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The job hunting support thread

Cloo said:
Feeling more optimistic today and it is much easier to apply for things when some possibilities seem to be opening up
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This definitely, got one reply last night and now obviously thats a possibility but it supports the fact I must be getting something right. I've missed a few deadlines now by trying to get everything perfect when I had a decent application already. Especially with so many portals and sites its sometimes a pain to track things down. I am now off to find out what on earth the job entails as I have come across some unusual job titles lately
 
Yeah, some jobs do vanish really quickly off Indeed/LinkedIn - I've learned that if I see something that looks really good, I should apply ASAP because there's a possibility I might miss it otherwise. Not missed out anything fantastic yet, but I'm definitely learning to go straight for anything that looks really good in case it gets loads of applications and closes after a couple of days.

Got another 4 out this morning from LinkedIn/Indeed - next few days will be trawling employers' sites directly in relevant areas. It's kind of tedious but I will usually turn up one decent opportunity each time so it is worth it.
 
Well thats an odd one

Procurement Officer - Commission Based

Whatever the fuck that means as it is not explained at all anywhere.

Job Types: Apprenticeship, Freelance, Volunteer, Internship
Contract length: 6 months
Pay: £1.00-£49,400.64 per year

Other then that the rest of the advert is totally standard and it's remote but probably one of the odder ones I have seen.
 
That is very weird....

So I think I mentioned husband was after a contract after working on his own product for a few years - he's hit a snag in that agile project management roles seem to have vanished. He thinks people have bitched sufficiently about badly-done Agile that it's killed it and he's very unwilling to do non-Agile (I think it's largely waterfall) management, so he may have to look at another angle. Hmmm.

I now have three interviews next week, one wednesday, two Thursday :eek: Mitie called yesterday about the Bid Writing one, so I have that before the second round Real Estate consultancy one, hoping no one else wants an interview next week now. Also got a phone screen tonight from a guy in the US about an Editor role with Gartner that has said nothing about money yet and didn't ask me so the big question is what they're paying. I wouldn't have bothered but according to Glassdoor, Gartner pay looks fairly generous so it might be worthwhile
 
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Bloody hell you certainly seem to be getting a lot of interviews that's great. Could even end up with two offers lol.

I've just found another spam folder email from a job I applied to which sounded like it was something I could do. Now reading further into it I'm not sure the job title is very accurate. Struggling to see exactly what it is they are wanting. Don't particularly want to go in saying what the hell is all this? If its as described the pay should probably be 3 times as much and I wouldn't have just hit apply on my standard job title. They seem to have contacted me a few times now tho I know they have kpis to hit.
 
Cloo said:
That is very weird....

So I think I mentioned husband was after a contract after working on his own product for a few years - he's hit a snag in that agile project management roles seem to have vanished. He thinks people have bitched sufficiently about badly-done Agile that it's killed it and he's very unwilling to do non-Agile (I think it's largely waterfall) management, so he may have to look at another angle. Hmmm.

I now have three interviews next week, one wednesday, two Thursday :eek: Mitie called yesterday about the Bid Writing one, so I have that before the second round Real Estate consultancy one, hoping no one else wants an interview next week now. Also got a phone screen tonight from a guy in the US about an Editor role with Gartner that has said nothing about money yet and didn't ask me so the big question is what they're paying. I wouldn't have bothered but according to Glassdoor, Gartner pay looks fairly generous so it might be worthwhile
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I would guess if he tried to look for non-agile pm roles he'd find they'd dried up too - I suspect it's just the state of the market.
 
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newme said:
Well thats an odd one

Procurement Officer - Commission Based

Whatever the fuck that means as it is not explained at all anywhere.

Job Types: Apprenticeship, Freelance, Volunteer, Internship
Contract length: 6 months
Pay: £1.00-£49,400.64 per year

Other then that the rest of the advert is totally standard and it's remote but probably one of the odder ones I have seen.
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Erm. Is it from a reputable organisation? It has a whiff of money muling.
 
newme said:
Bloody hell you certainly seem to be getting a lot of interviews that's great. Could even end up with two offers lol.
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I do worry about this when I get two final ones, never happened yet though! I would be a little torn between next weeks ones.

BSI job pros:
  • Gets me into editorial management (while still doing delivery)
  • Busy, varied job which I'm pretty familiar with all aspects of
  • I do like being an editor in preference to a marketing person (with apologies to marketing people), it just has a bit more gravitas
  • I think it's relatively steady work and less likely to be hit with redundancies than something more commercial
  • It performs a socially positive function as an organisation
Cons:
  • It's in bloody Gunnersbury which is a schlep to get to and there is nothing to do or see around there; I like to actually take a break at lunch but when the weather is not good for local parks there will be nowhere to go. But luckily it sounds like it'll only be 2 days a week in office. I just wouldn't have applied for a job there if it had to be full time in office
  • Back to treading the familiar path of editorial - the whole content/marketing thing was a bit more novel, and with more high paid jobs albeit editorial management can pay quite well and this one does
  • Dunno how ready I am to manage 4 people!

