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Source: (consider it) Thread: All new job search support thread
Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710

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I presume those industries amke a healthy profit. [Biased]
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Well now there's a surprise!

Glassdoor (can anyone explain, please, why people recommend this, apart from the ability to leave reviews?) this morning offered me, as a job similar to Associate Scientist, Painter. Paint and whites included, mind, none of this BYO Dulux rubbish, but the relevance to science utterly escapes me.

AG

*No, I don't know what one of those is either. Arsedoor chose that title itself.

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Bugger. You'll have to imagine that there's an asterisk at the end of Associate Scientist.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
North East Quine

Curious beastie
# 13049

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So the latest annoying online job application asks me to list my ten most recent employments. That takes me back to work I did when the kids were small - school lunch supervisor / playground supervisor. I should include these, right? If I miss them out, then ten jobs ago takes me back to working as a solicitor, which sounds better, but leaves a gap. Also, it asks for the ten most recent, not the ten best-sounding.

I'd be far better off if I could just apply in writing with a CV. Online forms seem designed for people in their twenties or thirties with straightforward experience.

Meh.

Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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I get around some of those forms by clustering things - so child support jobs around children when they were small, including school governor/ school dinner lady and etc with dates embedded in the text box, rather than a whole heading. Making sure I list anything useful from the relevant ones. (I have another 18 months like that to deal with when child was sick in her teenage years.)

Also spells of temping, I don't list every job, but that I temped for that year or eighteen months.

(That nearly came in as "tempting" not "temping" but I spotted it).

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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat

Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged
North East Quine

Curious beastie
# 13049

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I can, and do, cluster things on my written CV, but this is an online application form with hundreds of boxes to complete, and no way that I can see of presenting information in anything other than a linear form.

[brick wall]

Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Curiosity killed ...

Ship's Mug
# 11770

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Yes, same sort of thing with those forms. Where it says employer, address and dates, put "Various volunteering roles", rough location and dates, then pad that out in the descriptive bit where it's available, if not in the personal statement. So long as you put something approximating the right answer in the box the computerised form doesn't recognise it's not quite right.

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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat

Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Well, I'm going to do my damnedest to utterly ignore jobhunting for a few days, as I'm off to the country of the Culicoides for a holiday.

Assuming that our administrator has actually got her arse in gear, I might know where I stand by then (I was told on the first of the month about my funding, it is now the 22nd and I have heard nothing meaningful despite several reminders). I have to say, though, that I fully expect her to have continued to be useless and if that is the case I shall throw myself upon the mercy of the HR staff in this building and get at least some of the information I need from them.

Maybe I should become a Departmental Administrator? I can obviously get away with being utterly useless, so I could just read the Ship for eight hours, and go home and do something meaningful.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Scots lass
Shipmate
# 2699

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An interesting job has come up, with a frankly bonkers application process. I emailed the agent for the details. She responded asking for my CV before I could have them. I considered saying how ridiculous that was, but sent my CV to her. If I decide to apply, CVs are forwarded to the organisation, who decide who gets interviewed. There is then a Skype interview with the agent, who decides if candidates should go to stage 2 and asks them to write a covering letter. Those then go to the institution, who decide if they would like to interview.

It's just as well the job has the potential to be really interesting (and is Not My Current Job, which is a major motivating factor) or I really wouldn't have bothered. The description didn't even say if it was permanent or contract, but when I got the answer to that one (permanent), I decided to apply. So we'll see how that goes I suppose.

Posts: 863 | From: the diaspora | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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Interview last Monday is not going to lead anywhere - they're looking for someone different to me. Same recruiter got all excited and sent me another job description on Thursday, but it not a good match for the same reason. I guess she'll get with the program soon.

Other possibility still bubbling, will be contract initially if it comes off.

