Job hunting

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

8 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Congratulations on the new job mate!

Unfortunately I am now 9 months into my unemployment and my savings are basically depleted. There's sod all jobs round here, I've even applied for a paper round at my local shop just so I've got some sort of income, however small. I left my job back in December and was in pretty good spirits, applying for a lot of jobs then coronavirus happened and everywhere shut down and people started to lose jobs so here I am, months later, still jobless. I don't want to call coronavirus a piece of bad luck but I do feel like I get some back luck sometimes, the first time in my adult life I am unemployed and it's prolonged by a global pandemic, you couldn't make it up. 

Anyway, really happy for you, good luck!

Well done applying for anything HG - I know a few people in the same boat. 

[Futtocks]

8 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Congratulations on the new job mate!

Unfortunately I am now 9 months into my unemployment and my savings are basically depleted. There's sod all jobs round here, I've even applied for a paper round at my local shop just so I've got some sort of income, however small. I left my job back in December and was in pretty good spirits, applying for a lot of jobs then coronavirus happened and everywhere shut down and people started to lose jobs so here I am, months later, still jobless. I don't want to call coronavirus a piece of bad luck but I do feel like I get some back luck sometimes, the first time in my adult life I am unemployed and it's prolonged by a global pandemic, you couldn't make it up. 

Anyway, really happy for you, good luck!

Best of luck, Goose. The timing of the virus was as bad as it could be for you.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

4 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Well done applying for anything HG - I know a few people in the same boat. 

 

4 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Best of luck, Goose. The timing of the virus was as bad as it could be for you.

Thanks for the support, I must say the stress has been affecting my health a bit over the last few months but I've kept myself busy with DIY round the house and going for walks and what have you. I've just gotta keep telling myself it's nothing I've done that has caused this problem, I can't control the state the world is in at the moment and there's nothing I can do about it. Although I quit my previous job myself I would probably have been laid off during all this anyway so whatever had have happened at the end of last year I'd be in the same boat, a boat millions are currently in so it's not just me. 

[Bedford Roughyed]

15 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Congratulations on the new job mate!

Unfortunately I am now 9 months into my unemployment and my savings are basically depleted. There's sod all jobs round here, I've even applied for a paper round at my local shop just so I've got some sort of income, however small. I left my job back in December and was in pretty good spirits, applying for a lot of jobs then coronavirus happened and everywhere shut down and people started to lose jobs so here I am, months later, still jobless. I don't want to call coronavirus a piece of bad luck but I do feel like I get some back luck sometimes, the first time in my adult life I am unemployed and it's prolonged by a global pandemic, you couldn't make it up. 

Anyway, really happy for you, good luck!

Thank you.  I know I am very lucky to be getting anything right now.  I had about 2 months left before the savings were completely gone, and I know that I'm fortunate to have what I had, as an awful lot are one pay check away from pretty much bankruptcy.

I was also 'lucky' with the job, that company I was let go from in March went into bankruptcy proceedings and have been bought out, so have basically rehired the old team.  The rest of the job market was less than buoyant.  If they hadn't been rescued I don't know what I would of done (move back north?  Live with parents?).

Universal Credit was an Ok process, although I have had zero interaction with anyone.  Filled in the online forms, was told I'd get a call, 3 months later still no call or guidance but the money has been paid on-time.  So I must be doing my job search diary OK?

Good luck in the hunt, things will turn around.  

[Futtocks]

4 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Thank you.  I know I am very lucky to be getting anything right now.  I had about 2 months left before the savings were completely gone, and I know that I'm fortunate to have what I had, as an awful lot are one pay check away from pretty much bankruptcy.

I was also 'lucky' with the job, that company I was let go from in March went into bankruptcy proceedings and have been bought out, so have basically rehired the old team.  The rest of the job market was less than buoyant.  If they hadn't been rescued I don't know what I would of done (move back north?  Live with parents?).

Universal Credit was an Ok process, although I have had zero interaction with anyone.  Filled in the online forms, was told I'd get a call, 3 months later still no call or guidance but the money has been paid on-time.  So I must be doing my job search diary OK?

Good luck in the hunt, things will turn around.  

I was on Universal Credit for quite a while before finding my current job, and the usual procedure is 1 meeting a week at the Job Centre, but obviously the current situation means no face to face meetings and not enough people to do them anyway. 