Real Estate job pros:
  • Varied and taking me more into a new direction to career prior to eighteen months ago
  • More central office
  • Would involve research, which I like to do
  • Still has some line management
Cons:
  • Business has big targets for increasing turnover and this role would have some targets regarding that, so that could get stressful and I might be out on my arse after a year if I don't achieve targets
  • I don't have much content campaign experience, so I'm not sure how well I can manage the above
  • It's still essentially evil (or less socially positive) Big Business

Unknown: Pay - I asked for a relatively low sum in application (less than BSI is offering) as they are a smaller business than my last one, but having found out more it's a more senior position than I at first thought I think I'd be in my rights to ask for more if offered.

At the end of the day, I think BSI is more likely to come off than the real estate one as there's a great chance of being pipped at the post by someone with more relevant experience. And of course might not be offered either.
 
Seen an odd one on Indeed, which I've seen variations on before, for copywriters to check content being fed into AI. It's £30ph, you need to commit to at least 3 four-hour shifts per week, so that's worth a try as it's something I could do while looking. I think they want multiple people for this, but I'm sure a lot apply, though most probably won't have an actual editing/writing track record.

I would need to have a business account to be invoiced so I will ask gsv if it would be feasible/legal for me to bill via his consulting business (I am officially one of the directors).
 
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Cloo said:
Seen an odd one on Indeed, which I've seen variations on before, for copywriters to check content being fed into AI. It's £30ph, you need to commit to at least 3 four-hour shifts per week, so that's worth a try as it's something I could do while looking. I think they want multiple people for this, but I'm sure a lot apply, though most probably won't have an actual editing/writing track record.

I would need to have a business account to be invoiced so I will ask gsv if it would be feasible/legal for me to bill via his consulting business (I am officially one of the directors).
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Yeh I've had ones where it says something like £45/hour for 3 months. Fine and I probably invested too much in that since interview and insane salary for me. Turned out they hadn't even won the work yet. It was in anticipation of am award from a council to seat fill effectively just for two projects. Idk it I didn't get it or they didn't. Never bothered telling me either way.
 
gsv sometimes went to contract interviews for stuff they hadn't actually won yet, which was frustrating.

Apparently for this AI thing they're still finalising what interview will be, but it will involve written test... honestly might suggest gsv go for it as well, as he could do with the extra money and would be just as good as I am at that kind of thing.

In unrelated news, obviously loads of HR teams have decided to send all their rejection emails out today - had about 6 of them from stuff from the last 6 weeks, none of which I'm bothered about and most of which I have already written off.

The phone screen tomorrow night is probably a hiding to nothing as I've found their HQ (outside London) is more of a pain to get to than I thought, as in it would be easiest to drive it and I just don't want a drive commute even for just twice a week, but I suppose I should have the conversation just in case they're planning to offer a shitload of money for it.
 
Yeh it isn't what u particularly want to do but contract work seems to balance roughly against the months of trying to get the next one. Still be happier with anything that was predictable v variable. My dad and step mum had a business each for 30 years, it was very intrusive. Decided I wanted none of this work intrustion very early.

How's it going now? Seems you have had a few options between you. I've found my local area weirdly has quite a lot of remote jobs that are within a range we can keep going on easily. Which means and back to work is not a huge issue if that happens. Council are full pro remote tho and applied to 3 now I could do and be very comfortable on. Especially earning fuck all so far the direct income would be quite useful when I just finished last year's attempt at new savings.

Kids are both working which is great, a lot of the things they seemed to be focusing on to distraction now have, a distraction lol. Plus they are seeing other people more cos well life's expensive. First time ever I've not been working and they are, odd at 40 but I'm doing the garden between job apps so whatever I guess.
 
meh.

didn't get shortlisted for the civil service thing that i wasn't all that enthusiastic about.

not sure if i just haven't got the hang of the BS, whether they have withdrawn it / got a lot of internal redeployment candidates or what.
 
newme said:
How's it going now? Seems you have had a few options between you. I've found my local area weirdly has quite a lot of remote jobs that are within a range we can keep going on easily. Which means and back to work is not a huge issue if that happens. Council are full pro remote tho and applied to 3 now I could do and be very comfortable on. Especially earning fuck all so far the direct income would be quite useful when I just finished last year's attempt at new savings.
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Thanks for asking. Big 3rd and final round in just under an hour (still remote), getting everything set up. As I had to give back old work laptop and now having to use my crappy machine I've bought a headset - in fact I've bought two. The first one I tested out with my other half and he said the sound quality just wasn't good and the only way to make it not quiet was to have the mic right up to my face, occluding my mouth, so not ideal or professional for interviews. Got a better one yesterday which looks and sounds much better - will keep the other one for when son inevitably starts gaming online with others!

