The job hunting support thread

[newme]

Just got an email saying I've an interview in person on Monday, nice amount of notice for 950am lol.

They helpfully removed the advert from their site so I can't even see what the hell it was. Waybackmachine failed me, Google cache thinks I'm suspicious or something. Found a copy of the advert on some random site but it helpfully doesn't have any of the attachments working.

Emailed them for details but now thinking great I have very little to prepare with if they don't get to me. Nice weekend of that when I'm supposed to be busy the whole time. Now need to make time somewhere to prepare and Sunday is SOs birthday, quiet one for me then I guess.

 

[a_chap]

Best of luck, anyway.

 

[newme]

Best of luck, anyway.

Thanks I've been going nuts and three places went up here where I used to work so hoping that's good for me. I actually know 2 of the 3 in the interview panel from doing work for them.

Edit

Got the job description and other bits now, someone got back to me very quickly thankfully. Should be easy enough and uts in the right department for getting promotions. Bit of a pay cut but still higher than I'd been getting on contract over a year since its all on and off and tax years. Contribution based ends literally on Monday so timing is good.

 

[Cloo]

Good luck newme - no interviews next week at the moment, which is a bit of a worry. Have spent the morning drafting a bid writing test that I was going to send this afternoon (he only needs by Tuesday) but think better to send on Monday morning so I can proofread with a fresh pair of eyes. It was quite tough but interesting and I think he will excuse me if I lack some of the procedural knowledge. I got gsv to check my first draft and he gave useful feedback and spotted a subtle task change that I missed (to change font for final question - this shit can matter in a bid).

In ten minutes doing a different one for someone else that's actually easier than the first, but glad I tackled that one earlier. I'm doing it timed with her monitoring online. I have 90 mins for it but I reckon I can draft and refine it within an hour as it's only a single question.

Wish me luck, I'd really like to get one of these and not just as I don't seem to have any other options on the table right now.

 

[newme]

Cheers and same to you. I was getting rather bothered as I had one useful reply in the last two weeks and then they had misadverised as remote but wanted to know if i could commute 250 miles for one day a week... not at that pay i cant. Which seems exceedingly common. Was also police related which just put me off for reasons

This and the other 2 were my hopefully safer options, also got another one I'm hopeful on now, similarly remote and also 8 miles away. Unfortunately I got them all at the beginning of a month long deadline so its been wait and wait and check spam yet again since every recruiter seems to end up there. Can't think why.

Now thinking I may end up with interviews coming up in the same department which could be weird. I'm a little overqualified for this one but idc it's remote and pays money. An easy life is much nicer than a stressful one and it's much easier to go up once there already. Already used the systems for 5 years there so kinda hope I know what I'm doing by now lol.

 

[Cloo]

That was actually harder than I thought! I think I may do better on the one I'm sending on Monday, although it was more extensive. But the one I just did in 90 mins I think I might have got too caught up on the wrong facets of it. I had a brief panic afterwards that I didn't relate it speficially to the client at all and I might have ignored some info I needed to be including, but then I looked again and saw there wasn't any info on the client, so it was all fairly generalised. I suspect it'll only be about halfway to what they needed though.

Yesterday was reflecting on some things and may next week try looking at some more contract roles and stuff that pays less, especially in editorial - unlike last time I was out of work I don't actually have to earn the same or more (I had childcare costs and literally anything less than I'd been on wouldn't have covered them and we weren't entitled to any benefits on that front) but right now it seems like the priority should be on bringing in some money to the household. And my thinking is a contract role won't be worried about you leaving for more money and also while it would suck a bit to be on less it would only be for a bit although I'd better hope to fuck I can get something else at the end of it. Also, being immediately available might be a bonus.

Nothing from the other final interview last week, so I guess that's more or less a 'no', as I expected. They do move slowly, but I don't think so slowly that they wouldn't have told me if I had it by now.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Just got an email saying I've an interview in person on Monday, nice amount of notice for 950am lol.

hope it goes well.

They helpfully removed the advert from their site so I can't even see what the hell it was. Waybackmachine failed me, Google cache thinks I'm suspicious or something. Found a copy of the advert on some random site but it helpfully doesn't have any of the attachments working.

i tend to save a copy of the job advert (your computer probably has a 'print to PDF' function so you don't need to use any actual paper - may take a few attempts with format / layout to get it all on the page) and any documents that are with the advert, as it's not uncommon for it all to disappear when the closing date comes.

i have a documents folder for job applications, then a folder per application. and i tend to keep the covering letter / personal statement stuff (even if i've then copy-pasted it in to a box on a website) as there's a chance i'll be able to recycle at least some of it another time.

