Thread for motivating you/me to get a job

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#1

I really just cba to look for a new job. I’ve already got a part-time job which doesn’t pay much, but (the actual work is) easy and stress-free and I’ve sort of grown content and comfortable doing just that (and spending all my free time just listening to music), even though I’m really not content.

So what do I do? I just don’t have the confidence to apply for a full-time job. How are you even supposed to know what job you want, what to specialise in? Every time I do a job search there’s always the “several years work experience preferred” barrier. Does part-time experience count?

Maybe it’s because I’m hungover and haven’t had much sleep.

How do you actually get a job these days? Do you just apply for 10 jobs a day and hope something comes up?

I’m sure I’ve posted this before.

I just desperately want to move out basically, preferably to London. I don’t have any kind of life where I am atm.

#2

Get a job

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#3

Absolutely. And note ‘preferred’, not essential.

Good luck!

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#4

no idea man, i’ve been applying to stuff for quite some time and not got anywhere at all

I am totally lazy and useless and have no social skills or skills in general though so it’s not really surprising

#5

Well you’ll have to fake it. No one will hire someone who can’t even pretend that they can adequately perform the task in hand.

Start generic, eliminate the shit, try and narrow it down over time. You’ve got 50 years to work on, so I wouldn’t stress the details now tbh

Sure, just showing that you have any kind of aptitude for holding onto employment is a big positive

Yep, make a nice CV and send it into as many places as you can handle with a decent tailored cover letter

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#6

This might be a bit embarrassing, but what actually are graduate schemes? I always hear about them but I know nothing about them. Are they worth pursuing?

#7

They’re programmes run by large companies that are tailored to people coming straight out of university (graduates), so they generally don’t ask for much, or any specific work experience. Typically they’ll be designed to train you for a particular role within the company. Whether or not they’re worth pursuing depends entirely, there are graduate schemes to turn into a regional manager for supermarkets and there a schemes for becoming management consultants, it all comes down to what you want.

https://www.aldirecruitment.co.uk/graduates/

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#8

Out of interest why is moving to London so important? I appreciate that if you’re from somewhere a bit crap then anywhere but London just seems like another iteration of that but London can be an expensive, exhausting and lonely place to live so you should disavow yourself of the notion that moving there and taking a job you don’t really want is going to make everything better.

As for finding something you want to do, why not start off by identifying things you don’t want to do and working back from there? Would you want a service industry job for example? Or would you rather be in an office? As HYG says, grad schemes are a good idea too. You don’t necessarily have to do one that job for life either (someone I know who did the Deloitte grad scheme now works for a prisoner welfare charity) but it’s a good way to get a few years of experiences. They’re competitive, but the only way you’re guaranteed not to get a job is if you don’t apply for any.

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#9

not sure if this is what you mean but i’ve always found that people applying to jobs in london from outside of it have a hard time. there’s like a billion people here applying for everything and if you’ve got a rural postcode it probably counts against you unfortunately.

basically, put a london mate’s address on your CV

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#11

Starting to wish I had a normal job. Hopefully it’ll pass.

#12

Is it really that hard though? I know quite a lot of people who’ve managed to get jobs in London and move out there. Plus everyone on this site seems to work and live in London.

I live in an area that’s basically a commuter belt for London.

#13

If it’s any sort of service job or shift work where they might want you to work at short notice then they’re unlikely to go for someone who lives miles away. The legality of that is probably dubious but they never need to say that’s why they didn’t hire you.

#14

I’ve always wanted to live in London, I want to be in a big city plus I live fairly near there so it makes more sense to start working there and commute for a bit (if I get a job), rather than a smaller city further away. I’m not really bothered about how expensive it might be or that I might have to sacrifice buying things as I’m very unmaterialistic anyway. I feel pretty lonely and isolated where I am now tbh.

Living in the middle of nowhere is fucking boring, I mean it’s actually causing me depression. Even typing this I am depressed and lonely.

#15

Don’t wanna put you off or put you down, because London can be a great place to live, but it can also feel like the lonliest place in the world at times (this is coming from someone who grew up in a commuter town near London).

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#16

I guess what I’m really asking is, how do I change my habits and make myself WANT a new job?

Because I’m not really interested in money and ‘things’, that’s why I’m not even trying. How do I change that?

#17

Aaaaaaaaaanyone?

#19

Wish i could practice what i preach, but why not sit down with a pen and pad and try to make a list of things you love or are properly enthusiastic about, then brainstorm potential longterm careers involved in or around those things and work back even to entry level jobs that might lead you to eventually doing something rewarding you might enjoy and which doesn’t feel like a job.

Might sound silly, but it’s what i’m trying to do. I hate work and find it stressful and unrewarding, even when taking home okay money. Literally the only things in life i enjoy are sleeping, booze, listening to music and watching sport, but i’ve always had this mental block with regards to there being job opportunities in fields related to those. For example, i’d probably enjoy brewing beer for a local independent brewery, but have never really considered that just getting a bar job, then a cellar manager’s job could be a pretty easy, quite quick way of getting a foot in the door.

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#20

I think it’s quite hard for anyone else to make you want to change job. You have to weigh up whether you care more about being comfortable in an un-taxing job but being isolated, or living somewhere more exciting but being more taxed at work (by learning a new role even if the role itself isn’t too demanding). I get it, but… yeah.

In terms of living comfortably and not stepping too far out of your comfort zone: I would try and move to a small city or large town where you have a couple of friends or aren’t too far from your hometown, and work there to gain some experience and see how you balance working/living independently [it is very different to being a student…], rather than making the leap to London straight off the bat. If you have no idea what you want to do, go for some kind of admin role and then take the experience (whether that’s job experience or life experience that has pushed you towards a particular sector) to London after a year if you still want that.

(I have done exactly this^. A year ago I would have scoffed at the idea of moving to Tunbridge Wells and working in shop admin, but - even though rent in TW is expensive and this job isn’t my career end goal or well-paid - I can walk to work, live with a good friend, have a huge bedroom that overlooks a park, quite like my job, and have enough disposable income to spend on booze and foreign holidays and trips to see my friends 200 miles away and have a bit left over… with the result that I’m generally happier than I have been in years. It’s not ambitious but it is comfortable and I think I’m building steps that will allow me to move to a city and get a job that I like. From a lot of your posts I think we have similarish backgrounds, so I don’t feel this tangent is totally irrelevant.)

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#21

Not having to commute to and back from work can be a huge bonus. Mad how much stress it can take away from your day. My second-to-last job was on the road and it made me miserable. If it was an absolute stretch away i’d go the night before. Anything under about 75 miles and it’d be a crack of dawn start. Then i changed job to somewhere about a mile away. Avoiding driving, trams or busses and being able to stroll in was a godsend. There are the costs elements as well, you save a significant amount, not only on travel but other stuff, you can find your diet suffers and you drink more, etc, when working longer or more irregular or more stressful days.

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#22

There’s like, almost certainly a link here.

A job can be rewarding and satisfying and all those things, but it can also be a way of paying for a life you actually enjoy.

As you asked about graduate schemes - I’m on one (albeit a public sector one, and for a specific profession). I like it because it’s very structured, and it’s designed to give me a good range of experience doing different things [within my profession].

And for what it’s worth, I might h8 London now, and can’t wait to leave again (14 months down, 10 to go!!!) but it was great when I was 20 and so much better than living in the commuter belt town I grew up in.