I'm going to run through my presentation one more time, look at the JD again - I think it's basically going to be me presenting for 5 mins, questions about it and 'getting to know you' stuff to see if I'm a fit. I'm placing quite a lot of hope of this one, but we'll see. I'll feel a bit back to square one if this doesn't come off. I do have another final round tomorrow, but I'm less certain of being able to land that one.

I've got nice written recommendations in from both my recent managers (last work will only do confirming dates type references) as I saw something recommending you have some recommendations to give/email to people after with a thank you after interview, which is what I plan to do as I can imagine if you are neck and neck with someone else, the person who sends a thanks and some recommendations could give themselves the edge.
 
Yeah, interview wasn't great - there was a project management test I hadn't expected, although not that I could really have prepared for it. That said, it was a scenario quite specific to what they do and I'm not sure they'd see many people who'd answer it brilliantly. I was expecting maybe it would be a general editorial project scenario but this was more about project set up and risk management, that I'm not so au fait with. I'm thinking it's probably a no then - but might not hear for a week or more, as they do seem to do everything very slowly, although I think that has overall been as they are adding a whole tranche of jobs right now so I think they may be reserving decisions on teams until they've seen everyone for the different roles.

Have the real estate role one tomorrow - had a good rapport with first interviewing guy who will be there again, but I'll be sunk if they ask me any marketing questions , it's not quite clear how marketing-y this role will be. It's also in person so I don't have the security blanket of stuff stuck on my walls but I guess I've been through everything enough times that I should have decent stock answers.
 
I saw this article and thought it might be useful for the thread. It's a great website I've used several times when jobhunting:

www.askamanager.org

need help finding a job? start here

Here's a round-up of some of the most key job-searching advice on this site. Resumes and Cover Letters The first thing to know is, if you're not getting
www.askamanager.org www.askamanager.org
 
Real estate 2nd round went about as well as it could have I think. No 'gotcha' marketing questions, I think I spoke convincingly and impressed them with real estate knowledge, but if they see someone who can, say, give them a whole outline of a successful marketing campaign they did that got ££££ of business for their employer, then that person would have the edge. They are seeing 2 or 3 other people and it is supposed to be a final stage but wouldn't be wholly surprised if I was called to a 3rd round with one other person.

If they do offer, money is a bit of an unknown with this one - I named my sum (a relatively low one, given size of business) when I applied and I assume they looked at that, but I can't guarantee that and I think there's a risk they'll come back with a much lower sum that I hoped, although if it's only a bit lower + bonus, would consider that as it's a nice job that opens out quite a lot of opportunities with what I think is a good firm. This feels like a possibility, but a question mark over whether it can pay an acceptable salary.
 
I've applied for JSA now - hopefully won't need it but at least it will help cover some weekly kid-related costs if I do.

Also applied for a nice senior editorial job with a consultancy on content about AI, bit of a moon-shot and I've had no luck landing anything with a consultancy so far, but I do actually match the spec fairly well so it was worth a go.

Done some research on the Social Value Portal as I have an interview for a different bid writing role with same FM firm I spoke to about one last week and am being progressed for - picked up from first interview that it might be helpful to know more about SVP, although I seemed to pull off sounding convincing last week. I'm doing the test on Friday - I can only assume it'll be something like 'Here is a tender document and some data about the client, here's a case study and some data about our capabilities, please use this to answer these questions'. And either it'll make sense and I'll feel I can make a decent stab at it, or I'll be entirely at sea and won't have a clue what I'm doing.

If anyone has relevant experience, I'm all ears!
 
I know we mainly tried to avoid using the social value portal because it was much slower and cost more (so I was told a year ago anyway) than doing it ourselves using the National TOMS etc and we could do a lot of it in the initial tender. Anecdotally it did appear to put off some suppliers but then so did any additional information for anything in some cases.

Frankly for SME's it became a right mess. As in a one person organisation for example its bloody difficult to find much social value but we often had a measure for being within x distance of the council or a range of postcodes for two different councils which usually got used to tick the box. They are hardly likely to get job creation out of anything they won for example and also working with the council before was occasionally used as a plus, which seemed rather wrong as its supporting an incumbent potentially and I did have some questions about this but it came to nothing as they lost anyway.

