Job advice after illness for several years

vixki

Hi there.

I'm a 21 year old who has not been in employment since I left school at 17. I have had various illnesses which made it hard for me to seek work. I did work for several village charities until I moved away in early 2013, and I did a two week job experience as a receptionist/admin assistant in late 2013, but that's it. I am currently 2/3 of the way through an Open University degree which has been taking up my time but it still won't help explain the huge gap on my CV.

I want to find a part time job. as with ill health and my degree I don't think I could handle jumping straight into full time work, and the past few months I've been applying for every job in the area that I am able to (I don't have a driving license so I have not been applying for ones further away, but I suppose I could, I just don't want to end up paying more in transport than I'm earning). But I have not had a single interview, either I hear nothing back, or I get an email a few months later saying "due to the high volume of applicants ..."

What can I do to make myself more attractive to potential employers?

Thank you all in advance.

Takeaway_Addict

volunteer somewhere for 6 months and show willing through this.

coin_operated_girl

When I was 21 I became very unwell and was unable to work for 3 years. Like you, I studied towards a degree with The Open University and did a bit of voluntary work. When I became well enough to go back into employment, initially I didn't hear back from employers because I naively thought that if I took the honest approach (was too unwell to work, but am fine now) then that would adequately explain the gapping hole in my employment history. After about a month or so of hearing nothing I decided I had to change tactics and I just said that the gap was due to studying. I didn't mention that I was just studying part time (but I equally didn't pretend I had been studying full time) and luckily no one ever asked. I also stretched out the dates of my voluntary work a bit to make it look a bit better because my voluntary work stopped and started a bit as my health fluctuated. All in all, it took me around three months to find a job (I applied for 6-8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week). I'm not suggesting you tell loads of lies, but I know exactly what you are going through and you may need to be a bit economical with the truth.

It's worth pointing out that if you lie on an application and an employer finds outs after they've hired you, they can fire you for it.

vixki

coin_operated_girl wrote: »

When I was 21 I became very unwell and was unable to work for 3 years. Like you, I studied towards a degree with The Open University and did a bit of voluntary work. When I became well enough to go back into employment, initially I didn't hear back from employers because I naively thought that if I took the honest approach (was too unwell to work, but am fine now) then that would adequately explain the gapping hole in my employment history. After about a month or so of hearing nothing I decided I had to change tactics and I just said that the gap was due to studying. I didn't mention that I was just studying part time (but I equally didn't pretend I had been studying full time) and luckily no one ever asked. I also stretched out the dates of my voluntary work a bit to make it look a bit better because my voluntary work stopped and started a bit as my health fluctuated. All in all, it took me around three months to find a job (I applied for 6-8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week). I'm not suggesting you tell loads of lies, but I know exactly what you are going through and you may need to be a bit economical with the truth.

It's worth pointing out that if you lie on an application and an employer finds outs after they've hired you, they can fire you for it.

Thanks. I take it you put the studying info in your covering letter when applying for jobs?

Not saying that I'd been ill wouldn't count as lying though would it? It's not like a lie by omission?

I guess it can take a while to find one then, but I'll keep at it.

coin_operated_girl

Yeah I always put something like "please note, the gaps in my employment history are due to studying with The Open Univeristy towards a degree in X". The only issue is that when you go to an interview they may ask whether you are studying full or part time and if you lie then it could be problematic when you have to show proof of studying. But like I say, no one ever actually asked me about this. I guess they just assumed I was studying full time since I wasn't working, but that's the employers problem if they want to make assumptions

I think it's fine to leave out that you have been ill, I personally wouldn't count that as lying. I was referring to the fact that I stretched out the dates I did volunteer work to cover up some gaps. I wouldn't consider this to be a huge lie though and I knew it was v unlikely they would find out because it's not like I made the whole volunteering thing up, it's just "stretched the truth" a little (I'm talking about a couple of months here and there, not years). Obviously if you have a health issue that you think will impact on your ability to do the job then I would recommend you mention it at the appropriate time.

It may be tougher for people like us to find jobs, but perseverance pays off! I was quite pleased with myself that it only took 3 months for me to find a job considering I had been out of work for so long. I applied for anything and everything, but was fortunate enough to get a job in the field I wanted to work in. I'm on my second job since becoming ill, so I know that next time I decide to start looking for another job, I have the magic 2 references from two full time jobs where I have been at both for a decent amount of time, and so the employment gap is becoming a distant memory. It was a LOT easier for me to get the job I have now- in fact I only applied for two jobs.

I would suggest you try and do some voluntary work or something whilst you're looking, just so you have a current reference to put down.