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167

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I've just had a phone call inviting me to an interview next Tues morning for an admin/reception role at the new care home near me - as well as reading the application form where I could only list job titles and salaries they must have read my CV which showed why I think I am a good fit. It's a loooong time since I had an interview so I hope I don't trip over my words too much!
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006  |  IP: Logged
Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927

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Hope all goes really well, Daisydaisy. That's exciting for you. Working close would be good.

[ 30. June 2015, 10:19: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]

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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.

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Lia
Shipmate
# 7396

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Hey,

I lurk quite often on this thread but never post.. however, I have a very challenging assessment day next Thu. Lots of people have helped me prepare (am truly amazed and grateful for this) but am under huge pressure at the moment. Getting this job would change my life but it is extremely unlikely, so am finding this balancing act between hope and realism hard to master.

My current work situation is unsustainable but have had no luck with other options so far - if I could do my best w/out interference form the back dog, I would be satisfied.. please send any spare prayers my way and if you have any advice re: group discussions etc, that would be great too!

Lia

Posts: 127 | From: Cherry Tree Lane | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710

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My advice for any interview is to determine beforehand the information you want the interviewers to know about you. Use the questions they ask as opportunities to get your message across.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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Good luck DD and Lia. [Smile] [Votive]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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After two weeks of waiting son has just been told he didn't get the job he thought was a good fit, this was despite initial feedback being positive. The reason given was that they didn't think he'd stay long. The recruiter is trying to find out more. In the meantime he went for another interview today,which he didn't think went that well, and has another next week. So basically still looking.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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He has my sympathy, Sarasa, for what little it's worth. There are few things more pathetic than the excuses people come up with in lieu of honest feedback.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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How could they possibly tell how long he's going to stay, unless they're such rubbish employers that they don't expect people to stay?

My first proper full-time job was for a firm like that - Kirkwall was full of people who had once worked for Sue, Grabbit & Run*. I did quite well staying for three years. In fact, their reputation was such that when I asked about the card in the Job Centre window, the lady at the desk said, "it's in Sue, Grabbit & Run - are you sure you want to apply?"

* Name changed to protect the terminally stingy [Snigger]

[ 01. July 2015, 22:38: Message edited by: Piglet ]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Son showed me email from the Recruiter about job he didn't get. She sounds as fed up as he is. Apparently they've had four different agencies sending them people for the last two months. They obviously don't really know what they want.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167

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quote:
Originally posted by Sarasa:
Son showed me email from the Recruiter about job he didn't get. She sounds as fed up as he is. Apparently they've had four different agencies sending them people for the last two months. They obviously don't really know what they want.

Or maybe they do know who they want, it's just that person hasn't applied yet.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Incompetent cuntwipes at work have had over a month and still cannot give me any meaningful information - in fact it's taken them until today to reply to my increasingly crabby emails.

The whole university could fucking rot and I would rejoice.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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A few blanks drawn this week, with possibles turning into "no's". The contract where I am, in state office of my denomination, looks like having some possibility of extending. Unsure how I feel about this.

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

Posts: 2645 | From: Curly Flat | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Well, I had a blart to a friend last night who is in charge of HR for another department, and she provided me with some very useful information within an hour. So I know have a stick to beat hem with, and paper copies thereof...

I had avoided mentioning it to her because it shouldn't be her problem, but I was so furious that I had to speak to someone who would know the ins and outs before I went off like a Claymore mine.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167

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Interview was this morning - not sure how I did but will hear by, the end of the week. The start date is mid-Sept so I can enjoy the rest of the summer.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006  |  IP: Logged
Lia
Shipmate
# 7396

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Fingers crossed daisydaisy!

Please send some prayers my way for the assessment centre this Thursday.. it is in central London and if the planned tube strike goes ahead, I will have to get up at 5am at the latest to stand a chance of being on time... not a great start fro a gruelling day when I am supposed to be on max alert and in top form!

I know it is a small thing compared to the issues underlying the strike and the wider disruption for everyone involved, but it is yet another source of stress I don't need when I am feeling v fragile and hopeless already.

