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The job hunting support thread

Puddy_Tat said:
Hmm. Some organisations would treat that as "no long term commitment to the job" but some might be OK with it. Best of luck.

I'm trying to summon up the enthusiasm to start applying for a few admin type things locally. Blargh.
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Yeah, but fuck it, not like I'm getting interviews when I write the application as if I would be long term committed. I reckon 2-3 years would be long enough for most employers, I hope so anyway.
 
BigTom said:
Yeah, but fuck it, not like I'm getting interviews when I write the application as if I would be long term committed. I reckon 2-3 years would be long enough for most employers, I hope so anyway.
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I guess it's worth a try.

I'm not sure there's any great logic to what employers actually want, other than (in most case) soul-less drones...
 
BTW - I have never claimed the dole before, but could do with it this time round. I get the impression it's pretty universal for the first six months, as long as you've paid sufficient NI, but then gets more means tested after that, is that right?

Will need to get on to it when I get back from hols and have my P45 etc.
 
NI contribution-based JSA (job seeker's allowance) runs out after, I think, 6 months and becomes income-based JSA. It's still the same money though, just with a different name.
If you have savings of a certain amount, you won't get either. I don't know what happens if you're not single though.
 
Yeah, I think I'll just have to go for it and see. I'd like to get it, as between that and gsv's childcare vouchers, we could afford to send Ziggy to a nursery/childminder two days a week so a) he can get used to being in childcare and b) I can have time without childcare commitments to get job hunting stuff done.
 
Orang Utan said:
NI contribution-based JSA (job seeker's allowance) runs out after, I think, 6 months and becomes income-based JSA. It's still the same money though, just with a different name.
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^ that

Orang Utan said:
If you have savings of a certain amount, you won't get either. I don't know what happens if you're not single though.
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^ not quite that

Contributions based JSA isn't means tested, so any savings won't be relevant. The only thing that can affect it is if you're receiving a pension of more than a certain amount (my dad got caught by this when he got early retirement) And of course if you do a bit of part time work.

This (from CAB) has more.

If and when you get into the realms of means tested benefits, then it's household circumstances / income that are relevant, not just the individual, so partner's savings / income are also taken into account. "partner" in this context can be same or opposite gender, married / civil partnered or not (it's one of the few occasions the state recognises a 'common law' partner, because in this case it works to their advantage.) A lodger / house-sharer is not a 'partner' here, but expect them to ask questions (about whether you live as a 'single household' e.g. separate or shared food & cooking).

You can claim housing benefit (if you're a tenant) / council tax benefit (if you pay council tax) if you're on contributions based JSA, but these are means tested (again on household basis) from day one.

If you've got a lump sum (e.g. redundancy payment) you need to be careful (and seek advice from someone more qualified than me) about doing anything to reduce it so you can claim means tested benefits - if you "deliberately deprive yourself of capital" you can be treated as if you've still got it. I'm not entirely sure what is OK and what isn't. Giving money away to family certainly wouldn't be OK, paying off debts might be, I'm not sure about paying a chunk of mortgage off.
 
I think I saw something that said your redundancy payout is not counted as part of savings for this purpose, but we'll see. As I said, I suspect we won't get it anyway after six months, if they're taking into account my partner's income etc.
 
Cloo said:
I think I saw something that said your redundancy payout is not counted as part of savings for this purpose, but we'll see. As I said, I suspect we won't get it anyway after six months, if they're taking into account my partner's income etc.
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First I've heard of redundancy pay not counting as capital for benefits purposes - I'm sure it wasn't disregarded when I did housing benefits work, but that's a while ago now. I know that (up to a limit) it's not counted for income tax, but the rules are different for both (e.g. if you have a lodger, the income tax disregard income up to X amount a year, but the benefits system treat it as income.)

Broadly speaking, if in doubt, bung a claim in, and don't take anything you read on interweb forums as being authoritative!
 
BigTom said:
Did they tell you about how the role is changing? Just wondering if you might apply for the new job, and them already having seen you might be advantage..
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I guess I should have asked, but I'm about to go on holiday for two weeks, so can't really think about it now anyway. I expect she would have mentioned if it was something that could be suitable, really, being an agent, but I'm assuming there's some big change, like making it more of an online thing, or maybe making the languages aspect essential rather than preferable.
 
