The job hunting support thread

[equationgirl]

I applied for two roles yesterday, one through a recruiter and one direct with a company. The roles had different job titles. The job descriptions were similar but in no way identical.

After speaking with the recruiter this morning, it turns out both adverts were for the same role - she changed the title of the role to get more applicants. Ok...except again, what the company actually wants isn't properly flagged within the job description.

And because I applied direct without knowing the roles were the same, the recruiter can't progress my application but from the sound of her voice I don't think I'd be successful anyway.

Epic.

 

[newme]

in news here, the local but fixed term (2 years-ish) thing round here that i was seriously considering in the autumn when my job looked a bit insecure, got an e-mail from the manager involved this week saying they didn't manage to appoint (think they advertised it 3 times) and was i still looking.

hmm.

it's local authority so they would (probably) have to advertise again. but it's a grade or two higher than i'm on now.

the job i'm in is (on paper) permanent, although a particular current stream of government money (which is also funding the local job) is only certain until mid 2025, and there's going to be a general election before then so who knows what the situation will be by then.

if i was a bit younger and could risk another short term job on the CV, or a bit older and could embrace semi-retirement by then, i might do.

i'm inclined to stay put where i am (job-wise) and say no thanks.

meh.

I had a permanent contract at a council, turns out after 2 reorganisations it didn't mean shit and just was made redundant anyway as they specially said contract or permanent made no difference to them.

 

[Hollis]

I do love the agents who phone you up every couple of weeks to 'check in' and are quite persistent in trying to get the names out of you of other roles you've got in progress.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I had a permanent contract at a council, turns out after 2 reorganisations it didn't mean shit and just was made redundant anyway as they specially said contract or permanent made no difference to them.

yes, i know that any 'permanent' job is really only as good as the notice period, and i went through a reorganisation about every even numbered year the last time i was in a council type job (although they tended always to get more volunteers for redundancy than they actually wanted to get rid of which wasn't great for the morale - although eventually the management realised it was cheaper to piss people off enough that they quit than to make them redundant.)

but at least if i stay put in current job, i'd have 3 years service in if the shit hits the fan in 2025, so would at least be eligible for some attempt at re-deployment (although as i'm fairly specialised and work mainly remotely, it's questionable if there would be any 'suitable alternative', and i've already 'had too many jobs' as far as some people are concerned.

 

[newme]

yes, i know that any 'permanent' job is really only as good as the notice period, and i went through a reorganisation about every even numbered year the last time i was in a council type job (although they tended always to get more volunteers for redundancy than they actually wanted to get rid of which wasn't great for the morale - although eventually the management realised it was cheaper to piss people off enough that they quit than to make them redundant.)

but at least if i stay put in current job, i'd have 3 years service in if the shit hits the fan in 2025, so would at least be eligible for some attempt at re-deployment (although as i'm fairly specialised and work mainly remotely, it's questionable if there would be any 'suitable alternative', and i've already 'had too many jobs' as far as some people are concerned.

I've had crap loads of jobs, I just left off everything that wasn't relevant for my last job, which was basically anything from 16-30. So my history had 3 jobs in it but were all relevant to the role. It also nicely covered up the gaps. We had the same problem with VR, they suddenly found everyone with 20 years wanted out as that was the max payout level and those people could easily get something elsewhere. Turns out if you get turned down for VR based on being too important to leave, those people end up wanting to leave even more since they just lost out on a big payout. We lost so much institutional knowledge that when we cleared out the office we found one guys locker was stuffed with notebooks that were then treated like gold dust because they worked on the vast majority of every major development project going back 30 years.