I know people's experience varies, but I found the meetings very helpful, assessing the presentation of my CV and an example covering letter, as well as a few training sessions and suggested jobs from organisations that submit vacancies directly to them. They also arranged part-time voluntary work for me, which filled a void on my CV and kept me in a work mindset. I know some people have had very different experiences with Job Centre staff and the requirements for UC, but pretty much everyone I dealt with was positive, friendly and full of suggestions.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

9 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

 

Thanks for the support, I must say the stress has been affecting my health a bit over the last few months but I've kept myself busy with DIY round the house and going for walks and what have you. I've just gotta keep telling myself it's nothing I've done that has caused this problem, I can't control the state the world is in at the moment and there's nothing I can do about it. Although I quit my previous job myself I would probably have been laid off during all this anyway so whatever had have happened at the end of last year I'd be in the same boat, a boat millions are currently in so it's not just me. 

It is entirely due to the exceptional circumstances not you

Any employer either now or in the futore will know this too

[The Hallucinating Goose]

So I applied for a job on my indeed account. It said on the advert apply with your indeed cv so I clicked the buttons and sent it off. A couple of hours later I get an email from the company saying you have to download an application from their website to apply. Why tell me I can apply on indeed when I can't? Anyway, I downloaded the application and they want to know the back end of a fart, probably cos its the same application form for every job they have and I couldn't figure out a decent way of filling it in on my computer and I haven't got a printer to print it out and fill it in by hand instead and send it to them so I've withdrawn my application that wasn't an application and cited travel distance as the reason. To be fair it was a long way away and would have been hard to get to in bad weather so travel is one reason but the main reason for not carrying on with the application is don't tell me I can apply one way then tell me a different way. I applied for a few other jobs yesterday anyway so might get a nibble from one of them. 

Also saw an advert for a job with another company who I know you have to apply to on their website but it said I can apply on indeed so have done, just waiting for the email from that one saying do it this other way now. To be fair when I saw the ad from that place a few months ago it didn't give the option to apply on indeed so maybe that's changed now. 

Another advert I went on was with a company I've applied to before and never heard anything back from so I went onto their job website and logged into the account I created months ago to put in for the new job and found that the application I put in in about March is 'still under review' which means they looked at it and just never replied to tell me I didn't get it. I'm finding that a lot, basically if you aren't successful you never get told. 

[Bedford Roughyed]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I'm finding that a lot, basically if you aren't successful you never get told. 

Its very frustrating (especially as its just an email, could be even automated!).  Just a sorry, you haven't been successful, is better than absolutely nothing.

The 'use your CV' to auto fill in applications can be very frustrating too, as I find it can mix things ups a lot!

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I'm finding that a lot, basically if you aren't successful you never get told. 

All too common. I also noticed that the people I interviewed for who I really liked were also the ones most likely to get in touch when I was unsuccessful. A couple even volunteered a quick review of my interview performance, which was very helpful.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Its very frustrating (especially as its just an email, could be even automated!).  Just a sorry, you haven't been successful, is better than absolutely nothing.

The 'use your CV' to auto fill in applications can be very frustrating too, as I find it can mix things ups a lot!

It is frustrating, as you say an automated message would be fine just so I know what's going on. I often get automated messages to say thanks for applying, we'll be in touch (and then they aren't) so they could probably do it. 

26 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

All too common. I also noticed that the people I interviewed for who I really liked were also the ones most likely to get in touch when I was unsuccessful. A couple even volunteered a quick review of my interview performance, which was very helpful.

That would be very helpful!

So the job I mentioned where I've applied on their website before but this time was allowed to with my indeed cv, I got an email just as I expected but fortunately it was just a thanks for applying we will be in touch one, rather than the, you have to apply a different way one I was expecting so that's something. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Some online application forms are so bloody complicated you're almost put off applying.

Just filled one in with Northern Rail for a train cleaner position. It took me about an hour to fill out this thing that wanted to know every little detail of my life. Christ, its a sodding cleaning job and they're asking me what my motivation for applying is and I assume they don't want me to put, I need a bloody job! so I just wrote a load of bo11ocks about wanting to take my career in a different direction and experience new things and also said I was a massive enthusiast of trains and would love to work in the rail industry, which is true to be fair.

What gets me as well is all these websites you have to create an account with them. So many different companies must have my details and I never plan on applying to another job with them. I'm not really in favour of giving loads of details to tons of companies and having accounts with them when I'm only ever planning on visiting their website once.

[Mumby Magic]

8 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Some online application forms are so bloody complicated you're almost put off applying.

