A Reflection during this Season

I have been unemployed now for one year. and I discovered that there are not many people looking for a 54 year old man to hire. I have computer operation experience, public speaking and ability to defuse hot situations when needed. I have done all sorts of work in my life from carpentry to commercial fishing (still do this when I can), I was a Restaurant food and beverage manager I also had to cook as a saute, sue chef, dessert chef and prep Chef in Hawaii from 1986-1990 when I burned out. I have a diploma in Transportation Management I got in 1986 then my wife (common law) of several years up and left me for a Lawyer. She got the worst of it. So I moved to Hawaii.

I have placed over a thousand job apps in many fields since last December and not one call, even for an interview. Not even McDonald's has called me. I spent all our saving now on the bills and don't have anything for the kids for Christmas. the oldest 14 and the youngest 6.

I got so desperate this last two weeks I have been calling up all the restaurants in out city asking if they need a dishwasher tonight. I got a lot of weird answers as to why I am calling. some have blocked my number.

But you know we are not sad I am not depressed I just keep on pushing on and giving the thanks to God I guess it could be worse. We do have a roof over our heads, the food wont run out for at least a month. My electric is paid until Jan 2, the phone internet may get cut if I don't pay it by Dec 15th. Water needs to be paid.

Anyway, as I reflect this is what I can see,

I still have my family and my wife of sixteen years and despite our predicament we are happy.

Well anyway Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you at ATS.

I hope it gets better before it gets worse.

My heart goes out to you chesterjohn. Work is becoming real hard to find here where I live. Well merry christmas to you to. Some things money cannot buy like love. And it sure sounds like your family has plenty of that. I hope you get a job soon. Just keep knocking on the doors ..I wish you the best

reply to post by ChesterJohn


During the summer my family suffered a house fire. It got hold pretty fast and unfortunately we lost a lot of our possessions including a lot of necessary expensive items. More unfortunately still ( or stupidly) I had no house contents insurance. Not many people could understand how I took it so calmly.

The fact is....myself and my four children and family pets got outside to safety and nobody was injured. It could have been sooo much worse! Yes, I've kicked myself for not having any insurance....but I've not once got upset about the things we lost. I didn't lose the one thing I can't replace....my family.

I'm really sorry you are going through hard times and the stress and strain of your financial circumstances. I admire your persistence and hope that it wont be long before a prospective employer recognises this quality and you are fixed up with employment soon. I also admire your perspective and for recognising your families true worth. Being together and loving each other is what's important.With this you can live to fight another day....without it there is nothing worth fighting for.

A merry Christmas and happy new year to you also...I hope this season brings blessings for you and yours.

Maybe you could get help from welfare. There are also plenty of places that donate toys for children.

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas with love.

Thanks guys for your encouragement.

I have been avoiding going on welfare seeing there are so many able bodied people on it already who don't need it so as long as I can I will.

The kids know not to expect much for Christmas but I let them set up the tree anyways they had a lot of fun. I didn't put up outside lights so we can keep the electric bill down.

I volunteered to help set up a toy town at a church and I have been told we could get some from them for the kids.

reply to post by ChesterJohn


Though there are those who take advantage of the system, if you qualify for benefits, there is no reason to feel ashamed. It is there for people who need it and I'm sure you've payed into the ystem your whole life. It's not like you arn't trying to find employment and better yourself. You could get a nice holiday meal, toys for the kids, medical and what-not. Just a thought.

I recently started getting disibility checks. I never dreamed I would need such a service. Sometimes things just happen to people through no fault of their own.

Night Star
reply to post by ChesterJohn

 

Though there are those who take advantage of the system, if you qualify for benefits, there is no reason to feel ashamed. It is there for people who need it and I'm sure you've payed into the system your whole life. It's not like you arn't trying to find employment and better yourself. You could get a nice holiday meal, toys for the kids, medical and what-not. Just a thought.

I recently started getting disability checks. I never dreamed I would need such a service. Sometimes things just happen to people through no fault of their own.

A nice couple we know came over last night with three bags of food and a large frozen 20# turkey for us.
now that is how things work when we care for each other.

reply to post by ChesterJohn


Okay I think I can help you, as some say I'm a bit resourceful.

First your biggest mistake now is continuing to hunt for a paycheck. Stop doing that. You've tried that now thoroughly, and it hasn't worked.

You have to try something else. Here's what I suggest:

If you have a car you're in a position to offer a lot of services. If you a truck or a van even more.

You place ads in the local online classifieds offer all kinds of services in your area such as:

- Moving
- Deliveries
- Lawn mowing
- Junk removal
- arrand boy
- grocery delivery
- home sitter
- handyman
- dog grooming, walking, pet sitting
- computer repair (if you can't fix it you just reinstall window for them)
- boost cars
- baby sitter
- house cleaning
- carpet cleaning (get a portable unit like a ninja and go nuts)
- Furnace cleaning ( again get a portable)
- Lessons (in anything you know how to do)
- Painting (you don't have to be professional for a lot of exterior jobs, even interior)

So that's a few ideas you can do with an ad in the paper and a vehicle (some you don't even need a vehicle)

Online try:
Fiverr.com
clickbank.com
ebay.com
amazon.com
kindle.com
jvzoo.com

Learning how to drop ship stuff online is another thing a lot of people do.

