Help with jobs please!

FBaby

Moving out of one's sector is very hard to do in this economic climate. I managed it twice but that was more than 10 years ago and even then, I practiced my interview techniques to justify how my current skills could apply.

I'm again not happy with the type of work I do, but trying to move even to something very similar has proven extremely difficult. The irony is that I am very much in demand in my field and manage to progress well, so I've just accepted that for the time being, I had to stay where I was. Maybe there will come a time again when looking for people with different experience, when top managers have more time to dedicate to training, will be around again, but at the moment, my advice to your husband would be to try to go up the ladder in retail (although of course not giving up trying to make a horizontal move, you never know).

James_B.

Brightspark87 wrote: »

I am not but your advice is not helpful - I don't need to know how much your friends who are running stores get paid its firstly irrelevant and secondly why would he go for this job which I have already said is £20k .

You asked me, directly,mid I knew anyone earning that in a shop, so it's a bit ridiculous for you to now tell me that you don't want to know.

You are being extremely ungrateful to people who are genuinely trying to help, and I have no intention of participating further.

dancingfairy

The trouble is he seems overly set on getting this one job, as if it's this job or no job. I can understand he had his heart set on it but there must be other jobs out there?
As others have said they have gone to a lot of time and trouble to provide feedback. It's now up to him really, he can reflect on what they've said and try and build on it, or he can ignore it.
Unfortunately it isn't easy to change jobs and sectors, and it isn't easy if you have other requirements such as location or a minimum salary to take into account.
I hope he is able to pick himself up after this rejection as unfortunately in job hunting you often have to apply to a lot of jobs before you get one. Please don't let him get dispirited at the first hurdle.
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theoretica

Brightspark87 wrote: »

As I explained their reply was completely at odds to the first interview.

I don't think it was - the first interview was to see if they thought he was worth getting to know more about, and clearly he was. The second interview was probably to narrow down from maybe half a dozen people to fill one vacancy and not to appoint everyone who was OK. Everyone given a second interview would have passed the first so the standards were probably higher.

sniggings

Brightspark87 wrote: »

As I explained their reply was completely at odds to the first interview.

Fact is someone was better for the role than he was in their opinion, instead of just saying that, they sometimes make up a load of twaddle as feed back, if he got two totally different forms of feedback, then sounds like that is what has happened here.



Have to say tho, the feedback does sound a little fishy, a high end travel agent would not expect a hard assed sales approach, I've never used such services but I know for sure, i would not expert a salesman trying to push a holiday on me, so in that respect it does sound as a fob off. Putting such a high value of the sales side.

Remember many more jobs in London than travel, and a lot pay more or similar to what he is on now, so just keep looking.

Bogof_Babe

Just because he loves to travel doesn't mean he'd enjoy the hard graft of working in the industry. There must be a lot of both mundane and frustrating aspects to organising other people's holidays and trips.

I'm surprised you used an agent to arrange your honeymoon if your husband is so good at dealing with such things. Why didn't he do it all himself? Good experience too.

I just hope he isn't being unrealistic in his ambitions. A secure job these days is something worth hanging onto and building on.

If he's still determined, perhaps he could do a distance learning course on tourism. I believe there is a degree in it, so maybe OU would have something similar.

NewShadow

Brightspark87 wrote: »

I am not but your advice is not helpful - I don't need to know how much your friends who are running stores get paid its firstly irrelevant and secondly why would he go for this job which I have already said is £20k if he earnt £100,000- its about how to move out of retail potentially and advice on the feedback. As I explained their reply was completely at odds to the first interview.

It's not really irrelevant you know. You didn't mention the actual salary for quite a long time, and its not only about switching sectors.

People reacted the way they did to finding out because it actually makes a difference to the response - the skills required to be in what most would call 'Higher Management' are very different to the skills required to manage a department in a store. And therefore, how to develop them is different.

For the 100k positions I'd be suggesting looking at leading some higher profile sales campaigns (perhaps if a store manager asking the regional manager if he can lead a campaign in the new year) and getting hard figures for his achievements. This is because with a £100k travel sales job I'd expect him to do less direct selling (maybe acting as contract manager for some very special clients) and more... well... managing.

At a £25k I'd be surprised if he's directly managing many people. I mean - no offence, but Tesc* graduates start at £24k on the retail path (not in London)and more supervise than manage.

If your OH is managing a team (i.e. is responsible for their performance) and has worked there a while and is still getting knocked back for a raise, I'd completely support the idea of a change. You aren't paid more at a higher grade because you work harder or are better at the job. You get paid more because you're responsible for the job. Renumeration is relative to risk.

I'd still advocate him asking his boss if he can run a mini project - he could then demonstrate tangibly his achievements. Also suggest he keep a KPI log (just note number of sales and amounts per month - ideally compared to the store or regional average - industry average if you can manage it).

Confidently having figures like that at your fingertips comes over well at interview - when, lets face it, his key job is to sell himself. I know i'd be reluctant to invest in something from someone who didn't know the specs of what they were selling...

ffacoffipawb

Brightspark87 wrote: »

Have you known anyone to work in a shop and earn £100,000 plus??

Mohammed Al-Fayed?

bristol_pilot

Moving sector is possible, but you have to start at the bottom or nearly bottom again and use the skills you already have to work your way back up, hopefully progressing faster than those that started with no experience but there is no guarantee of that.

Travel is especilly difficult to break into as there are so many bright young grads willing to work for nothing or nearly nothing for several years just to get a foothold.

As others have said, £25k is not high-end manager pay - the security guards where I work earn more than that. 'Higher management' is generally £150k+, much more in London.

[Deleted User]

Brightspark87 wrote: »

He was not short listed, he had a full day interview which was confirmed as a final interview. 36/50 is not a poor score - the guy who we booked our honeymoon with got 14 and still won them over.

Just curious, did the company know your hubby had been a customer? Done well getting as far as he did and whilst my moto is try and try again...I'll always think you can't be a customer and apply somewhere - it isn't cool anymore, in fact I'd love to see some sort of survey done!


More then recent, I was advised against a charity application when it became clear I'd been a service user in the past and also tried a better end finance co of the payday loan sector who would have been easily able to see I was once a customer so I can't help but think that it scares potential for employment opportunities off, whilst I can't think of a better way to put it perhaps it makes the applicant or employer vulnerable? y'know if it comes out I've been a customer, not so easy to train (it did occur to me but sadly not till afterwards) can you imagine what other people in that recruitment process could say?? could they afford to lose my custom? instead of that, I know I certainly heard facts which I didn't want to hear


Then there is the be glad he didn't get taken on and then had a change of job from under his feet - know someone who started their new job in 'sales' now doing nothing of the sort which may be in their best interests, even if they knew they couldn't beat heavy sales targets in heart of hearts, their now stuck with a commission-less role.... don't do anything on the rebound, think more lucky escape!