I went to McD's tonight, bummed me out a bit

[The Straight Story]

(DU Disclosure/Explanation: Yes, sometimes I go to McD's and even wal mart, I will apologize for my evil side another time....)

So I went to grab a sandwhich/fries at McD's. Line was moving slow, a few people honking, some peeled out - yelling BS and such for having to wait more than a few minutes.

I pull up to pay, the young guy is really nice and apologizes "We are short handed tonight, sorry".

I pull up to next window, older woman looking harried, and I don't see anyone else inside.

Now I am out of work. Would love a job. I have applied at all the fast food joints, had one interview and was basically told 'Maybe we can get you something part time, but because you are so experienced in IT (ie, over qualified) we wouldn't want to hire you full time because you will quit when you can get a better job...' - I have also applied at all the big retailers here. Nothing. Nada.

So I ask the woman at the window, thinking maybe this would be a good time to do so 'Are you guys hiring?'

"No, just short handed tonight"

This is not the first night. My nephew/niece go to that one a lot, and complain about it being slow and hearing they are short people (my nephew has a friend that works across the street from it, so they often hit it up late at night).

Fuck. Not even McD's is hiring. And I have heard time and again, even for IT jobs, I am "Over Qualified" (read: Old). 15 Years real world experience in programming, data base design/admin, IT management, have been a cop, worked in manufacturing for 5 years (and won a lot of awards for improving work flow/safety), managed a pizza shop....

Folks on the right say "Just get a job", They want to reduce unemployment payments saying that extending it will cause people like me to not have an incentive to find a job. Fuck them.

[Neecy]

1. Haven't you heard that productivity is up?

Productivity=working people like goats so you can squeeze a few bucks more in profit.

I hope you find something soon.

[The Straight Story]

3. I apply a ton of places every week, and I don't even get a rejection letter

I can't even get a hand job :rofl:

[ThomWV]

38. That's because they laid off the person who wrote the rejection letters

and the dam shame of it was that the same person was in charge of giving hand jobs.

[Ken Burch]

8. "Higher productivity" is code for "more exploitation"

The system is starving people like you and working others into the ground just to do it. We can't let this shit go on anymore. In the end, most of us will lose if "market values" continue to rule our lives.

Good luck to the OP in these hard times. He deserves it, and so does the world.

[tblue37]

32. The wealthy are cutting their own throats. Who do they imagine will

have the money to purchase the products and services that must be sold to keep their own income pouring in?

[NMMNG]

22. They're going to raise the chocolate ration next week too! n/t

[jmowreader]

33. It's being raised from 30 grammes to 25, right?

[NMMNG]

36. Correct. Doubleplusgood, yes?

[jmowreader]

41. Double double plus good

Not only does Newspeak not have a word for bad, the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary--remember, Newspeak is the only language that gets smaller every year--has removed the concept of "four times."

[Digit]

2. I'm so sorry

Seriously. I am older and also experiencing difficulty finding work.
I hope things improve for you soon.

[The Straight Story]

5. Based on previous experience I anticipate I will get a job in Feburary

Most my IT jobs, when I was in between, I got in Feb. Reason being that big companies approve their budgets in Jan and start hiring the following month.

[Better Today]

4. Geez, your story sounds like mine but go to 30 years experience

wide ranging from accounting to management, and female. Nothin' out there to be had. Shorthanded, long lines? Hiring?, hell no.

Have the folks around you started with the "can't find a job with the right pay, hell just get two jobs of lesser pay then." Yeah, right, like I can even get one right now.

[The Straight Story]

I was able to help my younger nephew find a job

He has a record for carrying a gun in the car and having pot on him. Can't even drive until he pays off the fines.

Same place would not hire me. He is 22.

Go figure.

[The Straight Story]

11. If you count my non-employment time with PC's it is 31 years, old TRS-80 days

Sometimes I miss those old computers, which is why I DL'ed an emulator for the trash 80 and old TRS-80 computer mags. The gun that runs the site is really cool, and sent me all of the mags and old books on a dvd. I can still code in trsdos :)

[Better Today]

16. I started on a Digital H500 back in '76. About the size of a file cabinet

with less than a 10th the power or graphics (black screen white writing, 80x80 input, no user friendly screens) of current PCs or even laptops.

[The Straight Story]

17. Was that one of those that you had to use cards with to program?

We had one like that in our physics class. You can still find old ones like that on ebay :)

[Better Today]

23. Nope, I was just after the card readers, this was 80x80 input strings

80 character rows and every character had to be input, with "blanks" being 0s, and 80 rows total. Don't know what anyone else calls them, but in DFW when I started we called them "80by80s". Then the file would be run through a program that was hardware specific. Back then there were no Quickbooks, if you got a Digital Computer, you got Digital software. It wasn't till a few years later, I'm think 78-9 that I moved over to a company that bought timeshare from a company with an IBM mainframe and their proprietary software, which I was in constant contact with the software developers for months due to all the bugs and problems. Do you remember JCL? I used to be a JCL whiz kid. No one now even knows what it is.


