Not able to secure store assistant interviews, what am I doing wrong?😕

[Catonthefence]

So I have a Masters but I have not used it and not confident to use it after doing remote admin job for nearly 9yrs. Before Masters I have done a degree and diploma in sciences.
Anyway, here's how it went:

I have put the Masters in the CV and applied for admin jobs... got none

• I have then removed the Masters and truncated my education to Bachelor of Sciences, still nothing.
• Then I removed the degree and then cut it short until Diploma and applied for assistant admin jobs... none.
• Now, I have kept the Diploma and applying for store assistant jobs mentioning that that Diploma was almost 20yrs ago ( I want to give them an impression that I am not an active science person anymore)... still nothing :(

What am I doing wrong?... I am looking forward to work in the real world after working remote/work from home for almost 13-14yrs. Its like my first job search.... the degrees I have done are itrelavent now but they seem to haunt me on the CV making me overqualified ( I dont know how thou, because I have not worked in those industries at all).

Please tell me how your CV looked when you got starting level store jobs.
Thankyou.🙂

@NextD00rR00m ... sigh my confidence is too low but will still look into them, thankyou :)

lesserspotted · 17/10/2023 15:36
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there are hundreds of applicants for some of these jobs - why should they interview you?
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If your application does not answer that question, then they wont”

Unnecessarily snippy. Most organisations are really struggling to recruit atm. The days of hundreds of applicants for retail roles are long gone.

More likely to be your lack of experience and inability to work weekends, OP.

As a former retail and hospitality victim, get yourself into the admin roles. You did it already, you can do it. Many are wfh or flexible as well. And no customers who will scream at you for not being able to find Aldi brand tuna in Tesco😂

What will happen with your availability is that you will be let go or have only few shifts if you tell them after offer

It's very unlikely you're going to find a retail job that fits the hours you are willing to work. You can tick that you're available all the time but it seems pointless if you won't actually be able to accept a job you get offered based on lying about your availability.

You need to work on your confidence. I am sure you are very capable. If you want office hours I definitely recommend civil service jobs. Good luck!

Not necessarily. Depends on the role and you would need to be honest at interview if asked.

I worked home delivery. We needed people to start at 4/5/6am and work until 8/9/10am. We would need people at weekends because that's when most people want their shopping. Depending on how well staffed the department was we might have been able to accommodate every other weekend or doing one day each weekend.

Other departments can be dependent on deliveries. Husband works frozen currently they don't have a delivery Wednesday Friday and Sunday. So he has Thursday and Sunday off but could tweak that if he needed to.

Good luck anyway 😊

Yeah I think an admin job might be best for you to look at for the hours you want - especially coming up to Christmas they are unlikely going to hire someone who can only work 8-5 Mon to Fri - they want late nights, early mornings and weekends.

Keep looking for admin jobs as many will be office based/hybrid if you want to get back out into a workplace. If you can only do 8-5 realistically then they are the best sort of jobs to look for.

things like receptionist, office manager, office assistant, admin clerk etc.

Have a look if you have similar org near you. They can be super helpful and have evnts like this
https://www.thewomensorganisation.org.uk/event/womens-power-programme-7/

Quite simply yes.

a lot of retail jobs are unsociable hours and weekends. You won’t be seen as flexible.

I put my degree down on my cv, I’ve always found employment in retail, even cleaning.

Yes definitely a deterrent and maybe not for you if you need 9-5

It’s pointless ticking all availability if that’s not the truth, if you say you’re available and you get the job, especially in shops (and especially this time of year) you don’t get to choose your hours or your shifts. So you’ll be given allocated shifts, weekends, evenings etc, it’s at the need of the business not what suits you, so it’s one of those things where if you’re not able or willing to do that then it’s not the job for you.

Saying that though, I think even outside of shops there aren’t as many Mon-Fri 9/5 jobs around now, lots of jobs include weekend working now so you need to be open to that really.

Include a cover letter that focuses on your work experience and perhaps even include a testimonial from your precious manager. It may even be worth going into a store and asking directly as in this case, that approach could work. Stores normally need people fairly frequently so it's likely to at least get you noticed.

Yeah I employ people in retail and that would be as far as I got in your application. If you looked like you might be exceptionally good and had experience in maybe a supervisors role then I might consider it

Will tick all availability for offers but I would only be be able to work 1-2 weekends every month not every weekend or all day late evenings... would this be lying?

