Job applications

[Everytimeiseeher]

I’m job hunting just now. I’m looking for part time office admin.
I’ve applied to a few jobs but get a very quick reply saying the application won’t be progressing. This has been a huge knock to my confidence.
I’m early 40s have been a hairdresser all my life but worked in a bank for nearly 20 years. I have lots of experience of working in an office, I’m great with customers and am one of those people that actually do what they say they are going to do. I work hard, rarely off sick, friendly etc so where am I going wrong. I just had an email knock back for an admin assistant at a school. A job I totally had my heart set on. 😭

They don’t know about your personal qualities. They see your work history and qualifications and judge from that. Do you have any administrative qualifications? Vision2Learn do government funded (free) Level 2 courses in IT and business and administration, they could be good for your CV. Or a local college evening course? You could also try temping? Or NHS jobs as they often have ward clerk / receptionist jobs advertised.

The problem is, everyone applies for basic office admin work. It’s seen as something that anybody can do. Around here, the pay is under £20k. When I was an office manager, we had 100 applications for an admin assistant job paying £18k. A lot of the applications were terrible but around 30 were reasonably good.

School jobs like being a TA or secretary are really competitive and many school mums will go for them - the pay isn’t great but the school hours and holidays off are a huge bonus.

Admin jobs are going to be even harder to find in the future due to increasing automation. Can you retrain as something rose longer term?

Admin jobs in schools are pretty much the most sought after admin jobs going! We get literally hundreds of applications so can pick and choose, preferring those with experience of school admin and finance systems, as these are very complex if you have had no experience. Sorry, but as keen and enthusiastic as you clearly are, the competition is fierce.

How tailored is your CV for each job? We've just advertised a part time admin/digital marketing role and even though we only advertised on local Facebook we had over 20 applications in the first 24 hours, most of those in the first 10 mins! So much competition for part time. The ones getting interviews are the ones who had clearly thought about their CV and highlighted relevant experience even where the job title wasn't immediately relevant (e.g. PTA member - built school's social media presence, rather than just stating the volunteer role). Others who might have had the same skills but just put for example (to use your background) hairdressing and bank clerk, we can't tell if they have the skills at all so won't make the shortlist.

I agree you need to look at the job spec and specify your skills

I can work independently
I can ask for assistance when needed
I have experience in dealing with difficult customers
I understand the importance of safeguarding

Etc etc

Meet their criteria and you’ll get an interview

Thanks for the tips.
For info I’m almost completing a second year at college doing an hnc. In my first year I had a clas about cvs and for this I totally matched myself for the job. I highlighted all the jobs I done at the bank and made myself sound perfect for the job. My personal statement as to why I wanted the job was personal, sincere I talked about being flexible, reliable, trustworthy all these things....yet still did t even get an interview. Sorry I’m just feeling very low. This was my primary and my children’s primary I so wanted the job 😭

Ps. the hnc is in legal services so covering a lot of law and office based study.

Here were have ‘bank staff’ for these types of jobs so you have to register and complete application forms.

Your are then classed as an internal applicant.

Have you looked at that? Might be the same