Another thing I'm kind of tired of is some people I know and their constant complaints about not being able to find employment. Why? Well, from my observations those particular people are not really trying.
1. Finding a job is a full time job. Take that for ALL it entails. The way many of these people do it, if one were to translate that into actual work, they'd be doing the equivalent of about six hours of work a week. I'd fire you if you worked for me and that's all you did. The last two times I job-hunted, it took me two months of carpet-bombing with my resume. By then, of course, I was using the Internet (rather than the old way of going through the newspaper and MAILING out resumes with cover letters), but I was sending out an average of about 30 resumes a day, five days a week. It was a pain in the ass, but it got me jobs (though the first of those two times I did get the job through a personal contact).
2. Temp agencies are a great way to find a job. That is how I got my current job, JUST before the economy pretty much crashed in 2008. The thing is, you have to know how to get a job, or get regular jobs, through a temp agency, and which agency is best for you depending on what type of work you're looking for. You HAVE to actually go in to talk to them. Sure, send them a resume, but they're not going to be able to place you (especially in an office-type setting if that's the sort of work you're looking for) if you don't get in and have your office skills tested. I've been through that kind of testing at least a half dozen times with different agencies over the decades, and it has gotten me temp jobs a lot. My current one is the only one that ever became permanent, but that's just because this one worked out that way. You can't just send them a resume and expect them to magically call you up and give you a job. You have to call them, daily, AFTER you've been there, interviewed and been tested.
3. If you're offered a job, unless you know you actually are physically unable to do it (for instance, you're in a wheelchair and it involves lifting and climbing, you probably really can't do it), TAKE THE JOB. It's not going to keep you from getting your dream job, or a job more to your liking, to get a lesser job. In fact, you are significantly more likely to find a job if you already have one. One of the things they look for is reliability. If you have a job and show up, that will actually show a degree of reliability that cannot be demonstrated if you don't have one. Refusing to take a job just because it's not what you're looking for will hold you back at least as much as anything else will.
4. You need to know how to dress for the place where you've applied and are interviewing. Look into how they dress at that company typically. It's usually better to overdress than underdress in my experience. Also, it's good to dress in something brown, whether it's pants, shoes, shirt, jacket, or tie; just something. It apparently makes people view you as trustworthy. I just know it works.
My best friend gave me lessons on finding jobs back in 1989 after I quit working for my dad because, at twenty, I'd never had to apply for jobs before. I started off weak, but I got better at it. I remember the day I met him, in 1986, he was wearing his "Get a job uniform," which was a brown, plaid, Oxford-cloth shirt, brown shoes, brown socks, brown slacks and a brown tie. He got a job that day, and another one (wearing the same outfit) the next day, and that was in the 1980s when the unemployment numbers were actually worse than they are now. I don't (well, didn't) necessarily get every job for which I interviewed, but I only took about two months, maximum, to get a new job.
Note: I have a good job that pays reasonably well--more than twice what I was making ten years ago. I don't have a college degree, but I have experience in a LOT of things, because I've been willing to do what people have been willing to hire me for.
Yes, job hunting is hard work, but NOT having a job can be a lot harder, and you'll never get one if you don't put some real effort into it.
