I have to vent somewhere because talking to my parents is literally like talking to a fucking brick wall…
I’ve actively been trying to find a job in social-media marketing or digital content-creation for two months now. I went into this whole thing with quite some enthusiasm, seeing as I was stuck in a 4 year apprenticeship in a company that did not care for me nor teach me anything (which they are LEGALLY obligated to do in my country, mind you).
So I applied at a company that had my dream job listed on their website and of course, immediately got declined. „Not enough experience“… okay, weird? So I started looking elsewhere. After several more companies denying me, because I did not have enough experience or my portfolio wasn’t impressive/extensive enough (my portfolio was filled with photography and video projects I made in my freetime with very limited equipment, because surprise-surprise, the company I was forced to work at, barely gave me any work at all.)
Then, I saw a job listed as „junior“. „Oh nice“ I foolishly thought to myself, thinking I might even be able to get further than just straight up being denied.
I called them first before sending in my application, since one of the requirements they had on the listing wasn’t quite clear to me. A nice lady picked up on the other end, introduced herself as being responsible for the recruitment at this company and I genuinely felt like a human being and not just some email for once. I asked away and she, after answering my questions, asked in return „oh hey by the way, how old are you again?“ so I answered „19, why do you ask?“ „ooooh… you haven’t been able to complete your mandatory military service yet have you?“… so turns out, the reason why almost all companies, including ones where I was way over-qualified for, denied my application without much communication, because the country I live in loooooooves to put unnecessary shit in peoples ways and requires all adult people that were assigned male at birth, to do a mandatory military service after finishing their first apprenticeship or studies. AWESOME. HELL YEAH.
Do I know if I’m even fucking eligible for that service? No!!!!! When will I know if I’m even eligible? In THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING OCTOBER. When did I have this call? At the beginning of August. What can I do until then? Absolute jack shit. No company wants to hire a temp-worker for that „short“ amount of time.
What else did this nice lady tell me over the phone? That most companies won’t hire someone, even if they know when their military service will be attended. I know that I said, I’ll want to do mine immediately at the beginning of 2024. Oh and guess how long I have to do that shit for? If I would want to do all 6 deployments, that are usually dispersed over 9 years, in one go, I would literally have to do this shit for 365 days STRAIGHT with 80% of the legal minimum wage. What can I do up until then? „Best thing you can do, is find a temporary job at like super market, talk to your local RAV (a place where people without jobs are supposed to be „helped“) or you can apply for an internship.“
Okay, yeah sounds good I guess. An internship sounds like a fine idea right? You thought. Most ask for at least several years of experience in the field you want to work in (which those 4 FUCKING YEARS I spent in my apprenticeship DO NOT count for) and I would have an even lower salary than during my second year of my apprenticeship (around 10k a year, so 830-ish bucks a month… holy shit).
This was a lot, sorry for the shit formatting I am on mobile and if any of you have ANY advice, I’ll be incredibly happy for anything at this point.