Now that i’m uneployed and am looking for work, it would appear that there are 1000’s of jobs to be had all over the country, its just breaking it all down to find one that you can get.
any advice for CVs interviews and web sites and how to make FA money turn into a lump of elastic is welcome.

🙂

My advice: nip down to your GP and get your anti-depressants prescribed today.

I’ve love to add a winky/smiley and say I’m joking, but I’m not. Good luck!

The missus was working and we had cut out outgoings massively by leaving the country.

Applications was a chore after a month and I had to set aside time to do it otherwise the day is over.

Try and stick to a work like routine but throw in ride bike rather than sit through dumb ass meeting.

Apply for everything not just ones you like as getting interviews should help your mental state.

Depends also what line of work, linked in if it’s professional is good as I often check out potential customers that way and have been checked out by potential recruiters and customers and competitors before.

Edit# about 3 months, 1 planned, then 1 day/week starting last August now up to 2.5 doing what I used to do but as a consultant.

Take what positives you can find, there are some I promise.

The negatives, just deal with them. And deal with them promptly. The less crap hanging over you the better.

Don’t put off jobs, just because you have all the time in the world to get something done. Doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to do it later. That’s just more crap hanging over your head.

Do some voluntary work a couple of days a week. Looks better when you get asked the question, “so what have you been doing since…” as the answer “being enraged by reading the STW forums” doesn’t go down well.

Apply for everything not just ones you like as getting interviews should help your mental state.

Definitely plus one for this. Don’t take knock backs to heart, treat it as practice for getting a job you actually want.

well 2 months here starting to get a bit worried

applying to everything

im trying to keep busy as best as possible

so fill your days!

im DIYing all over the house, little jobs and big ones, house, car even bike maintenencen feel like im not wasting my time then
set aside 2 hours a day for application writing
im also doing a daily mtb exercise plan i found on pinkbike

right back to painting the kitchen!

oh and absolutely no drinking in the week, i wouldnt when i am working so i dont now!

Definitely plus one for this. Don’t take knock backs to heart, treat it as practice for getting a job you actually want.

I decided the lack of replies was due to the internet being broken – that killed a few weeks.

also try starting a tread about how Thatcher invented nuclear powered solar windmills that should also keep you going for a couple of days.

If claiming JSA be careful with voluntary work. If you are volunteering then you are “not actively seeking or available for work” so benefit can get cut.

Chin up. And treat looking for a job as if it is your job, which it is. And not by trying to do as little as possible. 😉

HTH.

Spend every day looking for vacancies and sending out your CV and filling in applications. Don’t let up. I was made redundant in 2009 and it took me a year and a half to get one interview. Got the job at a massively reduced salary compared to the previous one, but took it. There was nowt else on offer.

Don’t be picky, if you need the cash take whatever you can get. You can always look to stepping up more in the future.

I spent a day yesterday training up one of the firms’ daily cleaners into post room processes for holiday cover.

He’s a cleaner and he’s also doing a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, whilst already holding a degree in Pure and Applied Maths… 😯

From being out of work for longer than I wanted to be some years ago…

Apply, apply, apply – keep putting yourself forward for positions and don’t let up. You will get rejections and companies that simply don’t even acknowledge that you have contacted them, understand that they are not in any way personal, and that there was simply another candidate that the company thought a better fit for the role.

Keep your chin up, and good luck.

A good book on how to change your outlook and how to cope with things like job rejections is Learned Optimism:

Personally I think it’s one of the best pop-psychology books I’ve read.

also exploit connections, I now work for a guy I met for coffee 7 years ago while travelling….

And treat looking for a job as if it is your job, which it is.

Absolutely!!! I would drop the kids in school, then fire the laptop up as if it was a normal working day. Trawl the jobs sites and bang off CV’s to anybody and everybody. Call in on potential employers, phone them up. It really is a full time job

The most frustrating thing isn’t the rejections. They’re at least an acknowledgement that you exist. Its the 100s (and I do mean 100’s) of applications you fire off, that don’t even bother to reply. Actual replies are about 5%, if you’re lucky

I’ll be honest with you, after a while it is truly spirit-crushingly demoralising. Keep a check on your mental health. Get out on your bike, go for a walk, in the afternoon. Keep yourself sane

And if you do start to feel really down, then nip down to your GP and get your anti-depressants prescribed. Seriously

Got the job at a massively reduced salary compared to the previous one, but took it. There was nowt else on offer.

Don’t be picky, if you need the cash take whatever you can get. You can always look to stepping up more in the future.

Yep, that sounds familiar Wopster. Wise words

take a temp job whilst you’re looking for another one.
I got a temp job which turned into a permanent job – the pay wasn’t great but it was better than the dole and after 10 months I found a job I wanted to do.

I’ll be honest with you, after a while it is truly spirit-crushingly demoralising. Keep a check on your mental health. Get out on your bike, go for a walk, in the afternoon. Keep yourself sane

Oh yes.

