Anyone found employment recently?

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 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 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 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

DigbyDevon said:

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.

DigbyDevon said:

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.