Job-Hunting
 

Here's the scenario:

I have just finished university and have began the search for a job. I have just come back from the job centre after printing off information for about 30 different jobs.

the main prblem seems to be that every single job that I woud be even the slightest bit interested in needs either a certain period of experiance doing that particular job or previous experiance of people organising and that sort of crap.

My only job to date has been working one day a week in a shop. I have no experiance organising people (why would I?) nor have i been employed in that field before.

It all seems very catch-22; I need a job to get experiance, but I need experiance to get a job.

this is all very disheartening and I am struglnig to see how I am going to break into the job market without working some sort of menial job which would seem to make all my qualifications absolutly meaningless.

So I suppose my question is, what was your first 'proper' job and how did you get it and how did you get the necessary experiance?

Re: Job-Hunting
 

I'm not sure if I've ever had a "proper" job, but my career started as a call centre tech support monkey where you needed zero experience (but some tech skills). It was a job via an employment agency, if that helps.

I then moved onto another job which was also a call centre monkey and was then promoted a few times by being reasonably good at whatever they asked me to do.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

welcome to life :(

when you do get a job id be willing to wager that it'll have something to do with sales

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Finished Uni & applied for a jobs at the passport office;

Basic Examiner - Got an interview but did not pass it
AA full time - Got an interview, passed it, was not offered a job
AA part time - Got an interview, passed it, got offered a job

Now that might comment on my interview skill (ie shit) but i just dunno.

Anyways since then i have applied for other jobs within the passport office;

Advanced Examiner - Didn't get an interview (even though i'd already sat and passed the Advanced Examiner training and had worked their for a year doing my AA)

Then a year later;

Advanced Examiner - Got an interview, passed it but didn't get a job, was placed on a merit list.

I kinda pushed on this one and ended up getting a 2-10pm job (instead of a dayshift job).

Then a year later;

Team Leader - Got an interview and passed it (after having deputised full time as a Team Leader for the previous 4 1/2 months).



It was also my experience that temp jobs tend to want you to have 6 months office experience.



Anyways the point i'm trying to make is that in my experience it's quite difficult to get anywhere. Your degree is just a bit of paper that nobody really seems to care much about in the real world (unless the degree is essential for the job you're to do). The degree is a bonus but people want "real life skills" rather than an educated person. Again that's just my experience and addmittidly i've not been trying for graduate level jobs so *shrug*. I got where i am today (ohh the heady heady heights) by going into a company at the lowest possible grade and working my way up exceptionally fast by being generally brilliant. You might have to do the same thing.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Leaving uni and trying to find work is a horrible and demorilising situation to find yourself in. If your lucky and have landed yourself a graduate job then your fine but otherwise you quickly find out that your degree is largely meaningless at your current level as it simply hasnt given you the practical experiance you need and without the job how do you get the experiance.

You will also find at times your degree actually over qualifies you in the eyes of the company as well, if they view a job as something that a school or college leaver may do and you apply they can sometimes write you off in the belief your get bored and go off and do something more suitable in 2 months.

Its just a case of telling yourself something will come along and dont get too disheartened.

One thing i'm assuming you signed on to get the job info from the job centre (they certainly forced me to before handing details over) and if so be careful with the printing out of jobs. By printing out the details you are agreeing to apply for that job (although they fail to tell you this) and if you fail to they kick up a right fuss. So dont let them push you into getting details on anything your not happy with, if they insist that you do take the details make sure you demand (and make sure) that its marked down not as one your applying for but one your looking further into to.

Also any you do apply for make sure you have as much evidence as possible and make sure dates and such like are provable as the staff have a habit of not doing their jobs right when checking up and then refuse to accept most evidence to prove you applied

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Ohhh yeah another thing i've noticed ... to get a job you tend to need to have done it (and done it well) before. As such you should always be trying to get experience in your current job which would relate to your next job/promotion.

For example at the moment im a team leader but if i were to work my way up the ranks the next step would be shift manager. Now there are some skills on the job description (i kept a copy of it when it was recently advertised) that i don't currently have. I am however trying to correct this. Shift management is kinda about numbers so i'm making up spreadsheets to track the productivity of my team (a non-essential thing for my grade). Shift manager's also have to give presentations so i'm now a Union rep who has to give "welcome talks" to folk. Also at a recent Team Leader get-together with high up management even though i was the newest Team Leader it was still me who did the group presentation.

Anyways ... GET SOME REAL LIFE SKILLS (do volunteer work if you need to).

