Support Each Other In Looking For Work?

Drea

lexilex wrote: »

Get him to come and join us! The first few weeks were horrendous, I felt such a failure, like I was the only person unable to find work. It is great to be able to talk to others in the same position, and it is helped me realise it's not me that is the problem, there just simply are not enough jobs to go around.

I would suggest taking weekends off, there's nothing really advertised anyway and it's nice to have two days to have a break from it all, without missing out on vacancies.

I agree, I take every weekend off

Slinky

bundly wrote: »

Great thread. I wish I could find a way to help my b/f, in five months of 7-days-a-week searching he's only mananged to get one interview. Most of the time his online applications are rejected within hours. He's feeling increasingly rejected, useless and depressed. How does anyone keep their spirits up?

I've got the same with my husband who has been looking a similar length of time after taking a year off to complete an MBA. It wasn't supposed to be like this, we hoped doing the MBA would help him switch industries, but he can't get past the recruitment agencies who won't put him forward for stuff he could do, but which they have more obvious candidates for. He's getting increasingly despondent. I work from home and it doesn't help that I feel like we're running out of stuff to talk about. He feels he must spend all day everyday at the computer trying to 'make' stuff happen.

shamrock77

Been unemployed since 31/12/10 - ive found it very depressing. First 6 weeks i was on all sites every day. Now i only go on 2 - 3 days per week, my motivation levels down & i find it long day as always been used to always working & my daughter started school last Aug. Although i contacted routes to work couple of weeks ago & had my appointment today to register, took my c.v. in & experience. So im staying hopefull, but i think it does affect your confidence levels ect, as you know the amount of people looking for work in todays climate is high, but ill soldier on lol.

bundly

Thanks guys for responding. I know if I suggest it he won't join this forum, he's not "the communicative type" like I am, the sort who like to reach out and commune with people, share, commiserate, etc. He's very typical British "stiff upper lip", the sort who thinks he has to keep up the pretence of coping manfully. It's only cos we are so close that I can see him slowly falling apart, see how much his entire identity is dependent on his professional standing. The strain is also showing on me -- perhaps it's me that needs the emotional support, in order to support him; whereas HE just needs a job.

Maybe I just need to vent a little?

I've never seen a job market so bad; the workers are on their knees almost, it wasn't like that 40 years ago when we left school -- in those days anyone could walk into a job just like that. Now my poor man can't even get a job stacking shelves in a supermarket -- competition for every job, no matter how poorly paid, is so fierce, and advertised vacancies are so few.

He has a string of O and A levels a professional diploma (as an optician) that is the equivalent of a BSc degree and an excellent, trackable work record going back over 32 years. He was with his most recent employer for 11 years, never had a day off sick and has a perfect and unblemished work record there. And yet nobody will even give him a chance. That is what is so depressing. Since his redundancy in October there has not been a single optician vacancy within driving distance.

Last night (Sunday) he applied for a job online and his application was rejected at 0845 this morning. How can this be? Are recruiters getting up earlier and earlier in order to reject people? He was really upset.

The story behind the ONE interview that he's managed to get is worth hearing. First the Jobcentre invited him to attend a meeting at which he was invited to a two-day course on how to get a job with a particular insurance firm. The course took place at the firm's premises and everyone who completed it was guaranteed a job interview. He was to be trained as an insurance claims advisor, to be earning less than half his previous wage. He is very smart and studious and passed everything. They then gave him an hour-long phone interview, and he passed that. They he had the proper formal interview in person, and after that heard nothing.

I think that was particularly disgusting, considering he had driven (at his own expense) the 20-mile round trip four times -- 80 miles of petrol -- PLUS had spent two whole days at the course, and many more hours being interviewed, etc, and in return they could not even be bothered to dial his number and let him know if he'd got the job -- or not.

Eventually he contacted them (he was told not to) and was finally told that he had failed "because he didn't score the right number of points."

This miserable experience of having the job dangled in his face then not given it has made me of the opinion that it's better to not get an interview at all!

Thanks for reading (those that have).

I am currently thanking my lucky stars yet again that I am no longer looking for a job. I did it some years ago and became terribly depressed.

I wish everyone on here the very best of luck. XXX

bundly

Slinky wrote: »

he can't get past the recruitment agencies who won't put him forward for stuff he could do, but which they have more obvious candidates for. He's getting increasingly despondent. I work from home and it doesn't help that I feel like we're running out of stuff to talk about. He feels he must spend all day everyday at the computer trying to 'make' stuff happen.

