I could use a little help

in #help7 years ago

Family 3.jpg

I've been here on Steemit for close to two months now

And it's been an amazing time. I can't even begin to tell you how much it's changed my life, well, I think I have through all the different posts I've done. People have come out of the woodwork to help me, encourage me, inspire me. I was in a really dark spot when I first stepped into this room, but, now I'm beginning to see the light.

The only problem seems to be that the universe refuses to give me a break. Now, up front I want to say I'm not looking for Whale Votes, upvotes, or any sort of money from anyone. I'll get that slowly and surely here through merit because I believe in the community here and I love to create content. My goals to help other people, hopefully inspire them, and bring the world forward. I cannot even begin to express to you how deep that sentiment goes without taking several pages...

What I need is some work.

I have spent 8 years trying to find something, anything. Along the way I've had a few part time gigs, a decent number of shoots, and help from angels. But nothing that's lasted, gone anywhere, or done what having a job normally does.

At first glance no one believes me. 'Why can't you find part time work?' They keep asking. 'Why don't you try XXXX.? Or XXXX?' And I'm like, I have. And, I have. And, I have. Seriously, my world has become so skewed that it's unbelievable unless you're someone who's actually around me. And even then it's hard to believe. I've been at it 8 years. No shit, 8 years. Living down in the shallows of the world off of ramen, Mac&Cheese, and frozen pizza.

I spend hours a day, a lot of them

Going through Craigslist, Monster, LinkedIn, shit, name a job site, a placement site, whatever, I've been on them all. Through day after day of sending resumes, slogging out cover letters telling them why I want the job they're offering so much. I've gone through spreadsheets, lists, what not, trying to keep track of every job/gig/etc. I've applied to.

I'm qualified, or was...to do an insane amount of jobs and at a high level of responsibility. I've done everything from start a international marketing department in a Japanese company...in Japanese, to being the managing editor of a print magazine...to becoming a full time (unpaid *scream) creative with works published in books, magazines, and on website around the world. All of that on my own, and self taught, and pretty dang successful if you ask me. At least I was.

But, at some point that all changed.

Maybe it was when I moved back to the U.S. back in 2010 in the height of that economic crisis to the Midwest with a hard to understand resume, I have no idea. But, every day for the last 8 years with only an occasional day off, I've been looking. Looking, looking, looking. It's like I slid off the universes map and I can't get back on.

Not just looking...pitching, networking, asking everyone I knew. At this point I know the questions come up again, 'Why don't you get a part time job at Walmart? Or become a barista?' Tried that. I mean, I've tried pretty much everything in 8 years. Even dumbing down my resume I'm not the type of candidate they want. Someone with intelligence and drive? Immediate disqualifications for entry level work. And, the last time I tried the barista route, I almost got laughed out of the shop because it was a' third wave coffee shop that required all it's employees to have at least 3 years of in-depth work in the industry.' Building a network of relationships with roasters and promoting local industry through a series of well written articles apparently didn't come close.

And asking friends for help. Yeah, been there, done that. That led to exactly 1 job that lasted 6 months, which I left to move to LA. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in my networks, and, hard as it is to believe. Nothing. Nothing.

It is the most frustrating thing in the world.

To want to work. To want to help another company grow. To just want to be valued for something. I'm a smart, driven guy with ambition and a skill set that reaches far and wide with the ability to learn and adapt to whatever the hell I need to. But...ugh, you can't even imagine the frustration I feel on a daily basis. And, having to tell my parents this....that's what really kills me the most.

I need someone to please, please, help me find a job. My dad finally broke down and mentioned to one of his acquaintances my dire situation, so if I move all the way back to Milwaukee and back in with my parents I'll have a $12/hr job as an apprentice machinist, but he knows this is a last, last, last resort. I know that it is. Because it will be the moment I give up, pretty much completely. But, one that I'm honestly considering because I'm at the end of my rope. And let me tell you, it's been a very, very, long rope.

But, that's why I'm reaching out to the network of people here.

To the network of people I've come to see as early adopter, forward thinkers, willing to take a chance and give opportunities to people and projects they see as worthy. You can ask anyone I know, anyone who's spent more than an hour with me, my endless drive and refusal to take time for myself, all in the search for survival. People keep asking me what I do in my free time and I always give a little laugh. Every minute of my day is filled with something that is either creation, networking, application, or learning.

I'm not looking for a handout. I'm looking for an opportunity. I'm currently LA based, but, really, I'd go anywhere right about now if it meant being able to work, to get paid, to be valued for something. Steemit has already begun to help me re-establish my confidence as many react to my writings and work, and slowly the financial bit will kick in over time.

