Job seeker finds barriers without any experience

To the editor:

Recently I found myself unemployed. I worked for a company that played a nasty trick on me. It offered me full-time work, but before my 90-day probation ended, it let me go.

Before I started work for this company, I was looking for a secretarial-receptionist job. I went to Metro Business College. I worked for a factory. I recently took a four-month office-technology course to update my office skills. Every time I apply for a job, I am told I don't have any professional office experience. How am I supposed to get that experience if a company won't hire me? It is like a revolving door. The only people getting office jobs are the ones who already have experience.

What kind of message are we sending the graduates of the future? Are they going to have the same problem I am having? What kind of message is America sending? People are not born with experience.

I have a magnetic flag on my vehicle, and I believe in standing up for my country. But I am very disappointed in all these companies that only want to give experienced office workers the jobs. I love working with computers, and I'm starting to think the only way I can do what I love to do is to start my own business, which I don't have the funds to do.

PATRICIA PARMER

Frohna, Mo.