[/end of rant - sorry!]

Posts: 127 | From: Cherry Tree Lane | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
mark_in_manchester

not waving, but...
# 15978

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hey Lia

'Assessment centres' can be fun - maybe a team exercise, something written, something spoken...time to settle in and not quite the high-pressure freeze-up that a 20 min interview might be like? I hope it goes well for you.

All the best
Mark

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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)

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Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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Good luck Lia! [Smile]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Yes, good luck to Lia and daisydaisy!

Still not a meaningful squeak from our admin...

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Good luck Lia and DaisyDaisy. It's the waiting to hear that I always hated.
Son's been to a couple more interviews, but no luck with new job as yet.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167

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Yesterday I heard that I'd not got the job. In many ways I'd have liked to have got it, but I'm OK with this.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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Freaking out again... (sigh). Someone approached me at church to recruit me for a job to begin after the fiscal year ended (June 30). It would be right up my alley. Aside from one fleeting contact, I've heard nothing since, though I've been doing a kind of assignment-in-advance (on freelance terms) that relates to the job. Hope to hear today if the whole thing was just a figment of my imagination, or if there really WAS a job offer... (and IS...)

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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927

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Prayers. LC.

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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.

Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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Thank you. Anxiety sucks. [Frown]

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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Amen to that, LC!

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Lia
Shipmate
# 7396

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Hi all,

thank you so much for your good wishes. Just checking in to say that unfortunately the assessment centre went really badly. I was exhausted after 3 nights with hardly any sleep and could not think straight.

I am still really disappointed and sad that I could not even give this a fair shot but I imagine I will get over it (currently being eaten alive by the black dog...).

best of luck to everyone still waiting and hoping for good news.

Posts: 127 | From: Cherry Tree Lane | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Gods, this thread is enough to bring the Black Dog on some days. What an absolute bugger, Lia.

Meanwhile it's so exciting here at w**k I'm sitting here writing an application.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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Sorry to hear that, Lia - better luck next time. [Frown]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271

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Sorry Lia. Hope the next interview isn't so stressful. DiasyDaisy, I hope something you want turns up when you want it, and that you manage to sort out a new job, sort out HR in your current job Sandimaniac.

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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.

Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927

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Sorry to hear that ,Lia..

Prayers for you and everyone else looking for jobs.

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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.

Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003  |  IP: Logged
Lia
Shipmate
# 7396

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Thank you everyone!
If there is one thing this experience has taught me is that people are much more caring and kind to me than I deserve and this has helped me to fee a little less invisible (here and IRL).

Best of luck to all of you, job- and meaning- seekers [Biased]

Posts: 127 | From: Cherry Tree Lane | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Huia
Shipmate
# 3473

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Lia, the whole experience of looking for work can be soul destroying. [Votive]

I hope that people around you can give support, its a time when we all need it.

Huia

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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.

Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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I'll agree with that, Huia. What makes it all the more galling is how rare it is to find anyone involved with career advice and the like who seems to understand that - my tolerance for platitudes has decreased to zero, largely as a result of dealing with the careers service here.

When I rule the world, anyone who claims to offer career advice will be summarily fired after two years, and have to find another job. This should result in:
1. you can tell who practices what they preach and
2. they might get a clue as to how soul destroying it is.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710

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So what makes their career advice so unpalatable and what type of advice would you find helpful, Sandemaniac?
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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Gods, where to start?

It's not just me - I've found very few people here who've anything good to say about the Careers Service, least of all those in the same boat as me.

It is populated mostly by people who seem to have done their PhD and decided that careers advice would be a nice thing to do. No-one seems to have any real-world experience, certainly it's very rarely mentioned, and it's no coincidence that the person there I've had the best relationship with is a former industrial chemist who lost his job at Procter and Gamble. So he knows what it feels like.

