to the right projects, joining the right improv club etc.
and maybe check programming.dev
If no one will hire me I thought of trying to wing it myself and put fliers up offering tech support.
I’ve actually noticed in the past year or so, it seems the world is going back to fliers. Just walking around I am seeing posters for stuff like it’s 2011. There are people putting up fliers for tech support, among other stuff. If they are successful, I have no clue. I think it has to do with the enshittification of social media. Honestly it might be worth trying especially if you set a time/money budget. Like spend $30 and 10 hours; see what happens. But maybe facebook ads? In addition.
Do you have any certifications?
Desktop support huh? Look around your town for little tiny MSPs. There are 3 or so in my little city (I work at one of them) and I’ve been begging them to hire a tier 1 tech for years. We’re busier than HELL. They insist we “can’t afford one” but we’ll be able to afford 3 as soon as one of the “partners” finally retires soon.
If you’re ok doing remote-tool desktop support and know what you’re doing, I have no doubt you’re worth $20/hr.
Even if there’s no listing or “We’re hiring” sign in the window, I say take a chance and walk in to ask.
In the mean time, have you considered putting an ad on craigslist/etc? Best of luck to you fellow geek.Alright that’s solid advice, I’ll check my area thanks.
I would lie about having a degree and try to land a job that won’t verify it
It’s crossed my mind. I just worry about eventually being caught and the fraud aspect.
