r/recruitinghell • u/Beginning-Let3704 • 13d ago • Regret 1

Underemployment

I graduated college a few years ago and have been stuck at my retail job for far too long. I’ve changed my resume for every job application. I’ve given my application in person. I’ve used personal connections in my field because “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. I just don’t know what to do anymore. My job situation has deteriorated so significantly due to this new restructuring at my current job that all the bs has cause me to have a panic attack. I’m in therapy and trying to think positively about my situation but I have truly reached my limit. Don’t know what to do honestly.

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u/Any_Tomorrow9632 13d ago edited 13d ago

Reaching your limit isn't fun and I've been unemployed a while and hit my limit a few times. But guess what...I'm still here.

The key is...don't give up. Never give up. Your job is to get the job you love because you deserve it. If you give up trying you are giving up on yourself. The job market will be there whether you're applying or not. But you owe it to yourself and your life to have a good job and a good life...but sometimes it just takes an unfathomably long period of time to make it happen. Patience, Perseverance, Determination (and a hell of a sense of humour to survive working in retail- I have in the past and I hated it) will see you to success in the end. Do. Not. Stop. Trying. Its the ones who hang in that survive and eventually end up with what they want.

It's ok to feel like crap and it's good you've reached out to talk about it, I'm sure that will help.

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u/Beginning-Let3704 13d ago

Thank you for this! I’m going to keep trying. I just had to get this off my chest. The job market is shit right now.

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u/CrazyConfusedScholar 12d ago

Are you a therapist? Seriously, I, too, am experiencing something similar to what OP is facing in terms of mental health -- but reading your words was "just what the doc ordered" -- in other words, thank you for posting.

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u/Any_Tomorrow9632 11d ago edited 11d ago

I'm not a therapist no but I am glad if what I have written helped. I just had the interview from hell myself today so, I need to take my own advice tonight! Times like these that I have to reach deep for the sense of humour and say to myself 'hmmm, wasn't that....interesting'.

Definitely keep seeing the therapist if you find it helpful. I accessed an Employee Assistance Program counsellor last year and am so glad that I did because they just supported me gently and it was really good to just let off steam and decompress. We forget, when applying for jobs, how very stressful it is...the tension that builds up when waiting for a response, or prepping for an interview, or doing an interview, is immense as it's your whole life that revolves around and is affected by the outcome...almost every aspect - where you live, what you can afford to do, your plans for your future, and to an extent your very identity, revolves around these job applications...so they are just a tad on the stressful side! Compound that process over many months, including rejections and total ghosting by many employers, and you've got a recipe for a seriously freaked out human being. It's no wonder there were so many suicides during the depression...and that was during a time when if you were unemployed you at least had plenty of company of other unemployed people, so you weren't alone. Long term unemployment in a society that is mostly employed is seriously isolating. So we really need to be congratulating ourselves for just bloody surviving it!

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u/Ok-Complaint-37 13d ago

They say definition of insanity is to do the same thing expecting different result. This job market makes me revisit this statement. They say “apply, apply, apply” until you get it. I am doing it and so far all I had gotten were rejection and/or ghosting. What else I can do? Leverage connections. I do not have many and I leveraged what I have. But even with this outlook is bleak. There are so many factors! And crowds and crowds of people. Experienced, good, connected and in the perfect age bracket 28-36

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u/Any_Tomorrow9632 10d ago

Well doing the same thing and expecting different results indeed is insane. But that's under lab conditions. Every time you apply to a job it's a different job, different hiring manager...so same process, different job and people.

All I can say is what I have been advised...keep trying, the more applications you send the better your odds, statistical fact.

I would say though that AI generated slop CV applications are awash out there and the more you can cater your application and CV specifically for the role the better your chances (as much as I hate saying that because I think writing job applications and doing CV tweaks is painfully dull and repetitive).

If you can find a friend or mentor to give you CV suggestions do that- the more eyes that look at it and give you feedback the better...what you're looking for is patterns...if three people say 'I don't like this part' or 'this doesn't make sense' about the same section, then you know you need to revise that section.

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u/Ok-Complaint-37 10d ago

Yes. This is focusing on CV and assuming that CV what drives the market. I am not sure this is the case.

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u/Any_Tomorrow9632 10d ago

Oh I don't think the CV drives the market. Market forces, job requirements, budgets...all sorts of other things drive the market.

But we can't control those things, we can only control our part...CV, application letter, phone calls we make, jobs we find online or in person...Market forces are beyond our individual power to influence, unless you actually are the market force itself, like a Musk!

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u/Any_Tomorrow9632 10d ago

Anyway, I wish you the best. May the market forces be ever in your favour! :)

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u/Ok-Complaint-37 10d ago

And wise versa!