Hello everyone, my first post here. First of all, I don’t have a job, I’ve never worked (I’m 20 years old), and I have no idea how to go about getting my first job. What would you recommend? Do you have any tips on how to conduct myself in a job interview? Any advice on how to feel less anxious?
In my early teens I hung out at a video game shop until they hired me. For later jobs I went to the mall and filled out applications for anyone taking them.
Eventually I went to school and started a career. My best advice is try things that you have an interest in. Learning things will seem less like work. The best jobs are the engaging ones.
That first video store I basically dumped my wages back into the shop buying video games and gundams. I loved it, but there were un-fun things like cleaning and inventory.
Don’t let the people who are just there for job wear you down.
That’s more or less how I got my first job back in the 90s. A buddy and I started hanging out at the local computer store. We discovered Linux because we wanted to run an Amiga emulator and a little later when the store wanted to start as an ISP, this was the time of local/long distance calls, so local ISPs were a thing, we got hired and build it all from scratch. Radius server, smtpd etc. everything based on the standard *nix tools, except the customer db/app which we wrote ourselves. We both dropped out of computer science for this and now almost 30 years later neither of us finished school, but both still work in tech. These were the wild days of the young Internet and I doubt it’s something that would really work these days.
Job hunting sucks. As other posters said, if there is a store or cafe or something that you go to a lot, that’s a good place to start. If you’re in a position where you can ease into things and not focus too too much on earning, I really recommend volunteering. Think of an interest you have, whether it is animals, art, sports, and look into volunteer organizations in your area. Special Olympics always needs volunteers and is a ridiculous amount of fun. Volunteer positions will pad out your resume, give you valuable skills in interpersonal relationships and learning job routines, and are an easy and low stress kind of soft entry into work.
Eta, your local library is a great resource for volunteer positions.
I am from a place where there are no many jobs (at your age it is impossibile to find a real job). To get my real first job I had to emigrate, get a PhD grant as a foreign student, get a PhD and emigrate again.
It paid off on the long term, but I wouldn’t suggest the same if you have the luxury to live in a country with jobs. Mainly because emigrating is tough as you always need to prove everyone that you are better than the local competition, but in a language that is not yours.
To get a job interview, create a good cv (ask support to chatgpt), and spam it. Getting interviewed, unless you come from a big university, is a statistical problem. Maximize your chances, apply to as many jobs as possible, without too much care.
Doing an interview is a job itself that you learn with practice. You’ll fell less anxious as you do more interviews.
Before going, prepare a set of answers for common questions and read about the company. Ask chatgpt for help on preparing the answers
My first job was McDonalds. They had a hiring sign and I filled out an application. The interview such as it was was short and sweet, talking about how many hours I could work and when.
If you are 20 and looking for your first job, just know there are a lot of places hiring right now. I don’t think the interview process is likely to be painful or arduous.
And hey, once you’ve had the job, you can have that done and on your resume, right? :-)
I did a project for an university exam, published it on github and a company hired me for it.
I apply for shitty jobs where I don’t have to talk to people. First job was washing dishes, now I’m installing septic systems. They’re physically demanding jobs, but fairly secure, pay decent, and can be pretty slow paced jobs at the right place. I like septic because sunlight is pretty good for me and I won’t go outside unless I’m paid to. Plus, I find the intense physical labor melts my brain just enough that some of the social anxiety disappears.
They’re hard jobs, but nobody wants to do them so even if you get stuck with people who think you’re weird, they can’t care because nobody else will do the job. Like yeah, there are probably some transphobic assholes I work with, but they’re not saying shit to me because they know nobody else will wash the dishes or dig those holes
