The Unemployment Stage

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That looks trippy. It's good that you're staying inspired

I really hate being at this stage. Especially when a company just ghosts instead of formally rejecting the application, leaving you to wonder why. I think that I really need to look into expanding on my styles, I know I'm used to creating particular content but experimenting with new styles could really help. Still, it does feel like a never ending process at times. Am I ever going to find something? Can I ever get to the point where I'm actually earning from Freelancing and my work is actually seen? I don't fully know and I hate that I don't know.

Just....Ugh.

I have done voluntary work whilst unemployed. I have built personal computers for people for free. I fix people's operating systems for free, I share all of my knowledge for free.

I do it because I have never been charged rent by my parents whom I live with. I try to give back to people, in life. Sometimes to people who don't really deserve it but who seem to need the help.

Nobody who stays at my house gets charged anything for staying.

I try to help disabled folk the most out of everyone, both in real life & online.

Money being the root of all evil and all that.

A recruitment agency phoned me this morning unexpectedly. They wanted to see if I wanted to apply for a particular role. It's in a rough area, which I could technically commute to without too much hassle. However, the question is, would I want to?

I decided to send them an email asking for further information such as whether it's remote, hybrid or on-site. Now I'll just have to see if I get a response back. I'm not too hopeful about it, the role was uploaded to the recruitment agency's website three months ago. Typically I don't go for listings that are older than two weeks, they're usually phantom posts that just haven't been taken down yet. However, in an email the agency sent me, they said that there were other applicants interested in the role. Which, if true, seems to suggest that it is an active posting. Unless we're all chasing a dead listing and the recruitment agency haven't been properly communicating with the business they are advocating for, which is a possibility. Still, I'll see if I get any response and just continue applying for various listings. Hopefully I'll eventually find one that wants to give me a job.

jobs through agencies in my experience are almost guaranteed to get you a job, just the catch is it can be in a remote area to commute to and tend to be long hours (or zero hrs), i am speaking about sectors like retail/logistics/warehousing as these areas are always in demand and hard to get in if one does not have their own transport.

One of the mistakes I made after graduating was to wait for job agencies to contact me. You need to proactively go and knock on doors. I eventually got my first job poking my head inside somebody's office.

In the interim while you wait for work in your area also be open to do any sort of paid work to keep yourself busy and have a cash flow. Employers prefer to recruit busy people, enthusiastic people than graduates who are passively sitting in their parent's basement playing video games while they wait for employers to call them.

If paid work is hard to come by then volunteer. Show employers you are geared to work,

Depends on the employment sector

To clarify a couple of things:

- When I mentioned remote, I meant working from home. These days job listings are sorted by 'on-site' (aka having to show up to a particular work building), 'remote' (working from home) or 'hybrid' (a mixture of the two). I've been looking at a lot of listings recently and for a moment there I forgot the other meaning of the word remote. Although yes, that particular listing does happen to be in the middle of nowhere, but so am I. Fortunately, it's the type that's close to me. I'd just have to get the train to the next town over, then take a bus to travel there. Which is fairly typical, I have to do that to commute to most places. However, my initial hesitancy was regarding the fact that it's in a rough area with high crime rates. It's not so bad during the day, but not the type of place I'd want to hang about at night.

- Regarding the agency, that was a completely unexpected phone call. Usually I try my best to actively avoid agencies. I don't like them. They annoy me. However, my details were unknowingly passed on to them.

- As for volunteering, the volunteer group I am a part of has been absolutely useless. I initially signed up to help out with a website, they accepted my application only to tell me that position was already being taken care of by other volunteers. So I offered some suggestions on the website anyway and then switched to the social media team. However, that team was also quite full of volunteers. I was able to make one post, then I struggled to find anything else to do. Everything was already covered, so I tried coming up with my own tasks to do but they have no use for any of it. We'd have meetings but they kept cancelling the meetings and now I'm still left with nothing to do for them. So I think it's probably time to give up with that team.

I did apply for a different volunteer position, but they ghosted me. They sent an email asking me about my experience and relevant work, which - no, if I'm a volunteer I don't owe you that, but I replied with information and they just blanked me.

Oh well. I'm looking into finding a new volunteer gig because this one isn't working out. As for paid work, I'm designing some vector design assets at the moment which I'm going to use to set up a freelance gig (as watermarked previews). However, whether it'll get any hits is another matter.

I do need to increase the amount of applications I send in, but ugh cover letters are the freaking worst to write and I know they're a necessary evil but who on Earth invented them? Why would you do that? I write them anyway but ugh freaking cover letters.

I've officially quit the volunteer gig. Recently I applied for a new volunteer gig (hopefully I'll have more to show from this one) and I have a zoom call with them later this week. I'm also continuing to search for paid work, recently I got an update on one of my applications telling me they've viewed it...here's hoping I get some sort of response back. Oh well. The search continues.

Well the new volunteer gig sent me a rejection email. So that was a bust.

This seems... dubious. As you say, the role has been up for three months. Either the employer has the response time of a snail on NyQuil, or the "other applicants interested in the role" have already been rejected (or have found better opportunities), or the agency is trying to create a sense of artificial urgency to get you to accept a low wage or poor conditions.

Or it's a fake listing, the agency just wanted your details (including whether you were still looking, and an updated copy of your CV) for their data-harvesting, and any enquiry into further details will be met with ghosting or extremely vague responses while pushing for you to send them more of your personal information.

Yeah, I decided not to apply to that listing in the end. I deleted my account with the agency and unsubscribed. So hopefully they won't be contacting me in the future. I'm still applying to jobs, just outside of the agency / independently.

The fact I've been turned away from doing free work doesn't fill me with much confidence though. Still, just have to keep going.

OK, so, I'm half-awake and I'm a bit baffled. Apparently a company received my CV but I never applied to them...the agency maybe? I mean, how else? Maybe a job site passed my details on? I'm not sure what's happened here. Yet the company contacted me directly which is unusual. Apparently they want to set up a zoom with the managing director. Did they send this me by mistake? According to the email the first stage is an informal meeting. They did link their website and socials so I'm not being left completely in the dark. I know they're a marketing and branding agency in a neighbouring city. Perhaps I ought to take them up on this and arrange a time? Hmm.

Yeah…maybe you should

Update: I have a Zoom meeting with them tomorrow.

Good Luck!