Ended up being married to one of them software engineers. . . then divorced years later.

[The Straight Story]

24. I know what it is, but did not get a chance to use it (Job Control Language IIRC)

The first two computers I worked with used cards and a teletype - My dad was an electronics engineer and they had a computer at his work.

We played the game "Adventure" on it (which you can DL for free) and chess. You typed in your move, it printed, then it printed it's move. No screen.

A year later we got a trs-80 and dad brought home that printer (A DECwriter), he made an rs-232 interface for it so I could print out things. I printed out a math equation that showed how many possible chess positions there were (a 10 followed something like 15,000 zeroes) just because I wanted to see how big that number was.

It came in handy though in other ways - I wanted a space game, but it was $20 which I didn't have. I had seen screen shots in a mag though (creative computing I think it was) and wrote my own game. It helped a ton to be able to print it out.

We had no internet, and the OS was a blinking cursor and if you couldn't program you were usually out of luck in many ways. I learned fast how to type, and I still recall hacking radio shack games and peeking into the memory to find clues for games :)

Sigh - the old days. Glad we have what we have now, back then all of this was just a dream and a hope. And here we are...

[BeatleBoot]

6. Move to Detroit

Unemployment in the city proper is 50%

The tri-county area is 32%

The state unemployment rate is 15% (highest in the nation)

Fun Fact: The national unemployment rate during the Great Depression: 20%


I pray for all of those out of work.

This is still George W. Bush's "race to the bottom: last one there wins"

Hang in there Straight Story.

We're going to get through this.

I don't know how, but we will.

[Motown_Johnny]

31. so you are trying to cheer others up by pointing out how screwed I am?

:sarcasm:

[tridim]

7. Over-experienced and unemployed IT guy right here.

I'm getting out and never going back. It's sad because I'm pretty damn good at what I do. Or did.

Their loss I guess.

[brooklynite]

9. In fairness...

the people working the windows may not be the people who know what the hiring policies are. Maybe you should pop in and chat with the Manager.

[The Straight Story]

12. agreed, and I think I will call him/her tomorrow - good point (nt)

[scubadude]

10. Never tried fast food but have had the same reaction...

Overqualified...

I have had 2 careers where I worked my way up using totally different skillsets. One of the careers has largely been exported to India...


Scuba

[1]

13. its christmas, bud. a lot of folks get gone this time of year. sorry your wait was long...

[Thickasabrick]

14. Good luck with the job hunt - Timmeh says the job situation

will improve in the spring....I keep scratching my head wondering why he still has his.

[MrMickeysMom]

15. This is so shameful, that we are supposed to bail out Wall Street, but not Main Street...

... And, I'm sorry for using a clearly over-used phrase like that, because it obviously hasn't gotten the attention of everyone who thinks they're going to be voting to give us a "gift" before Christmas.

We are forced to give to the United Way... of Banks. We are being torn apart in the process of a shameful era.

I'm sorry even as I'm loosing one of my part time jobs and trying to make a difference within local govt. That has become my "second job" now, since I don't have 3 part time ones anymore. Believe me, I'm working hard for the locals, but greed is greed, and it knows no boundaries.

The only thing we can do... the one thing we HAVE to do is say this over and over to Washington. THEY HAVE TO GIVE US A JOBS PROGRAM. THEY HAVE TO.

All the best to you,TSS.

[bridgit]

18. Did you actually ask if MickeyD was hiring? Would you have taken the job if they were?

I see allot of energy being spent pushing a cart {in-place} wishing others would start 'hopping to it' and perform in acceptable, econo-consumer driven ways, otherwise?

Start learning Chinese, before too long you could expand that resume's event-horizon into matters involving The Middle Kingdom - now that's the ticket ;) - where they are expected to scurry about 24/7 for a fraction of the wage - God Bless America! Well, what's left of it ~

http://www.rosettastone.com

[The Straight Story]

19. Yeah, I did - and I would work there (and learning chinese, not a bad idea)

I managed a pizza shop once, loved the work. I have a few friends who work in fast food, and unlike other jobs I have had you don't have to take the work home with you. When I managed 3 data centers for Chase I was working even when I wasn't at work, calls/pages at all hours of the night, conference calls at 2am on weekends for changes, etc.

I don't remember what it is like to have a job that you can leave after the day is done and not have to worry about it until you go back in.

