Job hunting pissing me off

[pratman]

I have now been out of work since the beginning of june and I cannot get a thing out there, not even a sniff. Got screwed out of my last place and made redundant and as I had been there for a year I wasnt entitled to any kind of payout. Now it seems I am applying for a shed load of jobs on a daily basis but I either dont get a response or it seems that I am not ticking every box, even if I am missing one. I hate sitting on my arse, been doing it for far too long for my liking, and I am registered with so many agencies and calling so many every day but there seems to be nothing out there for me.

I was in financial services previously (back office) dealing with complaints and compliance for around 6 years and got a LEAN 6Sigma yellowbelt qualification saving shit loads for the bank doing numerous projects.

I then moved into courier management where I managed a UK network of technical couriers acorss 10 depots, but I was mainly bought in to create a proper structure and find new business opportunites, and my CV reflects this because I state that the customer base doubled while I was there and the structure I created can handle even more business.

Everything I have gone for so far when I have got through to interview stage always goes really well, but it seems that everything I go for either takes an internal candidate (which tells me that hte position was predetermined) OR they cancel any further recruitment.

Not sure if there is anyone on here that is in recruitment that can maybe give me some ideas, I have had my CV reviewed by plenty of people and the feedback I have been given is that its a very strong CV, and I am not short of confidence when going into interviews. Just wondering if anyone could provide me with any advice.

Another thing thats really annoying is phoning agencies to discuss roles becuase no one ever seems to be available and I have left so many messages and sent so many emails requersting a callback but I dont seem to be getting an answer.

Oh another thing is, when I go for processing jobs, after looking at my CV they assume that I will get bored quickly and wont stay there long enough so will not take me on, or if its a management role I get told I am not experienced enough. I can understand the latter because I have 13 months of managing, and I dont mind learning from scratch and starting from the bottom, but places just dont seem to want to even give you a chance to see if you will stick it out in a role.

Anyway I have ranted on plenty, any help/advice would be much appreciated.

[syscon]

The only advice I can give you is to adapt your CV to the job your going for, I am lucky enough to be in work but in the past the CV I sent off reflected the position I was applying for, I not saying mislead anyone but omit anything that is not relevant to the position or makes you appear over qualified.

Good luck.

[Over Carl]

Another thing thats really annoying is phoning agencies to discuss roles becuase no one ever seems to be available and I have left so many messages and sent so many emails requersting a callback but I dont seem to be getting an answer.

Something I've found in the past is that agencies I have managed to build a good rapport with are a lot more likely to put me forward for positions.

I've spoke to loads and visited loads where I've gone through all the motions and answered all the questions well and had pretty much bugger all back. Some I remember meeting face to face and rather than talking about work we've just gossiped like old mates and those were the ones that were most likely to find me work.

Admittedly that was before I was looking for professional roles though.

[Realist]

The above is 100% correct and for info I applied for a internal job with the company I work for and failed at the application stage so I asked for feedback, the respose from HR was just the above said what has this to do with the job your applying for so yes the above is a major plus.

Regardless if you have xyz it may not be applicable to the job and I would leave it out and if you get to the interview stage and they ask the question what else you have done then say your bit.

But cut it short, tailor it to the job and get your foot in the door.

Best of luck.

[I Black Belt]

CV's are just one aspect to getting a job.
Are you getting any interviews?
Many applications I see have wonderful CV's and qualifications up the wazoo but...
If they don't read the person specification, which outlines the sort of person they want and the job description which outlines the responsibilities of the role, then use this information to complete the application, then that's an "in the bin" application for me.
Almost all feedback I'm asked for explains this as the reason why they failed to get to interview.

Best of luck matey - don't give up.

[burner1]

In my opinion, if you get to interview, your cv has done the job, you are capable of the job. From that point, it's down to what the prospective employer makes of you as a person. Sometimes it's about you and not what you're capable of, the cv deals with that.

[pratman]

yeah, I have been getting interviews. I have had around 6 interviews so far, a couple of them I was in with a very good bunch of candidates and unfortunately I didnt get the job, the feedback from that was that I was very good in interview but there was a couple of candidates that were stronger. another couple of interviews i had resulted in the job being pulled so it was something taken out of everyones hands. the last one i went for was a shit one, becuase i interviewe very well, all interviewers liked me, adn i really got a good feling about this job, but now recruitment at this place has been put on hold until the company move buildings which could be another 2 months so thats on the back burner at the moment. all of the other jobs i went for were filled by internal candidates and its one of those things where i think companies know they want to recruit internally but they are just going through the motions, which is a bitch for me but i can understand why companies do this. i know i soulnd bitter and frustrated but thats just because i really do want to work and know i have a lot to offer, and it pisses me off that i cant find anything. one positive for me that a lot of recruitment consultants have said that it should pick up from september as people are off hols and a lot of companies want to get people in after schools are back and the lead up to xmas.

also for a lot of jobs i am altering my CV to cater for the job, but many of them are so similar in terms of job spec that my cv doesnt need changing as much but i do look to see if a job is totally different then my cv does get changed for that role.

