Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello all,
So I've been unemployed now for basically a year (on December 15th). Throughout this whole year, I have been for countless interviews, completed various tasks for job applications, the lot. I was unsuccessful for all the roles, even having put in hours of hard work preparing for interviews and completing tasks, it still was not enough. I ask for feedback as to why I was unsuccessful, yet I just get no reply, so I don't really understand where it is I am falling short. I have been dealing with severe burnout as a result. I really want to give up and face the reality that no one may want to hire me, no matter how badly I want a job. I mean, a year is a long time to be out of work. Before my unemployment, I had graduated university in Maths with Economics, and got an internship at a market research agency. I was not successful in the internship, hence I was dismissed after the probation period of 3 months. It was due to a number of things such as my disability and not meeting "the standards of the Company" as quoted in the leaving letter. I did sense that my line manager was not my biggest fan, and they also part of the decision. Honestly I don't know what to do. It seems like with my disability, and I hate to bring it up, but my ethnic background, it is really difficult for me to break out of this cycle of unemployment.
Does anyone have any advice on how to gain employment, how to gain independence outside of the education system? Because that's all i've done in my life up until the last year.
Agency work!
I was employed last year by the civil service through Brook Street. My temporary contract just came to an end and was not renewed. Neither I nor Brook Street were notified that it wasn't going to be renewed. It just wasn't. No formal notice or letter of redundancy, no warning just back to unemployment and the job centre. My colleagues who were employed directly by the civil service were treated very differently. And are still working there.
Your experience sounds very familiar to me:
I've experienced all of these.
I wish you luck ️
only a year? wow your doing good.i was unemployed all the way up to age 31 or something lol you will be fine if a year is your biggest gap you have faced.
Crystal A said:Throughout this whole year, I have been for countless interviews, completed various tasks for job applications, the lot. I was unsuccessful for all the roles
The main thing to remember is the job market is horrific right now. And has been since the 2008 recession, frankly. But it's at a particularly volatile state at the moment. I've seen many skilled professionals on LinkedIn say they've been unemployed for 5+ months, can't get interviews, are getting ghosted constantly etc.
So it won't be you necessarily doing anything wrong, it's just the nature of the market. It'll get better in time. But for now, just plug away and keep up the applications and interviews. Just remember it's not your fault, it's the nature of modern business that's led to this.
As for your internship, that happens (I've been sacked from loads of jobs over the years). Some businesses and managers are incredibly snotty about things, so you may have just got unlucky there. Did you mention you're autistic?
Don't be put off from applying for roles unrelated to your degree. Digital marketing has apprenticeship opportunities, for example, and just requires enthusiasm.
Welcome to the forum.
Have you thought of agency work ie long-term contracts?
That's what I did for years as I loathe interviews and am hopeless at them.
Places like Manpower (if it still exists) were good as you went into roles on open-ended contracts and you only had the one interview ie with the agency.
I actually worked for 10 years with Manpower in one company.
I later did shorter term NHS contracts with other agencies.
The only proviso here is that a lot of these jobs may just be administrative.
NHS trusts have 'bank' registration for staff too, where they then put you directly into (often long-term) temporary roles, both admin and clinical, which is something else I did.
I wish you all the very best with your employment search.