But all that is tomorrow, and today is today.

If you know of some kind of work, any kind of work, in any part of the country, world, whatever, I'm down. Seriously. If it's helping other people, so much the better. If it's creating, awesome. If it's managing, been there done that, and done it well. Name a job and I've probably got at least part of the skill set.

Lion taming? I used to train horses.
Building homes in far off places? Hand me a hammer. I've built countless fences.
Cleaning barns? Been there, done that.

Hands dirty, hands clean, don't really care.

Please, oh please, don't try to give advice on different things I should try.

I've heard like 99% of them and the chances of you hitting on that 1% is gonna be very, very, low. I'm looking for that person to say, 'Would you be willing to do XXXX?' Or, 'Get ahold of this person.' Greedy, I know. But if I have to listen to one more person suggest I try wedding photography I'm gonna scream. Not because I don't want to do it, but as with all aspects of creative work, if you don't have a portfolio, you gotta build one. Which would take away from all the other avenues I'm currently vested in. Got time and money for that? I sure as heck don't. I need work, now.

I hope this doesn't come off as begging.

But I'm seriously in one of those places where, as I look around, I don't see any way out. I don't see any paths forward (other than here, but, that's long term). I know there are so many amazing people here and that if the universe just gives me an inch, a little bit of an in to regain my life, I'm gonna take a whole damn mile, and keep on going. I hate asking, but, seriously, after 8 years of job hunting, I'm tapped...and the more I ask the people I know the further they pull away.

So, if you know of a job/gig/person, that could help pull me back onto the map, I would really appreciate it. You don't even know how much... I hate asking, I really do. It's nerve-wracking to throw something like this into the wind and hope it catches, but I need to, and I need to have some faith :)

Michael


Cover shot was taken when my family used frequent flier miles to take me to Prague with them. I spent 4 of the 8 days shooting for agencies (unpaid of course bc why pay creatives nowadays) which made my sister grumble, but, she understood that I have to take advantage of any opportunity that comes my way. My family is the most amazing...without them...I couldn't even imagine where I'd be right now.

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If you're open to feedback, I'd be happy to take a look at your resume and offer some suggestions. It's your first foot in the door to any opportunity. I've looked at thousands over the years and I can tell you first hand that I don't consider any potential candidate without top notch resume content and formatting.

You can DM it to me on discord under this same name.

I will do so! Which one are we together in?

Alliance. But just send the file to me in a private message.

No work to offer you, no advice. It sounds like advice but it isn’t. Your story sounds like the trials of Job from the bible (no pun intended). I have been there, not with work but with finances and relationships, plague of locusts, raining frogs, the whole deal. One of the things that got me through it is something you are already doing, trying to help others. I knew that if I focused totally on the parade of crap life was handing me and it’s impact on me, I was going down. So focusing on helping others was huge.

The other thing that helped me—and maybe you are already doing this too—is asking myself every day, sometimes several times a day, “what can I learn from this? what is the lesson here? what opportunity to learn and grow is the universe handing me?”

As a result I learned a lot, an awful lot, from a similar length of awfulness that, looking back, I don’t know how I survived. This is just what helped me.

You sound like you have the resources to find your way, and people now to help. I wish you well. And, agreed, ain’t Steemit Grand?

All the best.

Amazing advice. Thank you. Yeah, it's tough to go through day after day, year after year, with no respite. Job would be an accurate assessment. It's hard to believe when you hear a story like mine. Just nothing good for so long that it makes the mind boggle. It also starts the mind thinking a certain way that is no good for being a human...and that's what I'm trying to avoid/break.

I will try to do that. See the day for it's lessons. But it's really hard when you're in panic mode with no apparent way out and the crush of life not letting up. The deeper in you get the faster you slip down...

And, yeah, love Steemit. Hoping this message gets around to the right person, hehe.

If you want a regular job, the area around Huntsville, Alabama is exploding right now with Auto Industry, the expansion of Federal Government type jobs, Contractor work of all kinds, and a huge amount of tech sector and engineering jobs. They are also planning a major infrastructure overhaul in the area, which is more future right now than reality. Huntsville is also one of the first cities to receive the new super high-speed Internet service and the outlying area has some of the lowest cost-of-living rates in the Country.

