3.5 Years and still no steady work??

[Weevil 1]

My husband came to the US in late 2009 and got his GC early 2010, but he has not been able to find any steady work. We're in central Connecticut. He's applied for plenty of low level positions in local retail stores, fast food, and hotels, but there have been almost no call backs, except Target calling to set up an interview and then saying it was a mistake, a local snow plowing place saying he got the job and then never hearing from them again, and finally our local amusment park, where he was able to work seasonally for the last four summers before finally quitting because they were trying to screw him over. Why is next to NOTHING biting??. He has his secondary school certificate, and also has completed post-secondary education in the form of "Journeyman Management Assistent's Certificate of Competance in Wholesale and Foreign Trade". He speaks fluent English. We even tried community college for a bit, and now having trouble getting financial aide for that...

I don't understand what's going on, is CT's job market that poor??

[Americ@ 34]

Move to a bigger city or close by a bigger city .

[Sam and Fen 41]

Central CT economy is not that great with most retail stores down year over year and also most fast food/retail places will not hire people who are past their 20's.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

What did he do in Germany? What sort of "degree" does he have in "competence in foreign trade." Sounds like he is qualified to work in a stock room? Is his resume up to US standards? Why is he looking for low level positions? Did he work in a similar position in Germany?

Edited September 1, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[Weevil 1]

He worked as a department head in a hardware store. So yes, stockroom stuff and contacting suppliers for inventory and stuff. His degree is the "Journeyman Management Assistent's Certificate of Competance in Wholesale and Foreign Trade". Germany's a bit weird with their degrees where the focus is on guilds and trade schools instead of universities. So basically he went to vocational school part time for 3 years while also doing on the job apprenticeship at the hardware store, where he continued to work after he took his exams and was awarded the Journeyman's Certificate. And then he got laid off and was unemployed for most of the following 6 years (interrupted by a short internship) - because in Germany when you have a Journeyman's Certificate in a certain area, you are ONLY allowed to work in that area. So he wasn't allowed to get a job in IT or something because he wasn't Certified for it.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

There are more people than jobs. So hiring managers pick and choose who they like best. Every job has dozens of people applying for it. With the comment that he quit the last job because "they were trying to screw him over " bespeaks of an attitude that doesn't align with the current job market. An employer will pick the person that they bond with most given people of equal qualification. That means the one that speaks American English that they don't have to strain to understand, they look for someone that want to make the company grow not someone that has an attitude about the tasks they are assigned.

Work on his manner of speaking, you may understand him perfectly but many immigrants carry an accent that makes it hard for others. Remember to be grateful for an chance to work. Until or unless things chance having a job is a privilege

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

He worked as a department head in a hardware store. So yes, stockroom stuff and contacting suppliers for inventory and stuff. His degree is the "Journeyman Management Assistent's Certificate of Competance in Wholesale and Foreign Trade". Germany's a bit weird with their degrees where the focus is on guilds and trade schools instead of universities. So basically he went to vocational school part time for 3 years while also doing on the job apprenticeship at the hardware store, where he continued to work after he took his exams and was awarded the Journeyman's Certificate. And then he got laid off and was unemployed for most of the following 6 years (interrupted by a short internship) - because in Germany when you have a Journeyman's Certificate in a certain area, you are ONLY allowed to work in that area. So he wasn't allowed to get a job in IT or something because he wasn't Certified for it.

We have trade schools and votech here and it's not weird to do a trade. it sounds like he worked for a certificate program where we don't require a similar certification in the US, though there are plenty of jobs that require a similar license or certification.

If he was unemployed for 6 years in Germany then it will be harder to find a job, I think, and its too bad he couldn't do another thing while there.

But if I were you I would focus on building on his experience, and working in retail seems a little off. Were you looking for front end jobs for him? I would try for stockrooms and jobs more similar to what he was trained in in Germany.

Have you also tried looking at small stores, applying in person, instead of just going for big box stores where you apply online?

