Is there any help out there?

CazandCo_2

Hi,

My boyfriend has been unemployed since 2005. Day after day he applys for jobs, walks around trading estates dropping off his CV and he searches online too. Nothing has been offered to him.
He is signed on, but is not entitled to any money. I am not entirely sure why, but apparently if he wasn’t living with me he would get housed and job seekers allowance.
He is 45 years old and has a background in IT, but no up to date qualifications in it. He’s been self employed and is a good, honest hard worker. A true old fashioned man who wants desperately to provide for us.

He’s not great at interviews and admits this and we’ve tried tweaking his CV several times, but to no avail. The job center and government don’t seem to provide any help.

Does anyone know if there is any free training, CV helpers, interview helpers out there that can help?
Does anyone know of any funds he may be entitled to that he hasn’t claimed?

leaphaze

Hi Caz, what IT experience does your boyfriend have? PM me if you like.

I remember being unemployed around 6 years ago. There was lots of advice online about CVs. What you need to put in and what you need to leave out. With the current climate there's lots of competition for each job so you need to make your CV a pleasing experience for someone who's probably spent the last hour and a half wading through CVs. I'm sure you'll find there's lots of advice online.

I also found lots of advice about interviews: how to prepare; how to present yourself, etc. Again there must be tons of stuff online. I even found a website somewhere which gave specimen answers for the standard, really tough questions like 'What's the worse thing about you?'

When I was unemployed, I viewed my job as looking for any info online which could give me an opening, or help my CV or interview technique.

You can help also by encouraging and helping with preparation. You say he's not good at interviews. How about you interviewing him? You need to ask him some tough questions. I'm sure you could think of some real stinkers! But this is all good experience and maybe he just needs his confidence boosted after all this time.

Any courses he can take to update his skills? Or even make him multi-skilled in this difficult times.

Anyway I hope things improve for you both. Good luck.

elektra

good advice from leaphaze

I would just like to add sometimes I find reading this online more difficult than reading a book. So maybe pop to the library and see if any relevant books on interview techniques etc - although they are probably in high demand right now.

CazandCo_2

Hi,

Thank you for your kind advice. His IT skills are good, but not enough to get him into a job it would seem. We’ve both been through his CV and I don’t think it’s too bad. He’s done so many roles in his time that it’s pointless making a long list of them. He lists the skills and jobs that he’s had that are applicable for the role his applying for.
He adjust’s his CV when he applies for other more mundane jobs. He’s gone for all sorts, from Macdonalds to Tesco’s trolly collecter etc. I just don’ understand why he isn’t offered anything.

I.T. Fundamentals Diploma - Computeach
Information Technology Course - Wavell School
School Results:
A Level Carpentry and Economics
O Level Maths and English
C.S.E. Geography and History

§ PC Building, maintenance and repair.
§ Office equipment repair.
§ Hardware Fault finding / Diagnostics
§ Windows Networking
§ Customer support
§ Virus and malware removal
§ Firewalls / Antivirus / Security
§ Microsoft XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 server.
§ Small team management.

I’m guessing that because there are not recent referrals from employers that he isn’t selected over people that have recently left work and have contactable references? Or maybe it’s just that he has no other qualifications. He is an ex-army man and obtained excellent school results in his teens when living in Germany (his Dad was in the Army and posted over there for much of Jeffs childhood) so he’s not thick. He even managed a printing company in Germany by the time he was 20 years old!


We’ve discussed a career change, he’s keen to learn and would gladly do a course. He managed to get a diploma in computer science a few years ago. However his circumstances have changed since then. He now has no money of his own and currently survives on my wages and benefits with my daughter and me. The result is we are left with £73 per week for food, clothing and anything else we require. There is no way we can afford to pay for a course and after researching things we found that he does not qualify for any funding to cover the costs of a course.

If anyone knows of anything we have missed that may help us then please let me know.
At the moment I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel… particularly depressed about it all today.
I can’t think of any reason why he is not getting a job.

SomeBozo

Hi

I see 100s of CVs per week and run and own a consultancy firm.

Can I say first of all that there has to be something else here, now don't take this the wrong way.

He has been unemployed for about 4 years? Thats a heck of a long time.

My first comment on that bit of Cv is, well, its a bit "bleeerrrrugh". What I mean by that is that nothing jumps out. I see a list of schools and then almost general IT skills that most people have.

