When I was a teenager and new to the workforce, I had just graduated college and had no prior work experience besides cleaning houses and offices when I was in middle and high school.
I’d stay up late nights applying for maybe 10 jobs per day, some of the applications having taken me 2 hours for simple retail positions, and I’d rarely get a call back from anybody. I was told I had to go to the offices to ask to follow up on applications and they’d just tell me to look online.
80% of the prospective employers who did call me back were from low-paying temp agencies. Of course, none of the businesses I had been placed at wanted to pay benefits for permanent employees, so I really only spent maybe 2 months at each placement. I’ve tried to apply for permanent hire a few times with recommendations from coworkers who loved my work, but I was either rejected or laid off to be replaced by some other temp who’d face the same fate. Any non-temp positions I had, I also got laid off from. I’ve had to make 1 or 2 hour-long commute for jobs that only paid $11 per hour because I couldn’t find any better jobs who’d call me back.
Eventually I had 10+ employment entries for a period of 2 years to put on my résumé. Apparently looking like a job hopper makes you look bad, but what was I supposed to do if temp positions were practically the only ones I qualified for? Job hopping was my only chance to earn money and gain work expedience. Everything else had either too much competition or I just didn’t qualify. I couldn’t even get a call back to work at fucking McDonald’s.
The job market is fucking broken and sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who sees it.