Keep a check on your mental health.

From Learned Optimism, the three signs of depressive thinking are Personal, Pervasive and Permanent.

So you get a job rejection or no reply at all, there are many different ‘take home messages’.

The optimist would say ‘Well they were inundated with applications and just didn’t have time to reply to them all’. This is an impersonal message, nothing bad implied to the person.

Examples of depressive thinking take home messages are:

‘My CV must have been terrible’ – this is personal

‘They rejected me, so everyone will reject me’ – this is Permanent – ie extrapolating one rejection to all possible future rejections.

‘They rejected me, I’m no good as an employee and as a person’ – this is pervasive, extrapolating one rejection to other aspects of life.

The trick is to keep negative things in their box and not let them become pervasive, personal or permanent.

My girlfriend has been having an arse of a time trying to find a job due to having no visa (it’s being processed and has been for about 5 months). she applied to loads of jobs but after a couple of months near gave up and starting volunteering near full time in Oxfam. She now has a job managing an Oxfam store as the people who run the shop she volunteered in really like her (she still volunteers there). It’s not ideal as it’s not that many hours but it brings in some money and will tide us over. So I’d say it’s definitely worth doing some volunteer work, meet new people, something to do and maybe open up opportunities too.

Soon to be back to this lark. I will be 2 weeks short of being back in work after 20 months unemployment, at the end of March. Not looking forward to this again and things are even worse this time for me – single in 2 bed terrace house so bedroom tax for me. Yay – my housing benefit find’ t cover my rent as it was last time.

Excellent!

when you do get a job make sure you have a record of all tax paid, not paid, etc.

HMRC are a joke, they will probably try and tax you for something. The more you can prove the better.

The optimist would say ‘Well they were inundated with applications and just didn’t have time to reply to them all’. This is an impersonal message, nothing bad implied to the person.

Yes, yes, that’s all well and good. The first 100 times, maybe? But at some point its going to get you. You wouldn’t be human otherwise. And no amount of American cod psychobabble is going to fix that. From experience I’d say its best that he prepares for the reality of the situation. Which can have an absolutely enormous impact on your mental health

Me too, now for about 6 months.
I’ve just turned 60 (hooray!!) so I may be involuntarily retired, but it’s not so much of a worry since Mrs M works, and I have another small source of income which helps.
I apply for lots of jobs, spend too much time doing so, & there are the usual housecare, cooking, cleaning things to do as well.

Then there’s the website I need to build, so I have to learn programming etc… 🙂

Yes, yes, that’s all well and good. The first 100 times, maybe? But at some point its going to get you. You wouldn’t be human otherwise.

Yes and no. The whole premise for the book started from a research project into what makes a good cold calling sales person. It turns out there are natural optimists who can take a knock down 1000s of times and be completely unaffected by it. These people do best is those types of sales jobs.

So there are those who can take a 1000 job rejections and just let it wash over them.

For the rest of us, you can affect your behaviour by spotting when you start to become affected by rejections / miss fortune and by adjusting the take home message you can immunise yourself against it. It’s not perfect, but it will help.

You should read the book, it is really excellent as most of it comes from large studies looking into whether you can lean optimism – the answer is yes, to some extent….

thanks one and all so far…

It turns out there are natural optimists who can take a knock down 1000s of times and be completely unaffected by it. These people do best is those types of sales jobs.

Yeah… I’ve met them. The word you’re looking for is ‘Sociopath’ 😉

I know what you’re saying fella. Anything that helps. All I’m saying is that you can be as optimistic as you like, but you need a plan to cope with the (in my view inevitable) depression that comes with loads of rejection/general ambivalence towards you. Its only human to be affected. Its the ones who aren’t who are the weirdos

Looking for work is like mailshotting it’s not like picking beautifully crafted jewels from the sky….

Do the numbers, I.e. get the (decent) applications/intro letters/calls out. Register with all your industry agencies and online recruitment sites and follow up where appropriate (without becoming scary stalkerish).

The more you do, the more critical mass you build. You’ll reach a point where you create enough noise to start getting calls and then interviews. Ignore rejection or being ignored. How many unsolicited mail shots do you get and chuck in the bin? That’s all your prospects are doing, it’s not personal.

Do the numbers, keep at it and you’ll get responses and hopefully, offers. Keep records as well so you can justify how you’ve spent you’re time (if need be). I’m a Contractor so go through his process every few months.

Good luck and chin up.

Good luck mate..

Absolutely!!! I would drop the kids in school, then fire the laptop up as if it was a normal working day. Trawl the jobs sites and bang off CV’s to anybody and everybody. Call in on potential employers, phone them up. It really is a full time job

This is very true. I’ve been out of work 2 months now and I’m trying to get into the cycle trade. It’s the wrong time of year really, but there are jobs about. I’ve also been to nearly every bike shop within 20 road miles with a CV for a chat with the boss, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve spoken to some great people and I believe that a visit and a chat does a lot more than emailing a CV. The hardest thing was the first time, walking in and asking for a job. It gets easier after that.

