Anybody out there enter workforce at a late point in life?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, I'm a 21 year old male and I've never had a "real" job before. The jobs that I've had were extremely temporary jobs that lasted maybe 1 or 2 weeks. I feel extremely embarassed and ashamed of this but I know that I can't help it so I can't let it bother me too much. For the past three and a half years since leaving highschool I have been unemployed. I am extremely horrible around lots of people (I get anxiety) and well, around ANY people. I'm sick of feeling useless because I know that I could easily get a job if my anxiety wasn't an issue. I don't know, I'm just really fed up. I'm nearly 22 years old and I feel like I'm wasting my life. Is it possible that a person like me can enter the workforce at such a later time in their life? I'm not immature, I'm witty, I'm quite good at socializing if I'm around the right people... People don't understand why I don't work.



Someone please tell me if you were like me but finally found the courage to enter the workforce at a much later time in your life.

Hell, I worked from 16 until 20, and every day felt like a waste. Just go to school, get a degree, and get a non crappy job.

Your not missing anything. Don't feel ashamed. Most jobs suck.

find a job where you work "alone" and your left to basicly be your own boss, thats what I do, if it was not for that I would go nuts working around other people, if not that then take up construction work, many time in construction after you get the hang of things your left to your own work.

Have you not worked since you were 20? How old are you now?

Thanks for your replies, but the question is "Anybody out there enter workforce at a late point in life?" I want to know if there is anybody out there who was in the same boat as me. Someone who started their first job in their twenties or so.

hi!
I didn't enter the work force until I was about 18 yrs old. But I didn't get a JOB, I got a STRATEGY . I learned to cook because it was like the chemistry that I loved and that was quiet and clean and I got to eat, too. People mostly let me cook and stay with them and learned to be a really good cook and cook for a lot of people, and I got to stay behind the counter and was pretty much in charge by knowing were everything was and how to prepare the food. It was a good choice for my wandering ways as I would come into a town and by that night be a third, or second line cook, be able to eat and work for a while, find a place to stay and later, when things got too heavy, and I got so full of my 'symptoms' and had to move on. I had a strategy for living, then. I got good at cooking, professionally, too. They leave you alone, and there is usually just a few people in the kitchen you get used to.

and it wasn't courage, pat666rick, it was necessity. I was my only support and had to do something. When I was 37 I started taking night classes at a community college in computing, and then some acting classes ( that was really good, as I learned poise and presentation) and then core classes and 8 years later I had graduated from college with a 3.8 GPA. I took my computer knowledge into the DOT.COM boom and spread my sails into that financial wind. I am now into helping people do health care for seniors, another booming market.

I get jobs in places I can stay in the middle of the pack, were I am just another cog in a wheel so I can hide and get along. ( I hate those jobs) Some times I can't stand it one more minute and I quit and buy a tent and go live on public lands or some flood plain somewhere and live like a hermit on the hill or in the forest till the moss grows under my fingernails and I get sick of hibernating like a bear and lumber down into town and clean up somewhere and get another job and work my way back into an apartment and sometimes even a car.

but I am getting too old for that any more.
well, I hope that helps. you can do anything you want to, but you gotta be INTO it, or you might as well not start. I have never been able to force myself to do something when I wasn't into it. When you get sick enough of not having a strategy, you will devise one.

best wishes,

Merle

Wow, thanks for taking your time to write all that. It sounds like you have been very successful in your life, it gives me hope. Thanks.

*raises a hand*...yeah...me...I'm 20 and I've never had a job nor won't likely have one until after I get into and finish college.

Just asking, cause I don't know, but doesn't anyone enter a trade anymore? I mean, plumber, electrician, carpenter, cook, painters, paperhangers, carpet installers, glaziers? all these trades are very necessary, they give a person a lot of lea way for working for themselves, they pay well and you have a flexable schedule.

it's kinda cool to work with your hands.

Merle

Quote Edited by request

Last edited by sinsboldly on 02 Apr 2008, 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

@sinsboldy: Why did you quote me? To answer your question: no...I'm going to college, as opposed to a trade....so yeah.

Start taking a few classes and tell people that you are a college student. At age 21 that should not be inordinately unusual anywhere for you to be unemployed while a student. Now paying for the classes is another matter. You might need to take out loans for that. With an education behind you (a degree and no less is usually what you need to have) you should be able to get a job later with which you can pay off the loans and then get started in the real, working world at a job that is not necessarily entry-level.

Oddly enough that plan above I suggest to you is similar to my own educational-career plan, except that I do work during the summers and my parents are generously covering most of my tuition costs. I have also had an academic scholarship pay for some of my tuition. It may sound like I had some advantages. Tuition money can be found for you though if you look hard enough. Yrust me, a higher education is the way to go for fun jobs and prestige! (Jobs and prestige you can definitely get without a college degree, but this is the easiest way for me, I figured. Might be different for others who have different skills.)

sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on your post by quoting you unnecessarily. I will remove my comment from your post and not quote you with out your permission again.

sorry,

Merle

Actually, I think 21 is rather early to enter the workforce. At least in Mexico, the normal thing is to enter the workforce until you're done with all your studies: 18 years old if you're not gonna do college, 23 if you do, sometimes even 25 if you want to take a master's degree right after graduating.

this made me laugh!
when I was 12 years old I was picking strawberries along with a lot of other kids younger AND older from Mexico and believe me they were not excused to do their 'studies'.

YOU may not live in the world I do, but please educate yourself that others don't have the good fortune to pick and chose when they are going to start paying their own way.

Merle

There really aren't that many people entering trades, because parents want their kids to go to college. They think that college will always lead to a better life. Now that more and more mediocre people are getting through college with little job skills and not being able to find jobs.

Also, I'm not sure how good these trades would be for Aspies, especially those who aren't good with physical coordination.

It wasn't that, I just found it random, as you didn't say anything to ME specifically (that alongside highlighting what a person has to say). If you do have anything to tell/ask me, please do. And no, you don't need my permission to quote me.