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Im looking for help finding good entry level job opportunities. I am 31, with a bachelors iin business and criminal justice and 10 years in the security industry. And I can't find decent work for the life of me. I CAN find ten bucks and hr, but that doesn't come close to paying my bills.

I even joined the army to pad the resume and get more experience...but that didn't help. I thnk it made things worse! You see all these companies saying they "support" us, but then read the news stories that veteran unemployment is even higher than normal and companies hesistant to hire vets due to PTSD and disabilities they may have (hmmmm, thought that was llegal).

My buddy gave me a heads up on some companies wanting vets in his field of rigging and _______, and I applied for multiple jobs each...but just get denials. I don't have experience in the field, and despite saying they are entry level positions, most guys applying do have some experience.

So who is really hiring entry level?

And please don't say return to school. Im done with that. $20000+ college degree that hasn't helped me yet, im not gonna dump another 20grand into that.

And im open to almost any industry....just someplace with an opporunity to move up. That doesn't exist in my industry

I am sorry you are having issues in finding a job that is worthwhile.
Personally, I do not know any companies that are hiring to help in your situation, but am only responding for 3 reasons:

1 - please list where you are, so people in your general area can try to help
2 - apply at every placement service company you can find, I know it is a PITA to do all of their applications, computer testing, etc., but many companies are only hiring through staffing companies as most companies have limited staff themselves to do the full leg work to find qualified employees.
3 - List your resume on Monster, Linked-In, Career Builder, Jobs.com, and any other reputable online site. Many times, its a lost cause, but once in a while, someone may see something in you and you can find that perfect opportunity.

I wish you the best of luck.

I agree with Teamless on the Linked in. That can be a electronic place to post your resume and network.

You mention rigging. Are you open to industry / petrochemical type situations? There are a lot of companies doing service work out of houston all over the world. The key is a TWIC card ( which I assume since your on a CHL forum the background check isn't an issue) and a passport. If your in the houston area, I would check with the catalyst loading companies. People like Cat Spec or Mourik, etc..

Just a thought.

If you are in the DFW area, and are willing to travel, I can put you in touch with a company that does telcom wiring (outside, cell phone towers). It involves travel, and is a new company (about 6 months), but the owner has been doing the type of work for several years. No guarantee of a job, but I know he's hired folks that have more of an "entry level" status than what you are listing here. Not a glamorous job by any means, but it pays better than $10 an hour. PM me if you're interested.

Where are you located, you can look at the company I'm contracting at now, military related (retail).

Search for openings here: http://odin.aafes.com/employment/default.asp

Oilfield service companies in West and South Texas are having a hard time finding people willing to work. It is hard work but there are opportunities and they are paying well.

Thanks for your replies.

Teamless.....I am in the d/fw area.

I am not opposed to travel, at least not at this point. The problem I think is military drilling schedule. They don't wanna have to work around my schedule. Not when there are other guys w/o that "conflict". I actually had a security company call me about doing this I new mexico.
I told her about the drilling schedule I must follow and she was like "ehhhh, ill call you back". Never heard back.

Geek, I worked for aafes a whle back.....had to quit to get full time work at the time. They had gone to staffing firms too. Ill try them again tho. I guess ill just hit up the staffing places. I started looking for better work almost a year ago....so I've covered career builder, monster, etc. Never netted me one calll....just a bunch of spam email

Glock23, I feel your pain, I am in a similar situation with a similar background. Was laid off at the end of last year and have been searching ever since. You are starting off on the right path which is networking. I am going to give you some advice that I (regretfully) paid a couple thousand $ to learn: People no longer are hired off of want ads, they are hired through networks. The typical position posted on the internet receives around 2,000 applicants within the first 48 hours. Unless your resume is near perfect and somehow magically stands apart from the crowd the chances of it even being viewed by HR (much less the hiring manager) are very small, regardless of how qualified you are for the position. You need to find a way to get in touch with decision makers at companies you target so they can pull your resume to the top of the list. I'm not going to lie, it is tedious and sometimes very "stalker" like, but it is the reality of the job market today. While the economy is improving, there are still many folks who are unemployed and even more who are "underemployed" who you are in direct competition with for every position.

