Last June, I graduated from college, with a professional bachelor's degree in information management and multimedia. I started actively looking for a job somewhere late September, because, due to my autism, I had access to a few government aid methods that could help me land a job, but I wanted to make sure I had them before starting to look for a job. I started submitting applications online, both via mail and via specialized websites, 3 times a week (recommendation from the persons who supports me in this), and went to multiple job faires that were easily accessible for me. I mostly submitted apps for jobs involving Java development (a programming language), since that was the job I was interested in the most, but quickly branched out to incorporate .NET (another language that i'm interested in). I have tried to submit these requests in different styles, sometimes mentioning my autism, sometimes not, to see if it would have an effect on interest.
But in the end, up to this point, I've received around 10 actual invitations for an interview, out some 30-odd sent. Only one of those actually gave a positive response, but they couldn't hire me till April (I got the response late November). Once I got this message, I started to look for a job abit slower, sending about 1-2 apps per week, again on recommendation from my supporters). Around February, i started contacting the company again, but the person who said they were interested in me no longer worked there, and the person who replaced him has only responded to the first of my mails so far, saying that the project was shifted to May. I sent 2 more mails during April, but none of them got a response. In the end, i started actively looking for work again last week.
Now, I'm looking for a job in ICT, but I got 2 major stumbling blocks. The first is my autism, which for a lot of companies is a deterrent, because I've gotten far less replies to apps where I mentioned my autism than to those where I didn't. The second also has to do with my autism, namely that I'm so confused with the rules in traffic, and especially how there are so many people that don't adhere to them (running the red or orange, sudden braking or lane changing, driving excessively slow or fast, tailgating, that kind of stuff), that I'm actually afraid to get a driver's license. this limits the jobs I can get, because a large amount of ICT employees are consultants, who drive from company to company, and without a driver's license, I cannot realistically do that. I actually had at least 5 or 6 companies call me because they found my resumé online (note that this was an automated resume where I couldn't enter that I don't have a license), only to back down when I mention I don't have a driver's license.
I'm also reaching a dangerous point at which long duration unemployment can seriously hurt me: both Java and .NET are evolving languages, and if you're left out of the loop for extended periods of time, unless you do research yourself you are missing all those new options that they offer, and how they can affect your project. In addition, a 1 year blank doesn't look good on your resumé.
yeah, i'm likely just sounding like a whiner here, and I know it's full economical crisis still, but i wasn't expecting it to take this long. I mean, there are over a thousand job listing in Belgium for developers. granted, that's not just Java and .NET, it also includes jobs that aren't for Juniors and over 3/4 are too far for me to realistically work, but still...
is anyone else in a similar situation, where they graduated last year but haven't yet found a job?