Roughly how many jobs do you apply for a week?

looby75

gardenia101 wrote: »

I'm not on the WP yet as I'm on ESA but I've been offered a place on a programme called Work something or other, so I'm assuming its WP. I'm on ESA after becomming partially sighted.

Like you I have a DS & DD & I'm also a single parent (yes, one of those *ducks & runs for cover*)
with no family nearby, & difficulties with childcare as my DD is now 12 (so all the holiday clubs etc. are now closed to her).

I'm curious to know how much pressure, if any, the JC put on you to apply for jobs that you know you won't be able to do because of child care etc.?

I wasn't too impressed with the JC advisor who suggested I just leave my DD at home (for days on end during the summer hols :eek:) to go to work. While some parents may be happy to do so, I am not & do not want to be pushed in to doing so by the JC.

I want to go back to work, but not to the detriment of my children. If the WP can help me to get a job that I can actually do then I'll be delighted, but I'm a bit worried that I may end up in a worse situation.

They haven't put any presure on me to apply for jobs that are unsuitable, the JC have actually been really understanding about my limitations, in all the time I have been on JSA only one advisor has been a bit "funny" with me and made me feel like rubbish, but she was obviously having a bad day because the next time I saw her she was lovely.

Only once have they printed a job out for me to apply for, but when I got home and tried to apply for it the info on the ad was incorrect and the job was actually somewhere totally inaccessible for me. I phoned my job centre and explained what had happened they checked up for me and agreed I didn't have to apply for it.

My ds is 10 and a very immature 10, it was suggested I leave him at home alone too, but I accept that by the time he's 12 he's going to have to be left alone for a few hours at at time, sadly its just a fact of life when you are a lone parent.

Elvisia

It varies but because of the type of job I apply for, an application can take over a day to do. Often they want essays or examples of work too, and this all takes time. One application when finished was 5 pages of writing! My JSA agreement says I apply for two jobs a week, and I usually apply for more than that. However I also spend a lot of time meeting people, having lunches etc trying to get work out of them or find out about work. So my actual time for applying for jobs is quite small compared to the rest of my time which is used for putting up adverts for my services, phoning people, emailing old colleagues, doing coffee/lunch with someone who might offer me something in the future. I found that sitting sending out the same CV and letter for jobs got me absolutely no where. I do spend a full forty hour week though doing all this, I have an office in my house and it feels like a full time job in itself.

Chickenlicker22

Hi . When I was made redundant I signed on with 17 agencies for driving jobs.
I phoned them all first thing in the morning, then again around about dinner time , and once more about 16:00. I would make between 40 and 50 calls a day chasing work.I took on another phone (Vodaphone) sim onlywhich gave me free land line calls .(£20ish)a month

Chickenlicker22

Elvisia wrote: »

I have an office in my house and it feels like a full time job in itself.

I know that feeling:beer:

falko89

Searching online the advice seems to be to make job searching a full time job, call contacts etc etc etc, I don't have any contacts If and its a big if your lucky if 1 new job gets added a day at the local job centre, this is looking very much like another week with no applications. This is whats on offer.

LadyMissA

falko89 wrote: »

Searching online the advice seems to be to make job searching a full time job, call contacts etc etc etc, I don't have any contacts If and its a big if your lucky if 1 new job gets added a day at the local job centre, this is looking very much like another week with no applications. This is whats on offer.

This is from the job centre? In NI?

All my day apart from food is taken up looking for work and applying and doing other stuff like setting up my Linkeden profile etc

My old boss is currently looking for a new job too and with a 1 year old at home and a full time job says he has no time to do it!

LadyMissA

Falko89 are you the carpenter in NI?

If so have you seen this

http://www.nijobs.com/Marine-Site-Joiner-Job-889842.aspx

If not I have the wrong person

Caroline_a

Gardenia101 (and anyone else going back to work with children) - I suggest that if you are serious about working you need to start sourcing childcare for your children, at least find out what you would be entitled to with childcare help, and where the local childminders/nurseries are to see about practicalities. No employer these days is allowed to ask about childcare and whether you have sorted it, but if you know about the practicalities and costs before you go to interview then you will be in a much stronger position, and feel more confident.

When I went back to work with my youngest I wasn't actually looking for a job, it was offered to me, and I took it because I realised that when I might be 'ready' to work then there might not be a job around for me! So I did things the wrong way round because of the circumstances - there was no help at all then with childcare costs - it is some time ago - and certainly the first few months were a nightmare until it all settled down.

It's hard enough being a single parent and juggling work without having additional pressure for childcare - I don't think the JobCentre will accept 'no childcare' as a reason for not accepting a job once the children are over a certain age, in which case you may find yourself in a huge mess.

falko89

LadyMissA wrote: »

This is from the job centre? In NI?

All my day apart from food is taken up looking for work and applying and doing other stuff like setting up my Linkeden profile etc

My old boss is currently looking for a new job too and with a 1 year old at home and a full time job says he has no time to do it!

It is from the NI job centre yes. South east seems to be the place to be.

falko89

LadyMissA wrote: »

Falko89 are you the carpenter in NI?

If so have you seen this

http://www.nijobs.com/Marine-Site-Joiner-Job-889842.aspx

If not I have the wrong person

Right person just wrong job, I'm a workshop joiner, different ball game to site joinery and something I really wouldn't have a clue about. Thanks anyway though.:D