Finding employment/How did you get your first job?

I wish I knew the answer to this question. I was fired from my first job at 20, working part during during the summer. Got me off to a bad start. Next summer I had a part time job for three months. Spent over a year after college unemployed, with two minor exceptions. One job I worked for one day, the other eight days. Then I had my only real job for five months in Central America, was fired. Unemployed for over a year, then spent two weeks working on a political campaign, got tired of it. Unemployed for over a year, spent three weeks working in a kitchen in a National Park, quit.

I'm decent at interviews, the few that I get. I know I come across as bored and disinterested in the jobs I interview for, because I am.

I'm trying to find work now but not having any luck. I'm seriously starting to consider making up work experience, though dishonesty is one of the worst violations of my moral code. The kind of work I want to do does not actually require any work experience, but it's a very difficult field to enter.

I'd just say, be very careful about making up work experience. You can set yourself up in a job you can't handle, or worse yet, find a job you love and then lose it because someone figured out that you lied.

Personally, I wouldn't go down that route, but it might work for some.

my mum wouldnt let me not work.. even though i dreaded asking for jobs and the like, she couldnt stand for it if i wasnt working so i had to find a job as soon as i was old enough. pretty much now you can look on the internet and see if there is a vacancy, send them a cv or ring them or something. some places put adds in the windows so just give em a cv. if you have an interview just look smart(ish) and be freindly and dont say something dumb. i think i applied for about 40 jobs when i finished uni in 07 and had 4 interviews. so you just gotta keep going for it. your gonna get rejected from some, its inevitable. especially if your EXP is low.

ShadowTerra wrote:
I cannot do this job search thing without getting depressed and suicidal.

tip: dont tell yourself this, cus your gonna believe it if you tell yourself, even though it isnt true at all. its not really a big deal trying to get a job. the only factors are really time and persistance.. if you think about it, most people have a job, so its not really a big deal having one.

ultimate_krang wrote:

ShadowTerra wrote:
I cannot do this job search thing without getting depressed and suicidal.

tip: dont tell yourself this, cus your gonna believe it if you tell yourself, even though it isnt true at all. its not really a big deal trying to get a job. the only factors are really time and persistance.. if you think about it, most people have a job, so its not really a big deal having one.

I'm gonna try to take this advice to heart, even though when I first read it all I was thinking of were "Yeah, but..." excuses. Thanks, Krang.

I was on Prozac when I started this thread and that severely upped my anxiety. Some of the worst anxiety I have ever experienced in my life, and I'm an expert at being an anxious mess already! I'm off that garbage now and ready to give this job thing a try again. Wish me luck 'cause Jeebus knows I need it.

Edit: Oh, and I applied for a volunteer position a while back. They haven't called me in yet but promised they will soon (was supposed to start this week but they had to cancel). That really helped me feel better about trying for paying jobs. I don't worry too much about interviews because I can be super charming under pressure (lucky me). It's the actual application part that gets to me. The interview part I won't start worrying about until A) right before the interview, and B) right after the interview. And my anticipatory anxiety ain't got nothing on my post-performance anxiety.

ShadowTerra,

Yes, many people in this forum who suffer with AvPD seem to be able to have some type of employment whether it's volunteer, actual desk job or even retail job from what I've seen. Having AvPD has nothing to do with your ability to land a job! So start believing in yourself as the evidence has spoken for itself

Good luck.

good to hear you are feeling better, good luck!