Published on 12, July, 2020
My Universal Credit, work coach referred me to learndirect for a week long customer care course.
Yesterday I had my interview.
A lot of form filling, name, address, phone no. Email, national insurance, next of kin phone, etc etc etc.
Q... What is my ideal job?
What job I would refuse to do?
Any disabilities ???????
Around 10 Q about my style of learning. Multiple choice with 3 choices.
Formal face to face interview.
A Maths test.
Place four numbers in order from lowest to highest?
Someone spends £10 a week on travel. How much will he spend on travel in four weeks? Show all workings.
Etc
An English test.
Circle wrongly spelt words.
Add Capitals and full stops to a sentence.
Identify a verb in a sentence. They even explained that a verb is an action or doing word.
Week long course starts on Monday 29th Jan.
I've just got a phone call from learndirect that I've been turned down for the care roles we were being prepared for.
I failed in the group exercise I took part in on Tuesday.
The feedback I received was very unfair.
So. Back to square minus one.
Mmmmm I wouldn’t say this is back to square one minus one, as you now know that care work with that company is not the job for you, which is plus one, as you can rule this out and you’re now building up a profile of what is and isn’t suitable for you. Unless of course you feel that it is suitable for you, and in that case, you can ask for support that will actually get you into care work which could include training in a specific area, for example. If learndirect are charged with getting you a job then it is their responsibility to provide you with whatever you need to get you the type of work that you want. And you can challenge the feedback. For example, they said you didn’t make a big enough contribution. That is vague. What do they mean by ‘not big enough’. For example, they might say, you were too quite and passive, which could indicate that you might be most suitable for a position in which you take very clear and specific orders and you simply have to carry them out. You may not be ‘good’ in group situations where each member is required to contribute ideas etc but would be excellent for a role in which you carry out specific orders.
They said that you weren’t focussed enough. Again, this is vague and could indicate that you may need some support to help you to focus on specific tasks etc or you just need to find something that does grab your focus.
Talking over people could be a challenge. I do this but I am able to minimise this if I am in a situation I want to be in and I can see the benefit of not talking over people. It might not mean that I can always stick to this but if this is something already highlighted, then I could maybe simply be reminded of what I’m doing, when I do it, so I can stop it.
You can use this feedback as a benefit. For example, maybe they can explore roles where you’re not required to engage in conversations, where your contribution isn’t required beyond following set tasks. It maybe that you are best suited to jobs that don’t require much focus or you may need to find something that you’re uniquely interested as that may gain your focus and attention.
You say you would like to work in a library. You can unpick this and look at what specific elements you like. For example, you like the quite and peaceful environment or you like organising and sorting books which is a skill you could maybe transfer to other types of jobs, organising other kinds of things.
By creating a list of all the elements that your perfect job will include, you can begin to build a profile and look at areas you would maybe like to build on. For example, I’m a writer and recently I’ve been learning French and I’ve realised that my lack of confidence around things like nouns and verbs etc is hindering my learning of French. Which lead me to realise that my lack of confidence with this could also be hindering my progress with writing. So I have found several short residential courses at northern college all about nouns and punctuation etc so I am in the process of signing up for these classes. They’re all residential and they’re all free and will be beneficial to me in many ways and I’m so looking forward to them. I’ve always struggled with these things.
You have such a great skill at story telling. I feel so happy when I see you’ve started a new thread or you’ve made a comment. I really look forward to your posts, especially when you are telling us about neighbours or your daily activities etc. I would love love love you to write a weekly blog/story, either in an online magazine or on your own blog or whatever. You could monetise the blog and make a very comfortable living, by creating passive income. That would bring joy to me and give you a nice income.
Also, a good place to start when thinking about employment, is to have three figures worked out. Your first figure is the amount of money you have calculated that you would need each week to live comfortably. The second figure is what could you take off that list to bring that figure down. For example, we need money for food, but maybe you could be a little less extravagant, or you could do away with the annual holiday. You chop it down until you’ve got a figure that gives you the bare minimum you would need to cover your basic weekly costs. And the third figure, you add in things like extra holidays, or eating out a couple of times a week. This figure is more or less what you need to be considered financially free.
It’s a good idea to have at least some of your income coming from a passive income stream. It’s also important that you have a real interest in what you do. This definitely helps, when, for example, your particular line of work might mean that you start out with just the basic income and you live frugally for a while, if, for example, you know that with hard work and time, you could build it up to meet the middle income and ultimately to become financially free. Maybe you don’t want to be financially free. It’s important you’re clear on these aspects, otherwise you can end up on an eternal merry go round.