The dilemma of being unemployed; how was your journey?

[The Bald Eagle]

During university years, every bright student feels too confident to land a job in his very first year of graduation but more than often that just turns out to be a wishful thinking. Instead, people come across the harsh reality of life and the job saturation in the market where even highly qualified students just get rejected because of "no prior experience" which infact is a silly proposition given he is just a talented fresh graduate

Another dilemma that some fresh graduate face is under payment due to being new and "gaining experience" and besides the biggest tribulation is the tag of being unemployed and rubbing on wounds by extended family and people of acquaintance.

So how was your journey from the isle of being unemployed to the valley of employment and salvation?

 

[sweep_shot]

I left Bangladesh when I was 15. So, all of my jobs were in Canada. I have done both blue collar jobs and white collar jobs.

My first job was when I was 17 or 18. A guy needed some help with his backyard. I responded to his advertisement and he hired me. I helped him with some backyard tasks.

During college days, I mostly worked in restaurants (washed dishes and did prep works) and did flyer deliveries door-to-door. I also had an e-business on the side; I was doing freelance works online. I also did clerical works at businesses run by my friends (one runs a cricket equipment store and another was selling a certain product).

After graduating from college, I did an internship at a bank as a software developer. However, I didn't like the experience. After that, I have mostly had clerical jobs.

I now want to make a career switch and go into AI/machine learning/data science field. Studying for that currently.

 

[sweep_shot]

I left Bangladesh when I was 15. So, all of my jobs were in Canada. I have done both blue collar jobs and white collar jobs.

My first job was when I was 17 or 18. A guy needed some help with his backyard. I responded to his advertisement and he hired me. I helped him with some backyard tasks.

During college days, I mostly worked in restaurants (washed dishes and did prep works) and did flyer deliveries door-to-door. I also had an e-business on the side; I was doing freelance works online. I also did clerical works at businesses run by my friends (one runs a cricket equipment store and another was selling a certain product).

After graduating from college, I did an internship at a bank as a software developer. However, I didn't like the experience. After that, I have mostly had clerical jobs.

I now want to make a career switch and go into AI/machine learning/data science field. Studying for that currently.

I got my first restaurant job due to a family friend.
I got my first clerical job due to my friend. He let me work for his company.
I got my software development internship because I knew one of the bank managers.

So, connections definitely helped. If I didn't know these people, I might have struggled. May Allah (SWT) bless them for helping me out.

 

[sweep_shot]

@Major @ElRaja

 

[Major]

The job market in Pakistan is a big joke. Everyone wants to be a CEO, while at the same time they want to under pay you, not give you your full rights.

There are lots of wannabe CEOs, trying to start business with no capital, just so that they can tell people they are a CEO.

The limited number of companies in Pakistan that exist are disturbing. All of the big corporates that exists are foreign companies and they have limited jobs.


So when i graduated from Uni, i was full of confidence, the different activities i was involved and the friends and class mates i made, really boosted my confidence. But once i entered the job market, reality hit me. Companies wanted you to have experience while they didnt want to provide any training. I was abit overage aswell, as I went to Uni 4 years above the avg age.

I studied Marketing and was hoping that i would get into branding, but i learned that to enter this industry i would have to work in Sales, the one where you ride on bike all day and act as a pre seller while being paid minimum wage. (i can only drive a car, cant drive a bike). What @mominsaigol has written is absolutely correct that we have our comfort zones that we like, but companies are also just exploiting people due to the massive supply of workers.

Anyways, joined a toxic company, couldnt take it, worked in few other companies, that i left. 2 years after graduation i doubted myself and was just living at home doing nothing, just applying and applying for jobs. My hotmail is full of sent resumes.

Than there were companies with 22 year old HRs passing judgements and rejecting me for silly reasons. Anyways, i decided start my masters and than out of no where a class mate shares a job oppurtunity in investor relations, i pass the interview and 2 years later, really loving the work and doing quite well.

 

[mominsaigol]

The job market in Pakistan is a big joke. Everyone wants to be a CEO, while at the same time they want to under pay you, not give you your full rights.

There are lots of wannabe CEOs, trying to start business with no capital, just so that they can tell people they are a CEO.

The limited number of companies in Pakistan that exist are disturbing. All of the big corporates that exists are foreign companies and they have limited jobs.


So when i graduated from Uni, i was full of confidence, the different activities i was involved and the friends and class mates i made, really boosted my confidence. But once i entered the job market, reality hit me. Companies wanted you to have experience while they didnt want to provide any training. I was abit overage aswell, as I went to Uni 4 years above the avg age.

