Merseyside employers are enraging me!

Dunroamin

MissSarah1972 wrote: »

I know I have applied for at least 2500 in a year. It's laughable.

And they say there are no jobs!

Miss149

My merseyside employer is actively recruiting for customer service advisors! One of my friends just got a job! They are out there!

The last 3 jobs I applied for I have got an interview for and got the job. I moved to Merseyside and got the first job I applied for, then 10 months later I applied for a job I really wanted, and got that. Now I am about to leave and start another new job that is even better! My area is quite specific but they are out there.

I spent the time to trawl through their website and really tailor my CV to the job specification. It takes alot longer but its so much better then just bumping out CV after CV etc. I also asked friends and family to proof read to ensure there were no mistakes. A simple grammer or spelling mistake can have most employers bin your CV straight away, it shows you dont really care and haven't taken the time to complete your CV properly.

Could you not seek employment through an agency? They work off commision so will fit you to a job role they know you are suitable for and what the employer wants so you have a better chance.

I hope you find something soon.

miduck

Miss149 wrote: »

My merseyside employer is actively recruiting for customer service advisors! One of my friends just got a job! They are out there!

The last 3 jobs I applied for I have got an interview for and got the job. I moved to Merseyside and got the first job I applied for, then 10 months later I applied for a job I really wanted, and got that. Now I am about to leave and start another new job that is even better! My area is quite specific but they are out there.

I spent the time to trawl through their website and really tailor my CV to the job specification. It takes alot longer but its so much better then just bumping out CV after CV etc. I also asked friends and family to proof read to ensure there were no mistakes. A simple grammer or spelling mistake can have most employers bin your CV straight away, it shows you dont really care and haven't taken the time to complete your CV properly.

Could you not seek employment through an agency? They work off commision so will fit you to a job role they know you are suitable for and what the employer wants so you have a better chance.

I hope you find something soon.

Your post highlights what others are saying about the OP's attitude affecting his ability to find work. You come across as very positive, proactive etc, whereas the OP comes across as difficult and pretty miserable. It just shows what a positive outlook can do.

makeyourdaddyproud

Fact of the matter is, is that there are too many average or slightly above average people chasing jobs in any part of the UK. Employers really want exceptional people to help move enterprises forward and generate more money using smart people.

Exceptional people are usually never unemployed for long, since they have tangible value to any organisation. Not trying to discredit you, but your opening post says it all for me. It comes across as being aggressive and arrogant, you need to calm down. Being cross like that is not going to help your plight.

What I suggest is try to compliment your office skills with some IT ones: get a book on Excel or Sage or something, learn a few techniques from each and blend the skills into one or two past jobs (no is going to know) and that will help you appear much more marketable.

As much as I don't like to say it, we are in a digital economy, and IT skills reign supreme. Firms looking for paper carrying foot soldiers in an organisation are very 1990's and is firmly on the way out.

Once you get some solid Excel/Sage/SQL under your belt you will be employed in no time. Trust me, and there will be no need to take any drastic action, such as moving out of your area.

If you don't learn and refine, you will perish in this economy.

Truegho

Hi. Thanks for your reply. You made some good points, esp in regard to learning Sage (something I have always wanted to do, but have been dissuaded due to the expensive prices of the courses) and Excel (of which I have some knowledge already, but need to consolidate the forumula part). I am about to undertake my ECDL under The Work Programme, so hopefully that too will improve my chances. If anybody knows of any discount Sage packages going, then please let me know.

I do not mean to come across the way some people interpret (which is the wrong impression of me, honestly), but unfortunately when you apply and apply for jobs, but get absolutely nowhere . . . well, it IS hard to maintain a happy and positive frame of mind. But 'nuff said on that.

One of the main problems I have been encountering when applying for office jobs - or indeed any other jobs, for that matter - is that a lot of these employers are using those lengthy online behavioral questionnaires, where you have to rate what is most like you and what is least like you, from 1-4 (I am sure most of you all know the ones I am referring to). Apparently, these scores are fed into a computer template, and that tells you whether you have passed or failed. These tests are always very tricky to pass, and even though I have been successful a few times with them when applying to the Civil Service, lately I have been getting nowhere, which only leads me to suspect that maybe Human Resources have raised the pass benchmark to sift out the thousands applying.

