Published on 12, July, 2020
So, back in March, I made a post about being on universal credit due to not being able to find post - graduate / part - time work, alongside the fact that I live in the literal middle of nowhere. Since then quite a bit has changed, thanks to a family friend, I was able to do a six - week cyber security internship in Bicester, that ended a couple of weeks ago (living in walking range of a supermarket / train station / bus stop was a breath of fresh air, believe me!).
But during my internship, I started to apply for more graduate roles again, using my updated CV. Unfortunately, I have been either rejected or ignored from the lot of them, and since my internship has ended, I have been back on the job searching grind, like I was for the previous year or so. I've also gone back to applying for basic IT admin roles, because I am that desperate to move out of this place.
But because I took a couple of days off of job searching, due to burnout (writing cover letters will be the bane of my life), my parents are now accusing me of slacking off and not caring about finding work, despite the fact that my job application count has gone WAAAY above the 130s. I feel like I'm being gaslit into thinking that I'm not doing my hardest, or that I'm not networking on LinkedIn enough, even when I have been told by people in the industry that it has never been more difficult to find work in the industry due to heavy competition and that I graduated at one of the worst possible times. I'm not even too sure what to suggest anymore, besides keeping the applications coming.
What makes it even worse is seeing other people on social media (including other members of my own family) bragging about how good their life is, whilst I'm stuck in the Forest of Dean not doing an awful lot. Though, I guess it's more my fault for digging deep into social media in the first place, when I should really be using Instagram to find recipes and nothing more.
Just wanted to vent, because this has been going on for a while now, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Dougliffe98 said:What makes it even worse is seeing other people on social media (including other members of my own family) bragging about how good their life is
That is one toxic aspect of social media - these people are probably suffering in different ways to you from managers who are sociopaths, companies who don't give a damn and colleagues who make their life hell.
But like all social media, people will post how amazing it is for them. Faking it until they make it - or retire, whichever comes first.
Ignore this facet of social media would be my advice, and if you have X, uninstall that hateful app.
Dougliffe98 said:my job application count has gone WAAAY above the 130s.
I used to get 200-300 applications off in a month when looking for new contracts and that was with 25 years of excellent experience. It just seems to be the nature of the job market these days.
I've been to loads of interviews in the past where the jobs were pulled in the weeks after as they lost funding, found an internal applicant etc - and from my time recruiting within companies I know that they often have to advertise the roles for legal reasons when they already know who will fill the position but need to go through the motions.
For me the key was to make job hunting a full time job - get 8 hours a day in with either searching / writing applications, attending interviews, chasing on older applications and updating my skills with online courses.
It keeps you busy and feeling that you are doing the max you can while the training is actually making you more marketable.
DO you hold X any more hateful than twitter was?
(Is a genuine RFI, I've used neither except to look at tweets when linked by other media)