With my current job I barely get all my bills paid. I need at least a part time position to supplement my income. Referrals from coworkers never pan out. I've gone into all the businesses that are located around where I live. I even applied at Target, had all the skills they were looking for, yet they told me that they were looking for somebody different. The only thing I can figure out why Target didn't offer me a position was because I am 42 years old. It is almost as if they would rather hire somebody who won't last like somebody just out of high school.

Craigslist is free and companies post jobs over there all the time but the problem I find with Craigslist is there are a lot of postings of junk, scams, and biz op's. You end up having to weed through 10 junk ads just to get to one that is real. Most of these jobs give no phone number just either a fax number or email address to reply to. If your ;local McDonald's put a wanted ad in the classifieds locally or hung up a sign then when applying your app will be 1 amongst maybe a thousand others.

This seems to be the concensus with all companies who post a wanted ad on sites like Careerbuilder, Monster, and Yahoo Hotjobs. It takes months before you ever hear back from any of these companies and I want a job now not 3 months down the road. I've tried just call companies in the Yellow Pages but it's September here in Florida and a lot of these companies tell me they will have nothing until the season starts sometime in October.

Is there something wrong with me? Why can't I seem to get another job? Do I need to go back through some sort of schooling? I have prior Student Loans so without having to apply for more loans how would I even pay for more schooling? My wife just started one of those small colleges that is all over the internet for Medical Assistant training. The total cost of the entire 2 year program is almost $20,000 not to mention the loss of income because while she is going to school she can't afford the time to work a full time job.

My father paid for my brothers to go through school but I was one of the lucky ones who was told to raise the money myself and if and when I graduate my father would think about reimbursing me. When he was working his income was too great for me to qualify for any financial aid. At least 20 years ago schooling was a lot more affordable. I purposely did not claim my kids as deductions when I filed my yearly taxes thinking this would help them qualify for financial aid. It turns out that these days whether or not you declare your kids on taxes if they are under 24 years of age they are automatically look upon as your liability.

What about the idea of learning new skills on my own? I can find a lot of information online if I could just find some place where I could take the exams and learn all the material on my own I should be able to save a small fortune. I know a lot about computers but yet I don't have any of the certifications. I know everything the certificates tell employers you know. Is there a place where I can just take the exams rather than have to go to school to learn things I already know. I've taken the online tests for these cert's and passed them all with flying colors. Where do I go from here?