8 jobs in the last year doesn't look great on a resume

[Disciple96]

I quit my most recent job because it was too far away, my pay was reduced to minimum wage, and I couldn't earn the commissions to pay the difference. Maybe that makes me a bad salesman - but that's another discussion.

I've now been unemployed over 2 months due to a lack of action and a lack of execution.

I just read Unscripted and have been feeling very regretful for the decision I made, which has basically lowered me to the worst point in my life.

I applied at Wally world because at this point I need a damn job but I've been hearing things like "you'll make more serving tables" which is something I'm just not comfortable doing.

Here's the thing: I want a job that will help me "take the next step" in business by challenging me, that way at least I can build a skill during my 40 hours a week. At Walmart, well... Forget it.

There's a problem - I have little value to offer. So who will hire me? Well, almost nobody I want to work for.

Especially after they see my spotty work history.

So, has anyone been here before? This seems like a situation that would be uniquely entrepreneurial...a feeling of futility working positions in companies that will actually accept you and dejection from those that won't?

Don't get me wrong - I will absolutely work for bottom dollar... I just want to avoid it. Hell, I even applied to clean up crime scenes just because I knew it pays well. PTSD be damned, I need to live better than $14 an hour where I live.

How can I convince a company worth working for that I'll remain a reliable employee when I know I am an entrepreneur at heart? Do I have to lie? When someone asks, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" do I say, "hopefully not here"?

Quitting a job after a few months looks terrible on a resume. I'm no longer a kid out of high school, and companies are starting to view me as an unreliable expense. Unless they can afford to dispose of me, they don't want to hire me.

 

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[Lafandriel]

Hmm... you are writing that you want to build a skill ... do you know which one? I mean have you something in mind that you would like to focus on?

Maybe you can find a company where you will receive training in the skill you want to improve?

Or you work in a bad payed job and build your business in your free time? Have you got an idea for a valuable product/ service or are you already in business?

 

[Disciple96]

Hmm... you are writing that you want to build a skill ... do you know which one? I mean have you something in mind that you would like to focus on?

Maybe you can find a company where you will receive training in the skill you want to improve?

Or you work in a bad payed job and build your business in your free time? Have you got an idea for a valuable product/ service or are you already in business?

I think the best solution at this point is a job that is totally irrelevant to what I want to study but which pays me enough to survive... A worthy compromise, although it's one I hate to make.

Alas, we all want a job that helps us further our personal development.

It's just not always feasible, especially for someone like me, a high school graduation without much experience. I know I can do anything I set my mind to - but right now my focus has to remain consistent with finding any job that will take me. Unfortunately, that means I'm scraping together pennies to buy dinner due to the cost of living and that's a lot of mental stress that wouldn't help me succeed.

TLDR; I'll work any job. I just want to be paid well. There seem to be a lack of options for well-paying jobs that also teach relevant skills for business, without already having formal education. Most sales jobs seem seedy. Unless you're good. Which I am not. It's gotten to the point that these good companies won't consider me.

 

[Aardvark]

I think the best solution at this point is a job that is totally irrelevant to what I want to study but which pays me enough to survive... A worthy compromise, although it's one I hate to make.

Alas, we all want a job that helps us further our personal development.

It's just not always feasible, especially for someone like me, a high school graduation without much experience. I know I can do anything I set my mind to - but right now my focus has to remain consistent with finding any job that will take me. Unfortunately, that means I'm scraping together pennies to buy dinner due to the cost of living and that's a lot of mental stress that wouldn't help me succeed.

TLDR; I'll work any job. I just want to be paid well. There seem to be a lack of options for well-paying jobs that also teach relevant skills for business, without already having formal education. Most sales jobs seem seedy. Unless you're good. Which I am not. It's gotten to the point that these good companies won't consider me.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way but.... My god grow some balls!

You want a decent paying job but you have a dodgy employment history and from the sounds of it no specific skill set.

I work in sales and I can promise you its only seedy of you work for the wrong company or have the wrong take on sales. If you think sales is convincing someone to buy something they don't want or can't afford then you need to give your head a wobble.

Sales is the skill is fulfilling someone's needs or finding a solution to their problem. It is about providing the best service and offering the best value to the client, you do this through questioning and listening. You are only worth what value you provide, I know, I've experienced both sides.

Take a sales job, learn the basics and make sure you are on the side of the Angels and not the Devil.

Sales will give you a insight as to how you can divorce time from money. I can spend 4 hours on a proposal and then the client decides it isn't for him, or I can spend 30 minutes on a proposal and the client loves it and I make £2000.

