to think that I have been written off? (job related)

[sunnytimes83]

Short version
Looking for a job after a 18 month maternity (thanks covid, it looks great on my CV) and can’t get any interviews for ‘exciting admin roles’ (above £30k, Northern Powerhouse area). So my CV is missing the mark and I don’t get why.

Long version
I am applying for anything remotely interesting at the moment but can’t get any interviews. If all else fails I will apply for a simple £18k admin job, hopefully get it and then hate every minute of it. I don’t have a posh accounting or law or business qualification, but I have previously worked in solid roles and my previous managers were pretty happy with what I did. I don’t have any social contacts, exciting hobby, special skills etc etc. I just want a job that’s not going to crush my soul.

CV shows:
my name that looks like I probably wasn’t born in England
first class degree
a handful of diplomas and certificates
Job 1 - 2 years (as the company moved headquarters and everyone were made redundant)
Job 2 - 3.5 years (as the company closed down due to owners person problems)
Job 3 - 1.2 years (as this was my stop gap while waiting for next big thing)
Job 4 - 3.5 years (as the company moved department offshore and most people were made redundant)
‘All other jobs summary available upon request’ (junior admin and customer service roles)

AIBU to think that I have been written off as a credible / long term employee? Because my name is wrong, got the wrong degree, happened to pick employers who would make my role redundant a few years later or for other reasons that the recruiters are seeing in my CV?

Btw it’s a pretty good CV, not sure re formatting would improve it.

If you’re in/near Liverpool I can send you some analyst positions. They’re mostly remote now.

Not sure what the salary is, think starting is about £27k but lots of scope for more.

@girlmom21

It sounds like you want a fairly high paid admin job but have very little to show that you're capable or experienced enough for a job at that level.

Add your other jobs just with job titles and dates.
Presumably with the jobs you've listed you've given details of your roles and responsibilities?

You haven't stayed in the last few jobs for very long really so, although you've got completely legitimate reasons for leaving, you might look a bit flaky.

Thank you.

Re other roles - 4 redundancies so I didn’t choose to leave…

Is your degree subject relevant to any particular type of job? I would expect people to be impressed with a first class degree, I must say.

Tbh OP, I think you might be right. I know I am finding the same difficulties and feel much like you do. I have heaps of relevant experience and masses of transferable skills for the roles I've been applying to. However, like you, I have several redundancies under my belt and haven't worked since the start of the pandemic. Given my age, for many, that is not a considerable plus, it just means that I potentially bring a whole manner of issues that makes hiring someone younger/with less experience much more attractive, not to mention kinder on the budget.

I wish you well OP.

(FWIW, I tailor my CV for each and every role I apply for. My covering letter/supporting statement too. It does not make a jot of difference.)

@sansucre

Tbh OP, I think you might be right. I know I am finding the same difficulties and feel much like you do. I have heaps of relevant experience and masses of transferable skills for the roles I've been applying to. However, like you, I have several redundancies under my belt and haven't worked since the start of the pandemic. Given my age, for many, that is not a considerable plus, it just means that I potentially bring a whole manner of issues that makes hiring someone younger/with less experience much more attractive, not to mention kinder on the budget.

I wish you well OP.

(FWIW, I tailor my CV for each and every role I apply for. My covering letter/supporting statement too. It does not make a jot of difference.)

Good luck x!

I agree that I am not an easy candidate to place in a role but a couple of interviews to have a chance to talk through my experience would be lovely 😊

if you consider how CVs are screened to shortlist potential candidates, it often is due to how you're presenting yourself, if you're not being invited to interviews then this is likely where the problem lies.

if you are being invited to interviews, and they're then not leading to offers, then that would be a different consideration.

BTW I'm not suggesting there isn't implicit ageism, racism or sexism there, however there is a lot a person can do to present themselves in a way which negates these obstacles.

I've been lucky enough to do some work around women and specifically women of colour in industry, and find it interesting that in the wider world people often dismiss aspirations out of hand, but unless you push for those things, they don't happen. We should all think we're worth more and can do better.

Ultimately, while 30K a year is a good amount, it's not as if your aspiration is to be a millionaire office junior. 30K for compliance roles is perfectly achievable.

I would reflect what has been useful in the guidance you've been given here, and then see how you can apply that to your circumstances. Ultimately, you're only written off if you decide that to be the case. Securing the right role often isn't a linear path, but there is much that can be done to improve your chances.

Re other roles - 4 redundancies so I didn’t choose to leave…

4 redundancies looks awful.
Were you a good administrator? Or a poor one?

@KTheGrey

Is your degree subject relevant to any particular type of job? I would expect people to be impressed with a first class degree, I must say.

I wouldn't pay any attention to the degree if I was employing for admin/analyst type roles. I'll always take experience over qualifications in those job types.

If anything, I'd wonder why someone with a first class degree hadnt worked in more senior/stable positions.

A) I’ve never tailored my CV - it depends entirely on what skills you’re highlighting and what roles you’re applying for.

B) 30k for admin is unrealistic. I have a qualified accountant working for me on £30k - this is an anomaly as they purposely chose a job they’re too senior for for personal circumstances but a PQ accountant in a small business might only get £30k ish do you need to adjust expectations.

You've still not said what your prev jobs were or their salaries

Unfortunately your CV is likely to be the issue.

I have had similar issues re redundancy but there is a way to frame it so it doesn't look bad.

