it just seems like it never gets any better. All I want is a job that pays me enough to live with a straight seven in the morning until 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening Monday through Friday schedule.
I just want an honest days pay for an honest day's work. I mean there are jobs out there like that, but when they advertise, my application is getting drowned out in the stack of like 200 other people who are competing for the same damn role. when the hell is the economy going to get better so I could finally get my damn foot in the door? how the hell am I supposed to buy a house when most jobs don't even pay enough to cover rent for a one bedroom apartment? when are we going to get those manufacturing jobs back and transition out of this stupid fucking low-wage service economy? I just keep seeing things getting more and more expensive and I really don't give a shit about all this political fucking theater when at the end of the day I'm still getting squeezed just as hard as I was under Joe Biden.
It is going to get better, truly.
Now you didn't give much info about your age, circumstances, interests, etc. But that is really beside the point, right?
You live in America - where you can go anywhere you want, do what you want, say what you want. You see, I was in your boat many years ago, bummed out that I couldn't get a good job that paid enough. Then I got canned without warning and then had no money for the rent, gas, food or a car payment. After months of living on unemployment money, a friend invited me on a day trip to Haiti. Some mission trip to help kids.
My God, what I saw there curled my toes. Those people live in the sickest of poverty. Literally, shit everywhere, in the jungle. No water, no electricity, no food except what they could catch from the waters. It was so disgusting, the stench was great!. Old women peeing outside as people walked by. The lame had sticks for crutches and little kids running after the only white man asking for a dollar. Shanty towns everywhere.
IT CHANGED MY WAY OF THINKING FOREVER. And I returned home with new plan. No more complaining. I built a fire under me out of fear. I will NEVER get those images out of my head. I printed one hundred resumes and went to walking down the street thanking God I had access to a bathroom, and could buy a coke or food. By noon I had a job in some place that made telephone equipment, no experience and a good salary. I never looked back.
So please find some friends, some mates, anyone that can help you find the right direction and never forget, YOU LIVE IN A PLACE of FREEDOM and opportunity. Grab it.
Not OP, but I agree with you and that's what I did by applying to over 4,000 jobs over 10 years span and I've only gone on an interview once. Half of the jobs I've applied to, replied to my resume, gushed about my resume by saying that they loved my resume, they want to bring my skills to their company and all that.
They invited me for a phone interview or in-person interview but then the minute I let them know I'm deaf because there will be a communication barrier if there is no sign language interpreter in place to assist us both with communication, that's the point where they drop the ball, "Oh I'm sorry, but my supervisor had just let me know we've hired someone else to fill in the position. Sorry!"
Apparently companies aren't hiring me because I'm deaf, despite my resume looking great, I had great skills and knowledge and my former co-workers can vouch for me as well as getting a lot of accolades from my former employer and I'm still not good enough because I'm deaf.
So that fire beneath me has gone out as I've lost hope. Like you, I've often reminded myself that there are people in worse situations than me but that also left me wondering if help is coming at all for us all, even for the homeless, the disabled and many others? Despite me thinking positive as best and as often as I could, I still have this nagging feeling that it isn't going to happen. I want to quash that feeling. I tried to grab that opportunity but it kept fleeing from me.
Pardon my sudden idea, but: When in doubt, write a book. A good book will sell. A novel? A textbook? A travelogue? A manifesto?
If one communication mode is shut off for you, use the one that you are good at, which does not require speech: writing. Your comment is very well spoken. Easy to read.
Or, write copiously for a lively readership, such as science fiction short stories. The readers don't care if you are deaf. They don't even care if you are terrestrial. There are about 3 major monthly magazines that publish SF short fiction. A running series on a common character has always been popular. I think there is a similar readership for detective stories. That was how Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their fame. (Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive. From him we got Philip Marlowe, the famous noir detective.)
If you know anyone who is a talented graphic artist, you might strike up a collaboration to obtain illustrations for stories. This leads to the idea of writing scenario and dialogue for comic books (but I have to say that I doubt there is much craft in the comic books of today).
