Support Each Other In Looking For Work?

wine_night

November5th wrote: »

Hi Lexilex,

Is it a nice office and nice people? That would be the deal breaker for me.

Credit control doesn't have to be an angry stressful task, and I have often become friendly with people owing us money, you can do the job with charm and wit Spending some time with the current post holder will tell you if you can do it, so I would give it a try.
I never got shouted at in four years of doing it (small part of other job tho) at a great company!
With Credit control you are likely to be phoning the same people every week, so it's best to make friends, I am a bit suprised at what the boss said. As the person also deciding who got paid and when, it was always better to be nice to me too.

XX

Agreed, there's a number of misconceptions about credit control- good commercial credit control actually involves maintaining excellent client relationships, not barking at customers! There are occasional frustrated clients, but usually this stems from the sales department failing to fulfil their end of the contract.

I think it's a job that you don't know if you will be able to do until you give it a try. I gave it a try six years ago and now it is my current career. I have had no problems getting interviews etc in the current climate as the job itself is almost recession-proof. Within four weeks of job hunting I had two good job offers.

November5th

I have an interview on Monday for a great looking company.
Problems is my skills are not advanced enough for it so I will have a heavy weekend of cramming to try and get up to speed.
A real issue with being out of work is getting rusty, and in digital marketing and site management things move really fast, but without real projects to work on the information I keep up with stays theoretical rather than practical.

lexilex

Fruitloops wrote: »

Lexilex, can I just ask what job you would be looking for that you went to uni to do? (sorry if you've mentioned this before and I've missed it).

Also, I'm sorry you're having a tough time... what you said about office work reminds me of myself!

I was pretty open minded really, I just knew I wanted to help people. The sort of things I was looking at was charity project worker, careers advisor, working within a social services environment. Anything that didn't involve working in an office!

wine_night wrote: »

Agreed, there's a number of misconceptions about credit control- good commercial credit control actually involves maintaining excellent client relationships, not barking at customers! There are occasional frustrated clients, but usually this stems from the sales department failing to fulfil their end of the contract.

I think it's a job that you don't know if you will be able to do until you give it a try. I gave it a try six years ago and now it is my current career. I have had no problems getting interviews etc in the current climate as the job itself is almost recession-proof. Within four weeks of job hunting I had two good job offers.

Thank you! I honestly feel so much better now. I can understand getting frustated customers, I suppose half of it is calming them down to have a normal conversation.

Stew68

I was feeling pretty down this morning after yesterdays interview so as the sun was out i've been out for a few hours and got some fresh air. I feel a bit better now.

Sorry about the bad days everybody, lets hope for a better week next week.

katkim

littlestar1981 wrote: »

Sorry there seems to be lots of stress and frustration going on today.... I hope things get better soon.

On a brighter note, I have a job :j

I was very very lucky, I appreciate that - I have only been looking for work for 3 weeks, applied for around 10 jobs, this is the first job I got a face to face interview for and I got it! Start a week on Monday, giving me a week to sort myself out so am fully prepared.

It's by no means perfect - temp for 3-6 months and not full time (30 hours), but I'm looking at the positives... have time to study, do voluntary work on the weekend to get experience towards my desired career, (working in charities internationally) and finish at lunch time on a Friday!

Hope more positive news arrives for someone today xx

Well done, littlestar :T

stephyt23

Lexilex: That guy at the job centre was definitely right and you do have to look after yourself. You could always yes to both jobs, start the CC one and see if you like it. if you do just contact the other one and say that your really sorry but something more suitable has come along? The last thing you'd want to do is say no to one of them and end up wishing you hadn't. Like you said yourself you'd be looking at other jobs either way. But ultimately as tough a decision as it is it's your to make. Good luck.

Littlestar: Congratulations on your job! :j :T

Fruitloops and Stew68: I hope next week is better for us all as well

November5th: Good luck with your interview

Katkim: I know how gutted you must feel, it's awful isn't it I couldn't even get an interview for an unqualified teaching assistant post despite all my experience including supply teaching assistant work and a year at uni starting my teacher training. That made me feel utterly depressed. Also missed out on an interview at a school that's only a 10 minute drive up the road. I just keep thinking that these aren't meant to be and I'm destined to be elsewhere. Maybe it's a good job I believe in fate.