Re: Job-Hunting
 

\o/ PLD US FOR SAYING THE SAME THINGS AT THE SAME TIME \o/



P.S. Now that you know how shitty it's gonna be are you totally demoralised yet ASG?

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Yeah, I think this is the best route for an intelligent slacker (which I presume constitutes the majority of this forum). I know it's what led to my great success!

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Atleast hes finding out before getting all the rejection letters :) That was probally the most demorilising parts for me, your told all along through your degree that a degree opens up so many opertunities and makes finding employment easy (and before uni too, at college the careers advisor pretty much told everyone that with a degree youd walk into any job you wanted) so you apply thinking "I may not have the skills but I have a degree so the jobs mine" only to get bombarded with rejection letters even for those your qualified for.

Atleast now he will know how hard it is to get the start and he wont waste the time many do thinking its going to be easy. You have to be agressive and really go fo it. Apply for anything that intrests you, even if you dont have the skills they want as it can open doors or someone might see something in the CV they like and may give you a chance. Send spec letters out to companies and not just 1 or 2, your looking for 10's or even 100's.

Also as Dante mentioned, employment agencies are a good start and dont be afriad of temping to get extra skills for your cv

Re: Job-Hunting
 

I'm currently applying for things that demand lots of industry experience (computing stuff, given I got a CS degree). The only work experience I have on my CV is bar work this year, previous call-centre etc (so not too useful relevance-wise though possibly attitude-wise it'll help). Got a couple interviews this week but have equally not even been considered for at least 10 things I've applied for of late.

I think I hope that if I get to interview I can convince them that I'm shit-hot and to give me a chance but it's so far been a bit hit-and-miss in that regard.

I did consider just remaining in temp work (or making my bar work full-time) until graduate schemes start recruiting again but that takes me away from Edinburgh which is wholly suboptimal. My best bets so far have been through agencies though.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

On a couple of positive notes;

- Do you know anybody who could lie for you (eg i have a cousin who's an office manager and an Uncle who owns his own business) and say that you've worked for them doing office type stuff for a few months for a couple of summers (ie to get the necessary 6 months office experience)?

- Also you're gonna find it hard to get any decent non-graduate job so why don't you apply for graduate schemes run by companies. Think banks, think insurance companies, possibly even think civil service fast track.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Man dace is part of the machine :(

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Glad I aint the only one having job troubles after finishing uni :(

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Im in a similar situation too, ive been at home now for a couple of weeks and haven't got a job yet! I want to work in some kind of caring profession, but without all the cleaning of old man's private parts. Sadly, that seems to be the entry level positions if you want a nice local job where you help vulnerable people :(

I have got odd bits of work though, I got 80 quid this weekend (I know, its not much :( ) for going with a mate on a delivery to Sheffield and back, and I heard from my old boss today asking if I could do their survey stuff again.

So yeah, the two jobs I have got I did through knowing people, the old adage is true.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

I got a phonecall one day from someone who'd found my CV online asking if I wanted to go and have a chat. I did, got offered the job that afternoon and started 2 weeks later.
That was a year ago today in fact, and I'm still happily there :)
It's only a small company, but means I get a fair bit of responsibility (now supervising 3, soon to be 4, others...) and working on fairly innovative and exciting things.
There are things in between Blue-Chip grad schemes and temp-sales jobs, you just need to (typically, albeit it not for me...) put a bit of legwork in and contact people, even if you haven't seen them advertising.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

low level experience will always lead to bigger and better things , getting your foot in the door is 1st priority after that find out what you need to do to climb the ladder

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Join a graduate training scheme, pretty much every one of the ftse 250 companies have one.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Suprisingly PA helped me get a whole host of interviews and some of the short term contract work I've done.

When lack of any real experiance was being a problem for me I eventually decided to think a little outside the box where experiance was concerned. One of my friends had just got a job doing pretty much the same job that myself and the other mods here do and that got me thinking. So I made an appointment at the job centre and had a word with an advisor, I told him that my problem was lack of formal experiance but I had spent years doing volentary work for an online game but I was unsure if I could include that outside the intrest section of my CV. He stated that it seemed very much like a Public Relations role and that I wouldnt be telling lies including it as such. After more questions from him about my PA roles we had rewritten my CV to include me doing PR, Support, and development duties for PA and also having been Newsletter Editor for a period. He then said all I needed to do was to get Jolt to sign off on it and I would be ready to start sendng it out. And I instantly saw results as I now had years of experiance gained on a volentary/part time basis in various roles to spark some intrest.

