Ask HN: How do shut-ins get their motivation back to find a job?
I&#x27;m a software engineer in the US, who&#x27;s worked for five different companies in this role, but financially I&#x27;m not better off than I was when I started. Not having a job for so long has taken a toll on me. I lost the interest to hang out with people. Since losing my last job a year ago, I couldn&#x27;t really hang out with my friends without bringing up jobs at some point, because that&#x27;s all I can think of right now. Money and the prospect of an average-paying job are on my mind.<p>I didn&#x27;t want to be that guy who only complains to their friends, so I took a sabbatical and &quot;went silent&quot; with my friends with the exception of occasionally PM them online for small talk. Almost none of my friends are programmers nor know many people who hire them, so I stopped bugging them. As for my colleagues, it&#x27;s the same story- I ask them if they know anyone that&#x27;s hiring, they say no but they&#x27;ll &quot;keep an eye out&quot;. They always say something like that.<p>A couple months ago I applied for Medicaid from my state&#x27;s Dept. of Human Services because my savings were getting very low. I eventually got approved, but was left wondering why my taxes to the state could only offer cash, TANF and medical assistance, but why gov&#x27;t sponsored &quot;job matchmaking&quot; for able-bodied people doesn&#x27;t exist. A lot of people would rather just get an appropriate job no-strings-attached than sit around sending job apps and collecting welfare.<p>All I do now is apply for jobs online, randomly browse places like Reddit and hit the occasional tech meetup. Other than that most of my time is taken up doing errands for my mom.<p>These meetups, well they are good time killers, but not making any headway there either. I get business cards, email people and get placed into a few interviews but not getting offers.<p>I wonder what place is there for shut-ins like me in this world to be a productive member of society again without the barrier of the hiring process. Volunteer activities do not excite me. How do I make getting job offers second nature for people who are right now socially withdrawn?