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

Fact of the matter is, is that there are too many average or slightly above average people chasing jobs in any part of the UK. Employers really want exceptional people to help move enterprises forward and generate more money using smart people.

Exceptional people are usually never unemployed for long, since they have tangible value to any organisation. Not trying to discredit you, but your opening post says it all for me. It comes across as being aggressive and arrogant, you need to calm down. Being cross like that is not going to help your plight.

What I suggest is try to compliment your office skills with some IT ones: get a book on Excel or Sage or something, learn a few techniques from each and blend the skills into one or two past jobs (no is going to know) and that will help you appear much more marketable.

As much as I don't like to say it, we are in a digital economy, and IT skills reign supreme. Firms looking for paper carrying foot soldiers in an organisation are very 1990's and is firmly on the way out.

Once you get some solid Excel/Sage/SQL under your belt you will be employed in no time. Trust me, and there will be no need to take any drastic action, such as moving out of your area.

If you don't learn and refine, you will perish in this economy.

MissSarah1972

OP you can learn Excel on http://alison.com/

Simple formulas and vlookups - taught myself that as never done it and realised it was so easy so taught a friend too.

Have a look it's free. The ECDL is pretty bassic so I have been told by a friend.

As far as Sage you on the work programme? Can they not pay for a small course?

makeyourdaddyproud

MissSarah,

Absolutely.

Pivot tables, Vlookup, Hlookup and a bit of range calcs is all that is need to been seen as competent in Excel for your purpose. Next bit would be to learn how to create a data access odc file to link to back end data.

What I would do is this: work through an example and write it down step by step. Excel is complex, but make sure you understand your own examples. These simple techniques can be done in a day. Look at w3schools website for starter tuition.

Sage (Payroll?) would be a bit harder, as the software is more expensive and requires a fictional employee database to work on.

SQL: Down load SQL Server 2008 onto your laptop its free. Open it up, default connection, create a database, and learn 5 commands: create table, insert, select, update and delete thats all. Then you can say you have basic SQL.

makeyourdaddyproud

As with BQ's you mention, they are notoriously unreliable. Quite often the questioning link to each other, meaning a wrong question could easily be answered without you knowing (or just answered correctly in your opinion), so it appears to be a gamble. Not sure of a way around this.

denla

Truegho wrote: »

Hi. Thanks for your reply. You made some good points, esp in regard to learning Sage (something I have always wanted to do, but have been dissuaded due to the expensive prices of the courses) and Excel (of which I have some knowledge already, but need to consolidate the forumula part). I am about to undertake my ECDL under The Work Programme, so hopefully that too will improve my chances. If anybody knows of any discount Sage packages going, then please let me know.

I do not mean to come across the way some people interpret (which is the wrong impression of me, honestly), but unfortunately when you apply and apply for jobs, but get absolutely nowhere . . . well, it IS hard to maintain a happy and positive frame of mind. But 'nuff said on that.

One of the main problems I have been encountering when applying for office jobs - or indeed any other jobs, for that matter - is that a lot of these employers are using those lengthy online behavioral questionnaires, where you have to rate what is most like you and what is least like you, from 1-4 (I am sure most of you all know the ones I am referring to). Apparently, these scores are fed into a computer template, and that tells you whether you have passed or failed. These tests are always very tricky to pass, and even though I have been successful a few times with them when applying to the Civil Service, lately I have been getting nowhere, which only leads me to suspect that maybe Human Resources have raised the pass benchmark to sift out the thousands applying.

Don't learn Sage unless you want to work in accountancy, and even then, Sage alone is useless if you don't have an accountancy qualification.

SQL is also more used for Admin work for online servers, or computer programming. Outside of those specific roles it's also useless.

ECDL is okay I suppose but most employers don't place much value on it. If you have a degree it's like working backwards.

Excel is the way forward for general IT related jobs.

Rule of thumb is don't waste money on specific software training packages unless you plan on working in those specific fields.

notanewuser

Miss Sarah and Truegho - have you tried a skill based CV?