[bridgit]

25. I appreciate your humanity here - I've done some multitasking in my life...

At least it seems that way when I stop to think about it. Three jobs spread across the LA basin as a mere for instance: bar tending, dental assistant - don't laugh stop it! - , pole (I kid you not kid) dancer ;) medical switch board/exchange operator met a nice plump balding very sweet textural/tactile universally centered Jewish Dr. just flowers, fine dining and delivered home kisses on the cheek, HIV/AIDS counselor (which has a grounding effect 24/7) and back to UCLA and yeah I used to work for Clear Channel so like gag me with a spoon

:spank:

And I do hear you. I am quite sure it's probably me and not them :bounce: But I make NYC call me at a reasonable Pacific Standard Damn Morning Time preferably after I feed Tim his O's or I bill them some factor above whatever they think they are saying into my ear, so? Well, cept for Berlin; they're always where they need to be time-wise but as a base-line 'so' matter? Then fine. I guess I am a stinker after all whatever

:spank:

But here I make a short story a little bit longer. I do think it's important to diversify, to be willing. All the yada-yada stuff: take stock take inventory glimpse the future persevere; cause in just what you've expressed here I see areas into which you'd be able to slip-stream and arraign compensation

And of course I continue to think it important, that we express ourselves not only to each other: butcher, baker, candlestick maker-style; but maybe especially here at DU. If we won't, don't or can't - who will or can? And so I thank you again for your humanity here

[The Straight Story]

26. I want pics

Pole dancing dental assistant bar tender. Damn, that's just hot.... :rofl:

[bridgit]

27. hahahaha, now *that's* going to cost you, sailor, just make sure I can see the **stack** of 50's...

on the dresser from wherever it is...I may happen to be in recline

[Divine Discontent]

20. jobs are harder to come by for certain. and yes, they're making less people do the same work that

an extra 2 or 3 people were doing, and the waits are bad. The post office I go to has 6 registers, 2 or 3 are open. Used to be 4.

[TwixVoy]

21. Apply for a management spot

As a former manager at Target for several years here is some advice on how to get in if you really need one of these jobs. You are right... when I interviewed people at my store if you came in I would not have hired you. Why? Because entry level retail SUCKS. It is mostly for part time college students, retired people, and first jobs. You get treated badly, zero career potential, not much thought work, and horrible pay/benefits.

If you are applying at retail do NOT apply for entry level non-management positions. Apply for entry level management. (at most retailers this is a department manager spot) Most retailers look for higher education and lots of experience for management spots. As a former manager at Target I can almost guarantee that tou would NOT be turned down at Target if you applied for a management spot. Over qualified for management hires is seen as a good thing.

Don't worry if you have no prior retail experience. The main thing we looked for in entry level management candidates was "Is this person a flake? Does he have no real work history? Has he ever accomplished anything at prior jobs? etc". Ironically for entry level non-management spots you have a better shot as a complete flake that has never held down a job for more than a few months when screened against anyone better.... simply because the truth is anyone but flakes will be GONE ASAP.

[Joe the Liberal]

28. Fuck them indeed......

Republicans seem to think everything is so easy and simple. Unemployed? get a job, don't have health coverage? get some, homeless? buy a house, don't have money? go to the bank and get some ect.

They think everything will just work out and that everything you need is out there all you have to do is pull your self up by your bootstraps and go get it, what utter bullshit. They battle vigorously to take away the helping hand once they have already made it to safety, to hell with them.

[lovelyrita]

29. It is really hard out there.

My Husband, who worked in database administration, has been out of work for a year. It's been a really rough.

[dembotoz]

30. Companies are running lean(understaffed)

customer service???
not that much

[fishnfla]

34. I'm telling IT people, and this is from personal experience

check into electronic medical records, wave of future in health care

[rucky]

35. That's a bulk of the jobs I've seen posted.

They want industry-specific experience. This may be hard to crack into without the right kind of cert, and even then...

[Ignis]

37. Or PCI or other statutory/regulatory fields. (nt)

[Goldstein1984]

39. Run-to-fail mode

In the oil industry, there is a concept called "run-to-fail mode." It's when an oil field, or a pipeline, or a refinery, or a terminal is becoming unprofitable, so investment in infrastructure and preventive maintenance stops, the number of employees is reduced, and nothing is replaced unless is is broken and interfering with production. It's a way of squeezing the last bit of profit out of an investment. Such operation is there have been several major spills on Alaska's North Slope.

It occurs to me that our entire economy may be in run-to-fail mode. TPTB are just trying to squeeze the last few dollars out of it before moving on to more profitable places.

[Bozita]

40. Got shorted on fries at Checkers last Sunday - Only TWO people working the place.

Lean times for hamburger helpers.

