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After hundreds of failures, I managed to get a government job since they were obligated to test me on some incredibly easy "standardized test" which automatically gets you an interview with the team.
At least in these cases you're less likely to be at the whims of a wholly inept HR person and instead at the whims of a wholly inept assessment third party. And the latter at least doesn't care if you're fresh on the market.
not to mention government jobs are typically unionized
That's stellar. I'm finding myself being pushed out of consideration for almost every government or government adjacent field since I foolishly focus on the company before myself and don't have a degree for what I do. Hoping I can find something contracted if anything.
Ah, the irony is I have a degree but it worked against me since it's specialized--- you'd think I wouldn't have the 400+ applications rejected or ghosted, but every rung is filled with people asking too many years of exp, focusing on "objective facts" and ignoring soft skills like work ethics. (Incidentally, years worked on something isn't inherently good, it can mean you do the same bad job for longer, haha).
No degree, your best bet might be in IT. My dad started off at City Hall without a degree and moved up from an on call tech to something pretty decent. They likely still test you on basic computer skills but it's generally easy to learn.
One advantage you have at least is you can technically apply to anything. You don't have the burden of a degree forcing you into a given industry, and a lot of places will train you if they need the help (childcare and healthcare are always in desperate need and pay more than average). Try not to be discouraged!
For sure that's basically my trajectory. I worked at a community college doing tech lab administration, then an ISP, then did networking for sound systems and eventually helping with the software side of things. I've started branching out my searches to unis and cities so definitely good advice and part of my search.
I'm trying to keep my head up but it's hard. Thanks for the well wishes it means a lot to me.