Oh, and in fact the British Museum have shortlisted me, to my amazement! Agent says they sent them the list of shortlisted people in two parts, so they didn't see my name on it until this afternoon. :) Luckily interviews aren't starting until 16th, so hopefully they'll be OK to wait until after I'm back from my holiday, as I'd imagine they'd expect some people to be on holiday round about now. I may be a tad jetlagged though!
 
If nothing else, the response (since I redid my CV) definitely suggests I my CV is catching people's interest and my experience looks good on paper. Now I just need to get better at talking about my last job, I guess.
 
:mad: to job applications.

I'm having a mental block on writing something to prove I have good organisational skills...

ETA - and do employers seriously want the full details of every single job I've had since I left school if they say to provide this?

:eek:

It was 26 years ago, FFS, and having left school with sod all qualifications in the mid 80s means quite a few of them were temporary / casual...

Most applications I've done recently ask for 10 / 15 years work history...
 
Puddy_Tat said:
ETA - and do employers seriously want the full details of every single job I've had since I left school if they say to provide this?
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Streathamite will be along shortly, but no: decent details of last 10 years and one line for each job before that will do for your CV. Unless the job is of particular significance, of course.
 
Quartz said:
Streathamite will be along shortly, but no: decent details of last 10 years and one line for each job before that will do for your CV. Unless the job is of particular significance, of course.
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That's roughly what I thought - where it's CV, it's detail on the last 2 jobs (which is 20 years worth), a couple of lines about the one before (which is relevant to some extent), then a couple of lines listing the stuff before that.

But on this particular application form it says


(Start with most recent employment first. If necessary continue at end of application form until all employment history is shown). Please also include any voluntary work or unpaid work experience if relevant and explain any breaks in employment from the conclusion of full time education.
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So they can have the whole bloody lot back to 1986, although I've added a note "dates are approximate and to the best of my memory"

If they think I can remember how much the crap temporary jobs in 1987 paid me, they can bugger off...
 
Ive been out of work since end of april. I resigned as i culdnt work there a day linger, but as boss owed me a few mahoosive favors he made me redundant, and I had a job to go to on august 1st. unfortunateky the job i was due to satrt kast week disapeared as the guy turned out to be a lying cock, Ive been applyimng for jobs anyway to keep JSA people happy and the problem i seem to be having is people look at my cv abd think that with my experience i am either not serious about the vacancy or if i am they couldnt afford me, i have had this told me by 3 seperate employers now. the other thing is having had 3 interviews, i get the idea that people just cant be honest anymore and dont want to be seen as the bad guy, had an interview the other week and they more or less told me i had the job, asked if i would be available to go to a sales meeting the following week, discussed company car choice and stuff like that...... didnt hear another word, and when i chased them up they got a bit shirty with me! why string me along in the interview, i'm a big boy i can take rejection.
 
Well, I have been shortlisted for one of the admin assistant sort of jobs I've applied for this week.

Another application off (closing date today) last night, and another one (closing date Wednesday) will be off today.

excuse me while I try to summon up enthusiasm...
 
Just had what was basically a 'speed' interview.
I went in one room, got asked a question when a whistle blew and had to talk for three minutes until another whistle blew, then went in another room where they repeated the process. It was horrible. I stalled in the first room after about a minute and a half, then babbled in room two. Will find out tomorrow if I've got through to the next stage, but I'm not feeling too hopeful about it. I just hope everyone else fucked up too. :oops:
 
Orang Utan said:
Just had what was basically a 'speed' interview.
I went in one room, got asked a question when a whistle blew and had to talk for three minutes until another whistle blew, then went in another room where they repeated the process. It was horrible. I stalled in the first room after about a minute and a half, then babbled in room two. Will find out tomorrow if I've got through to the next stage, but I'm not feeling too hopeful about it. I just hope everyone else fucked up too. :oops:
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Is this for 1 job?!
 
I really want this job. It looks like a good company to work for as far as these things go. And a job I actually want to do. I imagine this is how they deal with jobs with a high volume of applicants. Which is just about every job these days.
 
Orang Utan said:
I really want this job. It looks like a good company to work for as far as these things go. And a job I actually want to do. I imagine this is how they deal with jobs with a high volume of applicants. Which is just about every job these days.
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Seriously, I have never heard of interviewing like this. How do you even learn anything properly about someone. I interview sometimes and I find that most applicants take a couple of questions to warm up and display their full character and capability.

I don't mean to put a damper on it, it's good that you're being pro-active.
 
I guess. If they give me the boot tomorrow, I shall tell them that I think their selection process is unfair.
 
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