But if you have an initial investment and work at it full time a person could potentially make a good living on Steemit, or, if the new Scorum version of Graphene (The basis for Steem) works out you could do well on that sports platform. If my calculations were close to correct, then a $60-70 investment in Scorum (SCR) at $1.00 each would be about the same as a $1000 initial investment in Steem when it was at $1.00. I have been encouraging my son and his wife to open up an account on Scorum and be ready to start a sports blog with unique photos as soon as the site officially launches, I believe that those who get there first, like the pioneers on Steemit, will have the potential for good incomes. Scorum will not launch U.S. Sports until this Fall, but that does not mean that a person has to wait until then to get established on that platform.

Scorum

Is it going to compete with Steemit? I'll have to do some research into that. If it's a crypto investment I can transfer some Steem I've built up to invest in that. I just don't want to start spreading my efforts too thin between multiple platforms again. It's like I might be getting a little traction on here, despite the last couple days of quite on my account, and I want to try and keep that going. Suddenly jumping to another place, it's like being at zero again. I'm at that point where I need something, like now. I don't mind building towards a future, but the now is my imperative...

Thanks for dropping by with some useful info :) It's much appreciated!

Scorum will not be in direct competition with Steemit because it is specifically a sports platform. Actually, they support Steemit and they plan to give some free tokens to any member of Steemit who joins Scorum. I would not recommend selling Steem for SCR tokens, you would be trading something that you know to have value and a platform where you have already made progress toward becoming established, to an unknown new platform where you would be starting over at the beginning. The point that I was trying to make is that a small investment in SCR now, could in a years time or less be worth as much as a large investment now is on Steem. A $10 investment on Scorum today, next year might correlate to what it would cost you $270 to currently buy in Steem Power. But that will only be true if Scorum succeeds in their goals for the future, and those goals are not projected to be fully complete until October of 2018. Of course, by then it would cost you a lot more money to raise the same amount of Scorum Power that you can right now in these early but uncertain beginnings. 😎

Actually, you can not even buy SCR tokens at the moment, they will be on the Openledger and Bitshares exchanges sometime in March.

Sounds interesting. But, when I took a look at it I realized it's a sports dedicated platform...and, I'm not a sports person. Maybe as a long term investment. And, looks like the opening rounds of funding are close, so like @deaconlee said, gotta wait until they're on the exchange. But, still might be an interesting investment. Have to look through the white paper and stuff :)

When I got back from Japan, the last time, basically I was broke and was nursing a back injury. We had moved to Japan (our family) and I was going to work with a buddy of mine. As it turned out, I injured my back and the business didn’t pan out. All this after spending a fortune on key money, furniture, air fares, etc etc. So instead of moving back to Banff, Alberta, we went straight back to live with my folks, literally in a cramped bedroom (all 4 of us). Was able to rebuild our life, it took time though. Not having to pay rent really helped out. Thank goodness for our parents!
You definitly have the skills to make it on this platform. Perhaps even as a full time blogger at some point. Will take a bit of time though. I really hope for the best for you my friend!

Thank you for those words! I lived with my parents for a couple years when I came back from Japan too and tried to get on my feet. I was there for a couple years, and then it's more like I stumbled from place to place after moving out, hehe. No rent is definitely helpful, IF the universe allows some of your attempts to get back on your feet to work. My story is quite unbelievable...but real.

I hope I will be able to make Steemit my full time. No, I know I will be able to. Just need some primer in the tank so that I can keep afloat long enough to make it happen. I want to help other people who are going through what I'm going through make their dreams come true and get out of a system that oppresses everyone unless they're rich. And live in a place that brings them to their full potential...as cornball as that is, hehe.

Good attitude!
Without the pressure of those monthly bills, etc. I bet you could double down on your blogging . As Steemit starts to take off, NOW is the time to go for it and to get ahead of the herd!

Indomitable spirit...it was written on the wall where I learned Hapkido. Drilled into me for 3 years and countless hours. I honestly don't know how to give up. Which, also works against me sometimes, hehe.

Yeah, that's how I feel about Steemit as well. It's that thing, before it becomes a thing. The gentle calm before a massive storm. All I want to do is get deeper into it :)

Do it!
Living in California may be a distraction, Wisconsin is where I’d be headed (but what do I know?)

While I may not be able to offer work of any kind, I can relate to your predicament. It's hard to sell yourself to certain companies these days (it seems) as they either have terribly low ambitions so if you go in and act like you want to rock the boat they appear almost afraid of you. That or they have ridiculously high expectations and so if you don't fit the image they have in mind the second you step through the door you barely get a genuine consideration; they are just not willing to train or take a risk. Straight in! Straight on! Nothing less!