Just filled one in with Northern Rail for a train cleaner position. It took me about an hour to fill out this thing that wanted to know every little detail of my life. Christ, its a sodding cleaning job and they're asking me what my motivation for applying is and I assume they don't want me to put, I need a bloody job! so I just wrote a load of bo11ocks about wanting to take my career in a different direction and experience new things and also said I was a massive enthusiast of trains and would love to work in the rail industry, which is true to be fair.

What gets me as well is all these websites you have to create an account with them. So many different companies must have my details and I never plan on applying to another job with them. I'm not really in favour of giving loads of details to tons of companies and having accounts with them when I'm only ever planning on visiting their website once.

Not had chance to read all of the recent parts but have you a driving license and for how long. 

Also have you enough finances to take a course in fork lift driving for example?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Just now, Mumby Magic said:

Not had chance to read all of the recent parts but have you a driving license and for how long. 

Also have you enough finances to take a course in fork lift driving for example?

My job hunt is being severely hindered by the fact I have a medical condition that means I aren't allowed to drive otherwise there are loads of jobs out there. 

[Futtocks]

Given the way Brexit is looking, I'd guess HMRC will be hiring in quantity now or at least soon.

[Mumby Magic]

4 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

My job hunt is being severely hindered by the fact I have a medical condition that means I aren't allowed to drive otherwise there are loads of jobs out there. 

Are ok. 

[JonM]

15 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

What gets me as well is all these websites you have to create an account with them. So many different companies must have my details and I never plan on applying to another job with them. I'm not really in favour of giving loads of details to tons of companies and having accounts with them when I'm only ever planning on visiting their website once.

Most employers have a data retention policy that means they delete that kind of information within a certain period of time, to comply with laws about only holding personal data that is actually needed. Big corporates generally won't even have a record that you've applied to them previously if there's a gap of more than about a year.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

2 hours ago, JonM said:

Most employers have a data retention policy that means they delete that kind of information within a certain period of time, to comply with laws about only holding personal data that is actually needed. Big corporates generally won't even have a record that you've applied to them previously if there's a gap of more than about a year.

Fair enough, I'm just very conscious about security when online. 

[Damien]

So I am considering changing jobs after many years at my current employer and am well out of the loop. Essentially I work in I.T and my current role is becoming a bit of a dead end for what I want to do. The extent of me looking so far is joining LinkedIn and seeing what happens, passively looking people seem to call it.

This though has led to a number of recruiters getting in touch and the upshot of this is that a company wants to speak to me informally via teams. This pretty much like a two way sounding out between me and some sort of tech lead to see if I am up to scratch tech wise before anything more formal. I suppose the first question is as its informal what would you be expected to wear? What kind of things of things may he ask even though its informal? What should I be asking? Are there any major things not to do?

With my current employer every internal interview I have had has been competency based so any external interviews will be a different kettle of fish. Even the conversations with recruiters so far have been quite different with completely different sorts of questions I am used to.

[Bob8]

3 minutes ago, Damien said:

So I am considering changing jobs after many years at my current employer and am well out of the loop. Essentially I work in I.T and my current role is becoming a bit of a dead end for what I want to do. The extent of me looking so far is joining LinkedIn and seeing what happens, passively looking people seem to call it.

This though has led to a number of recruiters getting in touch and the upshot of this is that a company wants to speak to me informally via teams. This pretty much like a two way sounding out between me and some sort of tech lead to see if I am up to scratch tech wise before anything more formal. I suppose the first question is as its informal what would you be expected to wear? What kind of things of things may he ask even though its informal? What should I be asking? Are there any major things not to do?

With my current employer every internal interview I have had has been competency based so any external interviews will be a different kettle of fish. Even the conversations with recruiters so far have been quite different with completely different sorts of questions I am used to.

I would suggest you wear a shirt and have a jacket handy. That is easy to do. When I have client meetings, I simply put on a jacket.

[Futtocks]

13 minutes ago, Damien said:

So I am considering changing jobs after many years at my current employer and am well out of the loop. Essentially I work in I.T and my current role is becoming a bit of a dead end for what I want to do. The extent of me looking so far is joining LinkedIn and seeing what happens, passively looking people seem to call it.

This though has led to a number of recruiters getting in touch and the upshot of this is that a company wants to speak to me informally via teams. This pretty much like a two way sounding out between me and some sort of tech lead to see if I am up to scratch tech wise before anything more formal. I suppose the first question is as its informal what would you be expected to wear? What kind of things of things may he ask even though its informal? What should I be asking? Are there any major things not to do?