I studied Marketing and was hoping that i would get into branding, but i learned that to enter this industry i would have to work in Sales, the one where you ride on bike all day and act as a pre seller while being paid minimum wage. (i can only drive a car, cant drive a bike). What @mominsaigol has written is absolutely correct that we have our comfort zones that we like, but companies are also just exploiting people due to the massive supply of workers.

Anyways, joined a toxic company, couldnt take it, worked in few other companies, that i left. 2 years after graduation i doubted myself and was just living at home doing nothing, just applying and applying for jobs. My hotmail is full of sent resumes.

Than there were companies with 22 year old HRs passing judgements and rejecting me for silly reasons. Anyways, i decided start my masters and than out of no where a class mate shares a job oppurtunity in investor relations, i pass the interview and 2 years later, really loving the work and doing quite well.

Your story is similar to mine. Dad got a job at AnZ bank but he retired soon. We managed to get our passports but my dad called it quits and left AU while I sought to build my life their.

I spent 6 months looking for a job and found nothing. It was extremely irritating. For example one company put me through dozens and dozens of lines of unpaid assessments. After passing it they just decided to not hire me.

To this day that job posting is still active as all they do is generate unpaid ideas and unpaid tasks.

I managed to work for 2 companies during that time. One was a company called Bella which is a start up in AU, but they lacked infrastructure and hired on 2 month basis. The 2nd was an Amazon Agency which was started by a 22 year old Pakistani ceo hiring USA, AU, UK, Canada and other western country workers. Company went bankrupt in a month.

I got so fed up after being in AU for 6 years that I called it quits and reached home. Then I asked my family if I could work at Kohinoor, Red, Mapleleaf or any of the companies they already own.

They said no as they want me to learn life lessons and not be tied to family, but they did get me a job at an Extremely extremely good company.

I got in with 2 interviews and nothing else. Sadly even the company that I work at has this habit.

Unless referred, you can't get in as HR is kinda incompetent and ran by 22-26 year old num tum tums.

 

[160KPH]

Long time no see my friends!

Hope you are doing well @mominsaigol and @Major. I loved reading about your guy’s stories.

I will write more in detail later, but I struggled immensely at a certain point when I first came to the United States. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make it by myself and refused to accept any help from my family.

To this day, the most proud work that I’ve ever done in my life was the blue collar work I was doing when I first did when I moved here just to pay the bills. I used to work construction during the daytime and then work as a server in a restaurant at night time to pay for my college education. It was brutal hard work, but I think this time molded me as a person and gave me a work ethic. I told myself that I would be the hardest worker everywhere I go and no matter what anyone said to me I would just put my head down and say “Yes sir” and keep going.

In our culture, it’s expected that the man be the one to provide and a lot of expectations are placed upon us so when things aren’t going well it’s very easy to feel the pressure.

During those hard times I took a lot of peace in the idea of Tawakul and Qadr. I trusted in Allah’s divine decree and I knew Allah had big things planned for me. Friday’s at the mosque were my peace and escape. I thank Allah everyday because he has blessed me more abundantly than I could have ever deserved and I live a very wonderful life now.

I always felt also that I got success that I did not deserve in some ways and I got lucky. My family in Pakistan were just as hard working as me and had suffered so much more do to the bad job market, but I got lucky that I made it to the United States.

For all of my brothers that are struggling, keep faith in Allah and work hard. Inshallah he will make a pathway for you.

 

[mominsaigol]

Long time no see my friends!

Hope you are doing well @mominsaigol and @Major. I loved reading about your guy’s stories.

I will write more in detail later, but I struggled immensely at a certain point when I first came to the United States. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make it by myself and refused to accept any help from my family.

To this day, the most proud work that I’ve ever done in my life was the blue collar work I was doing when I first did when I moved here just to pay the bills. I used to work construction during the daytime and then work as a server in a restaurant at night time to pay for my college education. It was brutal hard work, but I think this time molded me as a person and gave me a work ethic. I told myself that I would be the hardest worker everywhere I go and no matter what anyone said to me I would just put my head down and say “Yes sir” and keep going.

In our culture, it’s expected that the man be the one to provide and a lot of expectations are placed upon us so when things aren’t going well it’s very easy to feel the pressure.