Sharon87

Stew68 wrote: »

I was feeling pretty down this morning after yesterdays interview so as the sun was out i've been out for a few hours and got some fresh air. I feel a bit better now.

Sorry about the bad days everybody, lets hope for a better week next week.

Yeah the sun's great for feeling better. Still a bit nippy out there, but after all that walking I did earlier I warmed up! Walked 4 miles today now have cake...

Decided to have a day off from job searching - except going to the Job Centre for the back to work session, it was exactly the same as the one I had 2 years ago.

saxonrosecliff

Hello everyone

Well after a quiet two weeks on the job search front I thought I would give myself the afternoon off job searching and go for a walk in the sun instead. I came back in a surprisingly good mood and thought I would have a quick last look and found three jobs to apply for. One is with a charity which I would really like to do (previously worked in local government and the NHS and so I would really like to do something 'useful' - I worked for the Primary Care Trust at the NHS so I was one of the faceless bureaucrats!!!) so fingers crossed.

Congratulations to the people who have found jobs this week. Its good to know it can happen (even if its not happening to me!) and good luck to everyone else for next week.

katkim

I should have gone for a walk today, it looks lovely today, I was going to but then got my rejection and suddenly lost the will to do anything except crawl into a corner!

stephyt - I would like to think that these jobs are not meant to be and that we'll all fated end up somewhere great. I would be nice

Good luck with your preparation this weekend, November. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

I've just sent on my CV for the Singapore Job. I was going to work on it this weekend, but he's leaving for China tomorrow and has no internet, so I sent it just now. It was a bit of a hash job! I would have liked to have spent some more time tinkering and tailouring it. Plus Asian employers expect different info - DOB, marital status, health, photograph, which is the norm :eek:

I'm not sure I've got it all right...I'm sure I've made some massive faux-pas, but I had a hour to write it!!

Mischa8

lexilex wrote: »

I could really do with an impartial opinion.

As you may know, I was offered a job in events last Friday. I was absolutely chuffed to bits. The job isn't what I expected, although I still know very little about it. It is based in a community centre on a council estate, and I would guess budgets are very limited. The money and hours are far from perfect, but it felt like I was finally getting somewhere, getting experience in something I wouldn't mind doing as a career.

Before I went for this job I had already been for an interview for a credit controller job. They rang me this week asking to meet again, which we did today.

Because I haven't experience in the role, he wants me to start soon part-time (it was really advertised as maternity cover starting in july) spending half my time with the lady currently doing credit control, and the other half doing general office duties. He's warned me a lot of the job will involve taking abuse from from people who don't want to pay up their debt.

I came out wanting to cry. It's likely the job will lead to something permanent but it just sounds so not me. Working in an office has always been my idea of hell, but I just don't know if I can deal with people screaming down the phone at me. I am really not a very confrontational person. Even the guy interviewing me said we would have to improve my assertiveness and confidence in order to deal with this. At this point I wondered why he was even offering me the job.

The events job is 25 hours spread over 5 days on minimum wage. It's fixed term 6 months, and is about a half an hour drive from home.

The credit control job is 3 days for the first month, moving to 4 days, and then hopefully soon after becoming full-time. The money is also considerably better. The office is a five minute drive from home, and the other advantage is I could walk if need be.

What do I do? Neither job is perfect, and whichever I chose to do I will still be looking for another job, one which I went to university to do. I think the thing that has really upset me about the CC job is the idea of sitting there on the phone with someone shouting at me. I don't have much confidence at all, and I just don't know how great I would be at handling it.

There is a week between the start dates with the credit control starting first. In theory I could give that a week, or even a few days and see how it goes before contacting those at the community centre about the events job. That would be really awful of me letting them know at such short notice, but one of the guys at the job centre did tell me I should look after myself, because nobody else is going to, and I guess he is right.

Sorry for such a long post.

To be brutally honest - based on your character and experience I'd go for the events job. It sounds like you'd be miserable as all hell in the CC job.

Who knows what will come up in 6 months time? You may well have another job offer by then.

I just know from previous experience (and even now in my current job) I would rather be in a job that pays less and where I am happy than stick in a job where I am utterly miserable and dread going in every day.