Hi Dark,
We have the same problem here on this side of the pond as well. High
unemployment rates among the visually impaired, several with excellent
credentials but no jobs to match, and only a handful manage to make it
into a job somewhere. Our unemployment rates national sucks anyway, but
the visually impaired are by far hit the worst by the economic
situation. A company can't come out and not higher you because you are
blind, but they can set roadblocks in your way in order to make sure you
don't get that job all the same A good case in point.
Ever since leaving college I've never been able to find local full time
employment in a company or firm so tend to work independently out of my
home as a tech web administrator, or wherever my skills could prove
useful. It doesn't bring in the kind of money my skills should under
normal working circumstances, and because I work in the private sector,
for myself, I don't have an actual employer to give me references to
other companies. So about three years ago I put in an application at AOL
in Columbus who were seeking a developer who has experience working with
Linux, who knows Java, etc and it looked like something I could do.
unfortunately, although I could give them credentials on my Java
education I couldn't hand them a slip saying I know Linux even though by
then I used it every fricking day on my personal computers, nor could I
give them a specific employer since I was in a sense employing myself
for the previous few years. They said to me you don't have the
experience we are looking for, and out the door I went.
The bottom line was I knew I had the skills for that job. how ever, they
didn't know that because I hadn't been able to generate the kind of
paper work, references, etc that the people I knew in college were
getting. I always did well on the phone interviews for a job,but when i
showed up in person for the face to face interview things changed
rather rapidly for the worse. So I don't have much respect for the
so-called high and mighty work ethecs the state agencies push either as
it obviously isn't helping. I could go back to school, get a better
computer science degree, but would it really and truely help?
dark wrote:
I admit I'm a litle jaded on the work subject, sinse I've seen too
many cases of blind people who have nothing but a high education, no
social abilities, and just endlessly apply for jobs to be given excuses.
Sinse employers cannot legally say "we're worried about employing a
visually impared person" this also means they just kmake up excuses.
My brother sent out 100 cvs a month for 8 years, trying to get a job
in law, and was told wonderful things like "your not qualified for
this position" when the position in question asked for two A-levels,
--- ie, a basic ending of school qualification, ---- where he was
applying with a law degree and a legal practice course.
Before this turns into too much of a wrant I'll stop, ---- suffice it
to say while I understand the work ethic atitude, ---- it's one which
strikes me as incredibly pointless in a country where eighty percent
of blind people are unemployed, ----- and I'd be willing to bet that
probably 15 of the last 20 percent are employed by organizations
specifically geared towards blind people like the rnib.
Luckily, ---- I don't care about being employed, ---- i JUST WANT TO
WRITE! IF SOMEONE WILL PAY ME FOR THAT, ---- GREAT! IF NOT, ---- WELL
NEVER MIND.
i FREELY ADMIT i'M NOT IN ANY WAY AMBICIOUS THOUGH.
bEWARE THE GRUE!
dARK.
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