Hi all,
Has anyone had much luck finding a job as of late?
Everyday I am applying for all sorts of jobs and at best I might get 1 interview every few weeks which then goes nowhere. I don't even get a response or "Thank you but you have not been successful" email afterwards.
I was on the phone to a lady from the National Careers Service and she told me that she was struggling to find a new job herself.
Has anyone got any tips or advice if they have been successful?
Thank you
That is helpful to know that networking can work!
Thank you
I definitely felt that I did not fit their ideal type of personality, I just got the feeling he wanted another person just like him.
In my last employer I was the only male in the whole operation for a few months. Unsurprisingly the organisation lacked professionalism and experienced power struggles on a daily basis as nearly all the women came from similar backgrounds, similar world view points and similar styles.
Likewise I have also had links to clubs which are nearly all male and they are pretty much identical to my last employer.
I do worry about making past probation if I were to get a job, I don't "fit" in places easily even if I would like to think I am quite competent at the job itself.
Thank you so much for your comment
I have been to some places and on further inspection the employees do have a similar sorta appearance as well.
It definitely happens.
I found in my 4 decades career that a majority of those who rose to lower level management positions were the ones least suited to power. They would pad the team with people who they wanted to work there rather than those best qualified as the skills can be taught but attitude is ingrained.
Some managers would only employ those they could dominate, some would only hire those who supported their football team and some only wanted one gender in the workplace - none are very healthy approaches.
If you find yourself in such a workplace and you are not aligned with the desired qualities then it is unlikely that you will make it past probation in my experience. It is way too easy to set an employee up to fail as a manager with no real risk of consequences.
It very much is playing the game at the moment.
In my experience this is a constant. It really helps to learn the rules of the game and play along if you need the pay.
Thank you so much for your kind words.
It can be tough when you don't get a bite.
I wish you all the best too
I agree with you to be honest, it does seem that "If your face fits" type of thing.
It's like they have an idea of the personality, not just the experience, they want from someone. I'm not sure if I am too chatty, too friendly and thus come across as hard work.
As horrible as it sounds, I have been to some places and on further inspection the employees do have a similar sorta appearance as well. I never noticed it but my father did and it does now play on my mind. Hopefully I am wrong though.
It very much is playing the game at the moment.
Thank you so much for your response.
I think you are on the right track, I agree about the reviews, and how you are thinking about it is a good idea. (Can also be aggregated with Trustpilot and Google reviews in some cases.)
I wish you all the best. Don't be too harsh to yourself. It takes time.
Thank you so much for such an amazing response, it really is helpful.
Funny enough just today I have spent the morning creating a newer, better CV template as my current one is not really 5 seconds friendly, it had a great deal of paragraphs and not enough bullet points.
I completely agree with asking questions, when I have been before for these interviews I always make sure to ask about their experience of working there, the hours, the rota etc. Surprisingly a lot of managers openly seem to imply they dislike their job.
I was always told 3.5 stars as well. The problem with the review section of Indeed is it is quite small so one false employee or on the contrary one disgruntled employee can either elevate or tank their stars. That being said I did pull my application from one job after seeing they had four, one star reviews all with the same issue around the management and the owners.
My anxiety goes off the walls if I don't know where the job is, I always have to spend 10 minutes looking at busses or forms of transport to get to these places.
My own goal is part time and then moving up to full time, I have been unemployed for nearly two years and have caring responsibilities so full time is just too much straight away.
Indeed tends to be the best 100%, that being said Reed seems to have jobs that Indeed does not. I have no idea why some employers choose to put jobs on one platform and not the other. The Government's own job website in my experience tends to be very public sector and thus very hard to get into.
Some interviewers are strange I feel. Either they clearly dislike their job and put very little effort into the interview or they are very false and give a fake sense of security only to ghost you.
Your comment really will help, thank you so much.
It's definitely a struggle. I was getting nowhere and ended up doing IT voluntarily for a charity and was able to get a permanent job a few months down the line.
This is purely anecdotal, but I've had many different jobs over the years. I found that they tend to hire who they liked the best, rather than the most suitable or qualified candidate. I would try and find out who was interviewing me, if it was an individual, or a panel. I would do some digging, look for their LinkedIns, try and see if there was anything I could find some common ground with them on then try and use that to my advantage in the interview.
Unfortunately playing the game is just one of those things we have to do and any small thing you can do to get ahead will help.
I want to add that it is hard to find good jobs, which is why I put some effort describing my strategy. I hope it helps even a little.
Some of the strategies I used were:
1. Spend time having a clean, well written, short CV (nothing fancy)
2. I used Indeed for job search,
3. Spend some time trying to figure out whether you want part-time, full time, or live-in/live out positions,
4. Being willing to relocate widens the job pool and increases chances,
5. If you get an offer, give yourself some time to think before accepting (I had a prepared phrase such as "I will talk to family tomorrow and let you know my decision"). Also check the location; chatbots are useful for this task, also Google Maps,
6. Above 3.5 stars in reviews may be a good threshold,
7. Writing a not too long but descriptive cover letter (adapted to each location and job you apply for) is somewhat useful.
If you live with relatives, you can also try online, remote jobs (e.g. teaching english conversation).
Questions Made
I also asked important questions either before or after the interview / phone call, for example: So the pay is X/hour? How many other employees are there? When did they arrive? Is the job seasonal or permanent? Is there a probation period? How long is it? When do I get the permanent contract?
Some of these can be asked in a phone call, but of course, by email it is safer (you have a copy forever).
All those it put slight pressure on them to comply afterwards.
Important Indicator
For me an interview with a person that seems respectful, not too pretentious and also not too imprecise, are 50% of the contribution to accepting.
Hi mp500,
Yes, I think the Job Centre used to do more for people in finding work. I phoned them up the other day and all it seemed to do was talk about benefits, the woman on the phone was quite rude I found when I wanted to discuss if there were any support to get into work programmes.
I know what you mean about libraries and leaflets, It used to be my job to ensure they were all stacked nicely on the small tables!
The issue at the moment it seems is how far and few between jobs are, even on Indeed within a 45 minute radius there are not that many. They are often very competitive even for a basic entry level position, something that would have been taken for granted even five years ago.
They used to send people to work in PoundLand and Home and Bargains during the 2010s, I'm not even sure the DWP could arrange that these days due to the fact we have far, far more people than jobs. I'm aware Sainsbury is supposed to be doing something to help people get into work, to say I'm sceptical is an understatement.
Many thanks
When I was in the job centre a few months ago I was reminiscing about the days when you could go into the job centre and actually look for jobs.
Nowadays they have a table with a large quantity of leaflets, many of which are several years out of date (think council tax rebates/cost of living payments from a few years ago). Not too dissimilar to the nearby library which stocks leaflets advertising a phone app for local doctors' surgeries... which was discontinued two years ago in favour of the national NHS app.
FWIW I did see a job in a filling station today, but I don't want to work in retail and its not really worth a 22 mile round trip anyway for a job like that.
