Wall of Mouths

It’s tough at the moment man. It’s at times like this that you realise the “credit crunch” isn’t just media talk :(

A friend of mine was unemployed for a while there, started getting him down a lot – you’ve just gotta be relentless with those application forms / job agency interviews – you’ll get somethin eventually :)

I was only ever on the dole once – was for a month and a half or so when I was 21. I bought myself a second hand guitar and started teaching myself to play – was getting pretty decent at it before I got a job; never picked it up again unfortunately.

Good luck Kyle, just hope you don’t end up like me and spent years signing on, no matter how many jobs I applied for and ended up ill as a result.

Hah I would love to work in a bookshop, i have applied to a good few of them in dublin and cork. I’m finishing up my masters in english lit, which is not very vocational, I’m doing it as a stepping stone to a PhD which I hope to start in spetember 2009. Until then, I need money and I’m pretty destitute. I’m trying to call in my debts, (some pals owe me several hundred quid) but that’s not working either. I have to leave my house in four weeks because of cash flow problems, and for the first time in almost five years I will be going home to live with my dad until I can find work.

I tried signing on once, was more grief than getting a job. i’ve a great work ethic but nobody is willing to give a job to someone with little or no experience. And I don’t wanna wear a suit. I worked in a bank for a few weeks and I hated every minute of it.

Ha! I did an MA in English as well… if you’re definitely doing a PHD in a year, it doesn’t really matter what work you do (you can leave it whenever you like). What about bar work or somethin? Or a call centre? Easy money, and you won’t be there forever!

Kyle - Have you thought about joining an agency? I know it sounds girly and crap, but it could be worth investigating. You can turn down anything you don’t want to do, you get more money per hour for doing the job than you would if you were on a fixed contract, there’s a wide variety of work (it’s not just for secretaries!!) which you don’t have to look for, you can get short or long term contracts and if you hate it you can leave without getting a bad reference or spoiling your CV.

That’s what I did anyway - I got a 6 week contract and I’ve been here 8 months now and I’m contracted up until the end of March next year :)

I used a temp agency 3 years ago for jobs when I was unemployed, found a great one in materials at a hospital and eventually got hired on full time. Been here 2 years and still enjoy it, I’d say it’s worth a try. iI know t sucks being out of work, can be depressing as all hell, hang it there, man, something will turn up. :)

^ Exactly. The worst part of being unemployed for so long is people assume you arent even looking despite your best efforts. And if you present proff that youre applying for six jobs a week, they still say shit like ” well, maybe you could do more ” or ” you arent looking hard enough ”

Please fuck off.

signing on is not that bad - it was very dauntnig the first time, but as long as you make sure you look for loads of jobs in teh fortnight - its easy :)

“I can imagine Neal working in a sports shop, Andy as a builder and Mikehell would be an unscrupulous wheeler dealer in mirrored shades”

Haha thats excellent!

Cheers guys for your help. You’re right, a positive attitude is half the battle. For a start I’m going to move to Dublin, as there seems to be more opportunities there than in Cork.

I gotta admit, I’m pretty lucky to be where I am now.

When I dropped out of college back in ‘97, I went on the dole for a while and then got a job for a few months until Christmas.
Then I was on the dole again from the start of ‘98 until the summer when I got another job until Christmas.
From the start of ‘99 I was on the dole again, but working cash in hand. It was at this point I hit a low when I was interviewed for Dunnes Stores (for people in the UK, think of Tesco), and I was rejected… I remember just being stunned and majorly depressed - if a shitty supermarket didn’t want me, where was my life headed?

Then, by chance, a major company opened in my town in the summer of ‘99 and I amazingly got a job there. I was sent to the States for training. But the wisest move I’ve made since joining them is start college part-time in the evenings (mainly ‘cos the company pays for it), and because of that I was able to apply, and get, better paid jobs with them. Now that I’m finished college after all these years, I’m in a great position of having a good CV and with plenty of opportunities of getting even better jobs, either with them of their competitors.

If I hadn’t got the job with them back in ‘99 I probably would be a wretch by now, either on the dole or working a dead-end job.
I was lucky in that regard. But by doing college in the evenings, I made a wise move. It was fucking tough too - driving 35 miles to and from the college for 4 hours of lectures a night, three times a week, after a full days work - but it’s enables me to have control over my working life, something that never looked like happening for me when I was in my early 20’s.

I guess the point of my rant is that, with a bit of luck and some good decisions, things should be ok. It’s never too late to go back to college. My course (engineering) was boring as hell, but it was worth sticking at.

I worked for Dunnes as well, they weren’t too bad. I worked for Tescos for a month before being sacked for “bringing down morale”…i’m actually proud of being able to bring down morale in Tescos, as if the working conditions, blue red and white bullshit, compnay policy-spewing managers etc. isnt morale-killing enough

Kyle Bovine wrote:

…I don’t wanna wear a suit. I worked in a bank for a few weeks and I hated every minute of it.

Heaven kicked you out / you wouldn’t wear a tie? :-D

Am I the only person that actually likes wearing a suit? I actually overdress for work :)

I usually wear full evening dress and a tiara :)

do you work as a fairy godmother?