Recent Letter to the ElderWisdomCircle™
CAREER: No Job, No Prospects, Now What? Original Letter Here is my current circumstance: I graduated with a masters in psychology in December 2014. I had trouble getting a job that was permanent and went through my savings. I ended up having to come home to my mother's apartment. My mother is a very dysfunctional person and so are most people in her life. So it is a very hard place to live. Plus, I am in the country, literally more cows than people. There is a very high unemployment rate and few jobs. I do not have a car. The nearest town is 20 miles away. Public transportation is extremely limited and unreliable. I have five-hundred dollars in savings left. I am female, age 33 no children. No other place to live. I need advice please as to whether I should continue to stay here in the country, in a bad environment, with no job, no job prospects, and no transportation to get to a job even if I find one, or if I should leave and be homeless with the hope I could get a job if I went to somewhere with better public transit and jobs. I really do not want to be homeless but I feel stuck in my current situation with no end to it. I really do not see any other options but if you can think of something else I am open to suggestions. I just want to go back to how life was before I went to school working full-time, being self-sufficent, and feeling like I am making progress in my life. Thank you. Elder Response It is my pleasure to offer you advice for your problem. Let me begin by saying that you must take homelessness off of your list of options. My feeling is that you must exhaust all of your other options before choosing homelessness, which is a pit into which you do not want to fall. It is dangerous, unhealthy, and can stigmatize you for any real employment opportunities you may find. I think you should try to begin a job search in some larger cities via the internet, using such sites as monster.com, Indeed.com, Craigs List or any others you can find on Google. If you don't have a computer try a public library near you or try to find someone from whom you can borrow use of a computer. Another option might be to borrow some money from a friend or relative and go to a city where you can start an active job search. Perhaps find shelter in a YWCA or youth hostel where you can live cheaply and safely. If you are a member of a church, perhaps a church in that denomination may have a residence where you can live temporarily until you find work, or meet with your local pastor for any suggestions he/she may have. Call any relatives or best friends to see if they will put you up for a while. Maybe call your college to see if there might be some temporary dorm housing available, and maybe have some job placement services to offer. Do everything you can think of, Elle, to get to a bigger city where you can find a job that can support you, but do not consider homelessness. Even staying with your mother and taking a minimum wage job locally would be better than that, in my opinion. You can get yourself out of this, Elle, but it is going to take some hard work and determination. You got through a masters program, and I think you should be able to get through this. I hope that this has been helpful, and I wish you good luck! Best Regards, PapaDon |
