4 ms·

I'm injured. Right arm can lift much more than 5 lbs above horizontal. On Voc rehab, yet disability says it's not one. Been without a job for 2 years. Before t

by kefka 13y ago

I'm injured. Right arm can lift much more than 5 lbs above horizontal. On Voc rehab, yet disability says it's not one. Been without a job for 2 years. Before that, fired from wal-mart because I got injured (faulty equipment) and had to go to hospital. What the hell do I do? I look and apply for jobs. I'm in school for drafting. Every sign and indication says if you're without a job for 6 months, you're screwed. Do I just start and lie about my credentials? If they catch me, all they can do is just fire me... I'm already up shits creek.

wavefunction 13y ago
volunteer? find a project where you can help someone! I've suggested folks with interest and drive find a non-profit they can assist. This is the sort of advice I offer folks who are trying to break into web dev, though it is certainly not an easy road to go down. It can be immensely satisfying though... It's much harder in some ways than it used to be to break into the industry without a degree or formal work experience, but if you work with an organization that has to have "lower" standards due to budget constraints or resources, you can get your foot in the door. I've suggested churches, local social welfare groups, etc. Often times the deadlines aren't as tight or are non-existent and you have a lot of an opportunity to "play" with the technologies and potentially learn from someone there. good luck!
lambda 13y ago
No, you're not screwed. Acquire a useful skill that's in demand and which can be done from a desk: drafting, CAD, graphic design, 3D modeling, video editing, web design, programming. Do that craft, and develop a portfolio of work. Find a non-profit that you like that needs that work and spend some time donating that work to the non-profit so you can have some real world experience in that field, that demonstrates that you can work with other people. Almost every reasonable hiring manager (which may be a minority of hiring managers, but is still non-zero) will value someone with a good portfolio who's shown that they can get the job done over someone with credentials and years of experience in the industry who doesn't have a good portfolio to show (as someone who's been doing technical hiring recently, I've always wondered about people who apply for a job with 20 years of experience and not a line of code they can show me; I realize that there may be many jobs where you work on proprietary code that you can't show to someone else, but not having a single side project, one-off hack, a few patches to the mailing list of an open source project, or even a former employer you can ask for a code sample to show under NDA in your whole career seems a bit odd).
- kefka 13y ago
  I already am going for drafting, which includes Autocad and Solidworks. I already am decent at general 3d design (and still have plenty of classes to go). Still, because I'm past the 6 month employability gap, NOBODY will touch me. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terrifying-reality-of-long-term-unemployment/274957/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terr... http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/16/after-six-months-unemployment-turns-into-permanent-unemployment/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/16/after-six...
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    It's actually easier to do "creative career repair" on a 6-month gap than a 4-month one. Don't get me wrong. You always want to avoid being unemployed for 6 months if possible; but there are ways of touching that up. If you were in full-time school, just use that. You don't even need to lie. The truth is always better-- not because there's major risk of getting caught, but because it's always better to form relationships based on the truth, and the cognitive load of maintaining a lie will take steam out of you even if you never get caught. The "6-month problem" doesn't include full-time students. If you were a part-time student, maybe you can make it look full-time? However, if you are stuck needing to lie, I advise the "odds and evens" strategy. Rank your choices 1, ..., N. Odd-numbered choices get full disclosure of the truth. Even-numbered choices get the story you want to tell. (Or, if you think your history is that damaged, tell the truth to evens and your new career history to the odds.) This gives you a sense of whether the issue you are covering up is an actual employment problem, or whether it's something else.
kfk 13y ago
kefka as in kafka? Mine comes from there too, just took out the vowels. Yes, I suggest you lie. Also, if you are into drafting, what about learning a bit of web design? There are different type of arts that seem to sell well on the web: 1. icons (http://www.shutterstock.com/ http://www.shutterstock.com/). 2. T-Shirts (http://www.threadless.com/ http://www.threadless.com/) 3. Etc.
- kefka 13y ago
  I've come to the conclusion that lying would be my best bet, until I obtain some stable work history. If I lie, I can get a job. If I do not, I do not even get a "too bad, soo sad" letter. I've also tried (badly) in entering the web design market. Where would you look for training yourself in this area? I know my skills here are nigh nonexistent, so I won't lie about what I do not know. And yes, Kafka was already taken.
  - kfk 13y ago
    Well, my design skills are horrible, but since I was playing with the idea of creating an application to design and print work outs, I stumbled against the limit of buying my own icons as many exercises are very specific and there is no complete set out there. So, I started to use Inkscape and there are many very good tutorials out there. Check how to go from a sketch to an icon (for example: http://kalaalog.com/2007/10/11/dragon-sketch-to-vector-art/ http://kalaalog.com/2007/10/11/dragon-sketch-to-vector-art/). Of course that's not "professional" web design, but it's a start. If you start studying this, feel free to ping me for questions (you'll probably know more than me soon enough I will ping you for questions).
michaelochurch 13y ago
Awesome login name. You don't plan on pulling a Light of Judgment, do you? What the hell do I do? I look and apply for jobs. I'm in school for drafting. Every sign and indication says if you're without a job for 6 months, you're screwed. We can talk offline about that (michael.o.church at gmail). There are plenty of ways to hide unemployment time. Trust me, I know a lot of people who've had that issue. One thing you can do is do a lot of freebie work for friends but claim they were paid gigs to capture the validation that employers seek. If you do free work for someone, you'll usually get a great reference, and they're not going to oppose saying you were paid $100 per hour to help you out. Most people know the corporate system is a lie, these days, and really have no problem subverting it. Corrupt systems make liars of everyone. Where do you live? Do you have the financial resources to move to an area that might have more freelance opportunities? Do I just start and lie about my credentials? If they catch me, all they can do is just fire me... I'm already up shits creek. You have to be careful about that. The only person willing to broach this topic under real name (and, therefore, with some credibility) is... me. You need to be very cautious, but if you have no other opportunity than lying... go for it. Most resume cheaters and liars are people in the 75th percentile of their industries trying to become 99th because they're narcissists who feel entitled to be at the top. I don't advise that. It's not worth the risk when you have a good thing going. Personally, I don't lie on my CV for that reason. However, if it's between being unemployed versus creating a new history, I think the latter is morally defensible. Just don't get caught. My personal ethical stance is that there's a difference between charlatanry (claiming skills you don't have) and social status inflation (which everyone does). The first is unethical, wrong, and if you try to do it I won't support you. The second I am fine with. Changing dates and titles to reflect promotions one should have had, IMO, is in the second category. It's lying about social status, which everyone does. Just don't do it on paper. There's a way to leave your paper trail vague and then tell the story you need in person, but we'd have to go offline to discuss the details.