 

[newme]

hope it goes well.



i tend to save a copy of the job advert (your computer probably has a 'print to PDF' function so you don't need to use any actual paper - may take a few attempts with format / layout to get it all on the page) and any documents that are with the advert, as it's not uncommon for it all to disappear when the closing date comes.

i have a documents folder for job applications, then a folder per application. and i tend to keep the covering letter / personal statement stuff (even if i've then copy-pasted it in to a box on a website) as there's a chance i'll be able to recycle at least some of it another time.7

I've got loads of bits saved for the application bit, various versions of whatever. I just neve thought I would get to interview and find all the job info was gone lol, first time so far and I'm just north of 40 with something like 15 jobs lol.

Found there is a waybackmachine plug in which caches whatever you visit tho so its never an empty page if you go back to it

And thanks!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I just neve thought I would get to interview and find all the job info was gone lol, first time so far and I'm just north of 40 with something like 15 jobs lol.

I'm 50+ and have had what some people would consider 'too many jobs' (if that's what you mean) - I've applied for 3 jobs in the last year and had 2 offers which I decided not to take.

Obviously, don't know quite what you do or where you do it - some employers / managers have different attitudes about these things, and some employers haven't really got the hang of sex / race discrimination laws that have been on the books for 50 years now, let alone age discrimination.

Wayback machine is variable - sometimes it will archive a front page, but not what's behind it.

 

[newme]

I'm 50+ and have had what some people would consider 'too many jobs' (if that's what you mean) - I've applied for 3 jobs in the last year and had 2 offers which I decided not to take.

Obviously, don't know quite what you do or where you do it - some employers / managers have different attitudes about these things, and some employers haven't really got the hang of sex / race discrimination laws that have been on the books for 50 years now, let alone age discrimination.

Wayback machine is variable - sometimes it will archive a front page, but not what's behind it.

Yeh it was oracle which as usual helps nothing. Job number and time was just how manh times ive interviewed to get 15 and how weird not bothering to let the candidate see the job description after selection was. Very weird.

I actually left a whole 15 years off my job history cos it's irrelevant. Knowing I once worked for mcdonalds for a few summers isn't much use in a specialist type role within local gov lol.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I actually left a whole 15 years off my job history cos it's irrelevant. Knowing I once worked for mcdonalds for a few summers isn't much use in a specialist type role within local gov lol.

some places specifically only ask for the last X years (in part think this is supposed to address potential age discrimination)

and yes, the longer ago something was, the less relevant it is, and may not even be worth a mention, and if you've got a degree level qualification, it's probably not worth going in to exactly what subjects / grades you did at O Level.

i tend to summarise anything before a certain date on my CV rather than go in to detail - although sometimes there's something that was a while ago but would be a good selling point so I do tailor it.

when you get online forms that ask for ALL your job history and EXACT dates for every single job (in my case back to 1986) it gets a bit bloody ludicrous...

 

[newme]

some places specifically only ask for the last X years (in part think this is supposed to address potential age discrimination)

and yes, the longer ago something was, the less relevant it is, and may not even be worth a mention, and if you've got a degree level qualification, it's probably not worth going in to exactly what subjects / grades you did at O Level.

i tend to summarise anything before a certain date on my CV rather than go in to detail - although sometimes there's something that was a while ago but would be a good selling point so I do tailor it.

when you get online forms that ask for ALL your job history and EXACT dates for every single job (in my case back to 1986) it gets a bit bloody ludicrous...

Yep they asked for that and I said something like (1999-2014 - retail, hospitality, admin, bla bla then a list of employers) they just accepted it. Public and a consultancy firm so figure that's both ends. CS I hear maybe different but two councils didn't care.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

without injuring myself or others, unless provoked by a printer.

 

[newme]

It was an HP!

 

[Cloo]

I've decided I'll bite the bullet and do the Digital Marketing Institute digital marketing course - it helped my SIL 4 years ago when she couldn't get back into employment and the longer I don't do it, the more I will be loath to spend the money. I'd been putting it off because there kept being something on the horizon that looked promising.

I'm clearly just not 'marketing' enough for almost all content manager roles and not 'digital' enough for some digitial editor roles and it should help with those. I actually paid for it before my last job, then got offered the job and was in the 14-day money back period, so just got refunded. It's on offer until Wednesday so I'm going to get it and I suppose I can refund on the off chance I get the bidding job and otherwise it feels like I have a gap coming up in interviews - it's 31 hours' online study at your own pace, so could do it in about 3 weeks with two hours a day. And I suppose as soon as I start I can say on my CV that I'm doing it and I can have it finished by the time I might likely start any new job. It should at least make me sound convincing about stuff like campaigns and SEO and backed with my other experience might shift the dial a bit.

