Too much experience or too far away?

wdfan

Hello,

We are relocating from Belfast to Manchester in January and we have both been applying for jobs in Manchester.

My boyfriend has 17 years experience working for toyota, and he noticed a job advertised on the toyota website in Bolton a few months ago.

He applied and heard nothing.

The job went back up a few weeks later, he applied again, heard nothing.

Third time he saw it he called them up, told them we are relocating as soon as he found a job and the lady in HR told him she would attatch a note saying we are relocating so they wouldnt worry when they saw his address as Northern Ireland, she asked if he would have any problems getting to an interview, he answered no, she said if he can get to an interview there would be no problems. He once again heard nothing at all.

The job has once again just gone up on the website.

Is there any point to him filling out the application form again? I suppose if they wanted to hire him they would have called him for an interview..

Is there such a thing as too much experience? or would us living in NI put an employer off?

hcb42

you need to make sure that your covering letter supports the reason for the application i.e. relocation, and that you are avaialble for interview at short notice etc.

If you fail to do this - yes it could have an impact, as the recruiters need to know your availability and how serious you are about the role.

I recently recruited for a role and had over 100 applicants from around the world. Not one of those people explained why they were applying for the specific job or wjy a job in that region.

scheming_gypsy

Does he still work for Toyota and if so, does his boss know you're looking to relocate? if the answer is yes to both of those, is it possible to see if they can arrange a transfer rather than going down the usual route?

Emmzi

Lots of candidates tell me they are willing to relocate and when it comes down to it about 30% of candidates do and will work to my timetable not theirs, so it is VERY off putting!

Do you have relatives in Manchester, who are your temporary address there, perhaps? That would help!

westv

Emmzi wrote: »

Lots of candidates tell me they are willing to relocate and when it comes down to it about 30% of candidates do and will work to my timetable not theirs, so it is VERY off putting!

Could you explain that a bit more? Do you mean they are always late? Surely companies don't see that many applicants who need to locate or am I wrong?

agrinnall

I thought it was pretty clear:

• Employer wants someone to start on Day X
• Applicant says they will relocate, 30% of them are prepared to do so in a way that gets them starting work on Day X, the other 70% make excuses about having to sell first, find somewhere to live, get schools sorted out etc. and can't start until Day Y.
• Employer gets frustrated and doesn't bother interviewing anyone who doesn't already live in the area.

MrsManda

We've relocated a few times due to job changes and always make sure we say why we're relocating to the area or why we're applying for a job so far from our current address on the personal statement bit of the job application.

As you're moving to Manchester in January regardless of a job (if I understand your post correctly?) you need to state on the application form that you're relocating to the Manchester area in January due to X and are willing and able to attend interviews at anytime from now. As well as why you want that job.

As Agrinnall said, employers don't want to be messed about and there's so many people applying for jobs at the moment that if you can only interview say 6 people out of 100 you are going to choose ones who meet the person spec and who seem most likely to be able to attend and start when the employer wants them to.
Employers may be willing to wait for an exceptional candidate for a high level job but for most they're just going to want someone who can do the job, start when required and not cause much faff.

As Scheming_gypsy suggested if he still works for Toyota could he request a transfer?

wdfan

Thanks all.

He doesnt work for toyota anymore, he left last year and went to KIA, so still in the motor trade. He doesnt like it at all there and would love to work for toyota again when we move as he is used to the way they do things, their computer system, had all the training etc.

It is an online application and the last few times he filled it in we did not notice anywhere where he could put a personal statement, so he called the HR department but obviously that didnt do much.

Would you call the manager of the department where the job is based? or maybe even send an email quoting the application ID and explaining the situation?

He explained to HR when they spoke that he could get to an interview with a few hours notice, its no problem booking a flight at all, also if he got the job we could move tomorrow if need be.

Up to now everything is sorted out except the job side of things.

Badger_Lady

I would definitely try to get the job application in via a different route.

Earlier in the year I applied for a job through a major company's website - CV, covering letter, the works. I heard nothing. Then a few weeks later I had a call from one of my recruitment agents saying that she'd been talking to said company about a job and would send me the spec. It was exactly the same job!

Following a conversation, it turned out that the recruiting manager had never even seen my application, perhaps because it had been filtered out before it got to her or maybe a glitch in the system. But as soon as she got my CV direct from the recruitment agent she was thrilled and wanted to get me in for interview immediately.

Same thing happened on another one - their website was troubled, so I had to submit the online application 5 times.

And from the other side too, it's soooo easy to miss the good candidates when you get all these automated email alerts including a massive proportion of people who clearly haven't read the brief properly.

Find out who the recruiting manager is in Manchester and talk to them directly. If he has all that experience in the company, he should be able to quite comfortably telephone them and ask about the job, and then offer to post or email them his information to the person directly, not a generic mailbox.

Then if he doesn't hear anything, he can call back to 'check the CV arrived okay' and, if so, get some feedback.

Acc72

wdfan wrote: »

He doesnt work for toyota anymore, he left last year and went to KIA, so still in the motor trade. He doesnt like it at all there and would love to work for toyota again when we move as he is used to the way they do things, their computer system, had all the training etc.

Could your boyfriend contact his previous Toyota site and ask their advice, either from his former manager of HR ?

Not sure if they have a Belfast HR and a Manchester HR, or if it is centralised ?

It is always preferable to speak to people direct rather than e-mail etc.

If this is not possible, then as others have said he needs to state clearly that he is definitely relocating on a specific date and is therefore looking for work in the area.

scheming_gypsy

If the application asks for your address, if it's possible add a comment that you're relocating to the Manchester area in January 2012