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I don't know if this is the right topic. But I feel helpless. I have posted on another community about my struggles, and I have attempted to make progress and took the advice of the individuals that have responded to my post, but so far I feel like my efforts have gotten me nowhere. A lot of jobs that I seem to apply to online are either extremely competitive, require experience that I do not have (I refuse to lie on my resume/in interviews), or are data farms. I have poor interview skills, which can be remedied through career counseling and mock interview resources, but every day I check the job boards and I feel like I suffered through undergrad for nothing (I studied public health, a field that was in-demand at the height of the pandemic, but is now irrelevant). Had I known the job market would be this bad when I graduated, I would've chosen a different career path to begin with. I have been out of work since September of last year (when I finished college). No one will hire me, and my experience is very lacking. The only employment experience I have is with food service jobs (Chipotle and my college dining hall) and Amazon.
Here is what I have done so far:
1. Checked with temp agencies. I registered with one in-person temp agency and they said they had nothing. I will check more agencies, but I have looked around on some of these agencies' online job boards, and am seeing a lot of management positions and positions that require you to be certified in something (usually in nursing or caregiver positions). The rest are all engineering/manufacturing or in finance/accounting/sales. There are some desk job positions, but they require at least a year or 2 of experience (experience that I do not have). Indeed is a joke, Snagajob is a joke, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, I have checked them all. I have built my LinkedIn profile, but my connections are low. I feel weird sending random requests to people that I went to university with and never spoke to in-person. I tried to apply to fast food/retail but the wages went up to $20/hour in this state so that means layoffs, menu price increases, slower business, hours cut, hiring freezes, shorter-staffed shifts. It was shockingly easier for me to get a job while in university, I don't know what happened.
2. Sign up for volunteer opportunities, these are in-progress right now. I'm mainly working with organizations where I can develop skills that can be used for jobs, like tutoring kids, or working with the Red Cross, since my network is weak due to my mental health problems and my weak support system. After undergrad ended I lost a lot of friends and cut off a lot of people because I felt like no one really cared about me. Some people on Reddit have recommended I reach out to people from clubs I was in and ask for help but I don't think they know either, mainly because they have their own internships going (most of them are in engineering or something similar like biochem or pharmsci) I have posted on *** asking if anyone knew where I could find a job and no one knew anything. My friend who is thinking of quitting her job at Ross Dress for Less told me to apply and even offered to refer me, I have wrote my name down on their clipboard for interviews about 3 times and never got a call back. I applied online, called the store, was rejected immediately after the call (I think because I failed their assessment) If anyone else has recommendations for volunteering, let me know. I live in the Los Angeles area.
3. My university career center, I don't know if they can help me much since I no longer attend school there (I know I still have access to their virtual services). Someone recommended this, but again, I don't know if this will really help. I did not get a degree in an in-demand field. I am very angry at myself because I took several AP courses in STEM only to earn low test scores on these same courses in university (especially Calc 1, which killed my love for math altogether), ultimately pushing me out of fields like pharmaceutical sciences and engineering because I could not afford to take the courses a third or fourth time and pay thousands in summer session tuition. The main reasons I wanted to go into these fields were job growth, salary, and because I loved studying STEM in high school, now I am burnt out from receiving poor grades on my chem and bio midterms.
4. A local WorkSource center, again I only went for the onboarding assessment thing they did. I'm still in the process of seeing what's next. On Reddit I saw someone mention networking socials and job clubs but my mental health is so bad from my friend drama in university that I have lost the will to branch out, socialize and make connections. I have spent these past few months living like a hermit and only talking to the 5-10 friends on social media who DM me. I only go to the library, the grocery store, the gym, and back.
5. Sign up for adult school classes, I don't think I will be using this degree anytime soon. I have no car and no license because I cannot afford driving school. I think the next course sign up period is probably in the summer or in the fall but I'm not too sure.
