Do I have any chance? Job related

[PardonMeAreYouAaronBurr]

I was diagnosed with a long term illness when I was 18. Was doing a levels so didn’t have a job before then. I’m now 32 and essentially have no experience. Have never been well enough to work up until last year.

I’m desperately trying to get a job. I’ve been applying for every job I see which I feel would be suitable for me over the past 9 months and have never even had an interview. I realise now isn’t the best time to be looking for a job!

I’ve been applying for any job which isn’t care work or retail - would happily do these job too but they’d be too physical for me to manage with the way my illness affects me.

I’ve been volunteering a couple of hours a week with a charity for the last couple of years. I’ve done a degree and masters with the Open University through distance learning so I don’t have ‘gaps’ as such just no experience.

I’m desperate for someone to just give me a chance but don’t know what else I can do? Have I got no chance?

How about going to a recruitment agency or looking at something like NHS Bank work which is effectively a zero hours contract but will be both experience and something extra to add to your CV?

Good luck.

Something like call handler for the emergency services or other civilian staff for any of them? Valuable work but in the main no physical exertion involved.

Not sure about other services but police forces advertise vacancies on their websites.

Do you have several versions of your CV? By all means have a general one as well, but it helps to slightly amend your CV towards the type of job you're applying for. I know it's really annoying to have to keep changing the document, but employers can usually tell when people have just applied because they're applying for everything, so you have to make it look like you were really looking for that type of work in the first place, if you see what I mean.

Thank you for the ideas, I’ll have a look into them.

Yes I have been changing details on my CV slightly each time. I also have a template cover letter which I have added/removed bits of to tailor it to the jobs I’m applying for.