Main Picture Credit to People Science – Reimagining Talent Acquisition.
“500 job applications, six months have passed and nothing yet”, this is the kind of thing I am witnessing on LinkedIn and other social media channels. After the crazy Tech layoffs, these last 5-6 months individuals are struggling to find a job. Now, I am not sure if it’s maybe that the individuals are simply being picky about what they want and looking for what they used to have, but after watching these posts I am starting to get worried. I am not sure if maybe this pandemic that caused a lot of us to work from home is the problem. I mean I was one of those that got sent home. Let me tell you it took me a year or so to get used to the idea of working from home. I hate to say but I am one of those individuals that did enjoy or do enjoy going into the office. The one good thing about remote work was that it gave companies a larger pool of talent and the other thing was that it allowed individuals to move around the country and work. I am wondering if companies are looking to have people come back into the office, and I only say that because as I apply for jobs, I am seeing less and less remote work – this is what I am experiencing.
I have applied to just over 20 job postings in the last 21 days, well my last day was 03/22, but I did get one final check at the end of that month, so I count my time being laid off starting April 1st. Ironic huh, April 1st, it does seem to be a joke. Anyhow, of those 20 plus applications I have received 8, “No thank you we decided to go with another candidate or After reviewing your qualifications we decided your experience and skills did not match our needs”. Now I did have two recruiter phone interviews, which seem to go well, and one video interview with supposedly a peer. Well, from the start I knew that interview was going nowhere, but I will write about that experience in another post, you need to read what happen, it was crazy, and I am sure I am not the only that has experienced an interview like the one I had.
So, back to my struggle, well at this point I am beginning to feel a little depressed. I mean these last few nights I have not been able to sleep. I want to be honest, and not sound negative, but I look at our economy and the things that are coming, like the Mortgage lending fiasco, the purposed tax raise, and things like that and it makes me wonder if things will be getting worse before they get better. Look I do not want to sound like I need a pity party, but what in the world is going on?
I do have to at least leave you with one positive thing that happened to me, which is the last company I worked for, the people are so supportive. This is quite different from my previous experience, and I am shocked. You see, I worked for a company for 18-plus years, and not one, not one, has bothered sending me a show of support. These are people I broke bread with, had over at my house, and went out to happy hours, birthdays, and kids’ celebrations. These are people that I backed up at work, helped, taught, and donated money and myself to whatever cause they had, and now that I am out of work, not one has reached out. Yet a company I was with for 6 months, the folks have all but demonstrated support. I am still wondering why that is, why.
I will continue my search for work and hope that something pans out. Also, I am sure some of you might have seen that I added a new page to my blog, selling some eBooks. Now, to be honest, I was trying to avoid doing this, but I am simply getting restless and desperate. I do plan on adding other eBooks that I have purchased on a side hustle, passive income, and things like that. Yes, I am still trying to create some kind of passive income or side hustle to generate extra income so that I can get ahead in life or, it would be even better if I can replace my income completely.
I do have a few posts on the subject, like the most recent one called Affiliate Marketing – Learning Phase, then a few older posts like Another Side Business – Etsy, and Business Ideas – What I’ve Done the Past 30 Years. The thing is that I need to find the right combination of products or services and drive traffic methods. When it comes to traffic, I have done pay-per-click, Google ads sense, paid-for traffic, and of course the whole social media advertising on places like Facebook. I have spent my fair share of money and it has gotten me nowhere. Heck, I even paid to have a company build me an already built and successful e-commerce business, with all the latest hottest-selling products. Supposedly this proven site was to generate 40K a month – here is the post I did on it, Drop Shipping Business – is a Go!, I followed their instructions to the “T” and got one sale which later the customer requested a refund, that was it, one sell. I do have several other posts that I put up as I progressed through the business. Anyhow, my thing is that something must give, and I am sure that there is something out there. I am not sure f maybe it is a matter of just being in the right place at the right time for something like a side hustle to take off.
With that, I do appreciate you stopping by and as always, I do try and leave on a positive note. Now this quote resonated with me for some reason, especially because of what I am going through now. So here it is, “To fly, we have to have resistance.” – Maya Lin.