In short, if you don't have the skillset, experience, employment history and can't add value to someone why the hell should they pay you a decent wage? They're not running a charity.

Edit: if this post comes across as really harsh. It isn't meant to.

 

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[Lafandriel]

I understand you but although you are looking for a job that pays the bills it should be something you won't hate too much because it won't help you when you quit (or are forced to quit) after a while because than you are at the same point again...

Have you considered moving to an area with lower living costs?

I don't know whether that is an option for you but could you imagine to help nurses with the care of elderly people? Not many people want to do it but it could also help you in your personal development ... just thinking...

 

[V8Bill]

Jobs aren't all they're cracked up to be. I've had over 65 different jobs and I stopped counting in 1994. Eventually I accepted that perhaps jobs weren't for me. Find a way to make your own money and leave the job stress behind. In business, when you offer great value and help people no one cares when you did before.

Find a job that pays you fairly (forget being paid "well" - that's not going to happen at your level - no offence), do your best at it and in your spare time build a business until it makes enough to do it full time. You're restlessness might be a clue that jobs aren't for you either. Use the next one as a vehicle. After all, isn't that why you're here? You're not here to complain about your life, you're here to fix it.

What business ideas do you have? You're CENTS step is obvious.

 

[Disciple96]

I hope you don't take this the wrong way but.... My god grow some balls!

You want a decent paying job but you have a dodgy employment history and from the sounds of it no specific skill set.

I work in sales and I can promise you its only seedy of you work for the wrong company or have the wrong take on sales. If you think sales is convincing someone to buy something they don't want or can't afford then you need to give your head a wobble.

Sales is the skill is fulfilling someone's needs or finding a solution to their problem. It is about providing the best service and offering the best value to the client, you do this through questioning and listening. You are only worth what value you provide, I know, I've experienced both sides.

Take a sales job, learn the basics and make sure you are on the side of the Angels and not the Devil.

Sales will give you a insight as to how you can divorce time from money. I can spend 4 hours on a proposal and then the client decides it isn't for him, or I can spend 30 minutes on a proposal and the client loves it and I make £2000.

In short, if you don't have the skillset, experience, employment history and can't add value to someone why the hell should they pay you a decent wage? They're not running a charity.

Edit: if this post comes across as really harsh. It isn't meant to.

It's not harsh at all, although I do have some points I'd like to make.

I have been successful enough in sales to know I *could* be great - but the problem is since quitting my last job most sales jobs I've found are on the side of the devil's - or else they don't want me due to my inexperience. Experience being closing deals, which is hard for me to discipline myself to do if the product is not solving a real problem.

Most companies are selling inferior products at superior prices, and keep their sales force in the dark about it. I hate being strung about like I'm part of the ignorant majority who doesn't care to know. Basically, I'm just not motivated to find another sales job even though I know it's a skill I need to know.

Companies that do great things need excellent salesmen, they don't want to train average ones. I swear I'm not making excuses, it's just that I think I would be better off selling stuff for myself that way I know I'm not being taken advantage of and can be as effective as I can at my own pace and instead of meeting others' quotas, I create my own.

What I'm trying to say is that it would be nice to find some kind of apprenticeship deal in the workforce that could teach me some skill, maybe the trades even. And as great as sales is for business - let's be honest and admit most great sales jobs are few and far between.

I understand you but although you are looking for a job that pays the bills it should be something you won't hate too much because it won't help you when you quit (or are forced to quit) after a while because than you are at the same point again...

Have you considered moving to an area with lower living costs?

I don't know whether that is an option for you but could you imagine to help nurses with the care of elderly people? Not many people want to do it but it could also help you in your personal development ... just thinking...

That's been a problem for me, finding a job that I even want to stay at for a year.

Yeah I probably should live somewhere else, but for the time being it's not an option.

Do you mean something like an assisted living center?

 

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[Disciple96]

Jobs aren't all they're cracked up to be. I've had over 65 different jobs and I stopped counting in 1994. Eventually I accepted that perhaps jobs weren't for me. Find a way to make your own money and leave the job stress behind. In business, when you offer great value and help people no one cares when you did before.

Find a job that pays you fairly (forget being paid "well" - that's not going to happen at your level - no offence), do your best at it and in your spare time build a business until it makes enough to do it full time. You're restlessness might be a clue that jobs aren't for you either. Use the next one as a vehicle. After all, isn't that why you're here? You're not here to complain about your life, you're here to fix it.

What business ideas do you have? You're CENTS step is obvious.

Thanks for that. I guess at this point I'm just rambling about my mistakes - it's time to face the reality that jobs simply won't get me to that "next level" in business - no matter what it is.

