What happens if you cannot find a job you trained for?

How frustrating for you not to find work yet. But I would say, volunteering is a great way to get your foot in, and getting something else just to make ends meet makes sense. Keep networking and sending out resumes all the while. Perhaps the economy is just on the cusp of a turnaround. And sometimes, something you never expected will turn up. Every day a new possibility.

You get a job doing anything you can until you can get one in your field.

Does anyone resort to getting a job in another area, just to make ends meet?

Oh, yes they do.

I have done lawn care and house painting when I was laid off. I know a VP of a nationally prominent museum who worked at a copy shop and tended bar between “real” jobs a few years ago. Another friend is a well-off CPA who worked nights at a grocery store to pay off her mortgage early.

Volunteer work helps, too. You can gain great contacts, experience and personal references.

Yes, almost everybody resorts to that, sometimes for their entire career. My boss at the grocery store had a Geology degree, for instance. How many English majors, sculptors, and out-of-work programmers now say “Do you want fries with that?” on a regular basis?

Check out this episode of This American Life. You can stream it for free.

I have been trained as a machinist and an electrician, but my work history includes a lot of manufacturing “grunt work” normally handled by untrained monkeys, and the ever-marketable ability to move heavy objects (warehouse work mostly).

Even though I am currently a machinist, it was luck; I was hired for “grunt work” and when the head of the machine shop found out what I used to do, he said that he’d steal me away if they got busy. A couple of months later, they did and he did, so now I am doing what I was trained for even though that wasn’t what I was hired to do! The same thing happened where I worked in NH for a few years. One of the machinists left, they needed a replacement, and they decided to hire from within.

Of course, that was the only way I could get into a shop around here. Many people want machinists with 10+ years experience and I only have 5, but that didn’t keep me from getting lucky :)

I went crazy and refused to work after having my life treatened for the last time at a McJob…I can’t seem to make enough money to live and go back to school full time…. Now I’m considering becoming a cartoonist like Scott Adam’s creator of Dilbert and making fun of the field (Psychology)

I have an undergrad degree in child development. I’m super close to a Masters in education. This fall, I’ll likely be standing over a copy machine to make ends meet.

In this economy, you do what you have to do to have food on the table, a roof over your head, and a drink at the end of a mind-numbing day.

Sometimes it takes just doing anything you can for you to make connections with others and start discovering what you really want to do. If you want to stick to what you were “trained for” then it will be easier to make connections (ie. pass the word along that you’re looing for a job, etc). If not, then you will be staying busy and working. Positive energy attracts positive energy. Good luck, keep pushing on.

I like to eat so when I have not been able to find a job worthy of me, I have done whatever I had to in order to stay solvent.

That’s why I think no matter how many letters you collect to put after your name on a resume, it is always good to have some simple skills to make you a few bucks when you are broke. I have requisite letters but when I needed to make some fast money, I learned how to groom dogs and I am good at it. I can go just about anywhere in the world and get a job on the spot trimming dogs.

@rooeytoo Some of those “secondary skills” help out anyways. How do you think I learned to drive a forklift, rig an overhead crane, or deburr and polish metal? Most people who work at where I work need(ed) to learn those skills there, but I walked in the door with them.

Reading this thread, I feel so fortunate to have always been able to get a job that matched my experience and training, wven when I got older. And I’m still working full-time. But I know how tough times are right now for job-hunters, and Im so sorry, @quibblet, for your situation. I certainly agree with everybody above, though. Find a job that allows you to pay the bills, work hard at it, and be open to where it might lead. Network while you’re working (always seems to be easier to find a job when you have one), and hang in till the economy gets better, as it’s bound to,. As someone said above, you’ll be gaining new skills in the meantime.

This can be a tough (and unfair circumstance). Employers want their employees to have experience but you can’t get experience without getting hired to begin with.

I have worked as a maintenance technician for the last 15 years and it was very difficult for me to get my first job in my field. I had to work in low skilled manufacturing jobs for 2 years before I got anything related to my field. I bidded on a maintenance job at a plant I worked at. It was a lower paying maintenance-helper position but it allowed me a start and to gain experience then as I got better I was given more skilled tasks to complete until I had enough experience to write on my resume. Sometimes you have to start off low and work your way up. I did a little of that and had some luck.

you do anything to stay alive, thats why we have call centres.

Yeah, I don’t think anyone at all actually goes to school with the intention of spending their career as a telemarketer. And yet, they exist.

Thanks all for taking the time with your valuable feedback and advice ^_^
Most of my previous job fields was in production and repair work. I’ll admit that I haven’t been smart and savvy in the way I go about conducting my job search (as many have noticed with the time period in my first post). I’m always holding out for that one job (I went to school for accounting clerk). But yes, it makes good sense to fall back or gain whatever skills you can to get by in this crazy economy. I’ll probably resort to either starting at the bottom, like doing office work or go back to assembly work. Also, go back to volunteering at a previous organization. Yes, everyone’s been having it tough too. I hope they’ll be able to find something during these tough times, it’s a challenge being a trooper about it.