I get the feeling that it's treated as a tick-box exercise, if you get three on the top row, four on the middle and three on the bottom row, you get a job. There's no recognition that some of us are trapped in a spiral of declining numbers of jobs and more people chasing them, and no sign of a way out (even less now...) - and the only tool they have for advising people what they could do is aimed at sixth-formers picking a university course, would have been very handy when I was seventeen without a degree, but now that I'm forty three with two and a half of the things it's ridiculously out of tune. There's no real empathy - I feel that I'm getting fed platitudes by numbers - and no recognition that it can be a desperately dispiriting experience.

You have to be above a particular pay band to take advantage of their "services" - a friend looks to be losing his job, and they will not help him because he isn't high enough up the tree, never mind that he's given the place twenty-plus years of his life. Similarly, just when I was at my lowest ebb, when I could have cried, fed up with shovelling shit and failing with application after application, they told me that they couldn't offer me anything more because I'd been on a lower pay band for more than a year. I could not believe how cuntish that was. I felt kicked in the balls, just when I thought it couldn't get lower.

What I am desperate, desperate for is to talk to someone with real experience in the field, to discuss what skills I have - hard and soft - and what I could put them to. I know what I don't want to do, what I don't know is what else I can do, I cannot keep on as I am, and it looks now as though I may be forced to try to do exactly that by the need to pay a mortgage. And I'm desperate to have something meaningful that I can actually DO to change the situation instead of staring once again into the Total Perspective Vortex.

Some things are improving - they now announce who will be at job fairs in advance online, for example, so you can see who is worth talking to, and they ran a local jobs event a while back, and some people there now will acknowledge that it's not an easy task, but it's still like talking to a wall.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

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I agree with you, though we don't have the thing about pay bands, I think. I went to career services at my old university, to come away with vocational testing that told me what I already know, and a couple suggestions on how to tweak my resume--not typos or similar, you understand, more design choices. Oh, and a recommendation to hide my PhD at the very bottom where they might not see it.

I've come to the conclusion that it's all about whom you know, and if the job I'm currently chasing (which may be all an illusion, galloping away over the horizon) turns out to be nothing, I'll be joining professional associations and meet-up groups and working the crowd like a baby-kissing politician. [Hot and Hormonal]

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Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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I've never had much time for careers advisers (possibly because the one I remember from my schooldays was a bit of a w**ker who thought that everyone ought to study Psychology at university), but I'm completely baffled by the idea that they'd refuse to advise you because you're on the wrong pay level.

Why, for heaven's sake? [Confused]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829

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I presume it's a funding thing, but given where it is, I prefer to think that they just don't like the plebs.

AG

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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869

Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Scots lass
Shipmate
# 2699

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Just here to whinge really. I didn't make it to the second stage of the bonkers application process. It would appear that my experience isn't directly related enough - although we're talking divisions within a small sector here, where we use similar skills whatever area of the sector we're in. This keeps happening, I'm now thoroughly discouraged but I just can't seem to get even an interview.

I know I'm lucky to have a job at all, but it's sucking my life away and it would be better for me (and my workplace, to be honest) if I was somewhere else. Everything else coming up is a contract, and I don't want to risk giving up a permanent job for a temporary one - no matter how much I hate it. It seems to be a no win thing.

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Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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Reasonably favourable "pre-interview coffee" this morning. It would be contracting, perhaps in a month. Have had much worse meetings with prospective employers.

Day after tomorrow am meeting with a guy I did a lot of work for in 2012/13, not so much lately. I enjoyed the work, but the business hasn't grown. Maybe there's something brewing there?

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

Posts: 2645 | From: Curly Flat | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Piglet
Islander
# 11803

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quote:
Originally posted by Scots lass:
... I don't want to risk giving up a permanent job for a temporary one ...

I think most of us would sympathise with you there, SL. My present job is on grant-dependent contracts, and while the present contract runs until the end of 2016, it's always stressful when the end-date approaches (particularly so last time, when our new appointment letters arrived about a week before the old contract was due to expire). [Eek!]

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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music

Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged



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