You can also do things like buy stuff off DHgate.com and sell it, either on ebay, which you can drop ship to the buyers you get on ebay, or locally.

You can launch a website and sell your book. Everyone's got at least 1 book in them that they could write about something.

Forget this idea of going to try and find a paycheck. that's not gonna happen. I'm in the same boat. I'm almost 40, my resume isn't geared for getting a job. No one would hire me. It's near impossible. Nor would I last because I'm not use to working for anyone else.

Anyway hopefully that helps you a bit. Good luck.

www.slideshare.net...

Be careful not to fall for all these home based business scams online. Again, you want your own business, not signing up for someone else's biz opp. Avoid all that stuff like: mlm, stuffing envelopes, investments, online surveys, home biz opps, courses on how to make money, infomercial products... all that is CRAP!. You don't need any of it. Just START YOUR OWN BUSness from scratch. Like making a cake from scratch.

You start by figuring out a product, or service you can render. Figure out where you'll get the product for cheap, or how you'll do the service. Then print out a business card and start to advertise. THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO GET STARTED! Everything else will come later. Forget every other step. Just decide on the product or service to render, get a business card done up, and advertise it. That's it. Tell the customer to make the check out to your name, or better yet pay you cash. And if you're doing a biz online you don't need a biz card. Might want to get a paypal account though to accept payments online.

the point is forget looking for a job. Total waste of time. That's what you do when you're young or you have a resume that's perfectly geared toward the corporate world. Like your a nurse or something. You need a job.

But at some point you really need to start pulling your own strings. Start with the suggestions I had at the top. Use your car, truck or van as a means to offer TONS OF SERVICES in your local area. Because there's people everyday that are searching the classified ads such as craigslist and others who NEED HELP.

They need to move, they need a delivery done, they need someone to wash there dog, or babysit, or clean there house or whatever. As long as you're ad looks and sounds professional they might call you up.

Like you get a call.... "hi I just renovated my basement, I have all this junk in the backyard that I need someone to haul off. I seen you got a truck, can you do this? Ya sure I'll come by, for one load it will be 300 dollars." You go there get the job done in a few hours and you made 300 bucks. Well turns out the guy who started 1800 got junk started that way. His company is now worth like 200 million dollars. So I'm telling you just get started.

You don't have to be great at it to get started, but you have to get started in order to be great! Good luck.





Here's some more ideas:

1. Accountant
2. Affiliate Marketer
3. Consultant
4. Aerobics Instructor/Personal Trainer
5. Alterations/Sewing
6. Antiques - Buying/Selling/Restoring
7. Real Estate Appraiser
8. Architect
9. Auto Detailing
10. Auto Mechanic
11. Babysitting
12. Beautician
13. Bookkeeper/Tax Consultant
14. Cake Decorator
15. Candle Making/Soap Making
16. Carpenter
17. Carpet, floor and drapes - Cleaning/Selling
18. Catering Service
19. Cheese Making
20. Child Care
21. Children's Parties Coordinator
22. Chimney Sweep/Stove Cleaning
23. Cleaning Services
24. Collection Agency
25. Computer Program Trainer
26. Computer Service and Maintenance
27. Construction
28. Crafts - Making/Selling
29. Data Entry
30. Delivery Service
31. Desktop Publisher
32. Dietitian
33. Digital Artist ---
34. Driving Instructor
35. Editor
36. Elder Care
37. Electrician
38. Estate Planner
39. Farmer
40. Freelance Writer
41. Event Planner
42. Gift Basket Service
43. Food Specialties
44. Handyman
45. Home Inspector
46. House Sitter
47. Import/Export Business
48. Interior Decorator
49. Income Tax Preparation
50. Jewelry Fabrication and Repair
51. Landscaper
52. Landlord
53. Lawyer
54. Literary Agent
55. Locksmith
56. Mailing List/Mail Order Fulfillment
57. Medical Claims Processing
58. Medical Transcriptionist
59. Membership Management
60. Money Management Services
61. Non-profit fundraising
62. Notary Public
63. Nurse
64. Painter
65. Paralegal
66. Personal Chef
67. Pest Control Service
68. Pet boarding, sitting, walking
69. Pet grooming/training
70. Photographer
71. Physical Therapist
72. Plumber
73. Pool Maintenance
74. Private Detective
75. Process Server
76. Programmer
77. Psychological Testing Service
78. Public Relations
79. Quilting, Knitting, Weaving
80. Real Estate
81. Resume Writing
82. Sales Representative
83. Shopping Service
84. Snow Removal
85. Stable Operator
86. Taxidermist
87. Teaching/Tutoring
88. Telemarketing
89. Travel Agent
90. Travelling Hairstylist
91. Tree Cutting
92. Telephone Answering Service
93. Vending Machine Sales
94. Videographer
95. Wedding Planner
96. Window Service - Clean/Repair/Install
97. Wood Cutting
98. Word Processing
99. Website Creation/Management
100. Website Hosting
101. Yoga Instructor

reply to post by spartacus699


Thanks I have already started some of this but I got some more Ideas from you.

I have been selling on Ebay and Craigslist.

I have a paypal account already.

Merry Christmas to you.

Hi everyone,



I got a job as a prep cook/ dishwasher at one of the restaurants I was calling but nights only. so I will be trying some of the stuff that was suggested in a previous post during the day.

I already craiglisted some services to see what I could dig up for cash.