I spent 4-5 months trying to find a job this year.  Much of that time I simply felt loss and confused about where to look for work.  When you're sitting at home at a loss as to where to apply next, I suppose that can be seen as laziness to those on the outside. I know my mom made quite a few comments to that effect over that time period.

During that period, most of the places that were "hiring" and involved a field I could do well in weren't actually hiring.  They had open staff positions, but they weren't actively looking for new employees.  If a current employee could recommend someone to fill in a position, they'd look into it, but all applications were completely ignored.

I'm finding this to be the case everywhere these days.  Every job I've ever had (going on six) was made available through someone I knew, and at the one job in which I was somewhat involved in the hiring process, we mostly took in people familiar to other employees, since we had problems with the employees we hired through the traditional apply/interview method - even those that seemed like amazing people when we initially met them.

So now I'm in a temp position doing stock, a job I landed solely because two of my sisters were former employees at the same location.  Between the other two people hired for the holidays, one was related to a current employee, and the other was a former employee.  And we'll all be let go come December.

The job market sucks right now, even for the low end, minimum wage crap.  And I can only imagine it being worse elsewhere.  New Orleans was in a bit of an economic bubble during the early days of the recession, due to storm recovery providing local economic growth.

Also, I wanna say this article is out of date.  They approved tax cuts for all and extending unemployment for 13 months.

I'm only 19 and in my undergrad program so I can't speak at all about job hunting or whatever, but I can't see it as being too hard to find a job with a masters degree. Now I understand the whole "overqualified" issue but it can't be that big of a drawback can it?

I'm only 19 and in my undergrad program so I can't speak at all about job hunting or whatever, but I can't see it as being too hard to find a job with a masters degree. Now I understand the whole "overqualified" issue but it can't be that big of a drawback can it?

Yeah, it is. I don't have a Master's but I couldn't find even crap work because I was overqualified for any of it. I couldn't even get an entry-level or junior position in my own field because they knew I'd be gone in a month or two once something better came around.

One of the more successful approaches to finding an unadvertised job in a tough market is to seek out informational interviews with companies in your area.

Start by making a list of all of the companies that do work related to your field and order them based on your desire to work for the company. Starting with the bottom of the list, try to contact HR and get a 10 to 15 minute informational interview where you can find out information about the company; stick to this 10 to 15 minutes (you are in charge of the interview) and after you get the information you desire about the company try to get the HR person to get you in contact with someone within the company who might be able to give you advice on how to break into the industry. If they get you in contact with someone, try to get an informational interview from them by offering them something like a coffee; and if successful, try to get them to get you in contact with someone else who can give you information about breaking into the industry.

If you follow up appropriately, and have done well with your interview, it is likely that when an opening appears in one of these companies you will be considered before the job is advertised. On a side note, since so few people have the "bawls" to do this, you will have very little competition with this approach.

Yeah, it is. I don't have a Master's but I couldn't find even crap work because I was overqualified for any of it. I couldn't even get an entry-level or junior position in my own field because they knew I'd be gone in a month or two once something better came around.

As a general guideline, a master's degree makes you more attractive for a few positions and no more attractive for most positions within a field than a bachelor's degree would. In some ways it is a negative because the extra couple of years experience you could have gotten instead of a master's degree is valued far more than the master's degree is. My job market is relatively healthy, and my field within my market has very low unemployment, so this isn't the case at the moment but (in the past) I have seen people with Master's degrees and PHD's struggle because of this. If an employeer can put up a posting and find countless people who have 3 to 5 years experience in a very similar position with strong references it will be very difficult for a new graduate of a master's or PHD program without real world experience to find a job.