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The job hunting support thread

Back looking for work, again, after being made redundant, again. End of first week, quiet on job hunt. I had part one of a hopeful two part interview last week that i thought went well & got very positive feedback from the agency & am now just waiting on a call back for a 2nd & fingers crossed, fruitful interview.
 
Hellsbells said:
Job I'm interested in was advertised today...closing date 13th Feb!!! How likely is it its an internal thing & waste of time applying?
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Not necessarily. Depends where you saw the ad. Some job sites are aggregators that scrape the data off other job sites, so the job ad might've been floating around the internet longer, on other sites. (I worked for an organisation that its own vacancies, but also a kind of separately managed sister site with job listings, and a third party jobs site had scraped the data and mislabelled the employer as us, rather than the actual employers, so we started receiving phone and email enquiries about the photographer job or whatever when our organisation didn't actually employ any photographers, so I'm aware there's a lot of scraping and re-posting that goes on. So the gap between job posting and closing date might not be as short as it seems.)

Another couple of explanations are (i) they need someone to start quickly, because a lot of companies don't start recruiting while someone who's leaving works their notice, because policy dictates they can't/won't start the recruitment process until the previous post holder has actually left, which means that for a while the post is empty, so they might need someone urgently to fill the vacancy; or (ii) it's in a sector/for a role where they're expecting loads of applications, so figure that having a closing date so soon means they'll have fewer applications to trawl through for shortlisting.

If it's one of those roles where you suspect there might be an internal hire in the background, it's still worthwhile applying, because the kind of organisations that have to go through the motions and advertise a vacancy for equal opps reasons, are the kinds of organisations where the shortlisting and interview process are equal opps, and it's possible that you might perform better at interview than an internal candidate and they have to take into consideration who performs best at interview, they can't just hire the person who's already doing the job, so you're still in with a chance. I've known situations where it's gone both ways, i.e. the internal person covering/acting up gets the job and also where a different internal or an external candidate gets the job, rather than the temp/acting up person who's doing the job. It's all to play for, so go for it. Good luck!
 
I went for a job interview on friday - but I feel really ambivalent about it - it pays only slightly more than I'm on now (well below LLW) and the place looked grotty and sad. On the plus side its a NHS job with training.

They warned me they wouldn't be making a decision for over a week due to holidays.
 
friendofdorothy said:
I went for a job interview on friday - but I feel really ambivalent about it - it pays only slightly more than I'm on now (well below LLW) and the place looked grotty and sad. On the plus side its a NHS job with training.

They warned me they wouldn't be making a decision for over a week due to holidays.
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hmm

is the nhs like civil service / local authority work, in that it's easier to get a job once you're already in? in which case possibly something to be said for taking it and (after a respectable time) going for something / somewhere better?

hope you get to make the choice
 
Puddy_Tat said:
hmm

is the nhs like civil service / local authority work, in that it's easier to get a job once you're already in? in which case possibly something to be said for taking it and (after a respectable time) going for something / somewhere better?

hope you get to make the choice
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me too

Yes I think after training /experience of their software I could have a foot in the nhs door, which is the only thing this job has going for it.
 
I'm meeting the head of a local primary school today at 1.30 - there's a job going as a TA, two terms only, but this is much more what I want to do.
I've been invited for a look-round - interviews are not for a month yet, but I've never had an informal meeting to look round a place before.
What can I expect? Do I need a load of answers ready in case a mini-interview happens on the way round? Will she be watching me for clues as to what I'm like?

Help :D
 
friendofdorothy said:
I went for a job interview on friday - but I feel really ambivalent about it - it pays only slightly more than I'm on now (well below LLW) and the place looked grotty and sad. On the plus side its a NHS job with training.

They warned me they wouldn't be making a decision for over a week due to holidays.
Click to expand...

Have you heard anything back yet?

I had an interview today for a coordinator role today. It went ok. Not sure it's the job for me though. One of the interviewers took me to meet the communications team afterwards and I had an on the spot interview with one of the heads, who has asked me to do a writing task and send some of samples of my writing with a view to bringing me back in again for a second interview. Fingers crossed.
 
Thimble Queen said:
Have you heard anything back yet?

I had an interview today for a coordinator role today. It went ok. Not sure it's the job for me though. One of the interviewers took me to meet the communications team afterwards and I had an on the spot interview with one of the heads, who has asked me to do a writing task and send some of samples of my writing with a view to bringing me back in again for a second interview. Fingers crossed.
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nah. zilch.

good luck to you x
 
Bollocks. Had an interview for a WHSmith job on Tuesday, got a call today telling me that I'd been unsuccessful. Pain as I thought I'd done quite well.
 
