Job Seeker Asks Why It’s So Hard To Find A Job After Not Even Being Hired At McDonald’s — ‘I’ve Applied To Everything’
It's not just you — the job market really is a huge mess.
Olena Yakobchuk | Shutterstock Given the rosy economic news we've recently gotten — inflation stabilizing, wages up, layoffs down, and unemployment falling after rising for months — you'd expect things to improve for those on the job hunt. But the disconnect between the data and job seekers' experiences could not be more stark.
One worker on Reddit shared an experience that all too many will identify with: They've thrown absolutely everything they can think of at the wall, and nothing has stuck, not even fast food. If you're scratching your head about this, you are not alone, and you are definitely not imagining things.
A worker asked why it's so hard to find a job after being rejected by McDonald's.
The Redditor wrote that they're 23 and do not have a college degree—a "double whammy" of sorts for job seekers right now, even as many companies claim to be scrapping their degree requirements and focusing on skills instead.
"I have experience in lots of different fields," the Redditor wrote, "but I have been applying for jobs for 8-12 months."
They're doing everything we're all told to do — tailoring their resumes and cover letters to the job description, including keywords for applicant tracking systems, and relentlessly applying — but nothing seems to be working.
The job seeker is beginning to feel desperate because of how few interviews they've gotten.
"Is no one actually hiring? I’m getting really tired and don’t know what to do," they admitted. Getting rejected by McDonald's, likely for being too experienced, seems to have really thrown them for a loop.
"I can’t even get an interview with them," they wrote. "I am so frustrated and tired and I don’t know what else I can do." They did have something of a bright spot in the past month, getting five interviews compared to zero for the previous eight months. But none of them went anywhere.
"My life has been on pause for 8-12 months," they wrote. "I have been stressed about bills and expenses… there’s not enough money." It's left them stressed to the point that their hair is literally falling out. "Why won’t anyone hire me?"
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It's not just you or this Redditor; experts say it's harder than ever to get a job right now.
Given how corporations were basically giving jobs away after the worst of the pandemic passed, the situation now can feel a bit like whiplash. And experts say that this whiplash is very real, and part of why it's so hard to get hired right now, despite the rosy economic picture.
Blue-collar trade jobs, healthcare, and food service positions are booming. But when it comes to white-collar corporate jobs, the picture is entirely different. Companies took on tons of staff to catch up after the mass layoffs and shutdowns the pandemic necessitated. But they basically swung the pendulum too far and have been catching up in the other direction by laying tons of people off over the past year or so.
Layoffs are now at near historic lows, which is good news. But with many companies taking a wait-and-see approach to hiring, especially with an election looming, it means there are now tons of applicants for each job posting. Not to mention the overwhelmed skeleton crews of recruiters and HR staff handling the hiring, because they were hugely impacted by layoffs too.
Plus, a lot of those jobs aren't even real because of the rise of so-called "ghost jobs" — companies posting fake jobs to harvest resumes for later or give the illusion of growth to shareholders and investors, as well as their own employees.
AI is a major factor, too. Many companies are holding back on hiring and even eliminating positions, especially entry-level ones, to see if AI can replace them. But artificial intelligence is also a solution of sorts at the moment.
Many experts say those who have attained a certification in generative AI are having a much easier time getting hired, and this seems to be especially true for young people. In one survey of employers, 95% said they'd be more likely to hire a new graduate if they had provable AI skills.
Many of these certification programs take just a couple of days to complete and are very inexpensive — or even free. If a deeper commitment to training or retraining, in general, is an option, blue-collar jobs in the trades are suffering a worker shortage expected to last at least a decade.
Regardless, the most important thing to remember in this job market is that it's not you. You are not the problem. Lingering messiness from the upheavals of the pandemic, new technology, and our broken system in general are. Work your connections, reach out to recruiters if you can, and hang in there.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.