Interviews

Melissa177

In my experience, there are two ways to find a job:

1. Carpet bomb everyone with your CV, and go for every interview you can until someone offers you a job

2. Spend a great deal of time researching what kind of job you want, with the sort of company that you want to work for, tailor your CV to their organisation/culture, and apply for it. NB: this works even if there isn't a job advertised. Seriously! Just find where you want to work, and write to them. Any HR department worth its salt would take that sort of initiative seriously (as long as your CV was pretty good, of course!)

I prefer the latter route. I have a 100% success rate in finding a job - I have never gone for an interview where I haven't been subsequently offered the job. I don't put this down to luck - I do put this down to a lot of hard pre-work!

Good luck with the job hunt.

studentphil

Trouble is I know where I want to work and they are sectors where not a lot of jobs come up very often. So that is why I more than anything really need this job now as it could be ages before another comes up.

Melissa177

This is what I was saying - don't wait for the job you want to come up: tell the organisation/company you want to work for that you want that job, that you are well-qualified for it, and if you're good enough, they should hire you.

ie, don't wait for the job you want to be advertised

About 2/3 of people are in jobs which weren't advertised for openly.

Savvy_Sue

Melissa, I'm not sure we should be encouraging Phil to concentrate on one kind of job, or sending off speculative applications in search of his ideal job. He's decided he really really wants to work in a university, but as a student still living at home there's some doubt about whether he has any idea of the huge range of worthwhile work outside that environment. He has fixed ideas about what is and isn't worthwhile, which nothing anyone says seem to budge. He doesn't want to leave home immediately, which rather reduces the number of places he's going to make those speculative applications to.

Plus Universities aren't renowned for having a flexible approach to recruitment: there's either a job, or there isn't. If there is a job, it will be advertised through the normal channels. If there isn't, no amount of speculative applications will create one.

You've had 100% success with your method, which is great. But if Phil tries it and doesn't succeed, we'll have endless threads about how inexplicable he finds it that he wasn't successful.

And I do mean endless ...

studentphil

Sue, I have gone back to what I did before. I am after a job at the moment in old books and archives, I admit in an education setting, but I have library experience and seems the sort of thing I might like to do. So I have changed my plan of attack from being a strict university job in univerrsity admin to more varied educational setting jobs.


I want to work at a university because I just do not really know what other sectors there are that I could be any good at. I would not be any good in private sector as I just am not driven enough to be in that.

studentphil

I have to be pragmatic in terms of I can not do a job with a huge amount of lifting so that puts most retail jobs out of the picture. I can not type at a reasonable WPM so that puts tons of office jobs out. The only real thing I have experience of is library work and so my choices are generally very limited.

Melissa177

What kind of job are you looking for? Library work?

You don't need experience in most grad jobs - you just need a decent brain and a willingness to learn. My degree has almost nothing to do with what I work as now.

Also, typing is a skill that can be easily learnt - and plenty of people I work with can't type for toffee.

You seem quite negative about your prospects, Phil! There is no need to be. You can do whatever you want in life.

studentphil

Melissa177 wrote: »

What kind of job are you looking for? Library work?

You don't need experience in most grad jobs - you just need a decent brain and a willingness to learn. My degree has almost nothing to do with what I work as now.

Also, typing is a skill that can be easily learnt - and plenty of people I work with can't type for toffee.

You seem quite negative about your prospects, Phil! There is no need to be. You can do whatever you want in life.

I think Library work would be my dream. It was something I was good at before and really enjoyed doing it.

I am very good with IT, degree in a strong Arts subject which is heavly linked to knowledge and ideas, I am very good at learning new skills and I would like a job that is fairly hands on, so library, books, archives, records all seem areas I might be suited to.


I could be a sales man or a business sort of person if I pushed myself at it but it would not be my first choice.

I think library work is what I want to do especially towards historical books if possible.

studentphil

I know library work is a bad choice in the sense that it is the sort of career path that requires a Masters. I think you probably can get away without a Masters if you keep to your ear to the ground and are willing to learn as you go.

nickyhutch

Melissa177 wrote: »

You can do whatever you want in life.

Let's be realistic here - you CAN'T do whatever you want in life. I want to be a supermodel and jet round the world with Johnny Depp. It's not going to happen. I wanted to be an air hostess when I was a kid - I couldn't - I wasn't tall enough, ditto police officer.