Now the point of this post is basically as an expansion of what Dace said about getting people to lie. While you shouldnt ever actually lie if you have work which you have done in an informal manner and can get the party involved to sign off on it then its wlel worth doing. If you have helped a relative in their business for a few months then you have earnt the right to put that down and the skills it gave you no matter how limited it seemed as every little bit helps

Re: Job-Hunting
 

an INTEGRAL part (and that's how you advance and get on in life nig nig)

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Gah Sales i worked for a estate agents once, worst job in the world

Tho i did get to drive some fast cars :P

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Soon you'll be working 14 hours a day, barely seeing your kids, struggling to pay off the second mortage which paid for the extension on your house so your increasingly overweight wife can work out without the indignity of being laughed at in the gym as her flabby thighs undulate from side to side on the exercise bike.





Good luck with that!

Re: Job-Hunting
 

And they cherry pick the best candidates long before they finish their degree. If you 'aint on one now you 'aint gonna get on one.

If you want to get into a specific industry try touting yourself around local companies and offer to work the summer as an intern. In the IT industry a degree counts for very little as what you've been taught and what needs to be known can differ massively.

You didn't say what kind of jobs you were looking at but, sadly, as a new graduate you should be looking for jobs whose title begins JUNIOR.

If your in the South Wales area and interested in getting into IT then there is a possibility I could get you some 'work experience' for a few weeks or maybe a month.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Rubbish. There are still plenty of vacancies around. Assuming you haven't actually been rejected for them already, and get a 2:1, then it shouldn't be that difficult to find yourself a spot on one.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

My mate had a 2:1 in mechanical engineering from Stratchclyde and then did his masters in some computer type thing at Imperial. It took him 9 months to get a graduate training scheme job thingy (and he was applying ALL the time).

Re: Job-Hunting
 

It depends if you want to get into a good graduate trainee scheme. Even some of the FTSE250 one's are probably pretty terrible from an employee point of view. I mean, the Tesco's graduate training thing probably does guarantee you that you'll be on £40k by the time you're 35 if you stick with it, but **** me I'd still not want to do it.

Getting a graduate position in engineering or similar seems to be much harder, anyway.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

LIAR!

Re: Job-Hunting
 

You're just work-shy though :(

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Its amazing how much experiance most of the Junior roles actually require mind you :)

Re: Job-Hunting
 

you could just go on the game

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Having finished University in June, I am myself in the same boat: Recently graduated, looking for work, applying for everything. I've 3 interviews so far, stil no luck yet.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

I've been getting lucky with the interviews of late - I've been applying for things that expressly demand 2+ years of experience with a covering letter basically saying 'look, I'm smart and clearly work hard, I'd appreciate a chance'. Not sure of the outcomes of them yet but we shall see...

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Heh. I hate all this.

Anyone got any handy contacts in publishing?

Any teachers want to tell me whether it's worth it?

I've no idea what I'm doing and living in little provincial Lincoln doesn't help matters. I think I shall try busking.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Umm, this is bizarre because I do live in south Wales. Unfortuatly I have no real skills that I could bring to an It position but thanks for offering.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

An excellent plan with only two drawbacks.

Firstly, I didn't get a 2:1.
Secondly, I didn't get a 2:1.

I realise technically that's only one drawback, but I though it was such a big one it was worth mentioning twice.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

how tall are you?

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Alas, I am afraid that I am only 5' 7.

Sorry to disappoint you.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

I dont have a full diploma from the school you go to before uni, and I got a job after one phonecall and a 5 minute long interview, no cv or letters or anything. And the best part is that I make good money (for not having a degree), work decent hours (12-17, I can smoke a ton of hash, snort coke and drink a bottle of vodka and still make job no problem), have varied and fun days, and have really good workmates. Also, it looks good on paper.

You know how? There are a thousand jobs that people dont think about applying for. So what if its not in your career future, you will most likely not follow that anyways. It's about getting experience. My best tip for getting a job is to look for the slackers, as they got the best jobs. A friend of mine that did not even complete highschool got me this job.
Just applying for dreamjobs wont get you anywhere. I've seen many people who have gone without jobs for months and even years, as they wont take anything that does not smell like their degree or that involves a little bit of shite.Besides, do you really know what you want to do for the rest of your life? I know I wont be in this branch of worklife for long, but the experience has taught me alot.

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Not all of us can be a superhero though because we don't have the strength of a bear or the speed of a wolf or even the eyes of a hawk so what do we do? :(

Re: Job-Hunting
 

Speed of the Puma. :)