Right now I actually don’t really care about being out of work. We have always lived well within our means, and we have some savings, my redundancy money and a fair stock of bikes and motorbikes to sell. I’m currently in the classroom doing my Cytech 2 qualification and loving it, and I’m wasn’t bothered a out getting a job until I’d finished the course. After that I’ll apply for ANYTHING just to bring some money in so I don’t have to touch my redundancy money. I imagine we could last 18 months without too much trouble.
There’s two things that make it hard I think
1) living too close to your means before you loose your job. Big mortgage, debts etc.
2) Being too picky looking for a job. Sure, you may have always worked in IT and earned £40k but £200/wk flipping burgers or working in a pub is better than the dole, so get on with it!

🙂

You should be a mobile bike mechanic PP 🙂 order via website/ book timeslot etc.

oh and daytime tv is a no no

drinkmoreport, there is a job going where i work. in leeds.

Unemployed here.
Two months in, nit sure where it has gone.
Keep positive is the key message..

everyone should be unemployed at some point in their life, it really makes you realise what stuff costs, where you can cut your spending and how much you actually need to live off AND how you shouldn’t take your employment for granted.

You should be a mobile bike mechanic PP order via website/ book timeslot etc.

Don’t worry mate, it’s more than crossed my mind. What I really need is more experience though, but if I’m still unemployed in a few months I’ll have nothing to loose…… 🙂

When I was out of work and looking (9mths) I wasted a lot of time.

Looking back I should have spent some of that time getting really fit mountiain biking, learning skills like 100yrd manuals etc.

Make sure you balance your day with hard work looking for work and hard work riding your bike.

So even when months later your still looking for work at least you can say your now a better rider.

2) Being too picky looking for a job. Sure, you may have always worked in IT and earned £40k but £200/wk flipping burgers or working in a pub is better than the dole, so get on with it!

Especially if you want to work in the bike trade 😉

brakes – Member

everyone should be unemployed at some point in their life, it really makes you realise what stuff costs, where you can cut your spending and how much you actually need to live off AND how you shouldn’t take your employment for granted.

Amen to that! And it’d make a few people get down off their high horses, and tone down their ‘scroungers’ rhetoric. Once they realise how bloody hard it is, and just how utterly soul-destroying an existence it can be when you spend all day every day applying for what rare jobs there are, and getting absolutely nowhere.

The disparity between the reality of unemployment, and the ‘cushy life on benefits’ portrayed in the tabloids really couldn’t be more extreme. Its a depressing reflection on our society that we demonise people who’ve got it bloody hard, the vast majority of whom are certainly not there by choice!

I’m unemployed, i mean self employed.

Agree with focussing the day on job-hunting.
But use the flexibility you have time-wise to get yourself fit and improve your bike skills.
I was job hunting 2 years ago and did a lot of track training in the evenings to help my running, entered lots of races to give myself some focus and a sense of achievement.
And also taught myself to bunnyhop on flats for the first time in my life (aged 38) 🙂
It’s useful to remind yourself you can improve and learn new things…

I was made redundant about three years ago and was luckily enough not to have to chase every job. Mrs W was working and while we had to draw our horns in we took a decision to set up a consulting business and only apply for jobs that I really wanted. Rejected by all four I did including the one interview (which was for a job on 1/3 of my last salary) .

Everything has turned out well but it was 18 months before any real money started rolling in. That was a long time and it would have very easy to slip into feeling depressed. And there were times when it came close I think. The things that saved me were a positive partner and a structure to life.

Make sure you always talk. It made us brutally honest with each other. That has made us really strong (not that it was bad before).
The points about rejection and routine are important. Plan things (like you would in a job) It may only be to go to Costa to look at the yummy mummies but find things to give you structure. I went jogging each morning. Hated it but made me get up with the wife when she went to work. Put your rides in as diary and if you put in 3 hrs do 3 hrs whatever. Don’t get used to bailing.

I made sure that every day I made sure I did something work related, for the house (a meal or cleaning) so that there was a contribution visible to your partner and then do something physical. Any day when I dropped one of these things it felt odd. The proportions don’t matter but doing it is.

Good luck and keep positive and perspective.

I’d echo a lot of what was said here, definitely need to treat finding a new job as your job and devote time and energy every day to it.

However from my experience its also really important to use this time to get something personal out of it. There’s a temptation to spend all day sat filling in applications because you feel guilty when you’re not. Generally this is counter productive and you could get it all done in half a day if you focus.

For your own sanity and mental wellbeing go out and have a ride on your bike for a couple of hours every day, just because you’re out of work doesn’t mean you can’t have a bit of fun and it’ll help keep everything in perspective.