Lioness075
Everyone's fighting some battle of their own.
Well, the biggest change in my life right now has to be my newest job. I don't know how much luck the rest of y'all have had with finding jobs or losing them, but I'm stuck in a weird limbo where I can only do temporary work. Not everyone on here knows me and so I will explain: I'm in the National Guard in the USA, which means on top of monthly weekend training (drill), I also have two weeks each summer for annual training (AT). I also commissioned as an officer back in August, so now I have officer training to attend (BOLC). Since I commissioned as a transportation officer, that means I get to attend Logistics-BOLC, where they'll train me to understand the basics of being each of the three types of logistics officers (transportation, quartermaster (supply), and ordinance (ammunition)) in addition to training me on the specifics of being a transportation officer. This training will last around 4 months and starts next mid-March for me. This means I can only work leading up to the training, but also need some job security for when I get back.
This brings me back to my newest job. I tried two others before I ended up at this one and in short, I learned the hard way that any job requiring me to be on the phone is not the right job for me. I'm pretty sure I'm 99% introverted, though I can be an ambivert when I need to. It can be exhausting for me, both mentally and emotionally, to be extroverted at all, though, so those other two jobs were very draining for me.
So, the new job is amazing because I have my own office space and only have one other coworker. We're both executive assistants, but I'm basically the assistant's assistant lol. I love the simplicity of the job, though, and it's part-time, so the hours are very flexible. I even got Thanksgiving week off with an agreed deal of simply working more hours the weeks before and after. It's absolutely heavenly. The supervisor and my coworker are super understanding and kind, which is such a rarity in most workplaces these days.
The job itself mostly involves me filing paperwork and typing up documents as is needed, but it's cool because I work for an organization that helps take donations and then dolls them out to organizations and even individuals in need. I want to eventually work as a mental health counselor somewhere, so if this job sticks longer than just being a temporary one for me, I'd have key work experience for my future career and I'm already getting a little taste of helping people.
It seems like all I hear about in the news these days is how it's all wrong and there aren't as many jobs available as people claim. I know my parents expected me to apply to hundreds of places, but it was such an unrealistic goal because I knew so few would actually take me. Unlike most college students, I couldn't work at all while getting my degree. I was in the ROTC program at my university and it took away all of my spare time each day on top of having to study for my classes. I barely got any time to care for myself throughout college and I hated the experience. My only time that I got to be a normal college student was when I studied abroad for a year.
I ultimately only got this job because instead of spamming companies with my resume online, I kept attending college career fairs and eventually got lucky with a staffing agency. After all, my only real work experience is with the National Guard, but I've only ever trained and my leadership experience has been very minimal in the past. It made the job hunt that much more stressful and exhausting because nobody wanted to hire someone with very little work experience. Ironically enough, most companies claimed to be hiring for entry-level positions, but then they'd ask that you have 3-4 years of experience in some particular field. Sadly, my psychology degree is fairly useless right now until I get my master's degree and then get licensed to actually counsel people.
In short, life can be truly exhausting and frustrating sometimes, but I found the light at the end of the road (no, I didn't die) and I believe that simply continuing to try and continuing to push yourself to do one more application or to attend one more carer fair means you still have opportunities surrounding you to get you where you want to be. I've heard all of the horror stories of people being unemployed for years, whereas I was unemployed for roughly two months. Now I'm not saying everyone will find a job as quickly as I did. In fact, many could find a job quicker than me or slower. The point is simply to not give up and to keep looking. I don't know about everyone else, but most of my job opportunities have been found through staffing agencies. Even if it's a temporary job for now, getting your foot in the door with a company and having a positive experience there can sometimes lead to permanent options. I know my coworker already has covertly stated a number of times that she hopes this becomes permanent for me because they're pushing for her to go full-time, but she'd rather not and that means she'd still need an assistant of her own.
This brings me back to my newest job. I tried two others before I ended up at this one and in short, I learned the hard way that any job requiring me to be on the phone is not the right job for me. I'm pretty sure I'm 99% introverted, though I can be an ambivert when I need to. It can be exhausting for me, both mentally and emotionally, to be extroverted at all, though, so those other two jobs were very draining for me.
So, the new job is amazing because I have my own office space and only have one other coworker. We're both executive assistants, but I'm basically the assistant's assistant lol. I love the simplicity of the job, though, and it's part-time, so the hours are very flexible. I even got Thanksgiving week off with an agreed deal of simply working more hours the weeks before and after. It's absolutely heavenly. The supervisor and my coworker are super understanding and kind, which is such a rarity in most workplaces these days.
The job itself mostly involves me filing paperwork and typing up documents as is needed, but it's cool because I work for an organization that helps take donations and then dolls them out to organizations and even individuals in need. I want to eventually work as a mental health counselor somewhere, so if this job sticks longer than just being a temporary one for me, I'd have key work experience for my future career and I'm already getting a little taste of helping people.
It seems like all I hear about in the news these days is how it's all wrong and there aren't as many jobs available as people claim. I know my parents expected me to apply to hundreds of places, but it was such an unrealistic goal because I knew so few would actually take me. Unlike most college students, I couldn't work at all while getting my degree. I was in the ROTC program at my university and it took away all of my spare time each day on top of having to study for my classes. I barely got any time to care for myself throughout college and I hated the experience. My only time that I got to be a normal college student was when I studied abroad for a year.
I ultimately only got this job because instead of spamming companies with my resume online, I kept attending college career fairs and eventually got lucky with a staffing agency. After all, my only real work experience is with the National Guard, but I've only ever trained and my leadership experience has been very minimal in the past. It made the job hunt that much more stressful and exhausting because nobody wanted to hire someone with very little work experience. Ironically enough, most companies claimed to be hiring for entry-level positions, but then they'd ask that you have 3-4 years of experience in some particular field. Sadly, my psychology degree is fairly useless right now until I get my master's degree and then get licensed to actually counsel people.
In short, life can be truly exhausting and frustrating sometimes, but I found the light at the end of the road (no, I didn't die) and I believe that simply continuing to try and continuing to push yourself to do one more application or to attend one more carer fair means you still have opportunities surrounding you to get you where you want to be. I've heard all of the horror stories of people being unemployed for years, whereas I was unemployed for roughly two months. Now I'm not saying everyone will find a job as quickly as I did. In fact, many could find a job quicker than me or slower. The point is simply to not give up and to keep looking. I don't know about everyone else, but most of my job opportunities have been found through staffing agencies. Even if it's a temporary job for now, getting your foot in the door with a company and having a positive experience there can sometimes lead to permanent options. I know my coworker already has covertly stated a number of times that she hopes this becomes permanent for me because they're pushing for her to go full-time, but she'd rather not and that means she'd still need an assistant of her own.
