{"id":13552,"date":"2026-01-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/?p=13552"},"modified":"2026-01-11T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T11:12:11","slug":"invidia-1-das-glueck-der-anderen-in-der-jobsuche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/invidia-1-das-glueck-der-anderen-in-der-jobsuche\/","title":{"rendered":"Invidia #1 \u2013 The Luck of others in their job search"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Age, experience, and comparing yourself to others<\/h4>

By now I\u2019m also clearly heading toward 40. Over the course of my life, I\u2019ve met a lot of people. Some were close to me, others not so much. But many of them have one thing in common: they have insanely shitty-good luck when it comes to job hunting.<\/p>

There are plenty of examples I could name here, but that would completely blow up the scope of what I\u2019m planning to post in January. So I\u2019ll focus on the aspects that stand out most to me personally.<\/p>

People with seemingly effortless access to work<\/h4>

Many people whose paths crossed mine were unemployed while I knew them. Some more often, some less. One person was even unemployed very frequently. And yet \u2026 they always found a new job quickly. That\u2019s not a bad thing in itself. But for me personally, it was shocking to see how easy it was for this person.<\/p>

Of course, only a few of those jobs actually made them happy. But they never had to worry about whether they would find a job at all. And that made me angry over and over again. And yes: deeply envious.<\/p>

Networks, connections, and unequal starting positions<\/h4>

He always had someone who got him into some kind of job. A casual acquaintance, a former colleague, a relative\u2014there was always someone. He kept landing new jobs without having to put in much effort himself. The positions were practically handed to him.<\/p>

Other people didn\u2019t have quite that much luck, but still, sometimes one or two applications were enough for them to get back into work quickly. And I keep asking myself why it isn\u2019t at least a little easier for me.<\/p>

Education, background, and limited opportunities<\/h4>

I already wrote in the first Acedia post about how frustrating this is. I want to go a bit deeper here.<\/p>

Education, in general, is something largely reserved for the upper middle class and above. People from the lower middle class or below rarely make it into university or similar paths. Scholarships are few and far between.<\/p>

That means many people\u2019s opportunities for further development are severely limited. That was the case for me as well. I was a straight-A student until we moved into a socially deprived area. I already knew bullying before that, but there it became much worse. As a result, I ended up in the bottom third of my class\u2014a massive fall for me.<\/p>

Over the years, something like the Abitur became completely out of reach. I repeated a year, and then I was unemployed.<\/p>

Applications, degrees, and structural barriers<\/h4>

Back then\u2014as in parts of today\u2014I applied everywhere, even for positions where I didn\u2019t have the required qualifications on paper. But no one hires someone without the appropriate academic degree.<\/p>

I know I get very hung up on this topic. I\u2019m aware of that. But in the end, social background is often the reason why people don\u2019t get ahead. I\u2019ve seen people stuck in undeclared work, with no hope of improvement.<\/p>

Fourteen years of stagnation and the fear of repetition<\/h4>

I\u2019ve also spent 14 years in a job that neither helped me progress nor did me any good\u2014out of fear of finding nothing else. Now I\u2019m forced into a situation where I have to find something. And I\u2019m terrified of taking just any job again, simply to be employed and escape the upcoming, deeply inhumane basic income system\u2014only to get stuck once more and end up in an even worse psychological state.<\/p>

Envy, self-contempt, and justified questions<\/h4>

In situations like this, the envy flares up even more\u2014and with it, unintentionally, a certain bitterness.
\u201cWhy person X and not me?\u201d<\/p>

And then I despise myself even more for being bitter and envious. That spirals into yet another \u201cI\u2019m dissatisfied with my career decisions\u201d rut.<\/p>

But in my view, the question is absolutely justified: why do so many people have so much luck and find new jobs quickly\u2014for example, despite lacking skills or required qualifications that companies then even pay for\u2014while I\u2019m practically drowning in existential fear?<\/p>

To you, the readers: experiences, but no platitudes<\/h4>

How has this been for you? Do you have any advice?
And\u2014however harsh it may sound\u2014please refrain from statements like: \u201cIf you think positively, you\u2019ll find a job faster.\u201d There are people who can\u2019t do that, for example for psychological reasons. And those people deserve a bit more luck too.<\/p>

That luck would be easier to come by if companies would finally stop being so obsessed with certificates and maybe say once in a while:
\u201cLet\u2019s hire a career changer who might bring other competencies that are important to us.\u201d<\/p>

Gerry<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alter, Erfahrung und der Vergleich mit anderen Mittlerweile gehe ich nun auch stark auf die 40 zu. Ich bin in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-invidia","category-vices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13888,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13552\/revisions\/13888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-wie-gerry.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}