End of JSA allotment, no luck finding a job... What's next/wrong?

General_Grant

CuriousCorvid said:

. . .

Employment history I've only left out jobs not relevant to where I'm looking now (most were only temporary positions, so I've just listed them as "MM/YY - MM/YY short-term temporary contract")
. . .

My only thought on this is to ask whether you were paid by an agency or the employer direct.  If you were a temporary worker with an agency, and especially if one directly followed another, you could just show the name of the agency.  This would also show that the agency was confident in placing you in different contracts.

poppellerant

CuriousCorvid said:

during which time despite applying for upwards of a dozen jobs a day through various sites have not received any interviews or other offers.

I think this is where you're going wrong.  You are just pumping out applications all day long with no real quality going into them.  You need to ensure that you match your application to the job specifications.  If you want to apply for a job properly, you should be spending about an hour per application.  If you really want the job, then maybe take several hours to apply properly.

Long gone are the days of applying for as many jobs as you can apply for every day.  Employers are looking for people who match their advertised job specifications.

Here are some links which you may find useful:

https://www.s2recruitment.co.uk/2017/05/30/match-skills-person-specification/

https://help.open.ac.uk/presenting-your-skills-when-applying-for-jobs

Sandtree

poppellerant said:
I think this is where you're going wrong.  You are just pumping out applications all day long with no real quality going into them. 

A little bit of an unfair assumption... at up to a dozen per day they could be spending an hour per application. Depending on the breadth of roles applied for this is potentially perfectly reasonable time to tailor a CV for applying to two different clothing shops for a customer service advisor role (have no idea what the OP does).

Certainly in my career there are probably 5 different areas of interest and so I have 5 stock CVs (Finance, Claims, Reinsurance, M&A and Underwriting) and so the changes between one application and the next are relatively small beyond harmonising language and calling out systems etc if my experience happens to match explicitly. Generally takes a lot less than an hour per application.

CuriousCorvid

Of the dozen or so apps per day, probably about a third take about an hour as it's more than just a cut-and-paste thing, another third are shorter but still take some "customising", the remainder are the "quick-apply" style using pre-uploaded files.

I would prefer a logistics job, but am looking outside of that, too - my most recent employment was night cleaner in a warehouse, for example (after I had been made redundant from the logistics job due to loss of business through the pandemic), and I've had some experience during my college and uni days of waiting tables and general bar work.

I hope I don't sound whiny, but I really just want to be working soon - days, nights, whatever - as husband and I would like to get our own place again before too long (moved in with his parents several years ago after our last rental was sold short notice with no option to stay; and while they've apparently been happy enough to have us here, we'd like our independence back and to have more than one room we can consider "ours").

Farside71

I recently gave up a decent job in IT after nearly 30 years and took a few weeks out.  Applied for Xmas job at at Tesco and got offered a contract next day, but have started working this week at another large retailer who offered me the job at interview as I'm getting more money there although contract is only until 31st January.  I have no customer service experience and this is absolutely nothing to do with my career history plus I'm obviously 50ish from experience.  Have you looked at large companies websites as well? I got the impression they are desperate for anyone half reliable at the moment.

kimwp

I'd personally remove the address or location completely and take up as little room as possible with qualifications from over ten years ago. Your personal statement should be about you, not your experience - you don't need to put the standard phrases, instead think about what makes you a team player - are you friendly? supportive? Stay longer to get the job done? Instigator of a weekly peer recognition scheme? And so on- write what it is about you that makes you the right person for the role.

I did read somewhere that automated programmes scan CVs for buzzwords so you could try writing all the buzzwords from the advert in your CV but matching the background colour so a person can't see it but the computer will pick it up

CuriousCorvid

Yes, I am looking into Xmas and other short-term jobs as well - I can't afford not to, really, and I know the old line about being X times more attractive to a potential employer if you're currently in work.

I didn't realise it might be my summary - the last advice I had on it (just a couple of months ago, from a National Careers Service adviser) was to use it like a very quick sum-up of everything else on my CV, and that if they wanted more details, they'd look at the relevant sections! Looks like it's back to the keyboard, then... again. 😣

Farside71

CuriousCorvid said:

Yes, I am looking into Xmas and other short-term jobs as well - I can't afford not to, really, and I know the old line about being X times more attractive to a potential employer if you're currently in work.

I understand, I've taken the work on primarily to get some customer, logistics and delivery experience which I'm  hoping will give me options in the future.  I really am no expert at this having been in work for 30 years but did used to do some interviewing and recruiting.  To me the points about making sure there is some evidence in you CV or application as near as possible to the start, that is relevant to the job you are applying to, is the big one for me.  I don't know how much automation of CVs really takes place but often it's get in early and seem a fit for the job is going to give you best chance.  Recruiting is a time intensive process and again in my experience you want to get someone as quickly as possible a lot of the time and not review hundreds of CVs looking for the perfect match.

tealady

Hi.
I dont know what it's like by you but loads of supermarkets by me are advertising in store for seasonal staff.
Could you take a day to go round a few armed with copies of your CV?

kimwp

CuriousCorvid said:

Yes, I am looking into Xmas and other short-term jobs as well - I can't afford not to, really, and I know the old line about being X times more attractive to a potential employer if you're currently in work.

I didn't realise it might be my summary - the last advice I had on it (just a couple of months ago, from a National Careers Service adviser) was to use it like a very quick sum-up of everything else on my CV, and that if they wanted more details, they'd look at the relevant sections! Looks like it's back to the keyboard, then... again. 😣

Well, I'm not an expert, but my thinking on it is:
1. if it's clear in your CV from a brief glance (eg a bolded title) where your work experience is, then it's wasting space to put it twice.
2. The old adage of people remembering how you make them feel and the fact most people recruit based on whether they like the applicant. How your CV looks overall and what it says at the top will influence whether they think they will like you.