I've been unemployed for 3 years. Anyone beat that?

Post Reply New Topic

between november 2011 and june 2016, unemployed.

BA, ucsd, cognitive science, 2007. 2.198 gpa out of 4.0

34 years old

Gender Identity Disorder, clinical depression
OCD, paranoid personality disorder

Well many people are probably aware of this by now but I've been out of college since January 2011 with nothing to show for it except a temp job that I ended up doing for only 2 days so it's technically a little over 6 years of unemployment (the years of being a student doesn't count as unemployment they say) but really I've had no formal job my whole life except a part time job in high school which I got fired from after a few months. I tell employers that I wasn't ready to work at the time because of my grandma passing away. I don't know if that makes any difference but what else can I say? That was mainly the reason.

The only advice I really get is volunteer and it makes me feel like I'm not worth anything. I'm not good enough to get paid so the more the coaches push it at me the more I don't want to do it. They think I'm not really trying because of that but I'm willing to work for any pay as long as I'm getting paid. I also did volunteer work while I was in school. I know that was a long time ago but still it should still count since I tried my best in it. I'm willing to work any hours despite not being a morning person. I would work during holidays too. The only thing I ask for is vacation time. I tell employers that and they just don't care. I'm willing to learn on the job as well as long as one is patient with me.


I am realizing lately that it's not just because of my disorder. It's because of my life that whenever I apply for a job no one is willing to hire me. They say their concern when asked is I don't have enough work experience but if it's something like that of course they are never going to tell you and the fact that I'm getting interviews at all says a lot. I have been through so much of people mistreating me.even half my family wasn't good to me. Due to a traumatic experience most likely my therapist said I probably have PTSD. I was diagnosed with depression at only 14 (which was shortly after my grandma passed) Ever since she passed is when I started getting a lot of mistreatment. I have no idea why perhaps it's because I wasn't a young child anymore but it's a strange coincidence.
I never knew the extent of my trauma (combined with the things I am aware of upsetting me) affecting how employers perceive me I guess because all those years it happened I was in a denial sort of state. Knowing this in a way makes it all the more difficult though because I don't know how to tell them. You're not supposed to get personal but it feels terrible to hide part of my life when it's part of who I am and can be a good thing for me as an employee despite being negative. Most importantly though I have no way of explaining why no one has hired me without disclosing it. I even have a problem with disclosing my disability because I never know when an employer is going to accept it.
I now have a foot condition (as well as a digestive disorder) that holds me back from working certain jobs and I'm sure all the bad stuff I experienced helped it to develop.

I just don't know what to do now because I'm tired of trying and hearing from the people that are supposed to help me implying that I'm not really trying meanwhile they're the ones not really trying. The person I'm working with now who is saying I should volunteer often sends me a long list of jobs I'm not qualified for for one and most of the jobs that are listed I do qualify for I don't feel like I'd be able to do/look like a good candidate for.
I have applied for disability but really I just wanted a job and it takes too long to start getting it. The only reason I finally decided to do it is the work program you're supposed to get with it but I don't know how long it would take for me to get that.

The more I try and the more I try to go for appropriate people for help the more discouraged I get. One person I know says maybe I'm trying too hard. This is true I try so hard but I'm like that with everything. I don't know how to not try so hard. I think that's why when I was in primary school I would grind my teeth. I'd do it as I concentrated.
Being a deep thinker is supposed to be a good thing so under the right circumstances I know it is but the way my life has turned out it has always burdened me.

I can't even remember when the last time I worked was. I think it was fall 2007 and that was a paid in cash under the table job. I am at the point now where I can not even prove I have ever had a job. My jobs before the cash one have closed and so has the cash one.

I'm pretty sad because recently I have been reading all these stories of how difficult is to be employed after a year or two not being so. And that's a nurotypical person with MUCH less time than me.

I feel like I have so many barriers. They will ask what I have been doing. The truth of my parents bought my food and pay my car insurance does not make me look good. Nor does the fact that I decided to sell drugs for years before my parents did this.

I was known as very good and reliable when I did. I have customer service skills but none I can talk about

I don't plan to ever work for someone else again. I got to used to being my own boss. So now I rely on my own investments. That's what the truly rich do anyway. They don't ask someone for a job their money makes money.

Unemployed for 10 years, except when I worked for 1 day at a food bank in a shelter I was staying in, and I got paid for doing some art at that shelter too. I'm PATHETIC!! ! HOORAY!! !!

I can top that. I have been unemployed for almost 10 years now. I have tried different jobs and tried so many schools , but I haven't been able to stick to one thing for a long time due to my AS and other disabilities. It's very stressful for me to apply for a new job because then I have to explain why I haven't been working and why I quit my latest job. It's very hard.

Where I live, there are no room for people with AS. The school systems are designed for extrovert people only and if you can't handle that ..so sorry for you.

