I’m in the US, no degree, and absolutely sick to death of working in retail.
I’ve tried all the jobs website. They haven’t even gotten me an interview. The only job search method that’s ever given me results is to think of businesses near me and apply to them directly. But that only leaves me working more retail, since public facing businesses are all I’m interacting with.
I just want a job that pays my bills, and lets me work on a consistent schedule. I’m so sick of having my hours constantly whipped back and forth. I just want to go to bed at the same time every day.


I can’t really speak for today, because I know things are way different than they were before when I got out of retail
But I can tell you what worked for me and maybe you can apply something from it to your own situation
Save up enough money and buy your own tools, for me that was a $200 in 2013 computer. Sounds cheap today but it was a very tough purchase to make at the time without help and with bills to pay. Learn something that can be applied elsewhere using ‘free’ resources (r/piracy, FMHY, and your local Library would be the equivalent today). For me that was learning to use Linux, CAD and other modeling software in ways traditionally educated people at the time did not leverage them, and that edge got my foot in the door
Oh, and before you get your hopes up on the regular sleep schedule bit, I spent the past +decade swapping between nights and days every single week after getting out of retail. Now there’s also a baby in the picture and we won’t afford child care so sleep is a pipe dream. Maybe 2-4 hours a day if I’m lucky. Been that way for over a year now
Retrospectively my schedule then of 4-10:30 on week days so I could go to school and 5am-2pm weekends to get enough hours to pay the bills was amazing. Pay sucked though. So did them playing with my hours to keep me part time without full time benefits.