For crying over my unemployment?

[Terribleluck]

I've tried to remain positive, so far I've had a few interviews, still no offer, one really good feedback:

They felt you were really good and definitely 'company' material but were unsure with your skill set and experience if this was 100% exactly the right role for you right now for them and they were trying to come to terms where you'd best fit in with their organisation etc - falling short of just creating a role for you!

I still fill like a failure and like I'll never be able to find a job again. I'm still waiting from some other internal recruiter who completely ghosted me (so unless they come up with something within similar lines of "we'll create a job for you") I don't quite understand why it's taking so long.

I still have another interview on Thursday but I feel extremely deflated and almost ready to give up on life.

@summer I've looked but they're mostly entry level or don't pay enough unfortunately

Only a few weeks, @Terribleluck. I'm a PA but do a bit of everything. I had a rejection yesterday after a great interview but there was someone just a bit better unfortunately.

I wouldn't mind so much if people at least got back to you. I must have applied for 20 jobs. Taken time to tailor my Cv, write a cover letter addressing all their points and it's like they don't even look at my application. I'm really fed up.

@moonflower I think that's still promising. In 4 weeks, I've applied for 45 jobs. Of those 45, only 26 actually got back to me (so about 58%). Obviously there's a chance I can still hear back from some of them as recruitment can be extremely slow. Of those 26, I've had 7 scheduled (one still to be had, one in limbo, 5 rejections). That's still 15-27% application to interview ratio, which to me seems, very much OK. My extrapolation is that %s seem to half, so I'd say an offer should be around 8-13% of the ratio of interview to offer. So according to my own estimates, I need around 12 interviews to secure an offer. Obviously I still haven't been able to secure an offer, so who knows! Recruitment is slow though... The interview I'm having later this week I applied on the 8th of October, so it took 3 weeks to pass to interview stage.

Unfortunately discrimination is very much still present in this world. DS1 has Aspergers. I was advised to not mention his ASD on his CV.... amazingly he suddenly got interviews straight away.... Unfortunately no employment yet though

I've just failed another interview.
Everything is so much harder than when I was a fresh graduate.

I have health issues, chronic fatigue and right now am exhausted/going to see about antidepresants. Im in my 40s but feel old and a bit useless now.

Lots of nmw jobs require physical exertion or lots of stumulation. Im really v brignt and learn quickly but dont have relevant experience.... I dont know how to get an "in" into a job.

I also think I'm on the spectrum and need to investigate that

@wholeclass I think an entry level WFH CS role. They pay NMW though and can be dead end (although not necessarily).

@Muchmorethan

Unfortunately discrimination is very much still present in this world. DS1 has Aspergers. I was advised to not mention his ASD on his CV.... amazingly he suddenly got interviews straight away.... Unfortunately no employment yet though

That's awful but not that surprising. On the other hand, an employer who doesn't shortlist disabled applicants isn't likely to be good to them in the role either.

The civil service might be a good shout here? They will often offer interviews even if you don't quite qualify if you have a registered disability like autism, and will offer accommodations too.

That's awful but not that surprising. On the other hand, an employer who doesn't shortlist disabled applicants isn't likely to be good to them in the role either. both the jobs I applied for (the one which was withdrawn and the one which were unable to make reasonable adjustments) the employers were part of the disability confident scheme.

In fact in the case of the role which was withdrawn, I wrote to their corporate HR department suggesting that their membership of the disability confident scheme needed to be reviewed since they had outright confirmed to me that not a single role in the company would be accessible to a screenreader user, and as such, while they could interview people with a visual impairment who ticked that they had a disability and met the minimum criteria, as soon as they knew that person was visually impaired they would be compelled not to give them a job on the basis they knew that the job wasn’t accessible.
Views on offering interviews to disabled candidates are mixed. Bearing in mind that you have to meet the minimum criteria, chances are that they will be interviewing a lot of people who likely wouldn’t have been selected for interview on the basis there were more candidates who went above the minimum criteria and therefore while interviewing is valuable experience for the candidate, for the employer it is often very much a box-ticking exercise.

Where are these work from home jobs? I’ve signed up for linkedin notifications etc but the only work from home ones I get are survey filling ones etc.

