02-September-2010

Getting a job after redundancy

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I have been looking for work since being made redundant back in April. During this time I have made on average 5-10 applications a day country wide and have had an average of 2 interviews a week from end of May until today. I still haven't got a job and I think I know why. It appears that most companies don't want people that have been made redundant and they definitely don't want people that are currently out of work. So how the hell do people like me get a job?

It's all well and good trying to get the long term unemployed back into work, but there are people work fit and ready to go today that can't get a job due to this weird and frankly impossible to understand attitude that employers seem to have. Another thing I have found recently is that many companies like to play with your mind. On the one hand they give you the impression that they want you, and then all of a sudden you're not good enough for them. I have been told I am one of the best applicants they have had and would work really well in this company. My track record and experience will make them money. However in the next instant they hire a trainee who will be a burden to business for about a year. They completely ignoring the fact that I could have hit the ground running and been productive from the start. By the way I've taken a self employed role to keep me in the game, keep my skills up to date and keep the bills ticking over.

I'm fascinated by other forms of interview or candidate profiling, things like psychometric tests and competency based interviews. Both serve no purpose to any job. That's a bold statement, I know. But I have seen it time and time again that they don't always work and need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

For example, I nominated an ex-colleague to work for my last company. The rules had been changed and she had to sit a psychometric test and a competency interview. She was the top biller in my last company, a real asset to the company but she needed to relocate to my are for family reasons. Anyway, she sat the test and the results came back the next day to the boss's computer. They were terrible, and it was obvious that she had dyslexia or some form of learning disability. BUT... She didn't even get an interview from these tests. In the end she went to another company, pretty much picked up where she left off and to this day is a top performer.

I have sat competency based interviews, 'tell me about a time you worked as a team..' and if they bothered to look at my CV they could see plainly the last time I worked as a team. You know, if you're ex military, play football or netball there's a good chance you're a team player unless unless you're have been stuck on a station in the South Pole studying snow!

I can understand these sorts of interviews being used for a graduate because most of them don't have a work background, so the interviewer needs to pull information from them. But a seasoned professional? A person that has done the job for more than 2 years will have the relevant experience for the job. If the CV doesn't hold the information you require, ask for it! Send an email or do a telephone screening.

Finally, the job application forms themselves are often useless. You spend hours perfecting (or for some... buying) a CV that outlines years of work, experience and achievement, only to be told you have to fill out a simple dumbed down application form that makes us all look like we are stupid cause there is never enough space for one qualification let alone 15 years worth! How the hell are you supposed to list your 'duties' in a postage stamp sized box at end of the page?

Employers have either got lazy or incompetent and I'm not sure which is worse. We have moved away from being a mutual agreement of work, where they sell us the job and we sell ourselves, the end result being an offer may be made and accepted. Instead of this we now have to sell our souls, and if you want the job how many hoops do you have to jump through first?

By: Derek

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I too must express surprise that the State allows someone to remain unemployed for 12 years.

I am aware that in certain industries there has been a shortage of qualified and experienced staff however it is a fact that many of the recent immigrants have taken low paid unski11ed work which the indigenous unemployed population should really have been forced to accept.

Congo 15-Jun-2010 14:46

You have been looking for work for 12 years ..... 12 years .... and you can't find anything?

You can't do secretarial work, cooking, cleaning, waitressing, clerical work, child minding, working in a supermarket packing shelves or as a cashier, anything ..... menial or otherwise? Even if you are unqualified and not too bright, unless you are in some way disabled, then I'd say you're a lazy 'scounger' as you put it. 12 years .... come on .... get real.

MikeP 15-Jun-2010 13:57

I have been looking for work since 1998, & the people at the jobcentre seem to think that i`m a lazy scounger, but i`m 57.and employers are`nt really bothered with my age group. 'when I sign on, I get cross examined about my jobsearching efforts, and iv`e had my benefits suspended twice in the past year. it really is`nt fair.

anne 15-Jun-2010 13:22

Interviews now are worse than ever, employers ask stupid questions. I hated this one, "do you play nice in the sand box". I work so hard because I honestly want to do the best job I can. My current employer could care less and actually puts down my strong work ethics to take short cuts that end up costing more. The interview never mentioned I would be working with others that had no skills to do the job they learn as they go. I hear questions being asked all day that anybody in the field should know, but again, employers will hire grunt workers so save that ole' mighty dollar while the experienced ones do all the clean up. To you employers, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!!!!!!!!!

Pam 03-Jun-2010 03:12

The old my grandad story, I dont know how many people recycled this one ....as for a certain group of people, they would refuse to shovel up and leave it to a local, then take a job that they are not trained for from a plumber or builder by taking £3 an hour less, the work is sometimes no good but they dont care as they will be in another place when it falls apart following the tradesmen looking to take the good jobs

abbi0102 14-Feb-2010 22:12

My Grandad Got onto his bicycle, when he wanted work, there were no state hand-outs, if you want to work, look at the Poles, willing to shovel dirt at the building site for a decent wage.
Stop whinging you slackers, and get looking, unemployment will always be around for the ones who's hands are soft

Yablonski 20-Jan-2010 18:45

I have just spent a year looking for work after being made redundant (43 years old and the first time in my life unemployed) and to be honest I don’t know who the worst was?

The Big I Am’s who think they can treat you like dirt or the clowns at the Government run agencies who look down their noses at you because you are unemployed!

Four times I applied for and was rejected for vacancies within my local Job Centre – however on several occasions I had to spell words for the so called staff in there?

Fubar-UK 07-Jan-2010 23:31

I enquired about a job this morning and the women was clearly sexist about the fact that I was applying for a job that involved driving a forklift, what chance have women got in a supposidly equal oppourtunities enviroment when it is the women discriminating themselves!!!

gix 16-Nov-2009 11:51

All inside 60 seconds! wasn't me, I'm still typing with one finger.

Gainsborough lad. 10-Nov-2009 00:27

somebody else put a link on my post, dont click it I did not put it there !!

seeitcoming 10-Nov-2009 00:19

well employers look at people applying for a job and if you are in a job and they want you they think its great to take you from your current employer, if you have been made redundant from a company due to cutbacks, its a case of "ah first out the door" must be a useless one or they would have held on to him/her until the very end, not going to give him/her a job........if you go for an interview or a couple of days work trial then you run the risk that you will be there because one member of staff or manager wants or needs a new worker.....if he/she doesnt get on with another manager or supervisor at the company, they will make sure you have a hard time of it so that you don't get the final offer of work and hence they get one up on the other manager...http://myfxadvice.comforexaccount</a?

seeitcoming 10-Nov-2009 00:18

Face it with grossly overpriced housing and taxes, with an economy out of control, Britain is bust and its peoples redundant! Voila! That's it!

Britain Bust 06-Oct-2009 20:02

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