 

[RubyToogood]

I've decided I'll bite the bullet and do the Digital Marketing Institute digital marketing course - it helped my SIL 4 years ago when she couldn't get back into employment and the longer I don't do it, the more I will be loath to spend the money. I'd been putting it off because there kept being something on the horizon that looked promising.

I'm clearly just not 'marketing' enough for almost all content manager roles and not 'digital' enough for some digitial editor roles and it should help with those. I actually paid for it before my last job, then got offered the job and was in the 14-day money back period, so just got refunded. It's on offer until Wednesday so I'm going to get it and I suppose I can refund on the off chance I get the bidding job and otherwise it feels like I have a gap coming up in interviews - it's 31 hours' online study at your own pace, so could do it in about 3 weeks with two hours a day. And I suppose as soon as I start I can say on my CV that I'm doing it and I can have it finished by the time I might likely start any new job. It should at least make me sound convincing about stuff like campaigns and SEO and backed with my other experience might shift the dial a bit.

Google have some good free courses on things like SEO and Adwords. Look for Google Digital Garage.

 

[Cloo]

Thanks, there are free ones but this one seems to have some market clout and some roles ask for a DMI qualification or similar - I feel like I need something concrete in that area.

 

[Elpenor]

It might be the sort of qualification that is a prerequisite for an interview?

 

[Cloo]

It might be the sort of qualification that is a prerequisite for an interview?

Not necessarily, but DMI or similar often comes up as a 'nice to have', sometimes a required. I think that on top of my other experience it would make me a more realistic candidate, I just fall between two stalls for content at the moment because while I can do the writing and editing part I can't give any evidence of SEO, campaigns etc and my last job was really more 'business development' than marketing. It also might help open out some 'digital editor' jobs, although some are much more technical. Not getting the real estate one from last week was the last straw as if my subject area knowledge in that area isn't enough to get me a Content/Communications role (and, as I'd hoped, the feedback was that my knowledge was impressive), then it's not going to be enough for any similar role.

Also thinking I can put it on my CV as experience I'm gaining May-June 2024 and buy me another month or so of 'doing something' that might help prevent the 'unemployed effect' making people overlook my CV - would it be kosher to put above my 'Experience', 'Qualifications: DMI Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing May- Present'?. And as I can do it quite quickly I can have it in a few weeks and if I get interviewed I can say I can complete it before starting.

The slight rub is there's an offer on it until Wednesday, but won't know about the slim possibility of these bid jobs before then (well, I might know if I haven't made the written tests), but then I did buy it just before I got offered my last job but got refunded as it was the 14 day cooling off period. With hindsight of course I wish I'd done it anyway, as I totally could have done it while working that job, but of course, who has hindsight? In the unlikely event I buy it and get offered a bid writer job, maybe I ought to do it anyway in case that job doesn't work out!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

would it be kosher to put above my 'Experience', 'Qualifications: DMI Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing May- Present'?. And as I can do it quite quickly I can have it in a few weeks and if I get interviewed I can say I can complete it before starting.

i think it might be dubious to list it as a qualification before you have got it, but certainly a 'currently studying towards...' would be worth including on a CV

 

[RubyToogood]

Not necessarily, but DMI or similar often comes up as a 'nice to have', sometimes a required. I think that on top of my other experience it would make me a more realistic candidate, I just fall between two stalls for content at the moment because while I can do the writing and editing part I can't give any evidence of SEO, campaigns etc and my last job was really more 'business development' than marketing. It also might help open out some 'digital editor' jobs, although some are much more technical. Not getting the real estate one from last week was the last straw as if my subject area knowledge in that area isn't enough to get me a Content/Communications role (and, as I'd hoped, the feedback was that my knowledge was impressive), then it's not going to be enough for any similar role.

Did they say what the reason was for not giving you the job?

 

[Cloo]

Did they say what the reason was for not giving you the job?

Yes, they said my subject area knowledge was impressive but they went for a candidate with more hands-on marketing experience, which is what I thought might happen. They did have some ambitious expansion plans so for that one it was probably important to have, if possible, someone who could demonstrate they had managed a marketing campaign of some kind that had got results. Obviously the course still won't give me hand-on experience but it's the next best thing - I'm wondering if I can find a 6-12 month contract at an acceptable salary (as I mentioned above we can survive me taking a salary drop if it comes to it) that involves assisting the marketing lead so I can get that experience.

 

[newme]

Well interview seemed to go well, 3 of them which I always struggle with actually looking at all of them and have to actively make myself do it, especially if the head of the department is right in front of me and doing most of the talking.
Was light and conversational, seemed to manage to get loads of actual answers in something like the right format for local gov. Tho I used a very good example for the first question then the next question it would have way better for.