I'll leave it at that. I just wanted to perk you up with a possibility that may not have crossed your mind.
Damn. I'm brutally crippled - lost my right shoulder so my arm just dangles , and sometimes my spine or neck locks up and I can't move for days. I had a business with my able bodied cousin but he abandoned and betrayed me for someone else he thought was better ; then came crawling back when he realized he wasn't - but by then I walked away to start my own business. I'm on track, but I lost 50k in GME call options so that really hurt , but again the way i respond to pain is to make myself do better and remove excuses. I tell myself everything works out for my betterment , because truly it does, if you have the right perspective and don't give up. we'll see how it goes. thoughts and prayers with you my homie, you have permission to selfishly pursue your goals and health - take no shit from anyone .
Hey fren, I encourage you to see yourself as a super hero with strengths others do not have. The biggest one is you understand deaf people better than anyone else. Maybe there are some opportunities that need your strengths as a deaf person. I bet you have great attention to detail and focus abilities. The way you see the world is different than those who can hear. That is unique and gives you an edge. Consider having a discussion with X.ai or your preferr3d AI agent. Explore ideas together and find one that ignites your passion. The more you pursue the things you love in life the happier you will be and the more effective you will be. Let your passion take charge and opportunities will come your way because you care so much.
Keep balance with daily prayer. Dwell on what you are grateful for in life.
You've got this
I realize I'm late to this thread. But with a month of time now passed, have you found any of the suggestions to be helpful? For your consideration I'd like to offer a variant of the idea of u/killerspacerobot.
What I think you should do is start a Substack blog. Title it something like My Journey as a Deaf Person to Land a Good Job. Chronicle your efforts. Share things about the obstacles of being deaf in society and what people in your predicament try to do to overcome them. Share your blog with others in the deaf community for ideas and input. But try to reach out to a general audience. To the extent you are comfortable share your emotional side. People love people stories. And in America, especially, stories of triumph over adversity. Invite readers to comment, provide suggestions, and offers to make connections. Follow up on feedback with new blog entries.
If you can afford to do so, be a product tester of new technology. For example language translation glasses, where in your case L1 = spoken English and L2 = written English. Also, there are now software companies building add-on business software APIs to teleconferencing products such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams that perform live language translation. The intended use case is speech-to-speech translation for multinational corporations that span English/Spanish/Portuguese etc. regions. Come to think of it, you might prefer translation from spoken English to ASL. I have not looked but that capability might already exist in some open source software package. Testing this type of tech with an eye towards lowering the barrier to being hired for a job is a subplot that I think would interest many readers.
Now let me share some insights of what you are up against. In the corporate world the hiring process is primarily driven by fear. It's the fear of making the wrong choice and being back at square one. That's why networking is such an advantage and why hiring managers lean so heavily into personal recommendations from colleagues whom they trust. The hunt for a "close fit" in the job description stems from the desire for a rapid learning curve. Hiring managers fear that the new hire is just using them to job jump to the next, better-looking, gig. And above all, HR, who should be thought of as an extension of Legal, fears discrimination lawsuits. Your disability is going to right away raise a red flag in their subconscious.
But take heart, because in every company there are people in pivotal positions who secretly desire one thing. They wish they could get rid of their shit tasks. So when asked some wishy-washy question about how you see yourself in the company, some variation of the following will be music to someone's ears. "I will do my best to learn how to take responsibility for the tasks you wish you could offload from your plate, and to support you in completing your goals on time." That's sort of corporate speak but relatively low on the BS meter.
Tying this back to my suggestion for A Day In The Life type of blog, what you'd hope for it to do on top of public outreach is to lower the fear in the reader that you'd be a risky bet. I assure you there are managers out there who want to feel good about themselves for giving someone such as yourself a chance.
And---having a blog with any kind of respectable readership would be a big plus in your curriculum vitae. It would be something the HR person would be able to go out and see for himself.