I went to an interview the other day and was interviewed by the most junior management staff you could possibly imagine; we may as well held the interview in kindergarten ;-) The big managers were all on-site but just sat in their offices without even looking at me. These kids were so inexperienced at interviews, simply hid behind a clipboard and read questions one after the other, and if your answers drifted too far away from the notes on that board they just gave you this blank stare before moving onto the next question. Another interview the guy seemed so uninterested, as if I was just taking up his time, kept checking his phone while I was answering his questions. I wouldn't mind but his company asked me to go in to see them, then appears put out that I was there? I could have found more constructive interviews to attend I can tell you... No surprise I didn't get either role.

I don't know where the daring companies are these days either. The ones I've encountered appear scared of their own shadows... I have to believe that persistence will pay off; because I'm all out of ideas myself.

And, the more 'out of the box' they consider themselves, the more 'inside-the-box' they actually are. Such a weird thing. You have to fit their cookie cutter shape of what they think is a creative is. Like, how is that 'outside the box?' But, that's the industry. I've got plenty of cringe-worthy stories as well. That might be a short series I write about, lol. But, not really. Too much negativity in that, no growth potential. All about turning a new leaf :)

@westley-nash, your words of support are awesome. You might not be able to offer me work, but you've helped me start to build back my confidence, which is much more valuable. :)

Be well!!! :)

Thank you, the same you you too :-) I'm sure we will find our way if we keep seeking.

To me, this post did not come off as begging at all. You're utilizing a great resource in order to find more resources, not asking people to hold your hand.
I don't have any ideas for you unfortunately, but I've resteemed this so at least you'll get some more exposure. Keeping my fingers crossed for ya!

I appreciate that...A LOT! I think fate has led me here to Steemit, to all the amazing people I've met, for a reason. And, like you said, utilizing a great resource, one based upon principals I believe it :) Too much good has happened to me here for it to be the wrong path. I probably come off as a bit zealous, but, seriously, 8 years of void, and suddenly there's light for me, here. Like that first drink of water having been in the desert for so long...

Awesome! A lot of people feel that way on Steemit. It's a fabulous community. Are you on Discord yet?

It is rough out there, and LA is full of frustrated over qualifieds. I will keep an ear out but I am pretty out of the loop.

Keep writing and posting here, daily, and you will earn crumbs that can turn to meals. At least it can also be an outlet and a portfolio.

All my best

Yeah, that's how I treat Steemit. As something that will provide for me in the future as I consistently put out good content, and as a resume backdrop for people who ask about my creative skills. And, LA is filled with a lot of amazing talent, but there should be enough of the pie through people I know and things I've done to get me at least a small piece of it, but, seriously, it's unbelievable...which is why I'm asking people to believe.

Creative work, uncreative work, I'm not boxing myself into any sort of expectations.

Thanks for reading and replying :)

And, yeah, this place is most definitely an outlet for me, hehe.

nuke it, and by that I mean give a finger to the status quo and the Universe
whatever paths are being blocked to you is like "fuck it" ....literally
don't believe most of the hype on here of some bragging how awesome and rich they are as the vast majority are hand to mouth and using this as a supplement....
which brings me to this point, "The absolute worst that can happen you still will be fed , not homeless and have a job".....not ideal but not as bad as a lot have it ( not what you want to hear I realize)
maybe just telling the Universe to stop being an arse will work, you never know what can come together when you just say, MEH,

that's interesting, coming from a whale.

lol, I'm no whale...and I just stopped using any formula on here and was sick of realizing that I was hitting brick walls for a reason, sometimes things don't work out and things fall apart then boooom, something totally unexpected comes

Yeah, i agree on that. Don't mind my ignorant self. great day!

sorry I can not help with this but if it does help, if you have to move to Milwaukee we can go out for lunch :D

Wait...you're in MKE?

close enough :D

Lol. Next time I hit up MKE, we most definitely shall. Might be there sooner than I want... But, that's life. :)

IT is out there brother. resteemed uv

Much appreciated. Really throwing it out to the universe and hoping :) I figured since it lead me here and started to change my life through people I've met, I might as well trust a bit more and see what happens.

I'm sorry for the struggle brother. I see your talent on here. There is a place for you.

I can feel your intention and heart in this write-up. I hope things take a positive turn for you. one love and peace

Thanks for stopping by, reading, and wishing me well :) I'm glad it came off the right way...not looking for handouts, just work. Should have declined payments for this post now that I think about it...

Be well! :)