I can do "PC maitenance and repair". To me thats installing a new DVD drive on my PC or installing updates. Hardly specialised?

"Office equipment repair.". I have contracts on all our photocopiers and FAX machines meaning if they break., the supplier comes and fixes it. I don't want to employ someone to do it for me!

"Hardware Fault finding / Diagnostics" - Again vague.

The rest is too, sorry.

Rip it up and start again, if it has not worked in 4 years, its not going to suddenly start working in pool of candidates we have looking for work now.

I don't mean to rip this apart, consider this being cruel to be kind!

Can you PM me your email address and I'll send you a CV template designed by my graphic designer. But thats only the presentation of it, we need to go back to basics with it.

Bozo

teabelly

Carpentry and economics? What a great combination! I'd recommend he retrained and did electrical, plumbing and joining (might not need to do much with the a-level) and go self employed. No bosses, little hassle and you can decide how much work you do.

Do you have any friends/relatives/collegues you could ask to help with the cost in return for work done or for you to pay it back? I know it is a big ask but that could be the best way to get him doing something useful.

Don't know where you are in the country but Construction Skills College in Stoke On Trent only charges £350 for a week's plumbing and it is a damn good course (my OH has done it recently). They had homework and were worked very hard!

IT is a problem if you don't have the exact skills an employer wants. They don't want to retrain either. I had the same problem when I was looking last year. I have a degree and lots of experience but if you don't have the precise thing they want even though you know you could learn it in a short time they don't want to know.

The cv is a bit vague as employers want to know exactly what he can do. If he is good at maintenance, repair etc then contacting all the contract repair/support companies might be a good idea.

Finding something he can do now, to earn cash, on a self employed basis might be the best way forward.

Has he tried the local charity shops as they always want volunteers? I'd imagine employers may be assuming that unemployed for 4 years is a way of hiding time inside :-/

CazandCo_2

I have PM'd you Bozo.

All your comments are understandable and i completely agree, hence i have posted here in my desperation. I just don't know what to do to correct anything. I have very little experience in CV's and interviews myself having been with one company for 15 years and another for the last 3 years...

He's keen to do anything it takes to get work. Sadly we don't have friends or family in a position to help with funding for a course, but i will look again at our local college, perhaps we missed something. Surely though a weeks plumbing course is not going to give enough qualifications to start work in that role?

We do recognise that IT is a hard field to get back into and thats why we have been looking at anything and everything to get him back to work.

I hadn't thought of him volunteering for charity work, will look into that and as far as i know he's never been to prison. He was working for an agency who made him redundant, no work since then.

Any other tips are greatly welcomed.

thank you all

DCFC79

Surely doing a course at college isnt going to be enough to go self employed,

[Deleted User]

hi CazandCo

Looks like you've got some good advice and help already, but I too am a little confused that your OH has had no work for 3+ years.

I am assuming that he has tried to get temporary work (in IT?), (FYI I was an HR Manager for 6 years up until mid 2007).

If he went registered with employment agencies, they would give him a thorough "grilling" and really go in depth with him about his skills, (interviews generally last about an hour) which would help with a) his interview skills, get a few under his belt, they will give advice on interview techniques and b) whilst they won't help him write his CV, they will make him describe in fine detail the level of his skills and experience, all of which should then be included on his CV and re-submitted to them so they have the most up to date one.

The agencies I used were mainly secretarial, however, they nearly all have an IT division too. Quite often if I needed "manual labour", moving boxes etc it would be usually be the IT guys on their books they would send me (not brilliant pay, but it's pay).

I know it's really tough in the job market at the moment, there's a lot of competition for any jobs.

Just a thought. Wishing you both lots of luck.

SomeBozo

I have your PM, (and another), will email it later today.

Bozo

bfudge69

Have you tried posting his CV on the internet? I have recently lost my job and have posted on
www.monster.co.uk
www.fish4jobs.co.uk
www.jobsite.co.uk
www.thejobsmine.co.uk (this is based around Manchester)

These sites allow employers and agencies to scan several CV's very quickly. Your OH may get an offer from these.

As a tip for writing a CV, try to keep it short(about 2 A4 sides is about right) and use bullet points to state your main points and roles in previous jobs. If a CV is just a large block of text a lot of employers will not bother to read it if they have a lot to get through.

If I think of anything else I'll post again.

Good luck

bf