to think that people have no idea how to apply for jobs?!

[myteenytinyteapot]

Just that really. Hiring for a senior admin person at the moment and have had hundreds of applications but honestly only about four shortlistable ones. I have had:

• CVs which include full-length glamour model style photographs of applicants
• CVs without cover letters when the advert clearly asks for a cover letter
• CVs and cover letters riddled with spelling and grammatical errors
• CVs which are 20 pages long and go into loads of detail about the hobbies and interests of the applicant. Also hardly anyone uses page numbers!
• Cover letters which are obviously just generic copied and pasted mass send out jobs - "I am writing to apply for the position advertised". Couldn't even be arsed to put in the job title!
• People applying who don't have any of the essential requirements listed

AIBU that I'm not surprised people can't get jobs if this is the general standard considered acceptable?!

Can I just say, this thread is really helpful and I hope it keeps going for those of us who need some advice on job hunting (and those who want to share their recruitment woes)

Sometimes I have questions that really don’t warrant a whole new thread started, and it’s nice to also have input from posters who have already given a bit of background to their positions/experience etc

@BuzzShitbagBobbly I know. I’ve had children over the past few years so part time admin roles have suited me. The plan was to re-train in something more specialised next year once the kids are in school but then this redundancy came out of nowhere .

It’s definitely shown me how important it is to have a more specific “career”.

I currently work in private healthcare admin so have been applying for NHS/GP type jobs in the hope that I would be further up the list than many others for those roles. Something will come up I’m sure sigh.

CookieBlue

So far for this role, which closes in 2 weeks, we've had 150 applications and genuinely 90% of them have been straight up nos because:

• they haven't included a cover letter at all
• they have included a cover letter but it's either completely generic with no reference at all to the specific job role or organisation, OR it makes some reference but the skillset doesn't make sense (getting a lot of comms and PR people applying for instance) and they haven't described how that skillset is transferable
• there are obvious spelling mistakes in their CV and cover letter
• there are massive gaps on their CV which haven't been explained either on the CV or in the cover letter. I really don't mind career breaks due to children, illness, travelling or whatever but don't pretend they don't exist!

If you follow the application instructions, tailor both your CV and cover letter to the person specification and have no spelling or grammatic errors, or a dodgy email address, I can't imagine why you wouldn't be shortlisted to be honest. I'd shortlist you!

I currently work in private healthcare admin so have been applying for NHS/GP type jobs in the hope that I would be further up the list than many others for those roles.

Sounds like you should be as medical secretarial work is a specialism indeed! I don't want to sound patronising at all but are you sure you are leading with that as a big deal, not just virtually "aw shucks it's nothin'" playing it cool? Have you got a trusted relative and friend who could review your wording and give it to you straight? is there any specialist system or IT course you could put yourself on as an investment in that regard?

(And hey, at least remember you are better-placed than the person who has lately been spamming my local SM groups with posts which say (and I'm only lightly paraphrasing!) "anyone got any jobs, I'll do anything, but they need to pay enough and suit my kids school hours as they come first" - and then rambles on for another few lines about how family is important and work to live and jobs should understand kids are the future etc.)

For my role about 90 people applied.

The job spec and salary in the advert was clear and the instructions on how to apply.

A certain font size, documents saved as PDF, job ref in subject line of email, covering letter, CV and a declaration of past addresses and clear criminal record.

Out of the 90 odd applications, 5 were interviewed. The others were sifted out due to not following the instructions or just not meeting the spec.

YANBU.

Time wasting slatterns the lot of them!

But applying for jobs is really frustrating. I’ve been a SAHM but looking to work part time now. I was a health and safety advisor before. After university I worked as a HR administrator then office manager for big companies. I moved into H&S and did the NEBOSH certificate as I wanted to move away from admin. Outside London and big cities it all seems to be quite low level admin jobs which are badly paid and everybody seems to apply for them. Hence I moved into a professional role.

Can I find a job though in that field? Nope! I’m in deprived city in the south-west which has a serious lack of decent jobs apart from teaching and health care professionals. The admin jobs are NHS jobs paying £17-19k, a few rare university jobs and “business apprentice” jobs paying £7k.

I’ve been volunteering in a primary school one day a week for a year. I don’t even get interviews for TA jobs and the forms take me so long to fill in. I did have one interview and then got rejected.

I’m doing a PGCE next year as the only way away from depressing, boring and badly paid admin jobs is education and a profession!

This is where the job centre should be helping people, although a lot of these are probably the mandatory X many jobs per week they have to apply for...

Sounds like you should be as medical secretarial work is a specialism indeed

Sorry buzz i may have missed something...but private healthcare admin isn’t necessarily the same as medical secretary

@CookieBlue I have just shortlisted for a medical secretary post. I would always shortlist someone with GP practice experience IF their application is sound.