My one sticking point is Power BI, they don't do a great deal with it but I've not used it at all. I was trying to get on a course before when working but it didn't really work out. Now have it downloaded and the Microsoft course open so I can at least have some idea and make some things. If it comes up again I can say I have some experience with it then not have to talk up analysing proactis data and various excel projects where I needed a new skill and then went and learned it myself to get things done. That seemed about the best I could make of it.

Seems its one day a week in, not ideal but not bad when its like 20min drive away and arrival time is flexible. Also moving to a different section there who knows I may even learn something, hopefully something which gets me a higher paid one where I can drop a day and lose the day in office lol. One of the two I knew on the panel seemed particularly interested in things I various projects I had done in Excel and data cleansing etc and was enthusiastically nodding to some bits. Also asked an additional question at the end which seemed to get a good response, whatever the hell it was either of us said.

 

[Cloo]

Glad it went well newme .

I sent in the test for this bid writing role - no idea if I'm anywhere near the mark but I think he'll get back to me in next day or two. I think if he's happy with the test then that's probably most of the way to getting it, but like I said, no way of telling really. I added some notes in my email back to him part of which was about expressing very happy and able to pick up new processes if needed, just to underline I've got transferrable skills even if not precise experience.

I've applied to one job with a sustainability publisher who i like and have used their material quite a lot in my last but one job - although it's in East fucking Grinstead which is a monster commute even for once or twice a week, but it's a nice job and actually good money (also a bit unlikely as I think they want a more journalism/events person, but worth a shot).

I'm saving up a few content manager roles until I can enrol on this marketing course, hopefully by later this week, and then apply saying I'm working on it and seeing if that helps.

 

[Cloo]

Well, having all felt a bit doldrum-y, things feel back on again.

Waiting to hear back still about bid writing tests - feels a little unlikely, but could happen, I dunno.

I have an in-person interview on Friday for another bid writing roles with a developer/construction business that is in Borehamwood, which is actually a 20 mins drive from us and TBH I kind of applied as thought location (even though hybrid) would probably knock out some competition. This is also a smaller, more niche business (though still paying the same money) so I'm figuring might be more likely to give me a break?

A writing role regarding energy transition got back to me today pretty much straight away regarding fixing a phone screen and I have just applied for something that actually fits my profile amazingly well, including bringing together my last role and my previous editorial experience, and sounds right up my street generally. It's the first thing I've applied for in a couple of weeks which is a 'yes, I should be interviewed for this'. But interesting I'm getting traction from bid writing - providing it's construction/real-estate related - they evidently really need people for these roles.

 

[newme]

Didn't get the council job, kinda pissed off lf as I literally did this there before in another department. Yet apparently everything was extremely impressive but I didn't answer one question very well that was horribly phrased. About collaborating with other people or something.

I did a project moving the entire department onto timesheeting software, tried out 3 alternatives, ensured it hit all gov and EU requirements. Trained people on the software, collected everything together for every sub teams requirements. Rationalised it all with SLT and was the contact and trainer for the department when required.

Of course I remembered this just after I walked out of the building after my interview.

 

[Cloo]

Of course I remembered this just after I walked out of the building after my interview.

Sod's law, innit? Sorry to hear you were disappointed on that one.

I started first unit of marketing course today - quite a lot to take in. I think each section is about a half day and should try to be fairly consistent.

JSA got back and I am commanded in no uncertain terms to attend the job centre next Thursday for an initial appointment - fortunately had no other plans that day. It's a PITA to do, especially as now I have to go to High Barnet where there used to be a job centre 2 minutes away, but the money will come in handy for staving off slightly how soon I have to go into savings if it comes to that.

Going to Borehamwood tomorrow for face to face about this bidding job. Bit of a long shot, but I think my best bet is to try to convince them I can help solve their problems on that side - apparently they have one overworked bid person right now, and though I've not done the job before I can imagine from the spec how I could integrate into the role. I think I could come in and deal with some of the document management, admin and checking/proofreading side straight off and from that pick up enough to get working on bids pretty quickly without them having to hold my hand much.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Absolutely minimal call backs or responses to my cv over the last month or so. It’s insane.

Before covid I couldn’t get agencies to leave me the fuck alone but they’ve all gone fucking dark on me.

 

[Cloo]

Absolutely minimal call backs or responses to my cv over the last month or so. It’s insane.

Before covid I couldn’t get agencies to leave me the fuck alone but they’ve all gone fucking dark on me.

Gsv is finding the same - are you also in tech?

He's having to fight to even get hold of anyone and something he applied for a month ago and is a good fit for has just readvertised but who knows if they even saw his cv.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Gsv is finding the same - are you also in tech?

He's having to fight to even get hold of anyone and something he applied for a month ago and is a good fit for has just readvertised but who knows if they even saw his cv.

Yeah I'm in tech as well.