I commiserate with you Slinky. Mine too feels he has to be at the PC the whole time trying to find someone, somewhere who will give him a break.

My b/f is also finding the agencies are finding nothing for him. They look at the CV, it says "optician" and that is that -- they don't have ANY optician vacancies (because those vacancies aren't advertised in that way), so they just stick his CV in a filing cabinet. Nobody seems to be able to see that as an optician he was also (a) a shop manager (b) in the "customer care biz" and (c) in retail (selling the frames, etc).

I've reached the point where I am saying to him, "don't even bother any more, just wait for an optician to die and step into his job." (This is the root of the matter -- opticians very rarely resign; once they get their first job they just stay there till retirement.)

lexilex

bundly wrote: »

I've never seen a job market so bad; the workers are on their knees almost, it wasn't like that 40 years ago when we left school -- in those days anyone could walk into a job just like that. Now my poor man can't even get a job stacking shelves in a supermarket -- competition for every job, no matter how poorly paid, is so fierce, and advertised vacancies are so few.

I am glad you have said that. This is my first time job seeking after recently graduating and I was starting to think that this is the norm, it is always this difficult to find work.

I am so sorry for your boyfriend. It is an awful situation to be in. I think a lot of the recruitment processes for many companies is automatic now. I spent hours on an application last Thursday, and within half an hour received a reply saying they were not taking my application any further. It is hard not to get down, especially when there is so little to apply for in the first place.

I wish him luck in his search, and hope something comes up very soon.

livermum

Where are all the jobs? It is so disheartening to keep going on-line and seeing that there are just no suitable jobs to apply for.

stephyt23

It is a nightmare. I'm only 24 and just in the time since I left school 9 years ago I've never seen things so bad. I've been out of work a couple of times previously due to contracts ending when companies restructured but within a month I'd gotten work again without too much trouble and probably applying for around 5 jobs each time. Even with agencies it was never a problem, I used to call up and was asked to go in and register then was getting work pretty quickly.

This time round I'm up to application number 20 and counting. Out of those I've had only 2 interviews and 2 rejection letters without being shortlisted at all. I've resorted to contacting every school and nursery I can find who has an email address to see if they have anything coming up in the near future. I've tried calling agencies and just get asked to send over a CV. I've not been asked to go in and register, I just get an email back (if I'm lucky) to say I'm being kept on file. There's not even any retail jobs! I've seen only 3 advertised since January which was when I started looking for work. All I've managed to get has been 2 day's supply work at a Nursery and that was 2 weeks ago.

When will things start to change?

bundly

lexilex wrote: »

I am glad you have said that. This is my first time job seeking after recently graduating and I was starting to think that this is the norm, it is always this difficult to find work.

I am so sorry for your boyfriend....I wish him luck in his search, and hope something comes up very soon.

I'm sorry for you, too. You have much more chance than him though, as you are younger. (I imagine that some of it is that he's in his 50s with not many years left till retirement.)

Not wishing to rub salt in anyone's wounds but I recall the 1960s very well. I was at school, and saw my alcoholic father (a chef) either get the sack or storm out of one job and then walk straight into another job the very next day. (That's why he didn't hesistate to storm out if he didn't get his own way or if anyone pee'd him off.)

I breezed straight into really good, well-paid job when I left school at 16. I became a switchboard operator on the international exchange and spent my days talking to people all over Europe. It was the first job I applied for and they snatched me up, though I had no qualifications and had truanted from school for years.

So I feel terribly sorry for anyone looking for work today. What will happen in the future nobody knows.

bundly

stephyt23 wrote: »

I'm up to application number 20 and counting. Out of those I've had only 2 interviews and 2 rejection letters without being shortlisted at all....When will things start to change?

At your age this is terrible. The time when you are supposed to be building yourself a home and a life, and maybe thinking of marriage/family!

In the past three years I have had Chinese, Polish and Latvian lodgers who can barely speak English... yet they all had jobs (I dont take HB). Are employers preferring them, because they are more docile or are prepared to be treated like slaves or will work in places that don't meet health and safety legal standards?

When WILL things start to change? Well, what changed since 1960? Is it to do with the recession? The Tories being in power for so long, or Labour being in power for so long? The influx of Eastern Europeans? I think there are international economic forces at work that are difficult for us ordinary folk to fully comprehend.