What should i do?I am unemployed and have a bachelor's

Post Reply New Topic

A degree or any other academic qualification is only useful insofar as it brings value to a potential employer.

Whether it's evidence of knowledge and skills in a particular field or a prerequisite for registration as a professional in a particular occupation - that academic qualification is only relevant if it makes you more valuable to your employer.

What knowledge and skills learned during your degree can you bring to the table for a future employer? As any other potential employee needs to do, you need to tell them how you will be an asset to their business.

I do not really know how a liberal arts degree is applicable to getting a office job with a oil and gas company other than a lot of white collar jobs require a bachelor's to get your foot in the door. A lot of 9 to 5 white collar office jobs require you to have a four year degree just to get you considered for the job.

At this point I wonder if I should just focus on my business and just give up on working for others because the state supported employment office has not really helped me in the 4 to 5 years since i graduated college.The state has been of no real help in terms of finding a good job for me. I would not be surprised if the state would just want to put me in a min-wage type job.

I was thinking about this today relative to unemployment requirements. I'm not going to apply for just any job as that would increase my anxiety to unacceptable levels. I need to find the fit. It's going to take longer (more effort) but will hopefully be worth it. To woefully generalize, in many ways NTs do things the "easy" way (which is effective in the short-term) and ASDs do things the "hard" way (which is effective in the long-term). Of course typically what's hard for me is easy for my NT friends and vice versa.

Also, i am getting tired of being blamed all the time for being jobless and unemployed by my folks.I try telling them that most people on the spectrum are unemployed or underemployed and they dont think it applies to me.

What is the major you studied for your degree?

It was just a degree in one of the liberal arts.Not STEM or anything technical like that.

Yuck. Possibility: They don't want it to apply. They want "better" for you. They don't realize that better is supporting you as you find your way with your own standards, not theirs.

I was undiagnosed and temping and my dad kept asking me when I would get a "real job". I thought that was so odd. I was doing what I could do and I was paying the bills. Wasn't that praise worthy? Occasionally I would take breaks between jobs and that really threw him for a spin. Although I didn't feel blamed, it was clear I wasn't meeting his standards for how my life should be. My mom was undiagnosed AS also: she didn't blame me about the job, but she wasn't a support either b/c she had her own demons. She still does and recently I've started saying "That's not helpful" to curtail her destructive input; I try to first say "I know you want to help..." but may forget on occasion.

Hang in there.

Has your vocational rehabilitation office shared the Talent Acquisition Portal (TAP) with you. Its a job website that is invitation only by voc rehab for employers looking to hire people with disabilities. I just got access to it, though I'm noticing some jobs that are also publicly posted elsewhere. Applying through the TAP website probably flags your application package unlike a normal one.

https://tapability.org/

My best advice would be to try to get a referral from someone already in at a company. That's a good way to get fast tracked to an interview. Do you have old school classmates in your network that might vouch for you?

If you can afford to focus just on your business, this sounds like a good idea regardless of what the state employment service does or does not have to offer. Your business would likely become successful faster if you focus just on it, and, if you manage to succeed, hopefully you could thereby also get your dad off your back about getting a "real" job.

I have friends that could vouch for me but they work at min wage type jobs.No they have not shared it with me.

Okay thank you.Thats a good point.

Thanks again for your encouragement, SharonB.I really appreciate it.

I talked to my dad about my situation when i was with him and he said worst-case scenario they would use the savings made from our family business to buy me rent houses to supplement my income.Also, I could live off of the trust fund and stock market investments and work a part-time McJob to get and maintain health insurance as well as live on business income worst-case scenario if i am not able to get a career track job.

One thing that i wonder about is if a entry-level office job would even be worth it financially because it would most likely pay about the same as a McJob.So I dont know if office job or McJob would be better.

I don't either.

When you enrolled in your liberal arts degree what sort of work were you planning on securing after you've finished it?
You've spent a number of years studying something, now is your chance to put it to work in your chosen field.