trouble getting a new job

I_Can_Haz_Job?

kingslayer wrote: »

Not trying to hijack your thread pin pin, i just wanted to ask this poster a quick question.

How did you get into teaching abroad, as i have heard that you need at least a degree to be able to teach English?

As far as I know a degree is 'nice to have' but certainly not a dealbreaker. The CELTA is more widely recognised than TEFL and it goes down much better in the likes of China and Japan. The main thing is being a native English speaker, particularly British. It's all about status and in one offer I had in China they said my teaching hours would be x and the rest of the time I was expected to generally float around in the background - when they show parents around it 'looks good' to have British people as 'the help'. I stayed in UK - purely out of not being able to get my act together and worrying about failing my visa medical (bit of a crazy medical history) . As soon as I got my CELTA though I was getting offer after offer in UAE, China, South Korea - they pay your board, a decent salary and while you have to front up the cash to fly out there, they do refund you after satisfying your contract It's always going to be my parachute plan if I ever find myself staring down the barrel of JSA again - my cousin went out to Japan to teach ESOL about 15 years ago and never left!

I_Can_Haz_Job?

if it helps OP, one thing I would recommend is going to the corporate website of a company you like, looking around on the homepage for the 'about us' or 'work for us' or 'jobs' section (usually hidden right at the bottom in the footer). A lot of companies - certainly in my industry - can't afford to hire agencies or even pay for adverts. They just whack them on their own website because it's free for them. You can find some nice little jobs that way. If you don't have a LinkedIn, I recommend setting one up and spending a lot of time on it to get it looking good - lots of key words in your profile, find everyone you know to boost visibility. I have mates that have only ever worked in a band that have cracking LinkedIn profiles so don't worry about not having reams of office experience on there

Who?_me?

Is it possibly your CV rather than your skills? If you use Excel etc in your current job, are you selling these as much as you can? The National Careers Service website is excellent, and has good examples of CVs. You can do a "skills health check" and find out where your strengths are. You can see advisor as well who will help you build your CV. It's worth looking at your CV before you start spending a fortune on courses.
If you are registered unemployed, you can do a range of courses at Level 1 or Level 2 in business admin which will raise your skills, also, if you are made redundant,there is funding to enable you do do short courses to gain skills.
If you do end up unemployed and really want to get out of warehouse, don't discount an apprenticeship. The money is fractionally better than the dole, and you get a qualification and experience out of it. At 28 you aren't too old as they shouldn't be discriminating.
You need to badger agencies if they take you on and be prepared to do bits and pieces until you get your skills base built into something long term.

noelphobic

gettingready wrote: »

Not sure how ECDL would help? I used to run and ECDL Centre, did not rate this much at all to be honest - are employers looking at it at all?

I would think more office based experience - perhaps some voluntary work on days off from current job, some admin experience would be more helpful...

I've seen quite a few jobs advertised where they list ECDL as a desirable and sometimes as an essential (although for the latter thye sometimes say 'or equivalent qualifications/experience')

I did admin work for over 20 years but did the ECDL recently - I had passed it a long time ago when it was quite new and a lot harder but I thought a more up to date qualification would be worthwhile. The course was free at a local college, apart from the £30 I had to pay for registration.

I'm currently doing a level 2 IT course with Vision2learn, which was free of charge. This one:-

http://www.vision2learn.net/channels/courses/essential-it-skills-level-2.aspx

There is also a more basic level 1 course:-

http://www.vision2learn.net/channels/courses/essential-it-skills-level-1.aspx

noelphobic

Annisele wrote: »

Can you touch type? If not, I'd strongly recommend learning; I think it's much easier to get an office job if you can type.

I can touch type at around 70wpm but it seems to be a dying art these days!

devilivus

Maybe you'd qualify for benefits instead of work, due to your depression etc?

pinpin

No joy yet, but a good few more rejection emails (even for apprentice/entry level)
One from a minute ago:

http://i.imgur.com/gcT2crE.jpg

devilivus wrote: »

Maybe you'd qualify for benefits instead of work, due to your depression etc?

Maybe. I don't know much about that, but it's something to think about.

buglawton

You know how to post images on MSE. That qualifies you as being computer literate!

pinpin

buglawton wrote: »

You know how to post images on MSE. That qualifies you as being computer literate!

lol

Well, I actually have an intermediate NVQ in IT.

(not sure how that compares to the ''level 2 IT course with Vision2learn'' and the ECDL mentioned earlier?)

I was gonna write back to them and ask for feedback, but I closed the webpage half way through writing my reply. I'm just completely warn out and a little despondent with it all now.

NoNoDrama

10 CV's a day is way too much. A small amount of well researched, targeted applications are what is required here. Find out what companies use what agency. Research the status of the company.