About me: I’m 36 years old and have been unemployed for the past year and a half, aside from occasional photography gigs. My background is in IT, retail management, and training. I started working with computers in 2007 as a Firedog support tech at Circuit City, making $12.50/hour—a decent wage for a 17-year-old in North Carolina. I earned my CompTIA A+ certification at a local tech school during this time.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been bouncing between jobs that barely align with my skills (telecom, IT support, retail management, training) just trying to make it in a new place. I’m in a HCOL suburb in Oregon, and the job market has been brutal for me.
Initially, I applied for roles that matched my skill set and career progression: IT Operations Manager, Systems Administrator, Project Manager, IT Support Director, Cloud Solutions Architect, etc. But after 6-7 months of nothing, I started applying for entry-level roles and even random retail management jobs. Still, no luck—not even for $20-$25/hour positions that I had hoped to put behind me as an experienced 36-year-old trying to start a family.
In the past 18 months, I’ve only had three interviews. Two were for low-level jobs that I didn’t even get. The more lucrative positions I’ve applied for, like internships at Microsoft, operations support at the local utility company, or corporate manager/director roles, don’t even grant interviews. At best, I get a “no thanks” email.
I’ve also applied to sports teams, arenas, zoos, gardens, nurseries, Nike, Adidas, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Intel, Lumen, AWS, and as well as smaller IT consulting companies—basically all the major and medium sized employers in my area, who tend to hire people like me with my background. I’ve attended hiring events and done networking, but nothing has panned out.
For a while, I subscribed to LinkedIn Premium to tailor my applications and track how many people were applying for the same roles. I went all-in, spending 8+ hours a day customizing the details of resume to include keywords from the listings and cover letters and applying to five or more jobs daily. It was exhausting, and seeing thousands of applicants for each job made it feel like a lottery. Eventually, I burned out.
Out of desperation, I took a sales job over the holidays at a car dealership, which turned out to be the worst job I’ve ever had. The back office stole my sales, used me for minimum-wage labor, and promised commissions that never materialized. Most of my time was spent driving cars between dealerships instead of talking to customers. Online leads were immediately taken by managers, and I never made more than minimum wage.
The only other offer was a temp job working in a data center doing pretty heavy duty labor on rack and stack servers under a contracted company offering $20 an hour which sounds like pure exploitation and at this point I’d rather save my resources instead of driving and commuting 2 hours a day and working the same job a friend of mine does for $45 an hr for some contractor to make a $25 an hour profit off of me, and toss me aside when they’re done.
To make matters worse, I’m physically handicapped, so labor-intensive jobs like data center maintenance, plumbing, electrical work, or HVAC aren’t options for me unless I wanted to torture my spine.
Thankfully, my wife has steady employment, making $70K/year as an (underpaid, overworked) Operations Manager. But relying solely on her income isn’t sustainable, especially in an HCOL area. My only other income is $1,000/month from a rental property I bought when I was a teenager 17 years ago for $58K. Over the years, I’ve made around $160K in rental income with only about $15K in maintenance and tax expenses, so I’m hesitant to sell it since I rely on the passive income right now.
Another frustrating factor is that I’m male with a female-sounding name. It feels like some people are surprised or disappointed when they meet me in interviews. I’m not alleging discrimination, but it seems like I may have rubbed up against personal biases.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
submitted by /u/BeardMaxxed
[link] [comments]
r/cscareerquestions About me: I’m 36 years old and have been unemployed for the past year and a half, aside from occasional photography gigs. My background is in IT, retail management, and training. I started working with computers in 2007 as a Firedog support tech at Circuit City, making $12.50/hour—a decent wage for a 17-year-old in North Carolina. I earned my CompTIA A+ certification at a local tech school during this time. For the past 15 years, I’ve been bouncing between jobs that barely align with my skills (telecom, IT support, retail management, training) just trying to make it in a new place. I’m in a HCOL suburb in Oregon, and the job market has been brutal for me. Initially, I applied for roles that matched my skill set and career progression: IT Operations Manager, Systems Administrator, Project Manager, IT Support Director, Cloud Solutions Architect, etc. But after 6-7 months of nothing, I started applying for entry-level roles and even random retail management jobs. Still, no luck—not even for $20-$25/hour positions that I had hoped to put behind me as an experienced 36-year-old trying to start a family. In the past 18 months, I’ve only had three interviews. Two were for low-level jobs that I didn’t even get. The more lucrative positions I’ve applied for, like internships at Microsoft, operations support at the local utility company, or corporate manager/director roles, don’t even grant interviews. At best, I get a “no thanks” email. I’ve also applied to sports teams, arenas, zoos, gardens, nurseries, Nike, Adidas, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Intel, Lumen, AWS, and as well as smaller IT consulting companies—basically all the major and medium sized employers in my area, who tend to hire people like me with my background. I’ve attended hiring events and done networking, but nothing has panned out. For a while, I subscribed to LinkedIn Premium to tailor my applications and track how many people were applying for the same roles. I went all-in, spending 8+ hours a day customizing the details of resume to include keywords from the listings