With my current employer every internal interview I have had has been competency based so any external interviews will be a different kettle of fish. Even the conversations with recruiters so far have been quite different with completely different sorts of questions I am used to.

What to wear? A suit looks too job-interviewish. An open-necked smart shirt is casual but not too casual. Like you're busy working, but willing to spare them some of your valuable time. They won't be able to see the bottom half, so I'd definitely stick with the patent leather arseless chaps.

Technique for something that isn't actually a job interview; research whoever they may be, but don't make it look like you have, Just throw in the occasional comment that "accidentally" reveals you know just a little bit about their line of work. As an "informal" chat, it will of course be absolutely nothing of the sort. Be prepared to look competent and somewhat interested, but not over-eager And don't say anything negative about your current situation. Quietly hint at being comfortable where you are, like they'll have to make you a good offer to leave your  job.

[Niels]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

So I am considering changing jobs after many years at my current employer and am well out of the loop. Essentially I work in I.T and my current role is becoming a bit of a dead end for what I want to do. The extent of me looking so far is joining LinkedIn and seeing what happens, passively looking people seem to call it.

This though has led to a number of recruiters getting in touch and the upshot of this is that a company wants to speak to me informally via teams. This pretty much like a two way sounding out between me and some sort of tech lead to see if I am up to scratch tech wise before anything more formal. I suppose the first question is as its informal what would you be expected to wear? What kind of things of things may he ask even though its informal? What should I be asking? Are there any major things not to do?

With my current employer every internal interview I have had has been competency based so any external interviews will be a different kettle of fish. Even the conversations with recruiters so far have been quite different with completely different sorts of questions I am used to.

I got my current role in an informal interview, despite it being a large organisation. 

The interviewer said she had looked for enthusiasm most of all. 

They were also looking for someone who would fit well personality wise into the team. 

Good luck Damien. 

[Damien]

9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

What to wear? A suit looks too job-interviewish. An open-necked smart shirt is casual but not too casual. Like you're busy working, but willing to spare them some of your valuable time. They won't be able to see the bottom half, so I'd definitely stick with the patent leather arseless chaps.

Technique for something that isn't actually a job interview; research whoever they may be, but don't make it look like you have, Just throw in the occasional comment that "accidentally" reveals you know just a little bit about their line of work. As an "informal" chat, it will of course be absolutely nothing of the sort. Be prepared to look competent and somewhat interested, but not over-eager And don't say anything negative about your current situation. Quietly hint at being comfortable where you are, like they'll have to make you a good offer to leave your  job.

Some great tips there Futtocks.

This company is a big American company, not yet based here but is recruiting for when they open in a few months. Even if this job isn't suitable there is apparently a talent pool where other roles may be suitable instead.

Yes read a few times about not saying anything negative about my current situation. I'm just going to focus on the I.T aspect i.e want to do more cutting edge I.T than my current role, outgrown where I currently am, want to work in a dedicated I.T company etc. All the truth really. It would have to be a good offer to leave as I have decent pay, good flexibility and decent t&c's. It's purely a move from a career development point of view.

[Bedford Roughyed]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

Some great tips there Futtocks.

This company is a big American company, not yet based here but is recruiting for when they open in a few months. Even if this job isn't suitable there is apparently a talent pool where other roles may be suitable instead.

Yes read a few times about not saying anything negative about my current situation. I'm just going to focus on the I.T aspect i.e want to do more cutting edge I.T than my current role, outgrown where I currently am, want to work in a dedicated I.T company etc. All the truth really. It would have to be a good offer to leave as I have decent pay, good flexibility and decent t&c's. It's purely a move from a career development point of view.

Depending on your skillset, these are recruiting quite heavily with new jobs coming up all the time -

https://www.oneweb.world/careers

[Bleep1673]

Got a Microsoft Teams Interview for a Phlebotomist at my local hospital on 16.12.20. When I worked in theatres I was always pretty good at venous & arterial cannulations, lets see if I can still do it.

[Bleep1673]

On 17/11/2020 at 22:05, Futtocks said:

Be prepared to look competent and somewhat interested, but not over-eager And don't say anything negative about your current situation.

Like, "I'm desperate for a job, and I will even work for the trust that fired me, and reported me to the HPC back in 2015"?