Desperate and unemployed

[Octuscactus]

Hi!
I am so upset and angry. For months I've been looking for a job. I really need something that pays me from 18k a year. I've got experience and qualification (university degree) but all from overseas.
I've got some experience here (almost 1 year). I've been to 3 interviews, from reception to office assistant and nothing happens. Even when I think I did well :(
I am desperate as I really need a job in order to survive. I'm buying reduced food and freezing it so I have something to eat. It's been so difficult. I'm in tears writing this thread.

I use totaljobs, indeed, monster, jobsite.

How long does it take usually for someone to get a job? Any advices on what I'm doing wrong?

Xx

A lot of those job sites have such huge competition that you're really at a disadvantage if you only use them. Agencies and recruiters are a great idea. You could also have a really hard look at your experience and try and narrow down lists of suitable companies to apply to, either based on industries or geography. Really show them when you apply that you know what they do and are interested in that particular role at that place, not just any job.

Askamanager.com is a great site (but very American so use for general advice only). Try also looking at careers books in your local library - what colour is my parachute is a good old chesnut but they'll have ones in how to make good applications and find roles too.

Good luck.

My SIL has been looking for over 18 months - she's a non EU national, with a very non-UK name + surname, UK master's degree and studied in English at high school and undergrad in her own country. She previously had 10+ years in IT at a very high level. She has yet to find a job - she's even been turned down for Saturday retail jobs, evening bar work and random waitressing- it's an employer 's market atm, OP, especially if,like her, you have no UK work history. They live in a large Southern city, where there's a lot of competition for low level jobs from students: she tried executive jobs first and got nowhere, hence looking for anything whatsoever. I realise this won't cheer you up - but it's a very tough climate atm, and you may need to start to consider other options.

As a benchmark, apply for 10-15 jobs a day (online). It has never taken me more than a few months (and my degrees are also not from the UK), but you have to keep pushing.

Where are you and what's your degree?

Agree with the above. We need more information before we can help.

when my mother came to this country she had to go back to college to get a qualification, to get a job .But even when i had just came out of college in this country i was unemployed for years.

I know its hard but you have to learn to make do with the little you get from jobseekers

Going on my own experience, if the 18k is needed to sponsor a visa, never ever admit that. I stupidly did once, and was asked to leave almost straight away.
Also, if you are London based, hang out in coffee shops and bars, make friends with anyone that looks your way, and use them to get interviews, I'm being serious. After looking for a year, I ended up jokingly asking a woman I met in Starbucks to hire me, the next time I saw her, she took my number and hired me the next week.
Obviously, if you do decide to follow my advice, be very very careful.

It's hard. I lost my job 2 days before Christmas due to my health conditions (failed probation) and am now unemployed for the first time in my life. I've been applying for everything it looks like I could vaguely do, but haven't even had one interview yet. When I eventually do, I've then got to get past the barrier that is my health, so bugger all chance of anybody actually wanting to take me on. It's soul destroying!

What field are you in?

If you're anywhere near Liverpool OP PM me as I can at least point you in the direction of a job that has that as a starting salary.

Are you able to move around the country? And does it have to be £18k? We live in Cambridge and my 18 year old ds left scholarship last summer with no work hIstory, applied for jobs during his gap year and within a week had 4 job offers all around the £15-16k per annum mark. One job (in a factory) was offered over the phone without him being seen/interviewed. Employers round here seem.to be desperate.

My other son left school the year before, started work on a casual basis (zero hours contract) in retail, but was working 40 hours each week. After 6 months he applied for an office job (no official experience) for £22k pa and got it. He was 19 at thd time.

Employers round here seem desperate for staff, you should easily walk.into a job. The downside is that rent is very expensive. So you might end up earning more but being worse off.

Make sure your CV and cover letter are tailored to each and every job. I know it's a pain but I'm currently recruiting for a similar role in another country and the amount of generic stuff that I get is unreal. As I'm getting over 100 applications a day I end up looking for reasons to put people in the no pile so if the cover letter is general, there are spelling/grammar mistakes or the CV is longer than 2 pages then it's straight to the no pile. Good luck OP!

Where are y ou located? My son who has a degree too (from the UK) is working as a postman in the SE and they need more post workers to deliver letters. His pay is over £20k so that might suit you well until you can find an office job.

If you're not British, you may find it hard to get a job that's either low paid seasonal/temporary, or highly paid skilled work that's suffering from a skills shortage.

A friend who works in HD told me that if there are viable British candidates for a job, non-EU applicants often get filtered out due to the extra work of visa checks, and EU applicants are now suffering the same due to the uncertainty of Brexit.

Sorry, that should read, "you may find it hard to get a job that's not low paid", etc

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I just sent my son details of this job £1100 a month, Antarctica which might be of interest for any mumsnetter interested in a change!
Applications have to be in by 6 March. The previous team was a 4 woman team by the way.

www.ukaht.org/media/2938/port-lockroy-assistant-2017-job-advert-and-information.pdf