Also going back to oyur point Over Carl, you are spot on with what you say, and with the local agencies I have met with the perm recruiters adn one that previously helped me get my last job, and I am on great terms with all of the local ones and like you say, because they have met me it does turn into a nice chat adn they get a good feeling aobut me as a person so they are very confident in putting me forward for stuff, but they will only put me forward for stuff they feel confident about me getting, so yeah i have done much of what you guys have said, so in that sense I am glad i am going with a lot of what you guys think is a good way of doing stuff.

and yes i wont give up, to be honest my mentality is that I am too good to be out of work, not trying to sound big headed but i really have confidence in my ability to do a job and do it well and interact with people quite well. so i really hope my fortunes turn and i get a job soon.

anything else you guys would like to add, please feel free it is massively appreciated.

[Mule]

Have you tried doing voluntary work in the interim? That looks good on you and will keep you away from Jeremy Kyle.

[Over Carl]

Have you tried doing voluntary work in the interim? That looks good on you and will keep you away from Jeremy Kyle.

I have wondered about this - if you put voluntary work down then it shows you have failed at finding work in your relevant sector - would be relevant for someone say working in a shop but not so much for professional jobs unless you could find somewhere to apply those skills on a voluntary basis. I

can't say if my opinion is valid in the eyes of employers but me and a mate were taking about this and concurred it would be better to slightly embellish the truth and say you were working freelance on some small contracts instead.

[pratman]

Have you tried doing voluntary work in the interim? That looks good on you and will keep you away from Jeremy Kyle.

i never really considered it, not because i didnt want to do it, i just really didnt think i was gonna be out of work this long, i was expecting something would have come up after a month max, but it is something i will look into now you mention it

[Mobileman]

Best bit of advice in can give if you apply for 50 jobs you will have 50 different cv's you must tailor each CV to the job these days reference what they are looking for without being too obvious

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[ratty]

Pm me please where you are in the midlands, also how far you are willing to travel.

The company that i work for have been having quite a few jobs recently, im not saying that they are perfect in anyway way for you but the least i can do is pass on the info

What exactly are you looking for? how much would you leave the bed for?

[pratman]

just a bit of an update, after a week of feeling shit cuz nothing seemed to be happening, i woke up today to find a bunch of missed calls, and had a telephone interview.

the telephone interview went really well, for a company called rapide communications being one of their account execs, which isnt bad, they basically supply urgent messages around to big corps employees via web or phone. a bit weird because when i was at hsbc i was seeing that shit from these guys where they would basically put 'breaking news' on the intranet so everyone knew what message was going out.

I also had an email back from Halfords (didnt remember applying for this role) but they want a team manager at their distribution site, although I dont have the experience for certain aspects, about 75% of the job description is about continual process improvement, which is great for my LEAN 6sigma stuff I did.

Also had a call from penguin recruitment, they seemed pretty cool, but they want someone with more IT experience even though I know I could do that job I can understand they probably will be chasing someone with more IT skills on their CV.

I had one other call but everytime I called the agency the woman i was meant to speak to was on the phone, so will be chasing her up tomorrow.

Hopefully soon things will work out, most of hte people I have spoken to today have all said I am a good candidate as in being very patient and not being an arse lol. and every single one I have met in person has been calling me every few days to see whats going on, and seem to be pushing to try get me into places. just hope it all works out. but will keep you posted if anything futher happens.

[pratman]

ok so i have got a job.........finally lol actually i started on the monday just gone. I work for a communications company called rapide communications, a very low level job i have in dealing with some enquiries, but am also going to run projects to design and implement processes as they dont have any and they seem to be growing as a company and know that if they continue to grow then they will fall over at some point, so its a small company with around 40 staff so the office is totally open plan and you sit within a few metres of the MD. everything seems ot get noticed and it seems people get moved to utilise their skills so thats kinda cool. but since this job got offered to me all of a sudden the job market has picked up and i am getting callbacks for some jobs, the most promising one is managing a customer care team for jaguar aftercare i am hoping that one comes through as its very much the kind of role i would relish and hopefully in the next coupl of week i could get appointed there. anyway i just reallly wanted to thank all of you guys for your advice when i asked for it it has been massively appreciated.

