The job hunting support thread

[Puddy_Tat]

Just apologise and say circumstances have changed, if you're definitely sure you want to withdraw. I can't see that you owe them any more than that.

I suppose so.

I'm not "definitely sure" I want to withdraw, more a case of I wish I could see how taking the job is going to work.

I have my library assistant interview tomorrow. Does anyone have any tips on what they're gonna ask me

Good luck.

Dunno really.

Is it the sort of job where there was a 'person specification' listing experience / skills? In which case, expect questions about elements of that. Sometimes the blurb says which bits will be used for shortlisting, which bits will be discussed at interview.

"give an example of a situation when you did X" tends to be fairly popular

e.g. dealt with conflicting deadlines / handled a challenge / "went the extra mile" (bleurgh) / demonstrated excellence in customer care (bleurgh again) / demonstrated a commitment to equalities and social inclusion / dealt with an angry customer

 

[heinous seamus]

Is it the sort of job where there was a 'person specification' listing experience / skills? In which case, expect questions about elements of that. Sometimes the blurb says which bits will be used for shortlisting, which bits will be discussed at interview.

"give an example of a situation when you did X" tends to be fairly popular

e.g. dealt with conflicting deadlines / handled a challenge / "went the extra mile" (bleurgh) / demonstrated excellence in customer care (bleurgh again) / demonstrated a commitment to equalities and social inclusion / dealt with an angry customer

Ah, just as I feared. God I hate interviews!

 

[chilango]

It's now a year since I started looking for a new teaching job. I reckon this recruiting cycle might be my last throw of the dice. More restricted now in terms of location and hours plus I'll have been out of the classroom for a year when this round of jobs are all gone.

Starting to resign myself to the possibility that I may never teach again, which is a shame as I enjoy it and am pretty good at it. Not to mention its where my skills, training and experience is. Ten years, management roles, pastoral roles, significant extra-curricular etc. etc.

Oh well.

How the hell does one make a career change in the current climate? Especially with a baby to look after?

 

[sorearm]

How cheeky is it for an NHS trust to offer an interview (London) but not pay travel expenses? ... and the job is less than a year. Jesus wept. Do fuck off.

 

[kalidarkone]

I have an interview tomorrow morning for a midwifery assistant in the community post. Includes numeracy and literacy test. I'm a bit worried about the maths and will swot tonight-I guess as long as I understand milligrams and micrograms etc and can work out weight loss and gain of a baby in % I'm sure it will be ok. Its a re-advertisement as well and the closing date was New years day...so might be that not many have applied....wish me luck!!!

 

[weepiper]

lots of luck kali

 

[kalidarkone]

lots of luck kali

Cheers honey x

 

[Cloo]

Really hopes that comes through for you Kali - sounds like it might make some amends for the crap you've been through.

 

[Cloo]

About to send off this Parliament job application... it's one of those really pedantic one that asks you to give precise examples of how you can demonstrate X and Y, plus outcomes and so on. No idea if I've filled them in right, but it's too long a shot for me to spend any more of time on it.

 

[weepiper]

Looks like i didn't get an interview for the library assistant job

Heard today that two bike shops in Edinburgh may be hiring soon though so spent this evening doing a bike-shop-specific CV which I can drop in to them.

And on a general note, God looking for a job sucks, doesn't it? Bleh.

 

[Quartz]

Best of luck!

 

[Cloo]

Had a seminar today, the last one I'll have from the Jewish employment support charity - about communication. Didn't pick up anything groundbreaking from it, though it did demonstrate I am good at thinking on my feet and talking off the cuff, and that I do engage people quite well when I'm enthusiastic and showing knowledge about what I'm talking about, so I think I need to find ways of speaking more energetically and enthusiastically in interviews.

Now I just need to start getting some fucking interviews again, but I don't have any likely applications out right now.

 

[Orang Utan]

I seem to have landed an interview, without actually applying for a job. Got a call out of the blue!
It's for a job that combines my old career (sort of) with my new potential career.
It's maternity cover and at an establishment that's not where I envisaged working but I shall attend the interview and find out more.
Is it good etiquette to call ahead and find out more about the job cos the agency were sketchy on details?

