Where to start?

Tigsteroonie

Fuzzy_Duck wrote: »

So my question is (if you have got this far I salute you!) what should I realistically expect, and how can I achieve it? Am I asking too much applying for jobs paying around 16k?

I have 20 years of administrative experience, the most recent 10 years of which were civil service. After a year out to have our son, I've had to start again - I'm on £15k. So good luck!

I presume you are considering other govt/civil service offices in your job-hunting, as they may well take into account your previous years of experience and start you on a slightly higher step on the payscale.

Sambucus_Nigra

Fuzzy_Duck wrote: »

If I receive a rejection letter it usually says I didn't match the job description enough.

This is often the case.

Imagine you are sitting there with 50 applications on your desk - you have to whittle them down.

You get a list of the applicants and you score them.

And what do you score them on?


Spelling and punctuation [obviously]

And

The job skills and experience needed.

Ergo - whenever you apply, every single skill and experience point needs to have something listed that you have shown you can do. Even if you don't think you have - usually in general you can find something.

Fuzzy_Duck

Thanks all, some wonderful advice here. I'm definitely going to stay where I am unless I'm offered a permanent, higher paying job closer to home.

eamon, I'll definitely discuss this at my next appraisal. Recently they've been a bit of a 'meh' affair, as the whole office is feeling apathetic about their future, but at least I'm young and there is plenty of time to do better, so Ithink I simply need to be more proactive and improve my career myself rather than wait for someone else to do it for me.

Oldernotwiser, I'll check out the courses available with OU An IT course sounds pretty appealling and would open up a few more doors for me.

AnonymousForObviousReason, no way will I be saying that :eek: They were horrendous jobs- I worked long hours with few breaks, and I had to badger them constantly to pay me. I worked very hard as I was determined to get some job experience, and a lot of people were fired for not pulling their weight or handed their notice in. I don't think I'd willingly take that kind of job again but it was necessary at the time just to get something on my CV other than voluntary work. One of those jobs was a Christmas temp in a toyshop, so I have highlighted it on my CV as an example of me dealing well with stress :rotfl:

Actually a few days ago I realised how many important details I left out of my applications, including savings I have made by using my creative skills to promote the service we provide, and using my IT knowledge to fix our computers. Obviously I can't edit the applications I've already sent but I can include this in future applications.

Tigsteroonie, thanks for your input. I think I'd be on a prat to leave my current job unless my new job was paying a bit more, so I'll try to aim for 15k which is only £1000 more. I had a potential employer ring me up once to complain about me wasting there time applying for a job I honestly thought I could do, so I've always been a bit nervous of asking for too much money and not knowing whether I'm being cheeky or not. I am completely clueless how much experience you need to request this much money, but it seems in this current climate we have to take what we can get.

Sambucus Nigra, I'm obsessive about good grammar and punctuation (knowing my luck there's probably few misspelling/typos in this post, but when it comes to application I double check, triple check, and have somebody else check it for me too!) Earlier today I went through my previous applications and I could see that I didn't cover everything mentioned in the job role, so I'll be working to improve that in future. Of course there will be many situations where other people will be better than me, but at the end of the day at least I have a job and there are many years ahead of me to work out what I want to do and how to get there.