If you are not even getting interviews then either your CV is not as good as you think or you are applying for jobs you have no visible experience in and are therefore being tossed aside without consideration.

I work in the South Yorkshire area, project manager which is mostly admin and am not earning 30k. Your expectations are far too high.

20-22k is the max you will get for admin roles and if your cv suggests you are entry level then you will be looking at minimum wage

Hi op
I work for a LA and there are often jobs in compliance - but it depends what kind of compliance. There are compliance jobs in housing especially for building regs and H&S as well as planning.
Alternatively have you considered a university - I had a friend who did a PA/admin role and started on £27k I thibk.
The only other thing I will point out is that you’ll be up against a lot of applicants at the £18k jobs, school and uni leavers etc. You’ll really need to make your cover letter stand out. Perhaps you could write some stock answers for things such as time keeping, organisation, personal development etc then you can cherry pick and tailor the answers to the job specification. Sounds like a lot of work but I promise you, if you sit aside for a few hours and do the stock answers you can do a couple of applications a night SO much more quickly - I speak from experience.
Good luck x

@HolidayTime2021

Re other roles - 4 redundancies so I didn’t choose to leave…

4 redundancies looks awful.
Were you a good administrator? Or a poor one?

Really? You're blaming an administrator for 4 companies failing? Why would it be an admins fault anyway? Unless they managed to steal money or something, not likely to be their fault.

Really? You're blaming an administrator for 4 companies failing? hmm Why would it be an admins fault anyway? Unless they managed to steal money or something, not likely to be their fault.

They didn't say the company had closed
Redundancy is often used to get rid of lemons.
4 times seems more than an unfortunate circumstance.

Fwiw (HR person here) you need the relevant info on first half of first page of cv. So name and number. Profile then current or more recent role. Whole thing no longer than 2 x a4 sides. I'd only give last 5 yrs job history and V brief info re quals. Education should be last

@HolidayTime2021

Really? You're blaming an administrator for 4 companies failing? hmm Why would it be an admins fault anyway? Unless they managed to steal money or something, not likely to be their fault.

They didn't say the company had closed
Redundancy is often used to get rid of lemons.
4 times seems more than an unfortunate circumstance.

I did say they ‘closed’ - 1 moved directors to another country and all staff gone, 2 closed, 3 moved all admin to another country and only some managers left, 4 closed for new business and I was new business admin

Someone reviewing your CV wouldn't know the reason for leaving, i.e. redundancy, 4 times in a row, surely unless you're putting it on the CV?!

Recruit nationally here. Some issues which won't be helping:

£30k is a lot in the north for general admin.
You're competing with unskilled cohorts years younger than you.
You've moved around in niche jobs but not stuck at 1 thing well, or at least your CV isn't selling that over and above skillset well.

Put it this way, op:

Why would I shortlist you Vs the 100s of other candidates who are early/ mid 20s needing a career chance, and have more realistic £ expectations aligned to the market?

If you can afford it I’d recommend getting your CV written for you, it shouldn’t cost more than £100 for your level…

Then I’d contact some recruitment consultants; be really friendly, call for a chat, sell yourself in, make them realise you’re a good candidate who they stand of making some commission from then let them do some of the hunting.

Also update your LinkendIn to match CV, lots of roles get advertised, and lots of rec consultants on there too.

I happy to check your CV, I'm to an extent a generalist (although a higher level one) but was able to land my dream job. (You can read my misfortunes in several threads).

Also wanted to add:

If you want about 10k more a year in salary Vs the market rate, you need to take on responsibility and/or gain qualifications or skills that pay higher.

You'll not get 10k more a year just because your family needs it when you have more commitments compared to 10 years ago ..

Surely in the workplaces you've worked it was the same?!

I think you should put the redundancies on your CV. I once hired someone (for an admin role) who had had a succession of shortish-lived roles and she stated her reason for leaving each one. I obviously explored it at interview regardless, but what I liked about her CV was that she had clearly thought about how to tell a clear story - and in the role I hired her for, that kind of common sense was really important as she would be communicating with a lot of external stakeholders. The rest of her CV reflected similar thinking and that was what drew me to it out of a massive stack.

Also, I am in London where the market is admittedly different, but a lot of the CVs that I see for exec assistant roles (which I would categorise as 'admin', thought it's very broad) have numerous short-lived roles on them. I think it's common for the kind of role when moving up can be hard and people often move on instead. Keep trying OP, you'll get there.

@Viviennemary

Youve never really stuck to a job for very long. I dont think 30K is usually paid for a general junior admin role.

Er yes, this was my thought. I'd have thought that sort of salary in that region would be for more senior EA type roles.

Nothing wrong with aiming high OP but I wonder if your experience is strong enough to get past more senior candidates.

Good luck though

I'd go back to LinkedIn and use the jobs function where you apply for roles rather than relying on your profile - most people advertising jobs won't even look at your profile so if it doesn't quite match it doesn't matter.

Plenty of 30k senior admin roles in my preliminary search just now.

I'm not sure what you mean by:
No my previous roles don’t match anything I apply for (apart from all being in the ‘admin’ sector). I happen to have been working in niche jobs previously…

you need to make your experience match the role- tailoring is everything - otherwise why would they think you can do the role?

I assume that you don't know how many people applied for the roles that you have already apied for, it could have been 100+

I agree that an expectation for 30k for an admin role is much too high