My IQ for example is high, I am not lazy and I'm very hard working. When in school I always got great/high grades and I have no problem reading and studying. That's not the problem. When working, the work was not the problem, my AS and how I couldn't handle people and noise was my problem. I am very sensitive to touch, sound/noise, lights and changes in routine and that makes some tasks very hard for me to handle. I am also very shy and introvert and I can't work with many people or be around many people at once. I can not speak in front of a group either or hold some speech in class for example. Where do that leave me and the rest of the shy, AS people ? In almost every school system you have to be able to be a little extrovert and confident at some point. And I can't escape people totally. There are people everywhere

Fortunately, after many years searching, I found a way to be able to study something that doesn't require me to be around people so much and I can study in very quiet and in my own environment, and maybe later I can find job and hopefully I can handle it and stick to it.

I'm pretty sure I can't beat your extent as I think a previous comment trumps both you and me, but I've been out of work since the end of January 2009. That's like, what, 8 years? And not one job opportunity has come my way since then. I feel completely purposeless. Sad thing is, I'm good with electronics and soldering. But nobody wants that. You're not alone, not by a long shot.

I have had odd jobs but in terms of finding meaning in anything, even just to the extent I can avoid a sense of dread.. Always waited and waited to find the right workplace and people I can talk to and who are working with similar goals.. my own age. I have not had a full time job ever.

Haven't had a job since 2011, which has been about six years now. My first and only job was filing medical records for two months as part of a hospital internship. Hated that job with a passion but stayed for the entire two month period all the way 'til the end. Before and after the job ended, I was pretty much told how hard it will be for me to get work so I eventually started looking more into self employment. I'll admit that during my internship and afterwards, I made some mistakes and earned some money online as well...very little though. Between 2011 and '14, I tried going back to school for medical billing and coding and dropped out after I finished my EHR course. I was pretty much forced into going back to school for something due to people who didn't live with us telling me to. My nasty ass half sister refused to listen to my problems so I stopped telling her because I knew she'd shoot me down with insults and criticisms about what I'm not doing. She was and is the type who said one thing about our relationship to others and says and does another to me in private. I got tired of trying to figure out where she stood so I started ignoring her on Facebook and she decided to cut me off like that. This proves how little respect she has for anyone. Anyway, I have been self employed for a while now. Made some work at home mistakes in the last 5-6 years(e.g. getting involved with transcription and caught up in transcription hell in the process), but that's how I learned. That's how we all learn. Just don't tell any self righteous person like my nasty sister. I'm in the process of publishing my books on Kindle and should be done with the story I'm working on no later than July 31st. Promotion will be a bit tricky, but I think I can manage though. Right now, I sell on eBay and earn from other ventures. I just gotta learn to save my money.

Haven't worked since 1996, and that was a nasty waste of time. In fact the whole lot of my sporadic working life has been a horrible torment which I wish I had avoided.

about 6 years. worked some part time whilst creating my own job. it is still an uphill climb with self employment, but the thought of going back to corporate sector with all the office politics is a motivating factor to make it work.

Gone out of school with 17.5, after that about 4 years schools trying to get a job education or highschool degree, no success at all, whatever.

My current age is 32.9, which I knew cause I read it at the computers display at my doctor (i sneaked over the desk, when no one was in the room) last week, I also could not believe it, but still about 45 years to go, so we will see when the number stops.

Successful unemployed for about 10,5 years now, did some freelancing jobs and some jobs which i hold 1-2 months or just cause i was too bored and want to see something else, but nothing longer than 2,5 months.

Living from about 400-500€ a month for the time, could not safe anything at all, complete broke currently, hoping someone pays me 400k for some contract, maybe, maybe not.

It's not bad to be unemployed, I could managed to get some holidays the last years and see the seaside a couple of times, hopefully I can manage again to get to a warmer country over f*****g xmas, which I hate for multiply reasons.

So far, so long, most people who work are dumb and using their lifetime to fill others pockets and buying useless things to not getting completely depressed.

For me, it's been nearly 6 years. The biggest problem is those damn applicant tracking systems.

I'm 28. I've had a couple of jobs that lasted for a month. The Longest i've worked was for 5 months.

Well, I haven't been in active paid employment for nearly twelve years come January, and I don't care who knows it.
All my work comes from human resources, and from what I can put paid to work back out into my own community.
I enjoy the art of conversation and good humour and clicking together on mundane tedious tasks, that don't offer any permanent catering solutions give or take in the current council budget agenda.
Everyone based in the public service quarters are hoping and praying their time won't be up whereas they will employ the youngest least experienced and mildly unfit in terms of physical ability to take up the human slack, and now my credentials are being implemented and supplemented once again, to deal with waste management and cutting back on loose ends to survey a tight schedule, that involves the careful remedy of running a group to size and date.
Either, way I'm young enough to take up the slack just not stupid enough to fall in the unhealthy trap of being paid on supply. I'd rather see out the long and short term on voluntary expenses and get my benefit money. My transport is expensive enough, and actually no matter what anyone says, no one will help you, you must put in the time to up your knowledge in certain areas of interest and ideas, use people as stepping stones and a guide to references and feel your way through a schedule of missed shortages that haven't been kept up to speed and recommendation through the daily blunder of all who survey and run it. Another thing is not to step on anyone's toes too much, but not let them take advantage or walk all over you either, otherwise your name will be kept out of the history books for years to come.