Supermarket management jobs -not getting anywhere!

plzhelpmesave!

Hi
Just after some advice or help please for DH. he was a store manager at a well known german supermaerket but left after 8 years due to increasing physical exhaustion and being treated like carp by new managers, and working 60+ hours a week.

After a year of self employment and poor earnings, he has been applying to the big supermarkets for advertised management vacancies, and just heard back from Asda (tok 3 months to get a proper reply) saying they have no suitable vacancies at the moment, despite being told on the phone that he was through to their next stage,
Tesco, who are opening up new stores in our area, have also just got back to him to say nothing suitable.
Both clearly say in thier email that they dont provide feedback...

He has had his CV checked and updated by an employment agency and a CV service
He has all the relevant experience in a similar environment & personal skills

So what is going on???? Obviously, its hard enough to get a job, but to be totally dismissed by 2 of the biggest players who are opening up new stores in our area and have advertised vacancies, seems strange. Any ideas / thoughts or comments please??

Many thanks

Emmzi

they may not like the way the german supermarkets run and have had bad exoerience taking on thier managers before

they may be worried about the gap and the self employment, especially if what he was doing is irrelevant to the job

the supermarkets may want to promote their own people to show staff that there is a career path iof they work hard

how skint is he? would it be worth taking *any* supermarket job and then getting himself noticed for promotion? could he be humble enough to do it?

scheming_gypsy

The jobs may have already been ear marked for existing managers (at other stores) but they had to advertise just to look like they're playing fairly.

micflair_2

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

The jobs may have already been ear marked for existing managers (at other stores) but they had to advertise just to look like they're playing fairly.

^^ This is what happens. I just got dismissed from my managers job of a long time in the business. They give the jobs to there own so to speak. Ive accepted the only way to get back in is from the bottom and work back up.

claire16c

Could he start applying to a wider field like department store sales manager positions etc in the mean time?

What other shops has he applied to apart from Tesco and Asda?

Jenny007

I have a friend who was a Deputy manager at a high street store and a few years later reapplied for the same job. She was turned down and was cited that she "didnt have the required experience"! Clearly she did but it was clear they didnt want someone who had been off doing 'bigger and better things' to come back as a 'know it all'.
Like others have said, I suspect he will just have to start lower down and say he wants time to adapt to a new store and its customers and staff before he looks to progress up the ladder again.

tori.k

Another option if he really wants supermarket retail, is to go back to the floor and fast track from within the company, this is what one of our managers had to do, he was a manager of a small woolworth store before they closed, it only took him around 8 months from colleague to manager, tho playing the devils advocate if he found it hard to deal with the stress and long hours maybe retail isn't where he should be looking to set his sights.

Acc72

tori.k wrote: »

playing the devils advocate if he found it hard to deal with the stress and long hours maybe retail isn't where he should be looking to set his sights.

Also, is your husband indicating why he left his previous role in his cv or covering letter ?

If he gives the impression that it was due to hours, stress (or negative comments about previous employer - never a good idea), then this could have an effect ?

Also, if he was a store manager then he should not be sending random unsolicited cv's that may not even reach the correct person (especially if addressed "Dear Sir/Madam").

Is he applying to an individual store or centralised HR/recruitment ?

At his level he should be speaking (i.e. telephone or try to arrange a meeting - even if they do not have any vacancies at the moment) with the companies HR to understand their recruitment process and to explain his skills and what he can offer the company etc.

He also needs to approach this as what he can offer the company, and not can the company offer him a job (I hope this makes sense!)

plzhelpmesave!

Thanks everyone for the replies, really appreciate it.

I think we've probably said everything you guys have said to each other and tried to think over every possibility - but its all guesswork unless they give you some feedback, which they wont!!! :mad:

Acc - Dh saying he left for self employment opportunities - so this could be counting against him i guess. he's been applying through each stores websites, going through their full application process rather than random applications.

Scheming & micflair - DH would take on a lower level job and has been applying for duty and deputy or department manager posts. I dont know if he will look to become a store assistant - think he'd probably rather stick with what he is doing and 'being own boss - I think from where he is now in terms of low motivation and low self esteem, it would be worse for him to start at the bottom again - will mention it to him though...

Claire - thanks, that is what he is starting to do now, as retail skills should be transferable, Problem is that there are loads of people applyng who DO have the relevant skills that he will be competing against!


The hard thing for me as his wife is to see him losing his confidence in himself. he is such a hard worker and will work 12-18 hour days to get the job done, but I can see it is slowly killing his self esteem and self belief every day

Thanks again guys for all your helpful replies... wil keep trying and applying!

safesound

The Cooperative Food are currently looking for both store managers and dept managers all over the UK due to a reshuffle of their management hierarchy.
https://careers.co-operative.jobs/careers/location.aspx?loc=&keyword=&fo=true&ph=false&fu=false&cl=false&gh=false&sp=false&cf=false&tr=false