Yes, because you can't work those shifts.

Rewrite your experience to focus on the customer service aspects.

Get some experience - volunteer in a charity shop etc so you are familiar with a till. Ask a local pub if they need a backup member of staff to fill in occasionally.

Tbh though your main issue is age. Entry level work you don't need a lot of skills and experience - so its cheaper to hire younger people who can be paid less and will have fewer commitments. The economic policy is based on the premise that you will gain experience when you are younger/cheaper, and thus will be worth hiring for my senior roles when older/more expensive

I am ticking Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm, not ticking early morning hours, evening hours or weekends.... is this a deterrant?

Probably lots of shops etc will split shifts to have an early shift and a late shift that overlap at lunch times when its busy.

If you look for a job thats perfect for the hours you want to supply, you are going to find it much harder looking for a job based on what the employer needs.

Is there a reason you don't want to look for office based admin roles where you'd be "in the real world" but the experience you have will be acknowledged and valued?

They will filter you out on those hours before they even bother to read your experience etc.

I think you should put your masters degree on, it shows a level of determination and of course work ethic, intelligent thinking .. ect
I do some recruitment for my company and having a Masters on a cv would be eye-catching to me. However, your work experience would be a lot more important.
Don’t leave anything out - be you
but with a masters degree, why are you applying for store assistant jobs? Try to apply for jobs within the field of your study.
we have employed plenty of people in our organisation with no direct work experience but with transferable work experience

on another note, I have heard that universal credit are applying for advisors
The probation service are also looking too they don’t need a lot of experience as they will train you

Also, can I add we had lots of people sending CVs in . Some of these looked like an 8 year-old wrote them, and these people had degrees, make sure your CV is up to scratch!

I once got a large top half pic in bikini on a cv of 23 year old grad... Mind boggles sometimes

Why is it retail you want? It’s an area with a lot of applications which can mean a hit and Miss hiring. Or agencies are easier. Or they have large getting to work schemes training people then offering jobs with job centre agreements. The only area that tends to be less competitive is the delivery driver roles.

Go to recruiters rather than retailers, and consider other areas. Hospitality or school admin work (loads of jobs!).

I work for the council now for example, double retail pay and still see people and interact with customer service style skills but mixed with admin. I like it, hadn’t been an employee for the last 9 years either

I second the people saying get some direct, relevant experience. You have experience of dealing with people but only over the phone or email where they're not in your face and you can only deal with one person at a time, however many lights are flashing on the numbers in queue sign or length of your unread emails. It would also show that you've done it and want to do it again so you are tried and tested.
Charity shop work might be easier to find but they're rarely that busy so you're not having to juggle the different needs of customers at the same time. Pubs would be better. Also, with pubs, I would know that you have experience of less social hours and can fit the rest of your life around it. I don't want you to tell me you're happy to work evenings and then not turn up as it's too dark and cold and was cosy at home on the sofa. Or that you've realised you can't get home at the end of a shift.
One of my friends in his 30s applied for a job with a 5am start and genuinely thought it was acceptable to turn up at 6.30 each day as that was the earliest he could get there by bus and they must understand that. It wasn't even that he couldn't drive, just that parking was expensive. He was genuinely confused when they had a word with him about his lateness.

It's very unlikely you're going to find a retail job that fits the hours you are willing to work

In supermarkets, yes.

There are plenty of shops that open 9-5.30 on weekdays and Saturdays, though, and usually employ Saturday staff or rotate the weekday staff to work every other Saturday or similar. You just need to find the right sort of retail job.

But supermarkets that are open 7-10 every day and 10-4 on Sundays will need more flexibility.

Even highest end retail expect everyone to be available to share late opening and sat/sun opening. Very rare to have a whole weekend off and hard to get the same day off each week.

It's the reason one of my DDs left a lucrative career (£££ 💍with great commission) in retail a couple of years ago to go into admin for a totally different business with good but fixed wage instead. No weekend work and they all go home at 5. Week off for xmas.

If you got a job on the back of you being flexible and then got picky about sharing shifts and weekends you'd prob lose the job again quite quickly.

Many jobs have 100s of applicants.

also indirect discrimination. It’s hard to prove but I’m certain (I live in a university town) that preference is given to the cheaper to hire students than anyone over 30 who can’t be as flexible due to family responsibilities and costing more to hire.