[pratman]

just an update, been a bit of a job slag lol, the job at rapide lasted about 3 weeks, thought things were going ok, not really liking the job but things were ticking over, but then i got called into the office and somehow the company found out i was still actively looking for work, and i know it couldnt have been via me because i was very careful in making sure no job stuff was done during working hours, so i can only think that an agency dropped me in it without realising. so then i left that place and got a call from halfords where i had given an interview 6 weeks prior, and they offered me a team managers position in their national distribution centre, which was 1 week early and 1 week late, but within a week of starting there i got a call for an interview at this medical company. somewhere i applied for in september, anyway i went to that interview and that went really well, anyway that evening i went to do my halfords shift and i got a call offering me the job as an operations manager for the north of the UK to manage the installtion of all mobile devices installed in hospitals (MRI machines/x ray machine), so left halfords now and am due to start on tuesday at this place, i am taking delivery of a new car on friday and will be out on the road quite a bit, they told me that the medical side of stuff they can teach me but need someone who can hit the ground running operationally. so i really think that i wanna stick with this job as this company seem really good, i spoke to my family in the states and they have said they have dealt with alliance medical in their hospitals and recommended i join them so cant wait for tuesday to come.

[CzarJunkie]

Wow, you complain about being shafted in your last job and you've just shafted 2 new employers within weeks by jumping ship after they offered you a job. Loyalty works both ways you know.

You also made me piss thinking an agency had dropped you in it when you posted on a public forum exactly what you were doing. I wouldn't have you cleaning the fucking bins.

[pratman]

Wow, you complain about being shafted in your last job and you've just shafted 2 new employers within weeks by jumping ship after they offered you a job. Loyalty works both ways you know.

You also made me piss thinking an agency had dropped you in it when you posted on a public forum exactly what you were doing. I wouldn't have you cleaning the fucking bins.

well thank you for your opnion, no point in firing anything back as you will more than likely give me some shit about how i am ungrateful and disloyal so i will just leave it.

[wijit]

Bit of a wild card, but have you checked out those participating in 6 sigma conversations on Linkedin? Might be worth making some contacts on there?

[pratman]

Bit of a wild card, but have you checked out those participating in 6 sigma conversations on Linkedin? Might be worth making some contacts on there?

yeah i joined in on some 6sigma conversations but being a lowly yellowbelt makes it hard to get noticed, not that i am complaining as every employer looking for continuous improvement that i have interviewed for have loved the fact i have a 6 sigma qualification. I was really hoping to gain my green belt qualification from hsbc but they were only sending high up managers for that course. and from green belt upwards is what a lot of conversations are about, ideallly getting my blackbelt as there is a lot of contract work out there for someone who has a blackbelt qualification but that is a long way off as you would need a company to really back you to get yourself into that position.

[crazyal]

I have now been looking for a good employee since the beginning of November and I cannot get a thing out there, not even a sniff. Got screwed with our last employee and as they hadn't been here for a month, they weren't entitled to any kind of payout.

Now it seems I am going through a shed load of applicants on a daily basis but I either don't get a tailored CV or it seems they are not ticking every box - perhaps I am missing one. I hate shifting through shit CV's whilst sitting on my arse, been doing it for far too long for my liking, and I am registered with so many agencies and calling so many every day but there seems to be no-one out there for me.

I am after someone that reads the job description and puts through a tailored CV accordingly for the job in question. For example, we currently have a vacancy for a very low level job dealing with some enquries, but also going to run projects to design and implement processes.

Everyone I have interviewed so far, when they have got through to interview stage, it always goes really well, but it seems that every one we interview just aren't showing enough enthusiasm for the role and we end up giving the role to an internal candidate (which interviewees no doubt say the position was predetermined) or as a small business, we decide we can save money and actually do without the role and we cancel any further recruitment, as any potential candidates are not up to scratch anyway..

Not sure if there is anyone on here that is in recruitment that can maybe give me some ideas, I have had my open position reviewed by plenty of people and the feedback I have been given is that its a very strong vacancy, and I am not short of confidence when going into interviews. Just wondering if anyone could provide me with any advice.

Another thing that's really annoying is phoning agencies to discuss roles because no one ever seems to be available and I have left so many messages and sent so many emails requesting a callback but I don't seem to be getting an answer. I suppose this may also be the case for job hunters too!

Oh another thing is, when I look at CV's, some of them are written like they will get bored quickly and won't stay with us long enough (the last guy for instance!)- I'm certainly not going to take any one on that gives that impression on their CV in the future! If I advertised a Management Role, it is pretty obvious I want someone with experience - why anyone would think otherwise would be madness, surely?!

If people don't mind learning from scratch and starting from the bottom, that's great, but what we don't want or can afford as a small business, is people that come and work for me, are given a chance and then don't stick it out in a role (again, like the last guy).

Anyway I have ranted on plenty, any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Sincerely

A potential Employer