Employment advice.

foshizzle

Hello, I am 19 and in need of some employment advice any advice, tips will be much appreciated. Also, I am sorry if this ends up as a long rant kind of thing that I apologise beforehand.

Anyway, I am currently seeking employment to the point of anything to get some much needed experience in paid work and I'm on JSA by the way whilst looking for work.
Through looking for work via the internet jobsites like cnx2jobs, jobcentre plus website, going directly to the shops asking for vacancies, handing out CVs if the shops requires one, and through going to the jobcentre using the job point machines.

I'm not sure whether its the matter of my CV not being good enough/looking bare or what have you or the lack of experience needed in order to get a job that I am very confused about.

My highest level of qualifications is completed A-levels Sociology B, Health and Social Care CC, Keyskills Lv2 Maths and ICT which I both passed.
I decided against going to Uni as I was fed up of education and more studying as i was also unsure what i would do after the 3 yrs of uni was over.
Currently, my Cv consists of 2 pages which page 1 is basically personal info; name , contact details, personal skills bullent pointed and qualifications starting with the most recent.
Page 2 is work history well all is just shy of a paragraph 1weeks work exp. in rest byte centre where I was a volunteer that dealt with mainly socialising with clients, maintaing personal care e.g. helping them shower with assistance, daily tasks like dressing them up. From that I got a thankyou letter from the vitalise manager person and a certifiacte of thankyou don't know if thats any use in a cv?

The second unpaid work exp is working in a charity shop for 2 weeks for school's work exp as a shop assistant so, using tills and those general duties. I got a good written reference from the manager himself.

Most jobs I apply for generally are admin, receptionist types of job, I've looked into the catering/hospitality/food area but most of them jobs you need experience which I sadly don't have.
Also, I been applying to tesco's, morrisons, asdas, curry's, dunnes stores, accersorize, bodycare, superdrug, places, randomly handing out cv's to shops but no luck.
I even tried applying for temp xmas jobs but again no luck so, I applied to do apprenticeships in elderly care/health and social care but all the colleges i applied to say you must have a job in that area.
So, in hearing this I rang up many care homes for vacancies as a care assistant most of them said sorry but no. But when some said yeah bring in your cv and we'll see from there when I did they just sent a letter saying you don;t have neccessary experience for this job.

I'm really stuck in what to do of course i'll keep the job search going and apply for many job vacancies available to me, I'm just wondering what kind of advice would you give me if any?

Thankyou Very much for your help and your time reading this.

cpria7

Most companies want experience but very few are willing to give it. Try volunteering with a charity in an admin department. The NSPCC/Childline are always looking for help. Whilst obviously it is not paid at least it looks good on a CV. Good luck.

Ephemera

Hi foshizzle, and welcome to mse!

I was about your age and started looking for full time work in the last recession (late 1980s) and, like yourself, found that I was in somewhat of a Catch-22 situation, having no experience for the work I was seeking, but no employer being willing to take a chance on an unqualified teenager.

So.. advice from an old hand!!

1. Keep the faith. You will find employment eventually. You might be lucky and fall into the perfect job, or have to fill in what seems to be thousands of forms. In reality, you'll be somewhere in the middle.
2. Treat every interview as a learning experience. You can glean information from each interview that will help you perform better at the next one.
3. Read THIS BOOK 'Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions' - this book helped me beat 82 male applicants to a job that doubled my salary overnight... I recommend it to anyone looking for employment in a tough climate. Get it from your library if you're on a budget.
4. Have more than one CV. Tailor your CV to draw out your most relevant experience for the job you are applying for. And if you do not have direct experience, can you use something similar and draw a parallel?
5. Remember there are a LOT of others in the same position. What makes YOU unique? What can YOU bring to a company that another applicant cannot?

Spellcheck your CV and any application letters, remember to take copies of your CV to the interview, look smart, be on time, polite to everyone you meet in the company (you never know who is in who's pocket so being rude to the receptionist is not good if he/she has the ear of the MD!) and above all, be prepared to accept less now for the opportunity of more in the future.

Hope this helps!

All the best,

Eph. x

LittleVoice

If you are "selling" yourself on the basis of your paper qualifications, then keeping them near the top of the CV is OK. When you have increased your level of experience (or now if you can), it might be that what you are selling is your work experience - so get your work-related experience onto the first page. It will get a better chance of being seen if it is on page one rather than page two - because if you do not catch the CV reader's eye with page one, they may not read on to page two.

Definitely spell-check, as Ephemera says. Don't rely solely on a word processor's spell-check function. Get someone else (who is good at spelling and grammar) to read it over for you.

This is because the computer doesn't understand what you have written (or what is said by a person using dictation software) - as long as the word is in its dictionary, it won't care. But you could be using the wrong words (like rest byte).

Also consider how you describe your decision not to go to Uni. Can you make it sound like a positive decision?

If you have been trying for some time and have not got anywhere with how you are approaching your jobsearch, then it may be worth checking how you are going about it. If you haven't read it yet, borrow a copy of What Color is Your Parachute? It is (or was) an annual publication, but the basic advice doesn't change. It is American so needs to be checked against some UK practices but generally very good - especially in helping you work out what you really want to do.