[RamboLiberal]

42. Being an IT person myself keeping my fingers crossed

my employer hangs in with me for the next 10 years. Sorry to hear about your job troubles. That being said I don't think the McD situation was them just being short-handed tonight. IMHO they have the WORST drive-thru times in the fast-food industry. In the last couple of years I've never had a fast experience at any of their drive-thrus in my area and counter service is sometimes equally slow no matter the time of day or night. In fact once or twice I've pulled out of line where able(some McD's have you trapped) and gone to Wendy's which is normally very quick & efficient.

In my area though I am seeing quite a number of help-wanted signs.

[anigbrowl]

43. On a side note...

perhaps instead of looking for a job, you should consider starting a business. It doesn't necessarily require large amounts of capital, consulting on short term projects can yield decent payment while providing a valuable service, and the SBA now has a micro-loan program for self-employed and tiny companies. You have a variety of experience that's potentially very compelling to a client.

[Lucky Luciano]

44. We hire IT people all the time, but you have to be really good.

Strong C++ is best, but strong Java is good too. Comfort with multithreaded applications working in real time environments with minimal latency (ie think of 10 milliseconds as time you will want to shave off of your multithreaded application) and no bugs. A pretty solid statistical and numerical computing background would be extremely helpful too. If you can say that sort of thing on your resume, they will take a look at my shop - and they will take foreigners too if they have the skills - basically the first applicant with the skills that they like gets the job.

Let me know if you (or anyone else reading this) care.

Note that this would be an extremely high pressure job, but the pay is very good - probably better than Google if you did not get in early in that game.

Lucky

[PSzymeczek]

45. I totally understand where you are.

I lost my job almost 4 years ago. 22 years with the Federal Government, and was set up and unceremoniously dumped. I'm almost 57 years old. The contractors want to hire someone half my age, that they don't have to pay nearly $70K a year (I was making $68.5K when I was canned.).

[ZombieHorde]

46. I eat at McDonald's sometimes, I have nothing to add to this OP, but I want to post this fun picture

[Poll_Blind]

49. Ok, ok, now _I_ wanna post my fun McDonald's picture:

PB

[ZombieHorde]

55. Awesome. nt

[asdjrocky]

47. My friend, I live in Stockton Ca.

No one has hired anyone for anything here in 4 years.

[Poll_Blind]

48. Straight, I have a similar anecdote my girlfriend relayed from Old Navy:

She went in looking for clothes, presumably, and said the place had only two employees in the whole store (I've been there before, it's pretty big- about half the size of a supermarket, maybe a little less). There were clothes everywhere, on the floor- the entire store was majorly disorganized and people were just going through heaps of unorganized clothing. Said for the first time ever the store struck her as just plain "dirty"- not just disorganized. As though it hadn't undergone the nightly sweeping and so forth in a while.

Anyway, on her way out she asked her checker if a lot of employees were sick or something and they replied that, no, that's how many had been scheduled.

This is just a few days ago. It's like a number of these really big places/chains are just cutting down, even past anything that seems sensible. I have no idea what it means: Never seen stores do that. On an average day (not even the weekend) there would be between 20-50 people in there grabbing clothes and stuff.

Weird.

FWIW.

PB

[AzNick]

50. Here in Arizona we can't find good IT workers

Maybe it's time you consider a move. We could not find good software guys and we ended up hiring very junior.

[Kalun D]

51. Move

you need to change locations, there's places where their hiring senior IT people, just do a craigslist search in a big city of your choice.

[The Straight Story]

53. I would, but I have an 8 year old daughter here. I would rather be poor here than rich somewhere

else :) I can give up a lot, but I won't give up being close to her.

[Kalun D]

54. Family

yeah, family is the only thing that holds me back too.

[Lucky Luciano]

58. Moving may be a sacrifice worth making.

If you move somewhere else and get a strong income again, then you can save more and help your daughter later in life - eg helping to pay for college, etc.

[scentopine]

52. Damn good writing - smart guy like you deserves a break - nt

[kevinbgoode]

56. I feel your pain. . .I changed careers several years ago

because I was getting the same thing - despite awards in my field, excellent references, a track record of innovative work. Now I have an annual contract that I get to chew my nails over getting renewed each spring. Ugh.

I know your frustration - one thing you can look for is if there is a private industry council in your area. At least during the last big recession (in the early 90's) they were pretty helpful with retraining people (not that you necessarily need any) and sometimes with helping find placements for people. It might be a deadend again, I know, but anything is worth a shot.

Employment in this country - thanks to the Reagan years - became a game of employer screening OUT candidates rather than screening IN. . .if that makes any sense. It's very difficult to beat the odds, but keep at it. . .

As for McD's - I would write a letter to their corporate office, offering your services, and cite the local restaurant and your experiences there. Nothing wrong with getting creative. . .:).

[JVS]

57. Tiocfaidh ar la!