AIBU to think I am stuck in my job? How did you find a part time role?

[hopefulsocks]

I started at my company and worked 3 years full-time before dropping down to part time after having my 2DC. I had to change roles (same company) to go part time as my original department couldn't accommodate part time working, but the role was not as interesting. I have now been in this role for 5 years and would really like to move to something I can find more motivating but am really struggling find anything at all, internally or externally.

I am prepared to be flexible but I can't find anything of a similar level/pay, all I can find is entry level positions or very specific roles requiring niche expertise. I have a degree and years of office/client/analytical experience to offer and but feel like I can't progress at all working part time. I have lots of friends working part time from home and in good positions but all have dropped from full time to these.

Am I stuck here until I can go full time again? Has anyone found part time roles and if so how/where? I am outside of London so also restricting. Any suggestions that I may not have thought of that I could try? What are your experiences?

Look for roles that are big on flexible working. You can apply for FT roles while enquiring whether they would consider someone on a PT basis or job share.

I know 2 people who have done that successfully.

Thanks for reply, I have wondered if you can do that and how successful it would be. How far along the process would you ask about PT
/job share? Would you put in application and say straight away or wait to see if you get interview then ask?

There are very mixed opinions on when to do this.

Personally I would do it at the halfway mark - after being invited to interview. That way, I know they obviously think I'm an ideal candidate and I'll have peace of mind knowing my application wasn't rejected due to the PT request. I wouldn't have the guts to do it after the actual job offer. It puts you in the safest position but I'd be embarrassed about time wasting.

If you're braver than me, just request after the interview. It what my friend did and she got the job.

I tried searching a recent thread that discussed this but could only find this one. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/4794525-is-there-any-point-applying-for-a-ft-job-when-i-want-to-work-pt-hours

Are you close to a civil service office? They're pretty big on part time and flexible working

I think that some types of job just lend themselves better to part time work.

I’m an accountant and finding junior to senior positions part time is really easy.

What is it you do OP?

As an aside if I was hiring a full time role there’s no way I’d consider a part time applicant. And I wouldn’t apply for full time if I wanted part time.

From my experience as a recruiter I’d say it is always worth asking. If it’s a no then so be it, but in many situations I’d rather have a really good person for less hours than a less suitable one all the time.
I would favour a polite email before application to ask ir they would consider less than full time. Then you can address it in more detail if offered the role, or perhaps if shortlisted.
We recently shortlisted someone who didn’t enquire until the invite to interview whether the job could be done remotely from the other side of the country. It really couldn’t in this case and that was a frustrating waste of our time and more importantly theirs.

I have a clearly labeled job title so I have various job alerts set up on industry recruitment websites and the only filter is my city and part time hours. Most of what comes up isn't the right level but I did find a few things to apply for and then got one of them. It is possible but takes longer to find the right opportunity

Thanks, this is all really useful. Im currently in finance with an investigation background.

I have looked at the civil service but nothing near me, I will keep an eye on this as an option. Are there any other organisations that are known to be big on flexible working?

I have seen a few accountant type positions but they all require accounting qualifications which is a shame as they can be quite similar to what I do now!

How part time do you want to be? I feel like a lot of companies would be open tk 4 days a week.

I have tried setting up searches but my job title is vague and the searches bring back all sorts!

Im currently doing 3 days a week but might have to go to 4 days. I would definitely be flexible for the right job but haven’t found anything close yet!

I applied for FT roles and then negotiated 0.8 during the process. 4 days is very sellable for most skilled knowledge jobs.

I do accounts and have managed to find part time positions easily, 3 days, 4 days, 2 days for one job 3 for the other. It's all worked out nicely. I've been doing 4 days for a long time now and hope to never change until I retire.

Your line manager should be advising and supporting you on any for of development. Likewise is there someone in the company who can be a mentor to help you get where you want to be?
Can you do compressed hours but remain full time?

Can I ask how/where you find them? Ive been looking online on the well known recruitment sites but not found much yet. Also do you have accounting qualifications?

I've managed to change employers and remain part time a couple of times, but there's no doubt it's hard and takes a lot longer.

Agree that 4 days will be easier than fewer days.

When I was job hunting most recently I had my LinkedIn profile set so recruiters could see I was open for work. Got contacted about a fair few jobs by recruiters from that, and I generally asked about part time at that stage. With some it instantly went to embarrassed silence and I never heard back... but with one job it worked. And one job is all you need!

I also agree that you can pitch it as a positive: an employer can get all my experience at 80% of the cost!

4 days is practically full time these days. You can do as much work in 4 productive days as previously expected in 5. Companies love to pay 0.8 but get likely 0.95 of the output

There's an agency called ten to two who specialise in part time recruitment

I find Reed,Hays and Indeed all very easy, because they have a part time option to search.

Local authorities and civil service tend to have family friendly policies which mean while jobs aren't often advertised as part time, they usually give serious consideration to requests for part time. When jobs are advertised as 0.5 it's usually because someone has been successful for a post that was FT but they've asked for it on a job share basis.
O.5 tends to be quite straightforward, 0.8 is often doable if you're a good candidate. In between that is difficult because it's harder to either recruit for the other part of the post or manage the role to move some work elsewhere (as they would likely do for 0.8)

It took a few years for me to find an interesting part time role! but I’m not near any large UK cities so roles were limited.

Civil service - the application process is long and arduous. They didn’t have many roles near me though!

Local Authority - was offered a job. I had heard that being offered a job and getting through the HR checks is very tricky and can take months. They were right! They demanded references from my deceased line manager for a role 5 years ago. She owned the business and it closed down after her death. They would not accept a reference that wasn’t from an email address at that company. They also asked for proof that I had a child (would they ask a man? No!) …In the end I thought screw this and gave up

NHS - I don’t know where you are but here the NHS admin / office roles pay better than anything else locally! and some of the roles look quite interesting. Believe it or not 😂

Some great advice, thanks. I'll definitely try looking at NHS and the ten to two agency as Ive not tried either of those yet.
Ive struggled with the Reed/Indeed as there are so many entry level jobs to go through, even with the part time filter. I also find it difficult to search using the salary filter as its not always clear if the salary is FTE or pt salary.
Trying not to compress full time hours at the moment into less days as its just a bit much with a school and nursery pick up plus commute.

It took me about a year. Every time I saw a job I contacted the hiring manager to enthusiastically stating how interested I was but I current circumstances meant I could only work part time. Tbf even part time roles I contacted asking if they could indicate what working pattern they were looking at because 5x mornings wouldn’t have worked for me.

my current employer is super flexible and well worth the wait - I now work 1 x full length day in the office and 3x school length days from home. Works great. Probably as productive as my full time colleagues.

@hopefulsocks I work at a large insurance company. We have people on all sorts of part time work patterns and are generally quite flexible. There’s some vague statement about accommodating a variety of work patterns on the website. I asked at interview and negotiated what I needed at offer stage.

I work in the NHS and I am basically stuck in exactly the same position. I worked in my role before having my son, agreed a nice 30 hour part time week, and can't find anything similar without going full time, which I don't want to do for another two years.

I have kind of accepted it because I like my job and my team - I don't want to rock the boat until the childcare years are past.