During those hard times I took a lot of peace in the idea of Tawakul and Qadr. I trusted in Allah’s divine decree and I knew Allah had big things planned for me. Friday’s at the mosque were my peace and escape. I thank Allah everyday because he has blessed me more abundantly than I could have ever deserved and I live a very wonderful life now.

I always felt also that I got success that I did not deserve in some ways and I got lucky. My family in Pakistan were just as hard working as me and had suffered so much more do to the bad job market, but I got lucky that I made it to the United States.

For all of my brothers that are struggling, keep faith in Allah and work hard. Inshallah he will make a pathway for you.

Great to see you again. Lots has changed since we last spoke. I am pro Pakistan now and anti Indian.

Heel turn of the century.

But jokes aside its great to see you again.

 

[160KPH]

Great to see you again. Lots has changed since we last spoke. I am pro Pakistan now and anti Indian.

Heel turn of the century.

But jokes aside its great to see you again.

We are on the same team now

 

[mominsaigol]

We are on the same team now

Looking forward bro .

 

[The Bald Eagle]

I remember my first interview it was for a post in one of provincial assemblies in Pakistan as law officer. It was horrible and funny at the same time. Only 5 guys were shortlisted on basis of written result and the interview of all were completed in just 12 minutes (and lol yes we all were called in separately).

Later we realized it was an inside job stuff and one and the only candidate who didn't had any legal academic background was selected for this job. Obviously it was a fixed match.

The funny thing is they said to me how can be you fit for this job as a fresh graduate while at the same time rejected one with 12 years of legal practice.

 

[ElRaja]

ive already shared my backstory in the other thread, but to summarise i graduated thinking i was the bees knees, then got rejected from jobs for 4 years straight.

i think itd be more useful to summarise some skills our younger readers might not realise make all the difference to professional life

1. knowing the answer is less important than working towards some answer with imperfect information. exams are designed to have correct answers, real world problems rarely have clean answers, and you have to judge trade offs under time pressure. your ability to identify, rationalise, and communicate the best trade off is what will get the job done efficiently.

2. Independent learning is everything. people will help you, but in a work environment no one has an infinite amount of time to teach you. the faster you learn to teach yourself the more your colleagues will like you. but this does not absolve you of giving others credit, find the smartest person, and give them the credit for helping you, even if they havnt theyll believe it, and help you in the future.

3. employers dont like academic achievements, they like seeing how youve added value. if you have a bit of money, have a side hussle during ur academics it will set you head and shoulders above the rest. if you can get to work with others via this hussle, all the better. when your young you have all the time in the world, keep taking risks.

4. learn body language, learn communication, learn how to talk. ive often thought i was on the spectrum and struggle socially, but i make an effort to try and proactively work out peoples behaviours, etc, despite being socially awkward people at work like me, so if i can do it, anyone can.

5. keep personal feelings away from work colleagues, as innocent and harmless as it might seem, it can snowball into chaos that can mess with every working moment of your life.

 

[mominsaigol]

ive already shared my backstory in the other thread, but to summarise i graduated thinking i was the bees knees, then got rejected from jobs for 4 years straight.

i think itd be more useful to summarise some skills our younger readers might not realise make all the difference to professional life

1. knowing the answer is less important than working towards some answer with imperfect information. exams are designed to have correct answers, real world problems rarely have clean answers, and you have to judge trade offs under time pressure. your ability to identify, rationalise, and communicate the best trade off is what will get the job done efficiently.

2. Independent learning is everything. people will help you, but in a work environment no one has an infinite amount of time to teach you. the faster you learn to teach yourself the more your colleagues will like you. but this does not absolve you of giving others credit, find the smartest person, and give them the credit for helping you, even if they havnt theyll believe it, and help you in the future.

3. employers dont like academic achievements, they like seeing how youve added value. if you have a bit of money, have a side hussle during ur academics it will set you head and shoulders above the rest. if you can get to work with others via this hussle, all the better. when your young you have all the time in the world, keep taking risks.

4. learn body language, learn communication, learn how to talk. ive often thought i was on the spectrum and struggle socially, but i make an effort to try and proactively work out peoples behaviours, etc, despite being socially awkward people at work like me, so if i can do it, anyone can.

5. keep personal feelings away from work colleagues, as innocent and harmless as it might seem, it can snowball into chaos that can mess with every working moment of your life.

Agreed, my current role is performance marketing related. No one really taught me how to operate google, meta and Tiktok ads.

I learned from a Udemy course and got experienced after I applied my skills from the course into a managing a real ad account