How long have you been unemployed?

And what did it take for you to get a job?

4 Months now. Already had 3 Months off at the start of the year so im in struggle town ive barely worked all year.. 2014 hasn't been kind. Just cant seem to get anything going on for me i apply for no less than 10 jobs a day but just can not for the life of me get a new job.. there are only so many video games one can play before they go insane

What's your employment background and education? Have you contacted any recruiters?

My advice in the current economic climate is try to stay as far away from the menial minimum wage applications as possible, I've found that there is more competition for them than there was for much better much higher paid jobs, because companies are squeezing the shit out of people with crap like zero-hour contracts and other garbage, so there seems to be a high number of people working multiple minimum wage jobs and employers can just cut back the hours whenever they feel like it, so they just aren't hiring. I guess it doesn't help I live in a student city, too. There's so much competition for the low-end jobs.

Last time I job-searched (3 months ago after a 2 month period of unemployment in which most of my time was spent clearing up after spending 2 years self-employed) and I applied to a TON of stuff like mcdonalds, burger king, subway, every burger joint, sandwhich joint and supermarket within miles because I needed a job ASAP to start paying debts.

Not a single one of them got back to me.

The programming job I was 100% sure I wasn't qualified for? Got back to me within an hour of sending my CV, interviewed within a week and made an offer within an hour of the interview.

Bonkers. I'd say concentrate on looking for things that are around what you're looking for, for example I spent 2 years doing games programming, and I moved into InfoSec with my current job because they were more than happy to teach me new skills. So you don't have to limit yourself to what your strictly qualified for right now, a lot of companies are happy to take on people who know very little about their specific area if they are willing and enthusiastic to learn.

Apart from the whole not-having-any-money thing though I loved unemployment, I absolutely hate working. 9-5 5-days a week with a 110 minute each way commute? Yeah, once my debts are all paid, I'm out. Fuuuuck being a grown up.

@the_a_drain: The thing about a job at retail or fast food is you might end up looking over-qualified. The perception is that you'll either have a crappy attitude because you're doing work that's "beneath you" or just won't stick around for a long enough period of time to make it worth the time and money it takes to train you and get you up to speed.

With a job you're not quite qualified for? You may have just enough skills to get by and have enough knowledge to grasp the concepts needed. Also, since they know you feel underqualified, they'll low ball you on the offer. You'll also probably work harder because you feel grateful for the job and may be more loyal as well. You get a job you weren't quite sure you could get, and the employer gets a employee that's good enough, at a good rate, that will grow and potentially stick around.

I do think that if you're unemployed, just toss applications all over and see what sticks. Interview experience is good, too!

This is also largely the case with plenty of other fields of work. I've had friends apply for full time jobs after graduating with their Masters degree, only to be denied because of "over qualification".

I have also been deemed overqualified because of my degree, I don't care if I am, give me the job!

9 months! And I live in San Francisco. In an expensive studio. High fives duders, let's all hang ourselves tonight! WOO!!

Are you guys applying now? It's seasonal season and retailers are stocking up for seasonal positions right now. I think at most for the job interviews for these positions just come in with a great attitude and willingness to learn and help out. While most retailers are looking for people who might be eager to stay on after the holiday season they are willing to overlook over / under qualifications just to get more staff.

Good Luck man.

In 2009 I lost my IT job of 4 years.
During that time period there were no jobs to apply for.
By the time my 2 year unemployment ran out it there were still very few jobs out there.
Having to prove you apply for at least 3 jobs a week while on unemployment was difficult due to the fact you might find 5 opps if you're lucky.
I'd apply to 3 of those 5 potential jobs saving two for the next week because it was unlikely more would show up.
About 8 months after unemployment ran out I accepted a much lesser job rather than toturing myself any longer.
I'm still stuck in the lesser job for more reasons than I care to share but it sucks.
Before I lost my IT job (for all the wrong reasons) I worked in QA at Atari and then Irrational Games.
Never thought I'd end up where I am now.
Good luck, hope you find something soon.

Over 2 years now, I live in a town with a population of 30,000. I have no car, and our bus routes are none existent.

