making myself seem more employable?

katiesmummy

i moved into my house (in a different part of the country) about 4 months ago with my 2 yr old ds. we moved here after living in a refuge for a while (a very long and boring story so i won't bother going into it).

i decided that i wanted to go back to work part-time and have been looking for jobs, but have not had a single response. i haven't worked since before ds was born, so obviously i know that goes against me slightly.

i made an appointment at the jobcentre for the new deal scheme and the woman was so unhelpful- she said that there is hardly any part time work out there and i should be looking for full-time. firstly, i have done my sums and if i was working full-time there is no way i would be able to afford to cover all of my bills, even with wtc, ctc etc. secondly, as my son is so young i really dont want to leave him with a childminder for 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week, its not fair on him. the only part-time work she could come up with was night work in a local supermarket, and didn't seem to understand that i don't have anybody that could have my ds at night (she didn't seem to believe me when i said that i have no family or friends round here- i got the 'well surely you chose this area for a reason' speech)

i am not fussed about what kind of work i do (my previous jobs were all office based admin/pa roles) as long as its work.

i guess my question hidden among all that waffle is how do i make myself look more employable? i have been sending my cv to jobs advertised in the jobcentre, local paper and i have also sent 'cold-call' cvs but haven't had a single response which is really starting to get me down

are single mums really that unemployable now?

Horace

Can't comment on the kids side of things because I never had any.

Job wise - when you apply for jobs look at the job description and note down what experience you have (this can be from life and previous work) e.g. you can manage a budget etc. etc. Jobs are hard to come by at the moment - not just for you but for everybody and unfortunately the jobcentre staff are too busy to be polite or anything else. Apply for jobs in councils or even at the jobcentre itself as they seem to be on a recruitment drive - these places are more likely to have jobshare or part time work.

Good luck.

Rockyroad

Hi,

I can't imagine the situation that you are in, no family etc, I just wanted to wish you luck with your new start in life.
You said your previous jobs were in admin, have you thought about or looked at call centres in your area. Many call centres have part time shifts. I know that cleaning jobs are usually part time too. Maybe even fast food places. It may not be ideal or exactly what you hoped for, but it's always an opportunity to meet new people and I always think it is easier to get a job when you already have one.

katiesmummy

Rockyroad wrote: »

Hi,

I can't imagine the situation that you are in, no family etc, I just wanted to wish you luck with your new start in life.
You said your previous jobs were in admin, have you thought about or looked at call centres in your area. Many call centres have part time shifts. I know that cleaning jobs are usually part time too. Maybe even fast food places. It may not be ideal or exactly what you hoped for, but it's always an opportunity to meet new people and I always think it is easier to get a job when you already have one.

how would i find out if there are any call centers in the area? sorry, am a bit of a dumb blonde sometimes!

having nobody isn't so bad, at least there's no-one to let you down & i have my boy which is all i need

katiesmummy

Horace wrote: »

Can't comment on the kids side of things because I never had any.

Job wise - when you apply for jobs look at the job description and note down what experience you have (this can be from life and previous work) e.g. you can manage a budget etc. etc. Jobs are hard to come by at the moment - not just for you but for everybody and unfortunately the jobcentre staff are too busy to be polite or anything else. Apply for jobs in councils or even at the jobcentre itself as they seem to be on a recruitment drive - these places are more likely to have jobshare or part time work.

Good luck.

thanks for that- i just had a look on the council site- the only job available at the moment is for a gardener!

do the jobcentre advertise internal jobs on their website? i've never seen them (or maybe not known what to look for lol)

Savvy_Sue

I know things are tough, but partly, it's all in the mind ...

katiesmummy wrote: »

i haven't worked since before ds was born, so obviously i know that goes against me slightly.