 

[sorearm]

Well ho hum another year turns again doesn't it

Managed to get quite a lot of applications in over the 'holiday' 'festive' period - couple of research technician jobs with the NHS, one which probably won't get an interview the other I may although I've not got exactly the required skill set but have experience in patient samples/working in NHS etc.

Couple of research technician jobs with the university - they're under consideration atm.

Laboratory scientist jobs in oxford and exeter (have a mate who lives in exeter), job with the health protection agency in colindate london.
Wouldn't want to live away from home and family but things are getting a bit shit really tbh.

Laboratory scientist at local university/NHS place - may or may not get interview, although probably jinxed it by talking about it!

Applied for a laboratory scientist doing what I used to do (but at a lower grade), really annoyed as the closing date was today and get this email;

"Hello,
Thank you for your application for the above position.
I regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances this post been put on hold and the Trust will not be proceeding with the recruitment at this time.
In the meantime you should not delay in applying for any suitable vacancy that may come available.
May I take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in blah blah NHS Trust, I hope that this outcome will not effect your decision to apply for any future vacancies within the Trust.

Yours sincerely,
HR bod"

fuckers. I could have done that job blindfolded - so either uber internal promotion/at risk person parachuted in/no money.

There's at least another 3 jobs I will apply for this week that are coming up soon for closing dates. grrr.

As weepiper said, job hunting sucks and it's doing my head in.

 

[Sapphireblue]

have just applied for a perfect job, in the sense that it is one that i could reasonably expect to get and with the right location/money.

the description is a bit vague but it's the right level, the money is spot on (what i'm on - 3k more) and also as it's a small bracket they shouldn't be able to decide that actually they want someone with vastly different experience levels to those advertised.

 

[xenon]

I seem to have landed an interview, without actually applying for a job. Got a call out of the blue!
It's for a job that combines my old career (sort of) with my new potential career.
It's maternity cover and at an establishment that's not where I envisaged working but I shall attend the interview and find out more.
Is it good etiquette to call ahead and find out more about the job cos the agency were sketchy on details?

Yeah, I'd say call. Just before Christmas, I got a phone call asking me to an interview. I'd applied for so many similar jobs, I had to contact back to see which it was. (Didn't get it.)

FWIW Although the new jobcentre website is rubbish, in many ways. You can at least apply for loads of jobs very easily. Where you don't get sent to an external page and app form.

 

[Orang Utan]

I have not used that website and don't intend to

 

[Cloo]

I've dodged the bullet so far on using it, but if they do press next time, I'll remind them it's not mandatory, so not doing at the moment, plus it won't have any vacancies useful to me, or at least none I'd find somewhere else first. Checked this week and my contribution-based JSA runs out on 1 March, and pretty sure I'm not eligible for income based, which I can totally accept. gsv is starting new job on 4 Feb that pays more extra a month compared to his old job than I take in JSA, thankfully.

Orang Utan - do phone and ask. I've phoned some jobs that give only vague details and found out stuff that I really need to know. Like the salary, for a start.

I've got a lot of applications to get out potentially, but they're almost all long shots, so feeling a bit down right now - doesn't seem likely I'll get an interview this month. I found quite a few more jobs by searching for 'project management' and saw some third sector/charity ones that I can match the skills of, but I'm not likely to look a good candidate against anyone with direct experience.

One bright spot is my networked meeting tomorrow (see my other thread). I want to see if I can land one a month at least - I got this one after three attempts at contacting people, so 1 out of 3 isn't a bad hit rate. One place that couldn't help suggested I try non-fiction agents to find out more about commissioning work in that area, which is actually a damn good idea, although I suspect he skim-read my email and assumed I was asking about getting a non-fiction book published. Nonetheless, I'm definitely going to find out who represents some of my favourite non-fic types (people like Peter Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair etc) and see about chasing them up. They're even more unlikely to have jobs than a publisher, but they're likely to be well connected - just a matter of whether I can find any charitable ones. And whether I can carefully phrase my email/email title so that they don't just assume I'm asking about getting published.

 

[xenon]

I have not used that website and don't intend to

I don't blame you. It's a bit of a mess anyway but as I used the old one, thought I'd try it.My advisor asked me to give her my ID on there so she could look at activity. I said I'd give her my ID but hadn't ticked the box letting them look, as it wasn't mandatry and I had wider concerns re privacy and so on. TBH she was OK with that.