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for connecting with folks and for facilitating some of the data mining (stalking) I was mentioning earlier. Make sure to take advantage of joining industry groups there for areas that interest you and participate actively and intelligently in them, this is how you will gain credibility and grow your network.On top of LinkedIn, make sure to take advantage of job fairs in your area. Again, they may seem cliche, but even that fleeting opportunity to meet with a real human may help put your face to a name in a pile of faceless resumes back at the office. One other thing to keep in mind is that you really want to get a good pair of eyes on what your "web presence" looks like. While we all have screen names on sites like this, you most likely are listed by your given name on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Trust me, recruiters are going to look at this info because it is a fast and free way to see what you are about. I don't know you, so you may very well be fine in that department, but sometimes it is not what you post but what your friends post (and is visibile to others) that can hurt you.

I sincerely hope this info helps you out. Good luck!

Law enforcement? Should be a lot of agencies in the Metroplex.

AlphaWhiskey, I have to disagree somewhat. I work in HR and I have posted jobs over and over. We get an average of 50 resumes for the jobs we post. We could set it up to get 2000 resumes but we have a simple system that make people actually fill out an application (takes 2 mins I have done it myself to see) and it cut our applications by thousands because people are lazy. While I do agree that knowing someone helps plenty of jobs are still filled with people that applied to job ads.
Glock23, I dont know if you are looking and office job or more of a field job but make sure your resume is complete, accurate, void of any errors, and says all your qualifications. Many of the resumes I see have typos. Most i can tell do not explain all of the qualifications, but decisions are made on resumes not on what might be. We do not lack applicants, we lack qualifications. There are alot of places that will assist with resume writing many are free. use them.

Just my opinon. I may well be full of bovine excrement.

mojo84 wrote:Oilfield service companies in West and South Texas are having a hard time finding people willing to work. It is hard work but there are opportunities and they are paying well.

There are lots of jobs in the Midland-Odessa area for people willing to work.

bizarrenormality wrote:

mojo84 wrote:Oilfield service companies in West and South Texas are having a hard time finding people willing to work. It is hard work but there are opportunities and they are paying well.

There are lots of jobs in the Midland-Odessa area for people willing to work.

I would love to hire a general all around IT break-fix field tech in the Midland-Odessa area. Has to be able to work on both PCs and printers, as well as other networking and random hardware. Troubleshooting and procedural assistance provided, but needs to be a self starter who can work with a minimal amount of supervision.

Glock 23 wrote:Im looking for help finding good entry level job opportunities. I am 31, with a bachelors iin business and criminal justice and 10 years in the security industry. And I can't find decent work for the life of me. I CAN find ten bucks and hr, but that doesn't come close to paying my bills.

I even joined the army to pad the resume and get more experience...but that didn't help. I thnk it made things worse! You see all these companies saying they "support" us, but then read the news stories that veteran unemployment is even higher than normal and companies hesistant to hire vets due to PTSD and disabilities they may have (hmmmm, thought that was llegal).

My buddy gave me a heads up on some companies wanting vets in his field of rigging and _______, and I applied for multiple jobs each...but just get denials. I don't have experience in the field, and despite saying they are entry level positions, most guys applying do have some experience.

So who is really hiring entry level?


And please don't say return to school. Im done with that. $20000+ college degree that hasn't helped me yet, im not gonna dump another 20grand into that.

Hey buddy, first of all, thank you for your service... my SIL recently got out of the Navy as a SOCOM Operator and also has a Bachelors but in jurisprudence with a plan on possibly going to Law School. He has had hardly ANY luck in getting a job. He told me that a guy called him after one company that he applied to had turned him down and said, (paraphrasing) look, you clearly had the more impressive resume and would be a perfect fit for the job but our legal department feels you can be a liability... He then said he would deny any conversation but felt bad for him and felt it was wrong to treat a Veteran that way. He currently works for Dish network but has had the opportunity to work up from a call taker to a minor manager. Unfortunately he doesn't make much more than 10-11$ an hour. Thankfully (or not) for him he is rated at 100% and gets a decent VA check monthly... But they're making him re-eval next year and if they find he isn't 100% he loses money. Seems wrong...once they rate you they shouldn't be able to take it away on the whim of a different rating Doc. But, I just received an email from Military.com telling me about a job fair I'm thinking on the 7th of June at the Marriot in Houston. If you want, I can fwd you the email.

There are hundreds of jobs going begging for help in the ND oil patch. Czech it out!