Arrrgghhh so angry, for those who say just get a job stacking shelves

dickydonkin

Red_Shoes_No_Knickers wrote: »

Well lovey, whilst it is clearly tough out there, the fact is that there are jobs available. You just need to make yourself the best person for the job.

Out of curiosity - are you or have you been seeking work in the current climate?

A very patronising and crass response - lovey!

I can assure you that many people who are possibly over qualified for roles they apply for - will just not be considered for various reasons.

Try applying for 'menial' roles when you are over 50 and have qualifications.

Are you suggesting such people are not the best people for roles they could do standing on their head?

That said - comments from someone with a user name like yours would not be taken seriously anyway!

stuart30

No one over the age of 18 needs too be unemployed.

Go self employed..all you need is a pair of high heels and a short skirt (work for the lads too im told lol).

Hello love you looking for business..is a good opening line and you can then lead on with,My prices are as follows.;)

Hours are good and you get too meet a wide and varied section of your local community...:rotfl:

WelshPaul

stuart30 wrote: »

No one over the age of 18 needs too be unemployed.

Go self employed..all you need is a pair of high heels and a short skirt (work for the lads too im told lol).

Hello love you looking for business..is a good opening line and you can then lead on with,My prices are as follows.;)

Hours are good and you get too meet a wide and varied section of your local community...:rotfl:

It is an offence for a person persistently to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution.

Not to mention high heels hurt like hell!

t0rt0ise

I left school in 1972 and I was planning on becoming a nurse but had months to kill first so I called into the Employment Exchange where a woman sat with a boxful of index cards. She pulled one out for a job at a factory, looked at me and said "no, that won't do", then found one for Tescos. We agreed that would be fine, she phoned them and they said to go round there. I called in and they gave me the job, no real interview, no application form, no hundreds of applicants. So nobody can tell me that it's just as easy to get a job in a supermarket now. There's just no comparison.

asparagusnextleft

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I left school in 1972 and I was planning on becoming a nurse but had months to kill first so I called into the Employment Exchange where a woman sat with a boxful of index cards. She pulled one out for a job at a factory, looked at me and said "no, that won't do", then found one for Tescos. We agreed that would be fine, she phoned them and they said to go round there. I called in and they gave me the job, no real interview, no application form, no hundreds of applicants. So nobody can tell me that it's just as easy to get a job in a supermarket now. There's just no comparison.

Even as recently as 20 years ago I had a similar experience - Asda were opening a new store and I needed to supplement my income so I phoned up for an application form, filled it in, sent it back and a week later I got a phone call telling me I had been successful and could I go in for an induction day. No interview.

Nowadays you have to get past the online assessments (I don't know if it's true but I was told that these are not looked at by a human being, but are sorted using a computer program) and if you succeed with that you then have to go on to the 'group stage'. It's nowhere near as easy as it used to be, and that's if there are any jobs to apply for in the first place, which there often aren't.

SueC_2

Martin001 wrote: »

I've applied for, and I kid you not, ~275 jobs over the last 3 weeks.

But really, how much effort did you put into those applications?

Assuming you were job hunting 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, you were applying for a job every hour and a quarter.

Knock that down to 5 days per week, 10 hours per day and you were applying for a job every 30 minutes.

Those figures include finding the vacancy, researching the company, and completing your application.

I can't help but think that you would be better off abandoning the scattergun approach, and instead, targetting your applications, and putting a whole lot more time and effort into making sure you give a quality submission for each one.

But hey, what would someone who's in work know about how to successfully apply for a job?

NigeWick

I was recently made redundant and have applied for a number of jobs. Funnily enough, none of them in a supermarket. I went for an assessment at B&Q last week. Out of the six candidates, I was the only one who knew what B&Q stands for. Somebody previously mentioned showing that YOU are the best for the job counts for a lot. Just turning up for an interview isn't going to cut it with people who can afford to just hire the best one or two applicants.

"But hey, what would someone who's in work know about how to successfully apply for a job?" Precisely SueC.

I could easily get a job working in the fields near here if I were fully able. I'm not, and knowing my limitations means that I must look for work that I am physically and mentally able to do. For those people who have some form of physical challenge, you could take a page out of Nick Vujicic's book. At present the "market" is favouring those who prepare and are able to show they are the best for the job. I used to think that employers would see that I could be trained to do a job. Now I understand that I have to show I am capable of doing it before I am likely to get an offer of work. When I apply, I research what the job entails, what the company and its people are like. If I am offered an interview, I prepare answers to likely questions. I turn up in a suit with highly polished shoes and looking as smart as I can. I smile at the people I meet and make conversation with the receptionist, other applicants and any company personnel in the area. In interview, I make sure that I concentrate on the person asking a question and think about what I am going to say before I open my mouth. I give the answer that will show me in the best light. There are books in the library that show how to write an excellent CV and how to come across well in an interview. It seems to me that we need to work at getting work rather than just expecting somebody to hire us because we have applied.

B&Q was founded by Richard Block and David Quayle in 1969.

relic

I've worked in a factory, in a supermarket and a cinema. Supermarket work is getting harder to find, simply because they have so much to choose from and always prefer students.

The food industry, security and factories / warehouses are always looking for people though.

Person_one

There will always be some people who are great at writing applications, can impress at interview and will generally have no trouble walking into a job. Some of these people, based on their personal experiences will extrapolate that the situation is the same for everybody, this is not the case.

Some people don't have the language or communication skills to write a good application letter or the confidence to do well at interview, some people have never received any guidance or any constructive feedback on their job hunting techniques and can't figure out what they're doing wrong when they'd probably be just as capable of the shelf stacking/waitressing/factory floor job as anyone else.

I've helped friends and acquaintances with CVs and applications and been amazed at how educated, bright people write them. This isn't a skill and knowledge set we are all born with, at some point you need a person in the know to clue you in on the accepted techniques.

Sadly, its not the case that if you just keep applying you will eventually get something. If you're at the bottom of one pile, you're likely to be at the bottom of nearly everybody's. Without wishing to sound big-headed here, when I was applying for jobs last year I interviewed for four and was offered two, with no experience or qualifications in the field, I just knew how to sell myself and probably beat plenty of better qualified people. When I applied to uni this year, I was offered places at all my choices while plenty of people received five rejections. Employers (and unis) don't just hand out jobs (or places) fairly so that everybody gets one, the same people will keep succeeding while the same people keep failing until somebody helps them learn the inside tricks to tick the right boxes.

Hammyman

925dancer wrote: »

They didn't get full-time permanent employment though did they? They got a day here, a day there, which would be deducted from their JSA and they would have to declare to the tax man as I'm assuming a lot was cash in hand. They didn't show you that aspect.

Not exactly a fair picture of how easy it is to get sustainable, long term, work is it?

But that is exactly how a lot of people do find long term permanent work. My wife is now a manager of a sign company. She initially started doing odd days here and there helping out when they were busy. 12 years later she's running the place.

As an agency HGV driver where you're employed by clients on a daily or weekly basis at the best, I was offered many fulltime jobs.