Desperate Times...

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Hey. I've been trying to get a Job for about a year, with no luck. I'm 20, I have no High School Degree (Dropped out), and no experience. I don't know what to do. I have an Application in every business I can get to and apply at. My Mother raised my two brothers and me by herself, and each year our situation gets worse. She has to pay all the bills, for all the food, and she's been going to court (Paying for her own lawyer and traveling to the another state) fighting my youngest brother's father for Custody, and my other younger brother is having a lot of issues and is drinking, smoking weed, cigarettes, and keeps getting arrested. So, yeah, She is having a bunch of problems. And I have been seriously trying my hardest to get work, but I just can't do it. I've had 6 interviews so far, but none of them work out. Helping my mother is the most important thing at the moment, and I feel absolutely useless. I'm about to run away and be homeless just so that she has one less mouth to feed. I do have Aspergers. I don't know what to do. Please help me.

You'll pass the GED, gauranteed, so don't be afraid to take it. 6 hours, that's all. You could maybe try temp agencies if you want a job like right now, it'll be crappy manual labor, but jobs on a daily basis. Last year, for example, we got a lot of snow, so if you live in an area with snow, then you'll get paid to shovel snow, sometimes off roofs. Kinda dangerous, but yeah. There's other jobs, too, that are basically equally as lame, but they're there.

Okay, one thing to consider is H&R Block. Basically, if you can pass a test, you'll get a job. Might be a little tight in that you'll need to study tax. Then learn the computer system. But they might let you take the test twice or give prep material.

The job is basically 5 weeks at $9 an hour. Most years, for new people, the job ends the first week of February.

Helps to learn computer system, so that when a client storms the store angry, and they will, you can look up their name and social security number, and show them the screen, yes, their return has been accepted by the IRS (first step) but the bank did not approve the loan. And helps to tell client up front, it is a loan application. Also, some negatives with Block's bank and loan products, you can decide whether or not to inform client (I got fired 1 year out of 4, but ran into opposition one other year, yes, because I tried to be ethical). So, you might want to play a tighter, more conservative game and just do it their way. And really, if you just tell clients, it is a loan application, some people are approved, some people are not, you're doing them a world of good just with that.

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A professional sales job like furniture or automobiles. They hire a lot of people, a lot of people don't last long. People typically don't make the money they say, especially new people who are given less good locations and times. Yes, the lack of experience will count against you. But as a young person with a positive attitude, some of them might be willing to take a chance.

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The biggest thing against you is that it's a down economy and there aren't that many openings. The second biggest thing is lack of experience.

Okay, in the old days, with some companies, the lawyers ran the company. These days, with some companies, the human resource people run the company.

Now, there is a method with some of the better jobs, where you put in a resume with HR and then if possible find the phone number of an operational (read: non-human resource) manager. The tricky part is to make a request where you aren't putting this manager on the spot by asking him or her to go around HR. And the following is not bad:

'I've already sent a copy of my resume to human resources. May I send you a copy also?'

I'm a college graduate looking for a full-time job, but I have no experience.

And also---anyone who you'll had personal dealings with---such as professor, coach, minister, volunteer coordinator might be able to give a letter of recommendation and be available for a phone recommendation.

Now, sometimes they will say no.

I tutored at a math lab, and this nice Japanese lady who was one of the professors there said, "I wouldn't know what to say." Maybe she was relatively honest in that regard because she was from a different culture, where someone who had grown up in American culture would have a smoother sounding excuse.

It did bother me actually, some, it did, but that's part of reality, too. I guess I need to accept it, atleast in the short-term.

Anyway, this also is a numbers game.