"Just get a job" advice

Sammyantha

Mr_Falling_Star wrote: »

THose who are sending hundreds and hundreds of applications just stop. Find a job you could do, read the job advert and person specification and match your application to them exactly. That way you will get more interviews.

Right on!

Also plenty of jobs in sales, recruitment, restaurants, and admin atm.

sickofusernames

I joined a Driver agency a few weeks ago and I'm now working with a hire company delivering all sorts of equipment but the main one being heating.

After being out of work for 2 years while earning decent money, I'm now enjoying a job on minimum wage keeping busy, I guess I was lucky to land this job but it's only temporary. I still need to earn more to pay all the bills but it's a start!

tripled

FleetFanatic wrote: »

You suggest I'm one of those "don't want to get a job & make excuses"

unfortunately there's more unemployed than actual jobs.

I have 4 children, do you think those sort of jobs are any good for me?

Would I do part-time? Yes, as long as it's over 24 hours, seeing as the working tax credit hours rules change in a few months - not to mention the levels for housing benefit being cut.

I am making every effort to find a job

They look like excuses to me. I'm not saying you shouldn't do the best for your family, if that means turning down certain work as you're family would be worse off, so be it. But they're still excuses, please don't pretend otherwise.

Person_one

tripled wrote: »

They look like excuses to me. I'm not saying you shouldn't do the best for your family, if that means turning down certain work as you're family would be worse off, so be it. But they're still excuses, please don't pretend otherwise.

Excuses? They seem like obstacles, maybe even reasons, to me!

seven-day-weekend

Person_one wrote: »

Excuses? They seem like obstacles, maybe even reasons, to me!

They seem like excuses to me too. You would still get benefits if you did a part time (or two part time) jobs.

I appreciate that you have a family to feed, so are in a different position to some, but nevertheless they are excuses.

I do know that jobs are not that reasy to come by. A young friend of mine applies for jobs every day, he has done for several months, he is experienced in retail, he has had ONE interview and heard nothing from it. I know his CV is OK.

My son's girlfriend applied to work as a cleaner, (16 hours) , she is experienced in all aspects of cleaning. She has a disability so applied under the guaranteed interview scheme (if a person with a disability fits the essential criteria for the job they are guaranteed an interview). She was not given an interview, but just received a letter saying she had not got the job. . She then wrote a polite letter asking what criteria she had not fulfilled to not have an interview and was offered an interview the following day! She went for the interview, was told she had excellent skills and had been well trained at her present job.....but still was not offered the job - of course not, it had been filled already. I don't know what more she has to do to get a job as a cleaner!

There may be jobs out there, but they are not too easy to get.

RedSoleShoes

Whilst I agree with some of Sammyantha's comments about some people just need a little change in attitude, I can also understand the disillusion among jobseekers.

I work in admin (kind of mid-seniority level) and used to get offered an interview for around 90% of jobs I applied for, then offered virtually every role I actually went to interview for. I have been temping for most of this year (after moving from London and leaving a perm job) as I could not even get an interview, let alone a job offer.

I have now finally started a permanent role (NOT with the help of any agencies I might add - see my separate thread about recruitment agencies!) although I have had to go for a lower level than my experience but it does involve accounts, which I am training in, so I am happy.

My point is, although having a positive attitude can do you no harm, at the end of the day there are so many more people going for one role that your experience/CV is just not enough to cut it these days.

In my new job, I was given the task of sending out the rejection emails to the other applicants for 'my' job (a bit weird but interesting to see my competition). Apparently, I was the very first applicant and I think this gave me a huge headstart as, judging by some of the other applicants, I would probably not have chosen me for the job if I had been recruiting for this role!

So there are many more factors than being experience-suitable for a role. I know for sure that two things in my favour for this particular role (as well as being the first applicant) was that I was available immediately, and I was able to attend the interview at short notice.

My advice to all job seekers is to absolutley get your CV/application to the company's inbox on the day the ad is out.

nomoreboomandbust

LilyDeTilly wrote: »

Whilst I agree with some of Sammyantha's comments about some people just need a little change in attitude, I can also understand the disillusion among jobseekers.

I work in admin (kind of mid-seniority level) and used to get offered an interview for around 90% of jobs I applied for, then offered virtually every role I actually went to interview for. I have been temping for most of this year (after moving from London and leaving a perm job) as I could not even get an interview, let alone a job offer.

I have now finally started a permanent role (NOT with the help of any agencies I might add - see my separate thread about recruitment agencies!) although I have had to go for a lower level than my experience but it does involve accounts, which I am training in, so I am happy.

My point is, although having a positive attitude can do you no harm, at the end of the day there are so many more people going for one role that your experience/CV is just not enough to cut it these days.

In my new job, I was given the task of sending out the rejection emails to the other applicants for 'my' job (a bit weird but interesting to see my competition). Apparently, I was the very first applicant and I think this gave me a huge headstart as, judging by some of the other applicants, I would probably not have chosen me for the job if I had been recruiting for this role!

So there are many more factors than being experience-suitable for a role. I know for sure that two things in my favour for this particular role (as well as being the first applicant) was that I was available immediately, and I was able to attend the interview at short notice.

My advice to all job seekers is to absolutley get your CV/application to the company's inbox on the day the ad is out.

I am bit confused, are you saying that in a few years (lets say from 2007 to 2010)you have gone from getting an interview for 90% ofroles you applied for to virtually none at all at present, that is some turnaround, I know things are dire now but even in the good times I had the impression there was always some competition for jobs.

steve1980

There are jobs out there. I applied for a job last Tuesday, had the interview last Thursday and was offered the job 4 days later.

So there are jobs out there, you just need to be proactive.

DCFC79

steve1980 wrote: »

There are jobs out there. I applied for a job last Tuesday, had the interview last Thursday and was offered the job 4 days later.

So there are jobs out there, you just need to be proactive.

also need to broaden your horizons and not just focus on 1 specific area,

RedSoleShoes

nomoreboomandbust wrote: »

I am bit confused, are you saying that in a few years (lets say from 2007 to 2010)you have gone from getting an interview for 90% of roles you applied for to virtually none at all at present, that is some turnaround, I know things are dire now but even in the good times I had the impression there was always some competition for jobs.

I'm not sure where you got 2007-2010 from, I am talking about the last 10 years really.

And yes, it is some turnaround, which is exactly my point about how bad the job situation is!

The reason I got nearly all the roles I interviewed for was because I was quite selective about which interviews I chose - I did not go for all of them.

Depends on your sector as to how much competition there was previously but admin is pretty widespread so there are (or used to be) a lot more opportunities than in various other types of work.