I just got a call back from a job, starting this Monday. It's a relief after not working for 3 months. For me, it was all about knowing a person that works there. He's got a good rep and he put in a good word for me. Networking is the key to everything, even if it's just a shit manual labor job.

Video games are fun and all, but with tons of free time comes a lack of money to buy them with.

I was unemployed from Nov 2008 to Feb 2009, after the financial meltdown kind of killed the company I was working at (we laid off 40% of our employees, and at the end of the day got laid off myself).

I work in HR, and can tell you this getting into the time when very little recruiting is done apart from retail hiring for the holidays. Things will pick up again in January, after the holidays are over and every one returns to work.

Hang in there, things will get better.

Over the past 10 years, I've been unemployed for a grand total of 3 months. I'm very lucky, especially considering I work in video games.

I was unemployed for a couple of months after I was done with the mandatory military service. I've had the same job for about 14 years now.

I have never been unemployed for longer than a couple of weeks. Worst case scenario I just get a job at 7-11 or McDonalds again until I can find more permanent employment. It might not be the job you want, but it is better than sitting on your ass playing video games all day.

Remember job-searches are a full time job in itself. If a person does not put in the hours then it is usually their fault for being unemployed.

Edit: Badmouth McDonalds all you want, but as someone who hires hundreds of people a year (seasonal jobs at a ski resort in the winter, and mudloggers in the summer), working at McDonalds for longer than 6 months is one the best things I can see on a resume. That restaurant works the ass off of their employees and pays them shit money, so anybody who stays knows how to work properly. Seriously, I have a MAJOR bias against hiring youths because they tend to lack skills like, "working and talking at the same time instead of stopping their job to converse," or "knowing to show up in a clean uniform fifteen minutes before your shift starts," or "how to actually follow SOP's (standard operating procedures). From experience, people who have spent a large portion of their working lives at a shitty corporation that overworks their employess for little money tend not to have those faults.

It's easy to say that I am a part of the problem, but from my perspective, 20% of the employees I hire will have quit when they realize how busy the Christmas season is. Almost all of those people who leave are recent high-school grads who have moved away from home for the first time, this really fucks up the winter. Then there is the fact that youths are not the only people applying for the jobs, if I have a choice between someone with little to no experience vs someone who has spent a decade working (no matter where they were working) I will always hire the more experience worker (unless they have a t endency of finding a new job every 6 months, I would never hire anyone who has had more than three jobs in the past year. At some point it isn't the jobs that suck it's the employ that sucks.

Edit 2: You can always apply for a job in Northern Alberta or BC. Our nation has introduced some new Temporary Foreign Worker restrictions, but the north is so hurting for employees that they are paying huge signing bonuses to anyone willing to make the trek. Especially if you have spent the 5-months in school it takes to becomes a working pipe-fitter, electrician, welder, etc.

Edit 3: Go to school and get a Bachelor of Science with a major in Geology. I'm not joking, there are SOOOOOOOO many geology jobs around right now. Just a bachelor of Science can get you a job as a mudlogger, you work for two weeks on two weeks off and you make $100,000 a year (before overtime pay) to work in the oilsands of Northern Alberta, oh and you get winters off because nobody is drilling deep in January up here.

I was unemployed for 2 years (02-04) before I got a full time shit job no one else would do (think cleaning and the food industry, and only fish). Due to a buyout I was sacked. Soon got a job at a candy factory, due to my experience in food manufacturing (04-06). Soon got sacked because of buyout. 2006 I got an warehouse job at my sisters work (yes, thanks to her). I'm now sitting at that place planning logistics (06-??). Nothing to brag about, but I like it, and I don't need to brag.

If you ever get a shit job, pretend you like it, you will need it later

since november 2013.

got laid off now going to school.

Was laid off for close to a year, then got a job doing HVAC and plumbing work and have been doing that for over a year now, not a bad job, just this time of year its really busy and i never know when i'll be home with emergency calls and the like.

About 30 minutes now. :/

Sorry that happened.

I was once unemployed for 16 years. Then I turned 16! Ba dum pish!

I work in television and I thankfully got my job before I left school. I interned there in the fall and right before I graduated in the spring they called and offered me a job. I got my diploma May 19th and I started work May 20th, I've been there for almost 2 years. I count my blessing everyday considering how tough it is to find any work now.

