Where to find jobs?

Hi, I'm a partly-employed young male adult who is working as a bartender in a chain restaurant. I've always had problems finding work and often I don't really know where to look. I'm really looking for someone to make sense of this because I am a little stuck.

To introduce myself, I'm very PC literate, but I'm also used to hard work, long hours, pushing things around, etc. most of my work experience is in customer service positions, ie serving customers in shops, restaurants. I really do not enjoy working in the service industry but it is a job. I have some strong GCSE qualifications, a GNVQ, an AS level, and training courses such as an ECDL, Understanding Customers, Managing Teams, and generally courses related to customers and management.

Now I can go to the city centres or shopping areas where I live, and hand out CVs, as I have done over the past 4-5 years, and I will not hit the spot. The jobcentre is okay and I've found work there once at a Domino's pizza. I went to a restaurant after that and used the savings to move away from the bad area where I was living. I really wanted to find work in another restaurant, supermarket or shop, even something like burger king or mcdonalds, but it's been very challenging to find any work.

Luckily I have a part time job as a bartender but it is not enough and after my jobcrawls or jobsearchs on the internet I do not seem to be getting anywhere. I think the problem is that I am not looking in the right place. My skills are computer use, a little computer repair, and well that is it. If I were to be honest I would say that I don't know what I am supposed to be looking for. There is obviously the right job out there for me and it's up for me to find it, but I just don't know what sector I would be good at, what job would take me on.

During the course of my unemployment I have taken the opportunity to see careers advisors or take careers tests. They succeed in consistently putting me in the wrong direction and I don't recommend seeing a career advisor taking careers tests.

Ideally I would like to fulfil a role as a junior for a Company. I am big and stupid enough to learn and to sort myself out at work. I am not skilled or experienced enough to apply for the higher salary jobs just yet and I need the work experience.

During my periods of unemployment I have engaged in training and picked up qualifications. I also am very interested in music and have taken part in music projects, and I'm involved in them at the moment, as a guitarist in a band and as a project manager for an online collaboration. I go swimming and try to keep active.

Work-wise, I really, really, really don't know what I want to do. Sorry. I don't mind working in an office, on a building site, in a hotel, and I like working with computers. I think my qualifications are pushing me away from some jobs, and the lack of work experience is pushing me away from others. Where could I be applying with these kinds of properties?

You could try temping agencies. That would give you valuable work experience and transferable skills that you could add to your CV?

I wouldn't normally recommend this to any sane individual but have you thought about Sales? As you can clearly write well and present your case.

You are over qualified for working in BK/McDs...

Perhaps you could volunteer for an administration / clerical role if you can spare a few hours in your week, just to get some "experience" down on your CV?

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Also, mmu197lk.

Another thing you have is drive. Which you can't "learn". I'm sure you should possibly just aim a bit higher and stay determined. It will only be a matter of time before someone notices you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried temping agencies, a great deal of the vacancies advertised on my local jobhunting websites lead me to their website. It's very competitive and I don't have the experience they need.

I already have months of voluntary work for various organisations, none of it has helped me find work. Again, it doesn't count as experience to prospective employers.

As far as working in Sales, I am not really outgoing or people-person enough to be successful. My confidence is very low and I often find myself 'paralysed' when it comes to doing my job right, even the simpliest tasks confuse me, and there's a very high chance that I will not have my contract renewed at the end of this week.

What other options are there for people who want to start on the bottom rug somewhere?