I just said no to redeployment flat out and applied elsewhere, turns out exactly as they planned against. I am now a consultant at another place working within public sector, they had a rule in place to prevent staff coming back as consultants. Other councils exist tho and they allow remote. I know many others that have done the same. There was one particularly frustrated recruitment agent I dealt with who could not fill anything in my sector because no one wanted to move to the middle of nowhere in Scotland and they would not shift on the hybrid policy. Being in the middle of nowhere in England and happy here I stayed where I was and work with places all over the UK instead.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

when we cleared out the office we found one guys locker was stuffed with notebooks that were then treated like gold dust because they worked on the vast majority of every major development project going back 30 years.

don't think any former colleague has ever left me anything that useful.

one former colleague left me an in-tray and there was crap about 4 years old at the bottom of it.

another had hoarded enough carbon paper to last a lifetime or two - carbon paper was no longer used in the job, but he clearly hadn't wanted to take a chance. worst bit was having to explain the purpose and use of carbon paper to youngest colleague...

 

[newme]

don't think any former colleague has ever left me anything that useful.

one former colleague left me an in-tray and there was crap about 4 years old at the bottom of it.

another had hoarded enough carbon paper to last a lifetime or two - carbon paper was no longer used in the job, but he clearly hadn't wanted to take a chance. worst bit was having to explain the purpose and use of carbon paper to youngest colleague...

20+ years of being the client lead/lead/other major involvement on 7- high 8 figure construction contracts. No one cared about other people's stuff but if an issue came up at site x and you asked Andy he would come back with yeh that was flagged at snagging, the contractor is now out of business but they were subcontracted by z who had the overall responsibility ill call 'important person at wherever' they worked on this as they head the division now.

Compare that to someone trying to find records now in archive off site, where the project name changed 3 times. Archive take ages to find anything and then you need to know what to look for and where. Assuming you know the format they used and if it is still the same as the person who is looking is used to cos of course that changed 3 times since then. If they hadn't banned VR people coming back as consultants for 18 months or whatever it was then they could have had him on 4 hour minimum call outs at a ridiculous rate and still saved v the hours x salary that tracking this shit down cost.

That was our only visit in 2 years since covid closed the place down. To clear out lockers and basically nick office furniture.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Tag me for anything oop Norf people - between Preston and Carlisle, I suppose. Or remote
Redundancy looms.
Consultation starts Monday.
History = retail banking; local authority; University Admin; Team Leader; techy type without the qualification(s); Has MA in Creative Writing w/Pedagogic Studies

Ta, TA

 

[Puddy_Tat]

@Puddy_Tat I have kept it simple so far saying something like 'the I was hired for wasn't the job I was expected to do' I have only told two recruiters about being bullied out of the job, both of whom have known me for some years.

just seen this again - would a better 'spin' be that their requirements changed very soon after you started? make the message that it was them not you?

 

[Orang Utan]

I had an interview last week for the part-time position and today I was offered it. Had to turn it down though as I need a full time job.
But I was also invited for interview for the full time job today. The person who called to offer me the job is also on the panel for this interview and they wished me luck, so fingers crossed that I’ll do as well as I did at the last interview

 

[equationgirl]

just seen this again - would a better 'spin' be that their requirements changed very soon after you started? make the message that it was them not you?

I've been trying to do this, hopefully it will pay off.

 

[rubbershoes]

I resigned from my job a couple of weeks ago as the new owners were tossers. Started my new job today. Its less money but a less toxic place.

 

[Elpenor]

I resigned from my job a couple of weeks ago as the new owners were tossers. Started my new job today. Its less money but a less toxic place.

Onwards and upwards. Remember you saying there was some ongoing issue regarding expenses. Did that ever get sorted?

 

[rubbershoes]

Onwards and upwards. Remember you saying there was some ongoing issue regarding expenses. Did that ever get sorted?

Nope.

 

[Elpenor]

That’s pretty shit

 

[Winot]

Nope.

Small claims court?

 

[equationgirl]

I've been filling out my unemployment insurance claim form. Not only do they want my former employer to say why I left and that it wasn't my fault (details on work frustrations thread), they want details of every application I have made since I signwd with the company name, address and phone number, and copies of each application and the responses.

One, most applications for larger companies are made through platforms like workable so I don't have an application copy as such, and two, if I am lucky I get an auto acknowledgement of the application being received. Mostly I rarely get that. If I get a response at all it's usually weeks after the application, no feedback available.

I got the list about half done today, I will continue to work on it tomorrow but I am drained.