Got a rejection email just now for a post that closed a month ago. :rolleyes:

Half-way through an application for a job I don't want. But a) it seemed to be some kinda response to a shit day at work and b) amazingly it's a really user friendly online format that's actually quite easy to do. Not planning on completing/submitting it but have already had 3 nice, polite, positive - if no doubt automatic - emails from the employer keepingme updated on my application. It almost makes me want to finish it!

Nothing else on the horizon. However, current job seems little more secure, which is good, though the daily reminders I see that new trainees can potentially earn more during training than I earn after almost 15 years in the same profession are rubbing my current low wage in my face abit too much at the minute.

Takes the edge off my motivation somewhat.
 
chilango said:
Not planning on completing/submitting it but have already had 3 nice, polite, positive - if no doubt automatic - emails from the employer keepingme updated on my application. It almost makes me want to finish it!

Nothing else on the horizon. However, current job seems little more secure, which is good, though the daily reminders I see that new trainees can potentially earn more during training than I earn after almost 15 years in the same profession are rubbing my current low wage in my face abit too much at the minute.

Takes the edge off my motivation somewhat.
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Hope you went on to finish it.

Are these well paid trainee jobs with your employer or elsewhere?
 
friendofdorothy said:
bollocks. Did they give you any feedback as to why you were unsucessful?
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Luckily I did get a bit of feedback, which is more than I've had from most places. Not talking enough during the 'group activity' seemed to be the main reason, which I thought I'd done enough of, but fair enough I suppose.
 
friendofdorothy said:
Hope you went on to finish it.

Are these well paid trainee jobs with your employer or elsewhere?
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Elsewhere.

...but anyway. Don't know about the application. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want the job. It's just so nice to have a user friendly application form rather than some badly formatted clusterfuck of a Word 97 document.
 
chilango said:
...but anyway. Don't know about the application. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want the job. It's just so nice to have a user friendly application form rather than some badly formatted clusterfuck of a Word 97 document.
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Well, I never did complete that application.


They have however still contacted me to offer me an interview.

Hmmm.
 
Really depressed atm, having had an interview for a job I would have killed for and not (I assume) got it as I've not heard back two weeks later.

I've been looking since September now and just not finding jobs that feel like the right skillset for me or that enthuse me. I'm a weird blend of techie and not techie (charity sector, web stuff mostly), bored by non-technical roles but not definitively, say, an SQL developer.

It's not immediately urgent as I've got a part time job, but this is likely to disappear in the next year. So I've been fairly picky. Also I'm applying for jobs that are upwards of where I am or perhaps sideways. So it's not really as straightforward as "why doesn't anyone want me?" but it sure feels like it.

I would have minded a lot less if I hadn't had the interview, spent ages preparing my presentation and got really invested in the idea.

There was an "informal opportunity to meet the team" after the interview which turned out to be a second interview by the team and caught me totally off guard. I'll know about that trap for next time.
 
starfish said:
Back looking for work, again, after being made redundant, again. End of first week, quiet on job hunt. I had part one of a hopeful two part interview last week that i thought went well & got very positive feedback from the agency & am now just waiting on a call back for a 2nd & fingers crossed, fruitful interview.
Click to expand...
What happened?
 
Still no job. Started working for free for a charity over here which will give me something to do, expose me to more native speakers and give me a local org to put on my CV.
 
RubyToogood said:
Really depressed atm, having had an interview for a job I would have killed for and not (I assume) got it as I've not heard back two weeks later.

I've been looking since September now and just not finding jobs that feel like the right skillset for me or that enthuse me. I'm a weird blend of techie and not techie (charity sector, web stuff mostly), bored by non-technical roles but not definitively, say, an SQL developer.

It's not immediately urgent as I've got a part time job, but this is likely to disappear in the next year. So I've been fairly picky. Also I'm applying for jobs that are upwards of where I am or perhaps sideways. So it's not really as straightforward as "why doesn't anyone want me?" but it sure feels like it.

I would have minded a lot less if I hadn't had the interview, spent ages preparing my presentation and got really invested in the idea.

There was an "informal opportunity to meet the team" after the interview which turned out to be a second interview by the team and caught me totally off guard. I'll know about that trap for next time.
Click to expand...
Are you sure its a no though? I would check with them if I was you - they could just be indecisive, disorganised or slow, unlikely but possible. Informal 'meet the team' really shouldn't be an other interview that sounds really mean of them (do the team not trust /communicate with whoever interviewed you)
 
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