"have no experience, have no job"

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Hello all,

Since I'm going to graduate soonish, a job is looking very nice right now. The problem is I'm stuck in the cycle of "have no experience, have no job". I've have applied online to jobs as far as 2 hours away from me and no luck. Applied for temp jobs and supermarket jobs (which I'm waiting on a reply for some of them). This job hunting has gone on and off for the last three years, tried personally going on a resume bomb around my local area with no luck. Not just once, but every couple of months.

Job hunting is depressing!

Everytime I see a job I like it says "requires some experience in this area" or "requires at least 2 years of experience in this area" fuuuuuu. I have a B.A of Fine Arts and been doing a internship at a well-known art gallery in Sydney since September. Yesterday I had to take over the gallery by myself, took care of the calls, took care of an expensive sale and greeted the vistors. The boss and his assistant came back and thanked me for taking care of the gallery, the boss apologized for it being understaffed.

Since I got that internship I've been working my butt off but I got rather disappointed when I overheard them talking about finding a new assistant. My name came up, "she is keen but isn't great" "do you think so? my friend reckons we should hire someone from the IT department, we need a tech savy kid" "she is slow as well" it ended there. The thing is that I was hoping they would offer me a job there, they mentioned in my interview. I feel depressed, this hits new lows. According to what they said to me personally I got the impression I was doing a good job. What they said to me "you are doing a great service for the gallery" "we are very happy with you doing this for us, this saves us alot of trouble". I'm getting mixed responses here.....

The internship btw is unpaid and costs me alot of money to travel to and from there. Also broke.....

Anyway, this is getting a bit frustrating. Tried alot of things but to no avail. I know a tafe teacher who is friends with my father who is aspie as well, he reckons it's do with our aspieness that we can't get a job as easily as a NT. According to him, NTs can spot your aspieness from a mile away.

What do I do?

hang in there. job hunting is by definition a long strong of "no"s followed by 1 "yes".

It might b harder for a BFA though.

I had the same problem when I tried to get into accountancy, there was always "experience required" in the description but I would apply anyway. Then this one job I went to I bluntly said to them that I had no experience but how was I supposed to get experience if nobody gave me a chance? I got the job.

If your trying to get jobs in the art industry then you could perhaps ask the people at the gallery your currently doing the internship with if they will give you a good reference. Volunteering although unpaid will get you experience.

Also remember right now is not a good time for job hunting, there are so many people looking for a job that your likely to get many many "no's" before you get a "yes". It is hard and at times depressing but keep going you'll find something.

I read the comments your bosses made about you being slow and not great. Have you ever had a true meeting to ask what you can improve upon? What does slow mean? Not great?

You are working for a major gallery. Assuming you want to continue this line of work, you NEED to know what is not stellar (to the bosses). Now, maybe they just use and abuse interns and it wouldn't matter who was there. The IT thing is not a real deal breaker.

I'd ask what I would truly need to work on to succeed. It sounds like the bosses are just giving token comments about doing a good job. Good luck.

Thankyou for the responses, I just had no idea how to approach this. For a long time I was considering approaching the boss to tell him that the trips to the gallery were making me broke. A friend of mine suggested since I needed a full time job I should (politely) say "I need a job or I'm leaving". I would of been nicer if they told me what I was doing wrong instead talking behind my back. Anyway, I think I'm going to organize a meeting with the boss and possibly ask for a reference.

When i got a job rebuilding jet engines without experience just told everyone I worked at the Lawrence atomic radiation laboratory where they built a nuclear ramjet engine.

I agree with what Tawaki said. You have to talk to your boss and try to clear the air. I lost two jobs once like this, because I was not actively interacting with my superivsors, but managed to survive my third one. NTs expect you to be open about what you think about everything and where you stand (they mostly want to hear good things), especially when you are new.

I wouldnt give up on this job yet. Communicate your skills and resolve any conflicts immediately. Its possible other employees are also influencing your bosses opinion of you, so you should be communicating more with everyone and try to be on top whats going on socially. Chances you will have the same issues on your next job.

School and college were the worst years of my life. I had no friends and people bullied me for being the silent weird person who never talked or interacted with anyone. I now live off social security payments.

I have never been selected for an interview for a job. I have never had any job in my life. Most jobs require interacting with people face to face with either colleagues, managers and/or customers.

My resume states my education and I state my barriers to employment. I lash out at the system that holds me back from reaching my full potential.

The chances of getting a job diminish with every passing year. I have not worked my entire life. I have been rejected from thousands of job applications.

I depend upon the welfare system and family to support me. I am lucky enough to live in a country that has a generous welfare system that does not cut you off and leave you high and dry (US and Canada) or no welfare system at all (Middle east, Africa and Asian nations).

The college degree and other qualifications I completed a years ago are now useless pieces of paper. No experience, qualification(s) and age factor.

Retail and take away joints only pay kids low wages to do those jobs. I have never had a car license and having Aspergers prevents me from driving a car. Not having a car license counts me out from a lot of menial low end jobs including security, cleaning, labouring and factory.

Yep I'm totally for real. Aviation jet engines usually require a certified mechanic so I just work on the experimental engines that don't require certification.

I have never held a drivers license due to Aspergers. I have limited social skills and impaired motor skills due to Aspergers. Not having a license is seen as a huge black mark and instant application in the bin when it comes to recruitment agencies that usually ask whether or not you have a car license. You can not falsely claim yes because they require you to have a clean driving license and the car license and reliable transport is a necessity to get to and fro work.

Aspergers is to blame for me being unemployable and never being able to master the skill to drive. Actually failed the driving test a dozen times because well having Aspergers made me fail the test and incapable of being able to control the vehicle and navigate the road.

People with Aspergers like me may lack the ability to multi-task and do two or more things at the same time.

Learn how to use a computer flight simulator and you will be over qualified for any driving job.

Start cutting the grass

Cant you apply to jobs within your field in which the internship has given you experience for? Your not completely without experience and you should be able to list your internship as experience? How long did you intern for? Cause I know most jobs want 1 year min of experience. Or is there a limited amount of jobs in your field.

Or perhaps you could inquire the management straightforwardly about wanting to fill a the position. Of course it makes a difference if you have a good relationship with them vs. not.

But yes I am very much in your situation. Its hard to find a job out of college when experience is required. Tho typically most graduating college students wont have great experience. The average college student has worked maybe 1-2 internships( or equivalents) and held a few non related simple jobs(such as a campus job, or a low paying job outside). Realistically, we should have some general job experience but limited which is specific to our field.

In fact when I came out of college, just this past May with a degree in biochem. I had done student research, worked a job in HS and thats it. So right now Im working that the supermarket trying to gain recent job experiance a and might be working an research intern in the spring. I'm applying to post-bac programs as well.