 

[xenon]

Well I say OK with that. We had a bit of a chat and she admitted didn't like the way things were going. Management asking the advisors including Disability Employment Advisors, which she is, to give robust interviews. Which in her words, meant bullying and she didn't want to do that. I said was concerned about the idea proposed for Universal Credit, that meant people on out of work bennefits should spend 35 hours a week on job search activity / work based activity. What did that mean anyway etc. There aren't that many jobs I can personlly do, even so, it's not a 35 hour week job for most peple. Yeah, sounds like a setup just to force everyone into work fare. I don't think it's going to happen that way anyway in practise, yet it's just more shit.

 

[Cloo]

Yeah, no way I could do 35 hours a week jobsearch because I have kids. Which means I don't have free time while they're awake, and means I can't just apply for 'a job' because if it doesn't cover my childcare costs or have regular working hours, I can't take it. Dunno how people without kids are suppose to do it either, that said.

 

[xenon]

I know it can take a long time to fill out application forms. But it's still not a 35 hour week job. When you do a 35 - 40 hours a week job, your producing more work than one individual requires. I mean, that's kinda the point of employment, efficiency of scale. Otherwise we'd not have specialisations. TO extrapolate from that average full time week, the time should be spent attending to essentially your own individual job searching needs, is nonsense.

 

[Orang Utan]

it's a two day a week activity if that! (if compacted into working hours)

 

[nagapie]

I seem to have landed an interview, without actually applying for a job. Got a call out of the blue!
It's for a job that combines my old career (sort of) with my new potential career.
It's maternity cover and at an establishment that's not where I envisaged working but I shall attend the interview and find out more.
Is it good etiquette to call ahead and find out more about the job cos the agency were sketchy on details?

Sounds interesting. You'll have to fill me in.

 

[Cloo]

In my field, more than one job a week on offer is good going.

 

[Orang Utan]

You have to apply for 3 jobs a week (well, sort of), which means filling in bullshit job applications just to keep them from cutting you off. What a merry dance.

 

[kalidarkone]

I got offered the job I applied for now just going through the paper work and of course subject to references, which I am a bit worried about cos I asked one of my mentors who said that she did not know if she could as she had only worked with me for a few weeks....well as this is my first job within the NHS since the midwifery course..then I'm in this position with every mentor that I have worked with in terms of my clinical skills...explained this to the referee and seems she will give me one.

I was honest at interview and explained that I had failed my last module on clinical competencies...they did not care....as the ones I failed on were not anything I would be doing anyway.

Anyway wont feel properly pleased till CRB and Occy health and references are all ok.

 

[Cloo]

You have to apply for 3 jobs a week (well, sort of), which means filling in bullshit job applications just to keep them from cutting you off. What a merry dance.

My advisor seems to be letting me get away with just doing 3 jobhunting activities a week - I think I've mentioned here before that I suspect because I'm 'nice and middle class' I'm filed under 'striver' so they don't feel the need to harrass me yet. I expect this would change if I went on to income-based JSA, which is why I'm rather relieved I'm not eligible.

Re workfare and the like, I do keep wondering about the childcare issue (not on my own behalf, but on other people's) - I'm wondering if they'd insist on people doing it even if it cost them money in childcare, whether they'd pay up for it, or if they'd allow people to skip it if they couldn't afford to do it? On the one hand, it'd be just like them to be cunts about it, but on the other hand, I'm sure we'd have heard stories about it if it had happened. AFAICT, they'll stump up up top £175 a week for childcare costs for training, seminars etc, which might be sufficient outside London, but only covers about 3 days' care in a lot of parts of the capital.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm not sure when they ask people to do workfare. They haven't asked me yet.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

i think you've got to be unemployed for a couple of years before they force workfare on you, may even be longer.

i've only been claiming for 3 joyful months so i still have a small portion of my soul left, but i've managed to get a L2 IT qualification out of them, ironically the very same qualification i used to teach , it fleshes out my CV a little more though and it looks like their going to fund an A+ IT technician course too. I did A+ years ago but it can't hurt to update things.

i'm going to keep pushing for as many courses as i can get away with, even if they're not advancing things for me much, it makes me look keen and therefore less likely to get hassle off them, i hope and if you're lucky you can can squeeze some travel expenses out of them. i made a few quid off the last course as i was able to fast track straight to the exams but still got paid for attending the whole course.