5 years of looking for a job and all you can find is pizza delivery and grocery store worker? I think there's more to this story. What type of jobs have you turned down? Are they jobs related to your degree (business)? Have you gotten feedback from jobs that you didn't get. 5 years is way too long in my opinion and there may be a reason for it. Elaborate and maybe we can offer some guidance.
I haven't been job-hopping for 5 years. I've been at the grocery store (a clerk in the deli at QFC-- a Kroger subsidiary) for all 5 years, and have done a couple random side gigs (Census in 2010, that sort of thing) here and there on top of QFC. I started delivering pizzas a year ago last month, and am currently at QFC 3 days/week (enough to keep us in health insurance) and at Domino's 4 days/week.
I can think of one (and only one) job that I've actually turned down. The deli manager (my supervisor; my passive-aggressive, lying, manipulative, horrible supervisor) wanted to step down from being deli manager, and the store manager offered me the job. But it would have meant that then I'd be my supervisor's boss...which was not any kind of work-relationship stress I wanted in my life. So I said no. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken the job, done it right, and maybe she'd have quit. But I don't know.
It's not that I've applied for jobs, been offered them, and turned them down. I'll apply for them and then won't hear anything back. Or I'll get an interview (rarely), and then not hear anything back. At this point, I've basically given up looking for other jobs for the last year after 4 years of applying for pretty much anything and everything that would pay decently w/benefits....and getting nothing.
Also how are you gifted enough to start college at age 15 but not able to get a job? Seems like companies would be chomping at the bit to hire you.
I don't know. I honestly don't know. That's why I'm posting here, I guess. I sometimes feel like I should have majored in a STEM field. I think it does make it a little more difficult to find a good job (or a good/bad foot-in-the-door job), when I have a wife and 2 kids and can't exactly just up and move to a totally different part of the country.
We're also tied down (geographically) at this point by the fact that we bought a house (fixer-upper, about 85% fixed). We're hoping to have it paid off by jan/feb '15, and totally remodeled by next summer, at which point we won't be stuck paying a mortgage and moving will be a lot more affordable/easy.
The reason I took up delivering pizza in the first place was because I wanted to somehow get into property management*. So I rearranged my QFC schedule so that I'd have a consistent two weekdays off during the day and went to all the local property management offices and volunteered to be an intern-- because I wanted to learn the business. They all said no. I signed up for a correspondence real estate agent certification course, but it was honestly super boring and I got busy fixing up our house that it fell by the wayside, and it wasn't like anyone wanted to hire me even for free.
I like my new schedule now, though; and I make more money working two jobs than I did only working at QFC. But working 7 days a week in jobs that really don't take the logistic/administrative/business skills I have and would like to use isn't the answer I want.
*Re: property management...I'm still getting into it, but at this point, it's by dint of force-- slowly saving and fixing and owning and renting my own properties-- and not by being able to have a "job" in the industry. My basic FI plan involves owning about 3-4 rentals (actually could probably ER on 2 rentals + paid off home). I do want some way to get some experience in the field prior to just jumping in with my own property, but I don't know how that's going to happen at this rate.