and cover letters and applying to five or more jobs daily. It was exhausting, and seeing thousands of applicants for each job made it feel like a lottery. Eventually, I burned out. Out of desperation, I took a sales job over the holidays at a car dealership, which turned out to be the worst job I’ve ever had. The back office stole my sales, used me for minimum-wage labor, and promised commissions that never materialized. Most of my time was spent driving cars between dealerships instead of talking to customers. Online leads were immediately taken by managers, and I never made more than minimum wage. The only other offer was a temp job working in a data center doing pretty heavy duty labor on rack and stack servers under a contracted company offering $20 an hour which sounds like pure exploitation and at this point I’d rather save my resources instead of driving and commuting 2 hours a day and working the same job a friend of mine does for $45 an hr for some contractor to make a $25 an hour profit off of me, and toss me aside when they’re done. To make matters worse, I’m physically handicapped, so labor-intensive jobs like data center maintenance, plumbing, electrical work, or HVAC aren’t options for me unless I wanted to torture my spine. Thankfully, my wife has steady employment, making $70K/year as an (underpaid, overworked) Operations Manager. But relying solely on her income isn’t sustainable, especially in an HCOL area. My only other income is $1,000/month from a rental property I bought when I was a teenager 17 years ago for $58K. Over the years, I’ve made around $160K in rental income with only about $15K in maintenance and tax expenses, so I’m hesitant to sell it since I rely on the passive income right now. Another frustrating factor is that I’m male with a female-sounding name. It feels like some people are surprised or disappointed when they meet me in interviews. I’m not alleging discrimination, but it seems like I may have rubbed up against personal biases. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. submitted by /u/BeardMaxxed [link] [comments]
About me: I’m 36 years old and have been unemployed for the past year and a half, aside from occasional photography gigs. My background is in IT, retail management, and training. I started working with computers in 2007 as a Firedog support tech at Circuit City, making $12.50/hour—a decent wage for a 17-year-old in North Carolina. I earned my CompTIA A+ certification at a local tech school during this time.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been bouncing between jobs that barely align with my skills (telecom, IT support, retail management, training) just trying to make it in a new place. I’m in a HCOL suburb in Oregon, and the job market has been brutal for me.
Initially, I applied for roles that matched my skill set and career progression: IT Operations Manager, Systems Administrator, Project Manager, IT Support Director, Cloud Solutions Architect, etc. But after 6-7 months of nothing, I started applying for entry-level roles and even random retail management jobs. Still, no luck—not even for $20-$25/hour positions that I had hoped to put behind me as an experienced 36-year-old trying to start a family.
In the past 18 months, I’ve only had three interviews. Two were for low-level jobs that I didn’t even get. The more lucrative positions I’ve applied for, like internships at Microsoft, operations support at the local utility company, or corporate manager/director roles, don’t even grant interviews. At best, I get a “no thanks” email.
I’ve also applied to sports teams, arenas, zoos, gardens, nurseries, Nike, Adidas, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Intel, Lumen, AWS, and as well as smaller IT consulting companies—basically all the major and medium sized employers in my area, who tend to hire people like me with my background. I’ve attended hiring events and done networking, but nothing has panned out.
For a while, I subscribed to LinkedIn Premium to tailor my applications and track how many people were applying for the same roles. I went all-in, spending 8+ hours a day customizing the details of resume to include keywords from the listings and cover letters and applying to five or more jobs daily. It was exhausting, and seeing thousands of applicants for each job made it feel like a lottery. Eventually, I burned out.
Out of desperation, I took a sales job over the holidays at a car dealership, which turned out to be the worst job I’ve ever had. The back office stole my sales, used me for minimum-wage labor, and promised commissions that never materialized. Most of my time was spent driving cars between dealerships instead of talking to customers. Online leads were immediately taken by managers, and I never made more than minimum wage.
The only other offer was a temp job working in a data center doing pretty heavy duty labor on rack and stack servers under a contracted company offering $20 an hour which sounds like pure exploitation and at this point I’d rather save my resources instead of driving and commuting 2 hours a day and working the same job a friend of mine does for $45 an hr for some contractor to make a $25 an hour profit off of me, and toss me aside when they’re done.
To make matters worse, I’m physically handicapped, so labor-intensive jobs like data center maintenance, plumbing, electrical work, or HVAC aren’t options for me unless I wanted to torture my spine.
Thankfully, my wife has steady employment, making $70K/year as an (underpaid, overworked) Operations Manager. But relying solely on her income isn’t sustainable, especially in an HCOL area. My only other income is $1,000/month from a rental property I bought when I was a teenager 17 years ago for $58K. Over the years, I’ve made around $160K in rental income with only about $15K in maintenance and tax expenses, so I’m hesitant to sell it since I rely on the passive income right now.
Another frustrating factor is that I’m male with a female-sounding name. It feels like some people are surprised or disappointed when they meet me in interviews. I’m not alleging discrimination, but it seems like I may have rubbed up against personal biases.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
submitted by /u/BeardMaxxed
[link] [comments]