That's something that's up to me. Might as well take jobs at their face value - selling my time for money at a "fair" value - and using every ounce of free time and money investing into a vehicle to replace it.

I also hate saying I'm depressed, because I don't want to believe it. I want to think there's nothing wrong with me, but by the day I feel my brain atrophy due to inaction. There's so many things wrong with my life and this is sadly the tip of the iceberg. I've been digging myself into a hole that's harder to get out of by the day. And I've been projecting my problems onto the companies that reject me - instead of biting the bullet, putting the nose to the grindwheel, and simply putting in the time and energy to create something of my own.

 

[V8Bill]

I also hate saying I'm depressed

That's a start...

but by the day I feel my brain atrophy due to inaction.

Stop it! Fill your thoughts with positive and productive thinking. If you find yourself falling, catch it and say something "stoppy" like CANCEL, CANCEL! Re-route your thoughts. Look around, look for ideas, be on the lookout for opportunities and if you can't find any that instant just try not to be "that depressed guy" because your mind is listening to what you chose to think and will obey your every thought. I've fallen for this spiral heaps of times - that's how I know. Remember, nothing is either good or bad but that thinking makes it so. Got shoes?

There's so many things wrong with my life and this is sadly the tip of the iceberg.

Would you like me to start listing all the things that are right with your life?

I've been digging myself into a hole

Didn't last long. See how addictive it can be? Stop it. CANCEL CANCEL! Unless you're thinking of starting a mining company...lol Hey, ya gotta laugh - right?

biting the bullet, putting the nose to the grindwheel, and simply putting in the time and energy to create something of my own.

^^ Much better! ^^

 

[JWelch]

TLDR; I'll work any job. I just want to be paid well.

Dude, you admit to adding little to no value to an employer. Why do you expect to be paid well when you refuse to keep a job that can give you valueable selling experience and trade it for a job at Walmart?

There's an old saying that applies well here. You're putting the carriage before the horse.
If you've read TMF then you should know that value preceeds money. It's just not realistic to expect to make good money without having developed any skills. And on top of it quit a job shortly after you start.

You need to suck it up a little bit, humble yourself and pay your dues like everyone else. This shit isn't just going to fall on your lap you have to EARN it.

So take some time and sit down alone and quiet and actually put some careful consideration into what you want and need to learn. Then shut everything else off and be relentless at mastering that.

You'll be amazed how far it'll bring you if you commit to it and be patient.

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

Might as well take jobs at their face value - selling my time for money at a "fair" value - and using every ounce of free time and money investing into a vehicle to replace it.

All jobs pay fair value. All of them.

It's a market like any other. If an employer offers a job at minimum wage, and you take that job because you have no other options, then you obviously agree that's what your time is worth to them.

Is your time worth more than that to YOU? Of course.
But what is it worth to THEM?
What value does your time give them?
You are selling your time, and what is that product worth?

If you sell your product (time) for $9.30 an hour (Colorado minimum wage), you agree that is what the product is worth.

A McDonald's worker and a CEO are both selling the same thing, their time. But the CEO's time is more valuable than the hourly workers time, so it commands a higher price.

That's the Script in a nutshell, make your time more valuable so you can sell it for a higher price.

Higher education raises your time's value. A well-done resume convey's a high value. Dressing well for an interview convey's a high value, etc...

Someone that can hold a job has more valuable time for sale than someone that doesn't. I am an employer, and someone that can't hold a job has NO value to me at all. NONE.

So if you want to play the job game (or must play the job game, nothing wrong with that), make your time more valuable and sell it for a higher price.

Until then, you'll probably have to accept what your time is actually worth to an employer.

 

[G-Man]

Conversation between myself and my dad circa 2007/2008.

Me: None of the jobs I can get pay a decent wage and they all suck blah blah blah
Dad: So, you're just going to sit around my house all day doing nothing until the perfect opportunity presents itself?
Me: No, but there has to be better things out there.
Dad: You haven't worked in 90 days.
Me: blah blah blah about the economy, how boring banks are, blah blah blah
Dad: Look, It's Monday. It's 10am. You're at my breakfast table. If by next Friday you're still at home at 10am, it won't be my home.

The next Monday was my first day at a shitty bank where I even worked the first hour of every day pushing the mail cart. I made $9.50/hr. It was 07/08, half of my friends were still doing free internships despite having graduated. It sucked. It was still 1,000 times more productive than sitting on my parents couch feeling sorry for myself and bitching about all the jobs I didn't want.

Fore some reason, felt relevant here.