The number that had spelling mistakes or two lines of info was ridiculous

@reallyevilmuffin

The job centre are appalling. Not only do they force claimants to apply for x number of jobs per week, resulting in a huge number of unsuitable applicants for week, they are impossible to work with.

We tried to work with the job centre to fill some roles. They were supposed to be prescreening the applicants for us. The candidates they sent were shocking, not only unsuitable for the role but they had absolutely no idea what job they were interviewing for.

I was made redundant 5 years ago so I claimed contributions based benefits for the 2 months it took me to find another job. I have an MSc, professional qualification and (at the time) 10 years experience in my field. My job coach kept finding me jobs that she thought were suitable for me... These jobs included Check In staff at the Airport and Media Sales for a farming magazine. I actually work in HR, specifically Talent Attraction, Branding and Selection. Thank god I know a number of decent recruiters through my line of work, who could find me roles that actually were suitable!

There’s a reason people don’t think of going to see a DWP job coach for careers advice - (unless they are forced to because they are claiming) DWP job coaches are mostly useless.

I went to a Jobclub years ago and it was good. It was a decades ago but it was positive, and I got a job while attending.

If they're being sent along by a recruitment agency then blame the agency. I was once presented with a candidate who couldn't speak more than two words of English - "Hello" and "Yes" - she learnt two new words "good" and "bye"

Well JCP work coaches aren’t meant to be careers advisors

The jobcentre do not have any interest in making people apply fir jobs that aren’t suitable. Yes they may specify hours that you have to be job searching per week but nobody gains from telling people to apply for unsuitable jobs. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and achieves nothing. They may also push people to apply for jobs they wouldn’t normally think of doing but within the realms of reasonability . I get sick of hearing that jobcentres have targets for referring people to unsuitable jobs, work coaches just want to stop your money etc. There will be a few bad apples I’m sure but most of them want to help ( and have been unemployed themselves) And yes I used to be one...

My dh has been in the same department for twenty years. He’s worked his way to the top, occasionally taking secondments to other departments for a change or to gain relevant experiences. He recently applied for his first ever official actual permanent role change to a different department that he was interested in. Everybody that works with him knows how experienced he is and how qualified and talented he is. He spent bloody ages researching the role, working on his application and practicing for two separate interviews. He later found out he hadn’t been offered a position because they’d either already been filled internally or given to female graduates to fulfil a quota. I told him he had a lucky escape. He was bloody disappointed at the time though. What pissed him off the most was he knew people in the field, people who knew him and of his position and they didn’t tell him it would be a waste of time.

@mrsgrindah

I’ve related my two experiences of the job centre, both as a claimant and a hiring manager. Two different job centres, both incompetent. Not saying all are but I would definitely not use them again as a hiring manager, I’d rather pay agency fees and get the job done properly.

@Britishwestsussex1960

Vetting the agency is important, don’t just use the one that keeps emailing you. I’ve been in my job long enough to know some good ones.

I’m not going to defend the competency of individual jobcentres. I’m sure some people will have bad experiences just as you have different experiences in different branches of M & S . But I just wanted to correct some inaccuracies

Had an interview a few months ago:

question: Why do you think you are qualified to do this [highly specialised] job?

Me: Uh, because I did it for 5 years in this office prior to going on maternity leave...

[interviewers flipping through CV...]

Apparently other, 'more qualified,' external candidate got job

That’s shocking!

Part of this will be Universal Credit rules. Claimants have to prove a job search of 35 hours per week, so some will apply with deliberately rubbish CVs, miss the covet letter on purpose etc. They can still log it as applied for even if they aren't qualified for the position.

I don't expect any communication from applications where I've not been short listed but I had two interviews recently, they didn't even have the courtesy to call me and say I hadn't got the job. One is readvertising, I was thinking of applying!!!!

Maybe it's because (unless you're unemployed) no one gives you lessons in writing a cv! One job I was looking at (low level catering in a canteen) wanted my previous work experience back to me finishing secondary school including explanations of any gaps in employment! I left school 30 years ago in an era of walking out of one job into another which I did, for more money, better hours etc so it would never be accurate and be honest, you're not going to chase those jobs up for references are you? 5 years or any relevant experiences is surely enough? Couple that with hundreds of people chasing each job then many people will just apply for anything hoping to get a chance somewhere

@Rufusthebewilderedreindeer you’re right, it’s not. I’ve applied for a few medical secretary positions and haven’t been shortlisted because I don't have experience in that EXACT role.

@Mesoavocado I don’t work in a GP practice unfortunately. I don’t want to out myself too much but the healthcare sector I’m in is quite niche so I don’t think that is helping! I’m sure if a job doing exactly the same as what I’m doing now came up, I’d be shortlisted immediately. It’s tough.

Anyway this thread has been a huge help and hopefully I can use some of the tips on here for future applications .