 

[savoloysam]

That sucks. Hope something crops for you soon.

 

[rubbershoes]

Small claims court?

Complicated. Original firm went into administration and I'm trying to find whether my expenses being under a contract that was TUPEd over protects rhem, or whether rhey just fall like all unsecured debts

I will be issuing a claim for my expenses since the administration, but am getting some supportive evidence before I do.

 

[ruffneck23]

So, posted this on the lonely tech post thread, but it could do with going here.

After 9 months in the wilderness, I've just landed a cloud infrastructure 3 month rolling contract.

For more money than I've ever dreamed of earning.

Don't give up folks, things can change in a moment.

 

[equationgirl]

Another third interview, another ghosting for a couple of weeks (where previously they had gotten back to me either the same day or the next day) and another bland useless rejection. Happy Monday to me.

 

[Skim]

Thanks. I’ve done three applications now and quite enjoy writing in the STAR format, because it’s just a formula that can follow. Talking in STAR during an interview will be more of a challenge.

I’ve managed to get shortlisted for another job (not civil service but public sector). I need to give a ten-minute presentation, which will be the easy part because that’s one of my strengths. My weakness is going off-topic when responding to a question!

Update: I was offered the public sector job just over two weeks ago and accepted it straight away. I wasn’t sure which way it would go after the interview. Thought I did a good presentation but wasn’t sure if I’d managed to answer the questions in STAR format. Pre-employment checks are done now and I’m waiting to fix a start date.

I was starting to become quite despondent about getting a job, so it’s a huge relief. I put a lot of work into changing careers and this has been over a year in the making, so I hope the new role works out.

 

[ruffneck23]

Congratulations

 

[equationgirl]

Awesome news Skim well done you!

 

[equationgirl]

Found out an application I submitted about a month ago is 'no longer under consideration ' on their system. Didn't even get the bland rejection email. How hard is it to configure the system to do that, large multinational?

 

[equationgirl]

It's too hot now so am calling the jobhunting for the day.

 

[ruffneck23]

Found out an application I submitted about a month ago is 'no longer under consideration ' on their system. Didn't even get the bland rejection email. How hard is it to configure the system to do that, large multinational?

I applied for job at the council, thought they might at least send a rejection letter but nothing.

I really do feel your pain, job hunting seems to be getting harder

 

[equationgirl]

I applied for job at the council, thought they might at least send a rejection letter but nothing.

I really do feel your pain, job hunting seems to be getting harder

Even the job centre lady said 'keep persevering with it' this morning.

When I do get another job, it's going to take me years to recover from this financially.

 

[Skim]

Found out an application I submitted about a month ago is 'no longer under consideration ' on their system. Didn't even get the bland rejection email. How hard is it to configure the system to do that, large multinational?

There was a job I applied for earlier in the year where it said “if you have not heard back from us by <date>, consider your application unsuccessful”. If a candidate has spent hours working on their application, the least a company can do is send a generic rejection email.

 

[equationgirl]

There was a job I applied for earlier in the year where it said “if you have not heard back from us by <date>, consider your application unsuccessful”. If a candidate has spent hours working on their application, the least a company can do is send a generic rejection email.

I've seen that on quite a few job adverts over the months, so on those jobs, if I apply at least I know.

At the beginning of my career I spent a lot of time working for universities and applying for jobs with universities. If you wanted to be sure your hardcopy application pack had gotten there they sent you a blank postcard as part of the application pack and you added a stamp and your address. The rough rule of thumb was, if you hadn't been contacted within six weeks, you knew you weren't getting an interview.

I once got a phonecall long after the six weeks was up where somebody did a 'pre-interview' and they got really arsey when I said I had already managed to find a job, and when was I going to contact them to withdraw my application? Put me right off working with that person and that university.

I've been talking to recruiters and they tell me companies are taking their own sweet time getting back to them even when they are told the company want to make a role available urgently. So it's taking months to get a new position on the books, then when the recruiter had sent a bundle of CVs through, it takes weeks to get a response on who they want to interview .