Try to turn that around. Not "I've not been working for x years" but "In the last x years I have gained experience in ... " doesn't matter where you gained it, at home, by volunteering in playgroup, look at the experience you've got from ANY situation and see how it works into your applications.

katiesmummy wrote: »

as my son is so young i really dont want to leave him with a childminder for 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week, its not fair on him.

Have you thought of childminding? It's not for the fainthearted, and it's not an instant income, but it is something you might want to consider.

katiesmummy wrote: »

are single mums really that unemployable now?

I know not everyone will agree with me, BUT my job applications have never mentioned anything about my family situation, and I'd advise you to consider whether or not you want to mention it. Because if you don't say you're a single mum, your employer can't ask if you are. And presumably you've worked out how you're going to see that he's cared for and still get to work on time, which is all an employer should care about at selection stage.

Now I was fortunately in that when the boys were younger I did a fair bit of voluntary work, so my employment history didn't have a long 'career break for family reasons' in it, just a lot of 'voluntary work', overlapping with bits of part-time work. And any employer with half a brain would realise that if I was volunteering on the PTA (and learning how to keep the accounts!) chances were I'd got children.

But they didn't need to know how many I had, or whether I had a partner.

Whatever personal information you give, make it positive not negative.

Also if you've started making friends through toddler groups etc, let everyone know you're looking for work, you never know who might know a friend of a friend who's recruiting!

katiesmummy

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I know things are tough, but partly, it's all in the mind ... Try to turn that around. Not "I've not been working for x years" but "In the last x years I have gained experience in ... " doesn't matter where you gained it, at home, by volunteering in playgroup, look at the experience you've got from ANY situation and see how it works into your applications.

Have you thought of childminding? It's not for the fainthearted, and it's not an instant income, but it is something you might want to consider.

I know not everyone will agree with me, BUT my job applications have never mentioned anything about my family situation, and I'd advise you to consider whether or not you want to mention it. Because if you don't say you're a single mum, your employer can't ask if you are. And presumably you've worked out how you're going to see that he's cared for and still get to work on time, which is all an employer should care about at selection stage.

Now I was fortunately in that when the boys were younger I did a fair bit of voluntary work, so my employment history didn't have a long 'career break for family reasons' in it, just a lot of 'voluntary work', overlapping with bits of part-time work. And any employer with half a brain would realise that if I was volunteering on the PTA (and learning how to keep the accounts!) chances were I'd got children.

But they didn't need to know how many I had, or whether I had a partner.

Whatever personal information you give, make it positive not negative.

Also if you've started making friends through toddler groups etc, let everyone know you're looking for work, you never know who might know a friend of a friend who's recruiting!

thanks sue, i never really looked at it like that before! i thought i had to be upfront about my situation or i could get in trouble later on if you know what i mean!

re childminding- as much as i adore my son, i could never ever ever be a childminder. i don't have the patience or the love for other people's kids (now im making myself sound like a dragon lol). add to that the fact that i own a big dog who most kids would be scared of, childminding honestly isn't for me.

i am going to look at my cv again tonight and rewrite some of it to include all the 'experience' i have gained in the past couple of years,

Savvy_Sue

katiesmummy wrote: »

thanks sue, i never really looked at it like that before! i thought i had to be upfront about my situation or i could get in trouble later on if you know what i mean!

Why could you get in trouble? the only way that could happen, as far as I can see, is if you are asked at interview "Can you do 3 - 6 pm?" and you say "Yes", and then you turn round and say "No I can't I can only work 10 am - 2 pm because I have a 2 year old boy."

Personally I would always keep it a bit vague: if you're asked if you would ever be able to work overtime at short notice I'd say something like "Although I'm willing to do some overtime, it would be difficult to do so at short notice because of my home commitments."

You could have an Aged Mother you need to get home for. It might even be that you have a dog you need to get home for. What you need to communicate is what you CAN do - you'll be there when you've said you will, you can do what they want.

Once you start, of course you'll tell people you have a little boy. And a dog. But you won't be bringing them to work with you.