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What was your darkest hour like?

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21–29 of 29 posts

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#21
I was in a similar situation in 2000 and ended up in a job I really enjoyed for 2 years. It was at a startup with a cool boss who let me more or less make my own hours as long as I was getting the company work done. I'm still good friends with some of the people I worked with then, and the experience I gained helped me out a lot in my career.

When I left the job, it was to get back into running my own small company, and have been self-employed ever since.

I obviously don't know all the details of your situation but maybe you'll be lucky like I was and be able to turn this into an opportunity.

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#22
There's a lot of comments here saying that you need to "get some perspective", but I recently got into the exact same situation, and have had some of the most terrible months of my life.

Before this year, I had never been turned down for any job I interviewed for. Now, I'm getting rejection after rejection, and it's shattered the confidence that I could apply my skills to benefit society, and generally made me feel worthless. The thought of being broke doesn't keep me awake at night, but thinking that I might be useless does.

It was painful having to send out my first job application (because I'd gotten every other job through my network), and my confidence was so low that I applied for jobs that were way below my skill level. Not getting them made me feel even worse, and I quickly got into a downward cycle.

After a couple of months, though, my initial panic started easing, and I've had a chance to get a better perspective on work and life. I've found that I can stretch out my money a lot farther than I imagined. People are a lot more willing to help me out than I thought. Instead of using the downtime to worry, I can spend it learning new things. And, most importantly, I've learned that it will take patience to wait for the really worthwhile opportunities.

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#23
It's probably when I lived with my parents when I was four in Ukraine. My father's salary was delayed by months, I don't think my mother worked, we were poor and I was ALWAYS hungry.

One of the brightest moments of my life was when my uncle brought us two big sticks of sausage. The smell of sausage, how it combines meat, onions, some kind of sauce and a bunch of other ingredients.. sausage still rocks.

Another turning point was when I was a bit older (six?) and my mother gave me chicken soup. The problem was that I ate too fucking much of it and for probably the first time in my life that I can remember my mother said: Stop, that's too much soup, you'll feel sick, little guy. I was really surprised -- how could anyone ever eat too much? Is that humanly possible? Soon after that, our finances were going upward and I began to battle another problem: obesity.

And of course, I still have some food disorders, even ten years later :)

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#24
post #22

There's a lot of comments here saying that you need to "get some perspective", but I recently got into the exact same situation, and have had some of the most terrible months of my life. Before this year, I had never been turned down for any job I interviewed for. Now, I'm getting rejection after rejection, and it's shattered the confidence that I could apply my skills to benefit society, and generally made me feel w…

Yeah, my situation is exactly like this. I guess I relied on my network too heavily. Now I'm just about to start applying for jobs way below (what I thought to be) my level. That's really confidence-shattering. I hope everything's going to be OK for both of us :)

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#25
post #19

I have had MANY hours that were far darker than having to look for a job . Please don't whine about your darkest hour/ struggle unless you have lived through a war, famine, or disease, as I can assure you everyone here has had the same or close to the same problem you have now.

I know many people here had the same problem. I just wanted to know what they did and what happened next.

(OK, I whined a little bit as well :)

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#26
post #6

My darkest hour certainly had nothing to do with job woes. No offense, but if this is your darkest hour, you need to be living a much wider spectrum of human experience!

"No offense, but if this is your darkest hour, you need to be living a much wider spectrum of human experience!"

I'd say that about someone who would make a comment like this. Things that are unbelievably difficult for one person can be easy for the next, and vice versa.

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#27
Getting pulled out of school in 3rd grade with mom who had mental illness, driving down to florida, living in car for 1 month, utilizing hotel showers because workers felt sorry for u, moving into an all womans homeless shelter for 3 months. -- Starving for a week after my dad went on a hooker/crack binge.

Re: What was your darkest hour like?

#29

Getting pulled out of school in 3rd grade with mom who had mental illness, driving down to florida, living in car for 1 month, utilizing hotel showers because workers felt sorry for u, moving into an all womans homeless shelter for 3 months. -- Starving for a week after my dad went on a hooker/crack binge.

Okay, you win. Thread ends here.
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