I was unemployed for 6 months, at first it was awesome it was the first time since I was 15 where I wasn't working, 3 months in I realized what kind of hell it is being stuck in a house pretty much alone, with my cousins dog and nothing else I finished my entire back catalog of games in that time and then had no money to get new games those last 3 months were pretty much me losing my mind only to finally get an chance to go do something else far away only to spend those 2 years almost 100% by myself spending my days cold calling for work in a big city that I Fucking Hated living in until I said fuck it and moved back home and got my old job back.

I haven't worked since I was 16 (24 now), but that's because I've been a full-time student from 18-24 (a long and complicated story that isn't that interesting). I live at home and don't feel the need to get a job, supporting myself and helping out here and there with financial aid money. Not looking forward to actually having to go out and find one, just because of all the horror stories I've been hearing.

0. Wish I was unemployed, though. Working all day 6 days a week sucks. I'm moving to one of those countries were people get... you know... days off.

it's scary that you guys with qualifications and skills and full resumes are having trouble finding jobs. if i lost my current one i'd pretty much be dead.

8 years. Freelance work isn't easy because clients often go "hey you can put this on your resume." And then it's like a 3 week assignment with no pay, or how about an internship for a internet company that goes under. I couldn't have done it if I didn't have family helping me out along the way. I'd rather scrub toilets in a motel then trying to lauch a web side on that day, learn new scripting on the spot and get paid pocket change off the guy who bought the domain name.

Right now I got a stable job, and I feel under trained but I'm lucky I can switch divisions on the fly. Although i did enjoy Dog walking for a couple of months, there's a sense of accomplishment holding hot poo bags in cold morning.

I was unemployed for 1.5 years out of a 2 year period. I completely changed careers (from teaching high school math to developing software), and the thing that got me the job was a portfolio. I spent a lot of my unemployed time programming stuff, which went a very long way towards mitigating my lack of professional experience in the software world. The Giant Bomb crew repeatedly answers the "how do I get into the biz" question with "just start doing it," and I think that such logic is good for any type of work where it's feasible to create a portfolio of sorts (the trick then becomes not to get exploited by folks who are offering more "exposure" than compensation).

I was unemployed from June 2013 to November 2013, then for a couple of weeks in January 2014. I was fresh out of college and after a month of looking I stopped because I decided to study for the FE exam that was in October. I went out and got a seasonal job after the exam and worked in a warehouse for ~6 weeks until I got let go. Fortunately I had passed the exam (which I'm sure helped my resume a ton) and got super lucky applying for a particular job online a couple of weeks after I had gotten let go from my job. I got an interview and was offered the job the following week. I loathe networking so I was really excited that I didn't need to in order to find my current job.

I was unemployed for just over a year (august 2012 - september 2013), although during that time I had moved to a non-english speaking country and the language barrier was a big issue for a long time.

Been unemployed since the end of August of last year. Got tired of not finding a job and decided I was going to college instead. So now I am.

Here in Australia you would think the job market is fantastic. I actually worked for one of the largest online job boards before i got sacked, and you would think that no one has a job with the amount that get posted each day.. the calls i would get of people complaining that no one is applying for their position etc was crazy..now here i am probably applying for these exact same job for the fools that used to complain and i get not call back.

Networking seems to be the biggest factor in finding a position these days, every job i have had has been because i got the hook up from some one i know so now that ive pretty much used up those 9 lives im not sure where to turn to haha. What makes it worse is while i did have a job i booked a trip to the states in april and had to burn my spending money for that to survive.. so currently as it stands ill be going to america and staying in my hotel room for 3 weeks haha.

Hope all the duders out there can find something soon!

this is the 4th time in 5 years maybe? ive been out of work. maybe im just shit at the working life

Ever since I got booted in 2011, I have been doing short contract projects for free ever since to rack up some work experience and fill the gap in my CV.

I graduated in 2009 with a level 4 (out of 4) System Management diploma and worked for a lot of different companies over the years, but it's never enough it seems.