Anyone who actually managed to provide some social value which would look good on reports as an outcome was always encouraging cos they got what we wanted out of it. Or rather what looks good when working with them. Much like when I was doing the councils loans for EU projects, they wanted solid numbers where they could as then it helped justify the fund, which actually was cost neutral since we got the money back when the EU Paid them retrospectively. SLT liked the charts showing how many new jobs were created versus the targets, apprenticeships started, anything positive that could be quantified community outreach was seen as great for example but hard to report on as it doesn't go in a chart. So that usually was a condensed sentence or used as an add on for that month or as a headline if it stood out for whatever reason.

Got three applications in at the council where I worked before in various roles, another one at a council owned place I worked at before just finished after 3 hours pissing around with their systems. Tho the Linkedin import to Oracle worked surprisingly well for these things which helped a bit. Then probably 10 other random ones all over the place, plus I have a next stage on one very close and also remote but the pay is basically dreadful unless I get the top of the range, which I should really but at this point any job is better tho I really don't want to start burning bridges as there are not many round here lol.
 
This is for a big FM provider - there's one bid writer job for healthcare, other for public sector (which I have tomorrow). Lady was saying in the healthcare one that the social value part is often the most time consuming bit, so even if it doesn't come up directly I thought I'd better familiarise myself with it a bit. I knew a little about it from my last but one job where there had been a few articles about its relevance to the FM and real estate sectors.
 
Got this message on LinkedIn from a 'Daniella Smith' - definitely not written by AI :rolleyes:

I came across your recent update about your job hunt and wanted to express my admiration for your professional journey. Your impressive experience truly shines through, and it's evident that you're someone who stands out in the crowd. Your qualifications not only meet but surpass expectations, showcasing your commitment to advancing your career. In today's competitive job market, I have no doubt that your exceptional background and strategic approach will lead you to success.

Mind if I ask you a quick question?
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Oy vey! Just applied for a (quite good) role at Law Society but it had bloody competency questions to answer and spent and hour or so doing it and then when I went to submit... it logged me out. Gah! At least I had saved the text for the longest one on notepad... I decided I'd got back and redo the other five qs although it's really a pretty long shot.
 
Cloo said:
Oy vey! Just applied for a (quite good) role at Law Society but it had bloody competency questions to answer and spent and hour or so doing it and then when I went to submit... it logged me out. Gah! At least I had saved the text for the longest one on notepad... I decided I'd got back and redo the other five qs although it's really a pretty long shot.
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I tend to construct things like that in Word first (also means it does the word count thing for you) then copypasta them on to the website...
 
Yeah, I think I'll do that in future.

I've identified something vaguely possible at a place where a friend works and he's agreed he can put me as referring him to the job. gsv has a bunch of mates from uni who are working in big professional services places so I'm checking their job pages in case I can use someone as a referee.

Things looking pretty grim for gsv in terms of trying to find a project management contract - in the past it's been spending the day on the phone to agents but now he's having trouble even getting agents to answer the phone or return calls; clearly it's 'don't call us, we'll call you' at the moment.
 
Arse, got a bit excited for a moment as real estate guys from last week actually phoned, but it was a no. As I suspected might happen they saw someone who had hands-on campaign experience - I could talk a good game about it, but I haven't actually done it. Given that was the more likely of last weeks' I guess I will have a 'no' from the other by end of week. That leaves just these two bid writing roles in different parts of same firm - I had a good chat this morning with a guy for the second one; they clearly are really keen to find more writers and he wants to hire more than one person so fingers crossed.

Interestingly he also mentioned freelancing/temp roles so if this doesn't come off, now I have his contact details I will speak to him about that and whether he could, for example, try me out on something on a temp/trial basis if that might be possible.

Bit perturbed nothing from last fortnight has got back to me positively - there's nothing that's really got my name all over it but the other thing is it's only in the last fortnight my CV has started to say I'm no longer employed and I know that's seen as a negative because life is basically unfair like that.
 
My favourite advice from a veteran bid writer, a master of ensuring that each aspect of the scoring criteria got appropriate weight in each section without wasting any of the wordcount, was that while words in diagrams or infographics counted towards the total, arrows and pictures didn’t, so time spent on powerpoint was always worthwhile, especially on sections where insufficient words were allowed. Perhaps worth passing off as your own.
 
That's good to know - guy this morning mentioned that word limits are one of the tricky bits, though I am quite good at that. He's sending me a written test tomorrow and he said one part involves editing down.
 
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