Also a lot of employers now are asking for references from paid employment only so volunteering for a reference no longer seems to be an option.

@alternative what type of roles are you looking for? There's plenty of WFH jobs (especially if you don't mind NMW). If you tell me I can give you some pointers on keywords and where to look for them

Maybe stop being so fussy about the type of work that you want.
There's plenty of work out there if you want it.
You could continue to apply for the roles you want whilst doing a different job, at least you would be working until then.

@jamallama I did that a few years ago when I was made redundant and frankly that was one of the worst mistakes of my life. I also think I've been successful this time in getting so many interviews as I've spent all of time trying to get a job, rather than doing it in my downtime. Plus I have a toddler so, nursery fees are definitely something to consider when comparing salaries.

Good luck OP.
I’m sure something suitable will turn up soon

I feel for you Terribleluck. I had a period of unemployment, I took a few cash in hand cleaning and babysitting jobs at the time, but was a qualified lawyer. It was so, so hard and I felt very low.

My DH helped support me and encouraged me not to just take any job - to know my own worth. It was absolutely the right attitude and meant when the right job came along I was ready for it. Now I have an incredible job that I love and pays well. I'm so, so lucky and now looking back I'm glad I was made redundant from my previous job and waited it out for the right thing.

Best of luck to you

@Jamallama

Maybe stop being so fussy about the type of work that you want. There's plenty of work out there if you want it. You could continue to apply for the roles you want whilst doing a different job, at least you would be working until then.

Maybe if you are a healthy able bodied person with no family commitments and child care responsibilities.

Otherwise there isn't lots of work out there.
I am applying for everything I can physically do and afford to do after childcare costs.

I am sure other people on this thread are also not being fussy, just looking for any job that fits in with their essential needs.

Just had a phone call from a sweet but clueless recruiter! Fingers crossed. (Although I don't think so!)

@dontknow how long were you job hunting for?

I was made redundant at the end of August and started a new job in the April.

I managed to pick up some work doing cleaning and babysitting for that period through friends of friends type thing and also did some voluntary work in a related field.

This was 10 years ago now in the aftermath of the 2008 crash and things were tough. I was very lucky as DH was working and we didn't have children yet so we managed on his salary and the small income I was getting. We did have to move flat from a beautiful 3 bed in a nice area to a really tiny/cheap place which I was absolutely gutted about at the time.

Looking back now I'm grateful for that experience and how it turned out but at the time it was very tough. I felt like a complete failure and totally worthless, like I'd wasted an enormous amount of time and money and effort training as a solicitor only to fail at that. It's very easy to get into a cycle of negative thinking when you are job hunting so look after yourself.

Keep going, know your own value and you'll get there. Lots of places are hiring at the moment but that doesn't mean it's easy to find the right thing.

Maybe if you are a healthy able bodied person with no family commitments and child care responsibilities.

Otherwise there isn't lots of work out there.

There is a reason why 87% of people with a visual impairment are unemployed, and it doesn’t have anything to do with being fussy.

If tills were accessible I would be working in a supermarket by now.

Or if waitressing was within my abilities I would be in hospitality.

Or any of the other jobs which are apparently out there in abundance.

I grant you that I have seen people who are perfectly capable who have stayed at home doing nothing because the high-end role they feel they deserve appears not to be forthcoming and they see working in a supermarket as beneath them,and in those instances I do think that they’re not doing themselves any favours.

But when it’s just not possible there is sadly very little that can be done.

@ Terribleluck I’ll do anything that will pay my mortgage frankly. But overall I’ve been looking at customer service, admin, audio typing that kind of thing.

I was made redundant April 2018 and back in work by the June, in between I did take up about 20hrs a week in a pub just so I had something coming in.

@alternative I definitely have come across many of those roles ... If you DM me your email address I can you pass you the links or I can spam everyone here, I don't mind!

Loads of jobs in hospitality.

I've worked in hospitality in the past and they're impossible to do of you have a family life and have no help for childcare beyond nursery. Plus with those salaries I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage.

Check out this job at Salam Charity: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2779332152

Check out this job at Ivanti: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2723270072

Just two WFH options I found just now

I was surprised how much help there is out there. I'm retraining as a bookkeeper and have already got a qualification in it. I've a second course to do but life is very messy.