Job Hunting

So I felt like it was time for a rant and what can I rant more about than job hunting?

I feel like I'm going to be a mess by the end of this and probably sat in a corner, rocking...

 

But anyway, let me put you in the picture; Months before I turned 16, which is the legal age to start work, I started looking for a job, unknowing that I needed my national insurance number, as I knew that some places employ people who are 14/15. Obviously I had no luck, but as soon as I got my NI number in August 2009, I was off. I was in the job market and desperately looking for a job. I was constantly handing out CV's and applying online but I got nothing. Not even an interview. Most of the places I'd applied to, I never heard anything at all.

 

Everyone said that I didn't have enough experience, which was fair enough because I didn't have any, but how am I meant to get experience if I couldn't get a job? I understand the fact that employers don't always want to train people from scratch but how do they know that I'm not a better employee than someone who had experience?

 

Being me I never gave up and I finally go my first (and only) job, just after I'd turned 17 in Sports Direct (never work there by the way) and started work in December 2010, on £3.64 an hour, which is basically slave pay. I'll never understand why I got so little. Don't be thinking "well obviously it was your age. That's minimum wage..." because a lot of my school friends also worked in Sports Direct, but another store, and they all got £4+.

So I'd finally got myself some experience in retail and after 6 months I couldn't take the slavery anymore and left. Yes I wouldn't have the money anymore but I scraped £100 a month, if I was lucky, and in this day it doesn't go anywhere.

 

I'd started looking for jobs before I left, in the hope that I wouldn't have to be unemployed, or not for very long anyway. I had several interview stages for Republic in the White Rose and I thought I had it so I left Sports Direct because I really couldn't take anymore, but in the end, I didn't get the job in republic. I shouldn't have been surprised to be honest and this became the story of my life.

 

So I've now been unemployed for around 18 months, during which time I've NEVER stopped applying for jobs and I've still got nothing. I've had a few interviews for different places but I haven't been successful. Granted I've given up handing out CV's but 99% of places nowadays just tell you to apply online so I just feel like it's a waste of time and effort.

One thing that really annoys me though, and which I don't and will never understand, is how all of my friends are getting jobs so easily. I apply to the same/similar places as them and put in as much effort as the next guy, and they just seem to get jobs as if it's like breathing. I really don't know how they do it! This just makes me feel even more like a failure and that I don't know why I bother applying because I feel like I'm trying to walk up a down escalator.

 

I know that the job market today is tough, but I feel like I never give up trying, which I don't, and I just get nowhere! I feel like I'm stuck in a circle, and I'm never going to get anywhere in life. I don't know if it's something I'm doing wrong or what! I always make sure I write/say what the employers want to hear, and never lie or anything like that so what else do/can I do?

 

So yeah, it really stresses me out! If anyone can help me out, I'd be grateful!

I really really need a job by next September because I'm thinking of moving out with a few friends from uni into a student house, and by the time I've paid for rent, bills and food, and whatever else, I'm going to need some other way of finding money for myself as my loan won't stretch that far!

 

Rant over. If you've read all of this, you deserve a medal!