Dear Mefisto:

As I was reading your post, I noticed how well you write and enjoyed your writing, although your distress is not enjoyable for me. I am not surprised you are working on a novel: i see the wit, skill and talent.

And this is another thing that appeared to me as I read your post: how amazing it is, how often human potential is not acknowledged or rewarded or put into use for the common good. Your potential, so great, is not put into use for the common good. And it is not rewarded materially.

Please do post again.

anita

Hi Mefisto,

I was struck by your closing words “Another rejection…There is no hope, i’ll die here..”; it sounds very despairing and a lonely, isolating place to be. Would you consider seeking counselling? It can be helpful to have the support and empathy of another human being during difficult/challenging times.

Wishing you well!

Whoa! Are you me? Seriously. I’m 25 (going to be 26 on the 31st). I have a degree in Political Science, and I work at Sears. I actually started working at Ross Dress for Less in 2014 and left in 2015 to pursue teaching. But the teaching job didn’t work out so well (that job gave me anxiety). I started seeing a therapist in October and she has really helped me. After a few months, I got another job at Sears. I hate this job with a passion lol. I desperately want to get out of retail, but it’s hard. You just never know what employers are looking for. I still live with my parents too. Man, if I could just pack up and travel the world forever, I would be gone in a heartbeat. As far as seeing our peers having great careers, my therapist said that everyone hates something about their job/career and that your timeline is not their timeline. I know, I know; generic advice, but after thinking about it, she’s right. I understand what people are saying that your crappy job is “paying your dues”, but is it wrong to want to have a job/career that you enjoy in your 20s?

I’m an editor. If you want to write, I suggest you write articles for websites, or blog about topics that interest you. Go find out what copywriters need to know in order to find employment in your area and for the companies you’re interested in applying to. I suspect that if you have examples of copy you’ve written on various topics in in various styles, that’ll go a long way to showing people what they want to see in order to hire you. Writing is probably one of the easiest things to “get experience” in. You don’t need to have a paying gig to show people that you can write. Be proactive: go find companies that are doing work you like, and figure out what kind of writing they are looking for. Network. Find people in your industry and go talk to them. Ask them what you need to do in order to get work in that field.

I’ve had a 20-year career in book publishing. I got into it because I loved books and didn’t know what else to do with an english degree. My first job in the industry was at a publishing company doing customer service, then I quit because I hated it. I kept applying and kept interviewing….15 interviews, I think, before I got my first real editorial job. Recently, I lost my job and am now freelancing and looking to shift my skill set into a more marketable career. I’m 46.

Two things that I’ve found that are important in today’s job market are flexibility and networking. I understand the despair you’re feeling. But don’t let it drown you. Most of us have to eventually experience the “I hate my job” story, and that’s a sign that we need to look at what we want in a job that we’d love. Good luck!

Trev, would love to see a picture of your Bentley Continental GT(S) twin-turbo W-12 from the get-rich-quick scheme you linked to, which seems to promise such results. Surprised that they just didn’t go all out and show a picture of a Rolls or Maybauch out front of ye olde mansion.

Yes, curiosity got the better of me, so I trusted in my AV/Firewall to take a look at what particular brand of snake oil was being peddled. Reminds me of those slick glossy paper brochures selling “prime” land in Florida that turned out to be in the Everglades…

Mefisto: Early in career jobs can, well, ****. After getting a Bachelor’s and Master’s in the biosciences and a Juris Doctor with Honors degree in law, I wound up selling jewelry while looking for a job in the legal field. Was 31 when I found my first job in the legal field.

I was really depressed too. Went through the full gamut of SSRI anti-depression medications, and saw things on them that would be inspirational to Jefferson Airplane(Starship). The depression wound up impacting my performance in applications, etc. It kind of became a self-fulfilling prophecy. To be brutally honest, it ****ed. I was focusing on things such as time out of school, the “tier” of my law school, etc. The more I focused on how much I hated the situation, the worse things and performance became. You know it’s bad when you misspell your own name on an application.

During that period of time, I probably helped to keep the US Postal service in business, and probably was single-handedly responsible for the deforestation of vast tracks of pulpwood plantations. Feel your pain about the application process.

Ultimately, I decided to look at places where the employers couldn’t afford to be so picky. Where people didn’t care if you graduated from Harvard or Podunk U. People weren’t beating the doors down to come out to “The Middle of Nowhere”(tm) on the Northern Plains. I had never even been to this part of the U.S. before. Suddenly, I saw a wealth of opportunity in places like the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming (okay, not quite the Northern Plains). When I mentioned it to some classmates I knew, I got shocked expressions back.

Applied for a job out in what is colloquially known as BFE, and flew from Florida for the interview. The classmates I knew thought I was nuts, the people where I had been working thought I was nuts, even people I ran into out here thought I was nuts for moving from Florida to the land of -30F and below winters. Guess what? It worked.

I don’t know if you are in the US or elsewhere. What I do know is that sometimes, when things don’t seem to be going the way you want them to, you need to look for opportunities where others don’t. If you are in the US, I would strongly suggest looking at the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming. Even with the lower oil prices there is still economic activity out here, and there are still jobs of all sorts. Heck, even the local newspaper out here has been looking to fill various staff positions for the last year-and-a-half.

Hi Manifesto,

Wow! this rings so true. I had the same experience many times until I finally had to get to the root of why I couldn’t eject myself from a job I hated. Like others who responded to it, it can feel daunting.

I finally figured out that having my livelihood bound to a single source of income and at the discretion of someone I barely knew outside of work was frankly… well, insane. When I came to understand that fully, and took real steps to change I found some real peace. It was only then that I was able to find a life full of choice, freedom and a ton of travel. I make more money than I ever have and I know that who I am and what I do for a living brings true value to my life, the lives of my family and to other people who want the same thing.

I found a way to have several incomes that played to my strengths and to the way I wanted to live my life. Now should one of those things change, I never need to fear that I’ll be left out in the cold because I still have the other means of generating a paycheck. So maybe my advice to you, if you haven’t already done so is find several things to do rather than one. I for example freelance doing some video work. I sell stock video footage and still photos online and I teach other people how to how to do those things too. So having three incomes puts me in a place of real freedom without the pressure of relying on a single job.

I hope that helps and I would love to hear where you are now. The world needs your authentic and true voice I hope we get to hear more! from you.

Much peace!