The fucked up thing here in The Netherlands is that some good for nothing people manage to abuse the social welfare and sit at home doing nothing while getting payed double what I get , while I try my best to get back in to the game and sacrifice the money I have on transport costs for job interviews.

Yeah dude, it sucks, but I mean the company is going under so it was gonna happen anyway.
(Sorry about the late reply, I watched the mario party livestream and fell asleep, how didn't they fall asleep?)

Since August last year. Have been trough 3 unpaid internships since then, however that is common practice for Danish academics trying to build some experience. Sadly spending almost two years in unemployment town is common when you have a degree in the humanities. At least in Denmark. Oh well. Can't do much but continue the job hunt! Good hunting duders!

Last time I was unemployed was 1990.

@crithon: Last time I did something freelance for some people I respected they simply stopped responding to my mails after everything was done. Thankfully I have a full time job so the work I did was a fun side project for me but yah, fuck freelancing.

I have been unemployed officially for a full year. I lost that job after three days, one panic attack the first of my life. Why did I have that panic attack? because I had been unemployed for three years and it meant so much to me. Ontop of commuting on busy trains I was not used to and being denied a good nights sleep, food, water, toilet even, as well as rushing for the bus then rushing for the train, then rushing to work. I had a bad day. I came the next day and worked 10 hours 2 and half hours after I signed my 0 hour contract I was fired.

My friend also got that job (new shop opening needed bodies) he worked there for 6 months, I say he worked there if you added it up it would be more 2 months as they kept giving him 0 hours or even 6 hours. While everyone else was given 40hrs work. So he got the feeling they wanted him to go and he did. He is now working for a games company like he wanted to be so hopefully he keep at that. PS its a games company that has shipped a butt load of Licensed games for IOS which is actualy pretty respectable.

However barring that experience I am unemployed for 3 years and this year I have been taken courses to get a job. I have Rural Skills, I can operate a boat but more so I am doing a hospitality course which is basicly waiter college. I would aim higher but there is no higher, higher is 40k a year job that I requires running a company almost. I am utterly stuck on the lower rung of jobs and I try for others but nothing.

Collectively I have only been employed for a year and half out of 10 years (I started work when I was 16) I volunteered for three years in a charity shop yet still no job. So I have been effectively unemployed for a total of 6 years, 7 if I did not have 8 months employment one year. It is tough I only seem to get training schemes rather than full time jobs. A reason why the job I had a panic attack over mean so much a full time job, I was an freaking idiot just praising how much working meant to me, so if there was anyone out of the people being trained that would be hurt the most by losing the job, it was me and I was first fired. So yeah freaking stings man.

So I am gaining skills and keeping my eyes open for new opportunities. I enjoyed my times earning a rural skills certificate I might decided to pursue that and do more outdoors stuff.

@otakugamer: Everything you said aswell. So think about how the anime Welcome to the NHK hut me when I watched. There is some strong parts of that anime that mirror my own life, even down to being sucked into a scam of a ponzi/pyramid scheme selling crap door to door off my own money, with my own money and being held as a cow to milk while doing all the work to milk myself. It is turley horrible some things people label "jobs".

I left my last job waiting tables a little over a month ago. I had been there for three years, working with my live in girlfriend, and our only option to go on vacation was for someone to quit. on top of that, there had been a whole lot off bad decisions made by new management, so I was just ready to go. My plan was to get out of the restaurant industry, but that seems near impossible to do while maintaining a salary approaching what I've been making (appx 40k a year). Not great, but certainly more tha doable. So I got hired at this restaurant that's opening in a few weeks, which I'm taking simply to stave off madness. God bless you guys who go years on end without working. I can't do it.

Been in the exact same situation as you for a while. Only just got a volunteer job. Although I'm not getting paid, it just feels great to be doing something productive and interesting. It was so depressing being unemployed, and was the first time I really was using video games and other media to escape my reality. Just hope they'll be willing to give me a paid position later on, there are supposed to be good chances of it. But you never know with a voluntary position. Keep trying everyone, it sucks balls, but we gotta do it.

@humanity: Freelance is really..... Hustling in the Sopranos style. That's what it's like, but yeah I was trying that for over 8 years and it was impossible, I had family helping me a lot. I know friends who do it alone, and jesus christ it's painful.