by kefka 13y ago

wavefunction 13y ago

volunteer? find a project where you can help someone! I've suggested folks with interest and drive find a non-profit they can assist. This is the sort of advice I offer folks who are trying to break into web dev, though it is certainly not an easy road to go down. It can be immensely satisfying though... It's much harder in some ways than it used to be to break into the industry without a degree or formal work experience, but if you work with an organization that has to have "lower" standards due to budget constraints or resources, you can get your foot in the door. I've suggested churches, local social welfare groups, etc. Often times the deadlines aren't as tight or are non-existent and you have a lot of an opportunity to "play" with the technologies and potentially learn from someone there. good luck!

lambda 13y ago

No, you're not screwed. Acquire a useful skill that's in demand and which can be done from a desk: drafting, CAD, graphic design, 3D modeling, video editing, web design, programming. Do that craft, and develop a portfolio of work. Find a non-profit that you like that needs that work and spend some time donating that work to the non-profit so you can have some real world experience in that field, that demonstrates that you can work with other people. Almost every reasonable hiring manager (which may be a minority of hiring managers, but is still non-zero) will value someone with a good portfolio who's shown that they can get the job done over someone with credentials and years of experience in the industry who doesn't have a good portfolio to show (as someone who's been doing technical hiring recently, I've always wondered about people who apply for a job with 20 years of experience and not a line of code they can show me; I realize that there may be many jobs where you work on proprietary code that you can't show to someone else, but not having a single side project, one-off hack, a few patches to the mailing list of an open source project, or even a former employer you can ask for a code sample to show under NDA in your whole career seems a bit odd).

