Getting A Job with no references & not worked for 8 years

jw30

I am now 31 & have not worked since I was 23 I have epilepsy I did work back in early 2002 then I had a fit in work, since then I was on the sick for 6mths and my employment finished.

I then claimed Disability Living Allowance, Income Support, Housing & Council Tax benefit. I get £750 a month cash and the rest is paid off my rent & council tax.

Now I have not had a fit now for about 11 months which is wonderful & for a long time I have wanted to get back to working again as being on the sick isn't what I want to do.

Now my question is this how do I get a job with no work references for over 8 years? Does anyone know of jobs which don't require a reference or operate some kind of trial before getting took on permanently?

I need to get back on track please help

dmg24

You would be best to contact the Disability Employment Advisor (DEA) at your local JCP. They can go through your options with you. They may be able to arrange a work trial for you, or you could look at doing some voluntary work in the short term?

touch*my*food*feel*myfork

I recently returned to work after being at home/a mum and working for myself selling things through ebay over the last 9 years.
I have managed to get a job within a school and they accepted references from friends, even though the application form says must be previous employer. (my employer before being at home had been taking over too)
so it is possible, just either ring up and explain before sending in application forms or enclose a covering note about it.

good luck

gwinnie

What sort of work are you after? I'd phone the big employers, eg supermarkets, department stores, also NHS trusts, libraries. You could also try volunteering, eg admin for charities. This gives you both work experience and referees.

conradmum

I interview and hire people on behalf of my organisation and personally I'd be happy with references from friends or acquaintances, although preferably they should be people in positions of responsibility. As long as you're completely honest on your cv and application as to why there's a gap in your employment record, any reasonable employer would accept that it's impossible for you to provide work references.

If you could provide some kind of statement from your doctor regarding your state of health this would be very helpful, although you may have to pay for this.

I agree that volunteering would be a great way to ease yourself back into employment.

pineapple

I once gave my dentist as a referee!
I am sure employers will be understanding if you explain. Aim for someone in a responsible professional position - or get some voluntary work first and use that.

computershack

I applied for a job that I'd not done for 16 years and in a completely different field. I had no recent relevent experience nor relevent references. In effect, as far as that job was concerned I had been "unemployed" for 16 years.

What I did was realise that a standard CV with the last decade and a half as a lorry driver was not going to get me anywhere applying for a technical engineering vacancy encompassing electronics, mechanics and pneumatics. What I did was to create a "skills based" CV, rather than a standard chronological one which focused on the relevent experience I had from jobs and training before the driving. Monster.co.uk has some great advice on how to do this. This would be heavily promoting your skills and abilities rather than your employment history - that is still mentioned but more as an afterthought at the end - and therefore overcomes the negatives.

Anyway, it was enough to get me shortlisted from 150 applicants to 6 and, importantly, an interview. Once you get an interview, you can sell yourself a lot better than on your CV and it went well. Sadly my health deteriorated and as it was an engineering job, I wasn't able to continue with the application

My point is that it does show that putting in the right type of CV can overcome a long period of absence in a certain field or from work.

Oldernotwiser

A skills based CV is definitely the way to go, combined with voluntary work for an up to date reference and experience.