When I worked in staffing there was this one guy who was a regular applicant. He never held a job longer than a few months (I believe his record was six). He had a criminal record. He had been fired for assault on the job, theft (of goods and wages), and burned every bridge he ever crossed. He was in his early 50's. And he found a job every time. He was, in a sense, unemployable. Yet he always found work. He was always able to get a job because, when unemployed, he was willing to do anything. He wasn't able to keep a job because, once employed, what he was willing to do suddenly narrowed considerably. I think this happens more often and to people at a number of different career levels and, obviously, to varying levels of severity. But it's a big wide world out there for employees of any caliber.
34 college majors that get you a job at McDonalds - if you're lucky 34 college majors with the highest post-grad unemployment
I am becoming unemployable. After 3 months in a position I am tired of it. By the end of the first year I am just holding on. I have to make a decision soon by going to 3-6 mths contract only. Maybe it is genetic, I just want to be a beach bum.
It is entirely possible to make a career for yourself in fast food. My local Taco Bell seems to advertise every few years looking for managers. The advertised salary is $48k. They seem to value experience over a degree of any sort. Yet, these sort of headlines make it seem like McDonalds is the lowliest and lowest paid form of employment and that it is especially pathetic if you can't get a job there. Doesn't sound like a particularly healthy attitude to take.
You guys didn't read the post. The skills in the article that make you unemployable are indicators that you're ready to become an entrepreneur. They are traits that are considered challenging in a corporate culture but kick-a$$ when working for yourself.
There are plenty of people who work for themselves and barely scrape by. And many of those individuals can only ever work for themselves because they are, in many ways, what we would call "unemployable." There are posts and articles like this all over the web. They're like "quit your job today" recruiting posters. The fact is that Elon Musk types don't need an article to tell them they have the personality for working for themselves. They do it because they cannot imagine doing anything else. For everyone else articles like this are really just Walter Mitty porn. They give you a little fantasy to enjoy as you stare mindlessly at your computer pretending to work until lunch.
you were faster than me Steve, but yeah, wow. Geeze Neuhaus. :rippedhand: I don't know who Walter Mitty is, but I will Google him.
You're never just a jerk. Your creative spirit is simply resisting the bridling of corporate America. Work for yourself and you'll soar. You're not lazy. You work on a 24 hour clock and those 8 hours at the office is you pacing yourself. Strike out on your own and you'll show them all. Suck at updating your skills? You know what? You're not even built for this time period. Build a tiny house, take it off the grid, grow a big mountain man beard and live off of blogging. People love personal revelations. They want their lives to change when an idea strikes them like lightning and causes them to change course toward a better future. And these revelations are amazing distractions. We contemplate what we could do or how our lives might be awesome if we took some drastic action. And people certainly do. But the vast majority of them don't do it because they read a cool article. People start businesses, move off the grid or sell their house and buy a ticket for the West Coast (to, perhaps, give them a stand-up routine in LA) all the time. But they don't generally do it because an article on the internet told them it was a good idea. They did it because it is in their blood to "do." They would have done whatever it is even in a world without the internet or trendy articles about how your suckiness as an employee is actually a good thing. So these articles don't appeal to the people who actually do stuff. They appeal to the people who wish they actually did stuff. That's handy, from a traffic optimization standpoint, because there are far more wishers than doers.
My experience indicates that people in the real world don't fall so neatly into these black or white categories of "either A or B." People, their personalities, their motivations and their situations tend more to exist on a continuum and are affected by a number of factors. Inspiration comes from strange or unexpected places sometimes, maybe even a blog. I heard a story once about a guy who got arrested in some sort of protest thingy and he spent the weekend in a jail cell. In the cell were a big set of magazine related to post and beam construction. It caught his imagination and he turned it into a career. Maybe he would have hit on it eventually, or something similar but sometimes the right nudge at the right time is all that's needed.
I got into HR because I decided to join the Navy and became a Personelman. Why did I choose to become a PN? Glad you asked. I had a copy. Of. Some Navy recruitment magazine that listed the rates and their specialty mark. No descriptions, just the mark. The one I fixated on was NC, Navy Counselor. I was a substance abuse counselor majoring in psych. Sounded like something I might want to do. My recruiter lied and told me NCs actually did mental health type counseling (they do career counseling). You also, at that time at least, couldn't directly enlist as an NC. You could enlist as a PN and then, after you made E-4, cross-rate to NC (in theory). So I was sold. Then I found out in boot camp that NCs counsel you about your career not mental health issues. D'oh! I'm not saying you can't get inspired for a particular career path from a blog. But "entrepreneur" or "blogger" are not the sorts of careers that one finds through that method. The most successful bloggers are people who just started blogging about things they felt passionate about. The least successful bloggers are the ones who are only doing it for the cash and don't care about the content. So, by all means, be inspired. But the entrpreneur scam is big business now. Just look at how many new MBA programs offer a specialization in entrepreneurship.
