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9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

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Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#101

Post by tomschlick »

vivekd wrote: post #91
tomschlick wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they should stop getting degrees in industries that don't exist / have very few job openings. Get a degree in business, accounting, finance, engineering, or tech and your chances of finding a good paying job increase ten fold.

But the guy in the article was in tech.

Right but you were talking about education. The guy in the article is in his 40s so the current educational mess doesn't apply to him.

I was mostly talking for people my age (20s) that went to school for bullshit degrees only to come out 80k in debt and have no hopes of finding a job because they didn't do research into the market before they went to school.

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#102

Post by stonemetal »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #63
MatekCopatek wrote: post #35

To anyone recommending different approaches that could help this guy get a job - look at it from the other side. There are 9 million unemployed men such as this one (according to the article). This doesn't mean that there are 9 million job openings out there, just waiting for someone with the right resume to show up. Sure, there are probably some, but mostly, this simply means there are 9 million more workers than jo…

This guy openly admits he could find work, but doesn't due to his pride. There are lots of jobs out there that Americans (like this guy) "just won't do". He's in the bay area, I know that Handy and Uber are hiring. It won't be hard for him to find domestic labor for $12/hour. After das trumpenfuhrer builds his wall and deports the illegals, there will be about 10M job openings. Lets be realistic and acknowledge that…

Heck there will probably be 11M jobs, someone has to man the walls to repel the ladders and pour boiling oil in the tunnels.

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#103

Post by nikki-9696 »

"And to be honest, I would be too humiliated"

Oh, cry me a river. I put myself through school on retail. I am a programmer. If I lost this job, I'd be back to retail in a heartbeat while I worked to find a new IT job. I have a very hard time having sympathy for someone who goes on and on about how bad he has it while he's not willing to work a job that is "beneath" him. What classes are you taking? What are you doing to get more relevant? Github is free. Resources are free. Many classes are free. Get your StackOverflow on. Shit, I get offers from there frequently and all I have done is answer some questions.

Your kids are hungry because you're too good to get a job at a freaking grocery store??

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#104

Post by Anasufovic »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #24
M4v3R wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not an engineer though, at least from what I read in the article. He wrote: > I was still able to get customer support position quickly, learning skills on the job > My background in IT and customer support, both considered the bottom rung at most tech companies, meant that I was expendable So it seems he didn't really have higher qualifications, working in customer support, which is nowadays often outsourced an…

> I feel sympathy for the author, but at the same time one thing that I miss from the article is whether he tried to raise his qualifications in any way. Did he try other market segments? Picked up any courses? Broadened his education in any way in the time he was unemployed? Raising qualifications usually costs money. He's tried when he had work. When he didn't it sounds like money was so tight and stress to high th…

And he's still too embarrassed to take a job at the gas station?

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#105

Post by matwood »

larksimian wrote: post #53
tjic wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point early in my software career I was between jobs for a few months. I have construction skills, so I worked doing demolition and then framing an addition for a friend at $10/hr. To quote Pulp Fiction "The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps." Over a couple of weeks I made a few thousand dollars, paid the mortgage, and g…

But pride did help Butch in Pulp Fiction. He got to win the fight, keep his pride and keep the money(or even bet the other way and make bank? can't recall now). Personally, I agree with your point of view. There is, however, something to be said for people that never settle and by force of will reshape the world around them to conform to their expectations.

> There is, however, something to be said for people that never settle and by force of will reshape the world around them to conform to their expectations.

If by force of will I wanted to work at Google for example, I would take steps to improve my chances of making that happen. This story is not about force of will at all, but someone with low self discipline and possibly depressed (clinical depression could be a factor here and he should look into it).

He complains about lack of something to do. There is plenty to do starting with making a schedule listing things to learn for the day that will improve his chances getting the job he wants. I'm sure potential employers are looking at him asking the same questions people here are asking. You've been unemployed for 2 years and have learned what?

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#106

Post by [deleted] »

cijt wrote: post #20
tjic wrote: post #6

I've met a lot of people who "couldn't" find a job. What they usually mean is "they can't find a job in the area they want, in the industry they want, doing the kind of work they want, at the salary they want, working for someone else." This is a highly overconstrained search. If / when people loosen one or more of these constraints, they're opportunities open right up. Like everyone, I prefer to get exactly what I w…

I've met a lot of managers who "couldn't" find anyone to hire. What they usually mean is "they can't find an employee in the location they want, with the credentials they want, with the skills they want, at the salary they want, who's been trained by someone else." This is a highly overconstrained search. If/when employers loosen one or more of these constraints, candidates show right up. Like everyone, I prefer to g…

[deleted]

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#107

Post by jwhitlark »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #67

> There have been times where I’ve wondered if I should just get a temporary service or manual labor job to help out with extra cash. But I’m worried about getting stuck in a position with even less room for growth than my previous jobs. And to be honest, I would be too humiliated. Our social circle, made up of mostly well-paid tech workers and professionals, has no idea how bad our situation has been. It would be ex…

I'd worry more about my wife and kids saw everyday, than what my social circle saw once in a while. I think he's got his priorities mixed up.

I don't believe in "men's" work, "woman's" work, "immigrants" work... there is only work that needs doing. Being someone who is know to take on whatever needs doing is a great way to get better jobs.

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#108

Post by lj3 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #67

> There have been times where I’ve wondered if I should just get a temporary service or manual labor job to help out with extra cash. But I’m worried about getting stuck in a position with even less room for growth than my previous jobs. And to be honest, I would be too humiliated. Our social circle, made up of mostly well-paid tech workers and professionals, has no idea how bad our situation has been. It would be ex…

There are more practical considerations. Would you want to hire a 40-year old programmer who had just spent the last 3 months flipping burgers because he couldn't find a job? The stigma is real and it's more than just pride. A fall from middle class to lower class can become permanent through nothing more than that stigma. With that comes a higher mortality rate across the board.

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#109

Post by lj3 »

quickben wrote: post #54

There is nothing embarrassing about manual work. When I was 17, at one point, I sold toilet paper, on the street, in a third world country, to get some cash for my PC. Various jobs netted me half the cash for my PC over 6 months. My parents could scrape for the rest. 486dx-120mhz. Right now I'm in a comfortable seniority, renting a townhouse ( Toronto is too expensive to buy) and having a family. The c++ projects kee…

Would you still do so with two kids to feed in an area where the wage for that job wouldn't even feed you, let alone the rest of your family?

Re: 9M American men in prime working age can’t find jobs. I’m one of them

#110

Post by extra88 »

lj3 wrote: post #108
pavel_lishin wrote: post #67

> There have been times where I’ve wondered if I should just get a temporary service or manual labor job to help out with extra cash. But I’m worried about getting stuck in a position with even less room for growth than my previous jobs. And to be honest, I would be too humiliated. Our social circle, made up of mostly well-paid tech workers and professionals, has no idea how bad our situation has been. It would be ex…

There are more practical considerations. Would you want to hire a 40-year old programmer who had just spent the last 3 months flipping burgers because he couldn't find a job? The stigma is real and it's more than just pride. A fall from middle class to lower class can become permanent through nothing more than that stigma. With that comes a higher mortality rate across the board.

If it was only three months, I wouldn't list the burger-flipping job on my resume. I think I'd be fine leaving any gap less than a year in duration on my resume. A year or more, I'd want to account for.
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