Also make sure his resume looks good, and up to US standards. I might translate that degree differently, or describe it differently, because I think it looks a little weird and might be a turn off if that is the thing you are focusing on a lot. It screams foreign, if you know what I mean (and also screams German, with it being so long! lol, though I bet most don't realize that )

[Weevil 1]

Thing is he hasn't even gotten interviews, so they can't say they didn't like him based on an attitude or accent, because they haven't even spoken or met with him. And they were trying to scew him over... He'd worked in Rides for 3 seasons, multiple awards form management for excellent customer service, rarely if ever called out, had visitors writing to the park to tell management how awesome he is etc. And then this season he switched over to housekeeping because they said he could apply for a management position there, which he didn't get, so he got a lower management postion instead, even though they kept talking about how great of an employee he was and how everything ran smoothly when he was incharge instead of the girl that got the position, and he never complained about tasks given. Then apparently he wrote up some teenage underlings for gooffing off in the break room when they weren't on break, which he was supposed to since that was his job... and then right after management introduced this employee survey which was biased because it didn't ask "how do you feel about your current management team" its was "how do you feel about manager X? How do you feel about manager Y?" So all the angry teenagers retaliated by making his review entirely negative, which upper management knew wasn't true (due to their direct feedback). But they decided to demote him, and didn't even have a meeting to discuss it, it was just he showed up to work and they were like by the way we demoted you. So he tried to meet with management and they refused and he finally told them he quit if they were pulling that. (Personally I think he could have stuck it out until the season ended but what's done is done).

He doesn't have much of an accent at all. It's there but it's not like ACCENT!!. Heh people at the park tended to think he was Irish for some reason.

[Weevil 1]

Harpa Timsah, Yes exactly, it just doesn't exisit here because German has certifications for everything, even Cashiers! I'm not sure what he's been applying for actually, I think just what ever he can get at this point. CT is problematic because all we have really is chain stores and insurance companies. The main street in the city we live is is just chain store after chain store, and fast food places. We have 8 Dunkin' Donuts in town, and they're building a new one! A wal-mart grocery store just opened up and no bites there, no bites at home depot or lowe's even though he has hardware experiance.

We went over his resume together and it's good. It looks like a normal resume and I even had my mom go over it just to make sure. I couldn't think of a better way to write he degree that would explain what it is without under representing it. I even added "certified by the chamber of industry and commerce" to it. And I added a subsection that explained the major coursework. Also he applied at banks too since he was going to community college for Finance.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

The whole state is chain stores? Gross...

Well, something of what you are doing is not working, so I'd try some different tactics. Online resume submission relies on keyword searches for "matches" so if you have a bunch of non-matching German certificates it won't work. That's why smaller stores might work better because a real person would read a resume.

And, don't try to appear overqualified. If the job only requires a high school degree then I might skip the "journeyman etc" degree and focus on his experience.

Here is a bunch of stockroom jobs. http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Stockroom+Associate&l=Connecticut

http://www.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-stockroom/l-CT

Try craigslist too.

Best of luck.

[Weevil 1]

It is! CT was a big manufacturing and tobacco farming state back in the day, but everything has moved out of state/country, so there's not much left except this endless crumbling post-industrial suburbia. Our three largest cities, Bridgeport, New Haven, and the capitol, Hartford, tend to show up in "Most Dangerous City in America" lists. If I had the money I'd be out of here so fast, I'd like to move to WA or something. It's so depressing.

But anyway, Thanks for the tips, I'll have him check out those links!

[discoverusa 277]

How about moving to Fairfield county? Not all CT is bad.

[KimberlyAhmed 28]

We live in central Connecticut also and the job market is not good. My husband came here in May 2012, was approved in October 2012 for his work permit, but did not get a job until January 2013. He has applied for over 300 jobs, very few callbacks and ones that do turn out to be commission only sales jobs(not what the job description said though). He works part time right now at Pricerite(grocery store), it has been hard on his self esteem, but he knows one day things will be better.

Edited September 2, 2013 by KimberlyAhmed

[Weevil 1]

Fairfield is for rich people!

KimberlyAhmed, I was thinking he's been mostly applying for full-time jobs.. maybe it would be better if he applied for a part time instead to at least have Something.

[KimberlyAhmed 28]

Fairfield is for rich people!

KimberlyAhmed, I was thinking he's been mostly applying for full-time jobs.. maybe it would be better if he applied for a part time instead to at least have Something

Has he tried employment agenices that might have temp or temp to hire jobs?