kefka 13y ago
I already am going for drafting, which includes Autocad and Solidworks. I already am decent at general 3d design (and still have plenty of classes to go). Still, because I'm past the 6 month employability gap, NOBODY will touch me. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terrifying-reality-of-long-term-unemployment/274957/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-terr... http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/16/after-six-months-unemployment-turns-into-permanent-unemployment/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/16/after-six...
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  It's actually easier to do "creative career repair" on a 6-month gap than a 4-month one. Don't get me wrong. You always want to avoid being unemployed for 6 months if possible; but there are ways of touching that up. If you were in full-time school, just use that. You don't even need to lie. The truth is always better-- not because there's major risk of getting caught, but because it's always better to form relationships based on the truth, and the cognitive load of maintaining a lie will take steam out of you even if you never get caught. The "6-month problem" doesn't include full-time students. If you were a part-time student, maybe you can make it look full-time? However, if you are stuck needing to lie, I advise the "odds and evens" strategy. Rank your choices 1, ..., N. Odd-numbered choices get full disclosure of the truth. Even-numbered choices get the story you want to tell. (Or, if you think your history is that damaged, tell the truth to evens and your new career history to the odds.) This gives you a sense of whether the issue you are covering up is an actual employment problem, or whether it's something else.

kfk 13y ago

kefka as in kafka? Mine comes from there too, just took out the vowels. Yes, I suggest you lie. Also, if you are into drafting, what about learning a bit of web design? There are different type of arts that seem to sell well on the web: 1. icons (http://www.shutterstock.com/ http://www.shutterstock.com/). 2. T-Shirts (http://www.threadless.com/ http://www.threadless.com/) 3. Etc.

kefka 13y ago
I've come to the conclusion that lying would be my best bet, until I obtain some stable work history. If I lie, I can get a job. If I do not, I do not even get a "too bad, soo sad" letter. I've also tried (badly) in entering the web design market. Where would you look for training yourself in this area? I know my skills here are nigh nonexistent, so I won't lie about what I do not know. And yes, Kafka was already taken.
- kfk 13y ago
  Well, my design skills are horrible, but since I was playing with the idea of creating an application to design and print work outs, I stumbled against the limit of buying my own icons as many exercises are very specific and there is no complete set out there. So, I started to use Inkscape and there are many very good tutorials out there. Check how to go from a sketch to an icon (for example: http://kalaalog.com/2007/10/11/dragon-sketch-to-vector-art/ http://kalaalog.com/2007/10/11/dragon-sketch-to-vector-art/). Of course that's not "professional" web design, but it's a start. If you start studying this, feel free to ping me for questions (you'll probably know more than me soon enough I will ping you for questions).

michaelochurch 13y ago

Awesome login name. You don't plan on pulling a Light of Judgment, do you? What the hell do I do? I look and apply for jobs. I'm in school for drafting. Every sign and indication says if you're without a job for 6 months, you're screwed. We can talk offline about that (michael.o.church at gmail). There are plenty of ways to hide unemployment time. Trust me, I know a lot of people who've had that issue. One thing you can do is do a lot of freebie work for friends but claim they were paid gigs to capture the validation that employers seek. If you do free work for someone, you'll usually get a great reference, and they're not going to oppose saying you were paid $100 per hour to help you out. Most people know the corporate system is a lie, these days, and really have no problem subverting it. Corrupt systems make liars of everyone. Where do you live? Do you have the financial resources to move to an area that might have more freelance opportunities? Do I just start and lie about my credentials? If they catch me, all they can do is just fire me... I'm already up shits creek. You have to be careful about that. The only person willing to broach this topic under real name (and, therefore, with some credibility) is... me. You need to be very cautious, but if you have no other opportunity than lying... go for it. Most resume cheaters and liars are people in the 75th percentile of their industries trying to become 99th because they're narcissists who feel entitled to be at the top. I don't advise that. It's not worth the risk when you have a good thing going. Personally, I don't lie on my CV for that reason. However, if it's between being unemployed versus creating a new history, I think the latter is morally defensible. Just don't get caught. My personal ethical stance is that there's a difference between charlatanry (claiming skills you don't have) and social status inflation (which everyone does). The first is unethical, wrong, and if you try to do it I won't support you. The second I am fine with. Changing dates and titles to reflect promotions one should have had, IMO, is in the second category. It's lying about social status, which everyone does. Just don't do it on paper. There's a way to leave your paper trail vague and then tell the story you need in person, but we'd have to go offline to discuss the details.