To feel a bit crap

[hellotomrw]

Applied for my first job in 7 years and didn’t even get to interview.

I had a pretty good job before being made redundant whilst pregnant. Been freelancing the past few years but miss being part of a team and felt like I need something different.

So I applied for a council admin role, minimum wage so I would be taking a pay cut and I didn’t even get to interview.

It often feels like motherhood has taken a lot from me but I was under the illusion I could get a simple job if I wanted to and turns out I cant.

Yes I know this is negative and indulgent and whiny but I just need a moan and to feel sorry for myself for a little bit 😂

It is a really, really tough job market out there, especially for people returning to employment.

It genuinely isn't reflective of you and your abilities, but I know it feels that way.

Be gentle, be kind to yourself, allow yourself space to feel down, but try not to beat yourself up.

I have been earning, enough to get free 30 hours for multiple children. But does freelancing not count for employers even though you have to manage clients directly? It’s interesting.

Maybe they thought you were over qualified? Good luck with your search. Might be something out there more suited to your experience and skills.

Why not get some advice about how to write CVs/applications that maximise the skills you have gained as a freelancer that an employer may want. Also discuss with a careers coach etc about the types of roles that you could apply for, maybe you aimed for too low a salary

Edited to say that an admin role is not a 'low' role, but there may be an expectation that you are used to being autonomous

Good to see you have realised that you were under a illusion.
The labour market in this country is messed up and there are no indications that this could change soon.
Brexit has been a catastrophic disaster.
Welcome to reality.

I suppose I am lucky in the sense I can keep doing what I am doing and have work. Just wanted to feel more part of something as a bit lonely!

Thank you this is great advice, I didn’t think about the autonomy angle either but makes sense

I know what you mean. I thought I'd be able to walk into a TA job a few years ago but didn't even get an interview. Turns out they had 100s of applicants so they could pick out exactly what they wanted & my skills were not exactly what they were looking for

Perhaps your internal view of it as “a simple job” which you could do with your eyes shut affected your application, and you didn’t put as much effort into it as you could and should have done, assuming you’d get an interview regardless?

You need to really read role descriptions and thoroughly match your skills and experience against the criteria. You’ll be competing with people who have been doing near-identical roles all the while you’ve been freelancing elsewhere, and their experience is going to trump yours unless you can be really persuasive on paper.

Not at all. I spent ages writing my personal statement making sure I talked about everything in the job description and demonstrated why I had the skills they were looking for. I don’t think I am above the role at all, not the mindset I have ever had or ever will have. When I say simple I just meant I work set hours and leave work at the door as atm I work from home and work/life balance is blurry!

Also my freelance work is admin, content creation and writing. And previous to freelancing I did a lot of admin in previous roles. Not saying they should have hired me or interviewed me, not being arrogant just don’t think those are the reasons. But I could be completely wrong of course.

I often recruit for admin support for our company. We always get over 80 applications. Several of which are people already within the company who know our policies and procedures.

I was an AO at a council in Scotland around 15 years ago. A couple of times I had to recruit 3-4 admin assistants on minimum wage. Each time I put the advert out we got 400+ applications from all over the place - we had locals of course, but most of the applications were from outside the area - London, Nigeria, India, etc (I think a lot of people who thought they'd get some kind of sponsorship to stay in the country or something).

Wading through endless applications like that was just horrific and I've got no doubt I passed up on good people because of it. I can only assume that sort of situation has got worse rather than better over the years, so an entry level job at a public service isn't the best barometer to use on yourself.

Don't take it personally and keep applying for things. I'd recommend going and speaking to agencies (as many as you can) and tell them you're immediately available for work - they'll find you something. That's what I did when I left my AO role without anything else lined up!

Thank you, I can’t imagine how difficult that must be. I think most people would zone out after 30 applications let alone 400!

can you join an agency?
they can send you places where you will get experience.
no interview is tough, but then so is rejection following interview.

The job market is horrendous at the mo. I've had a low level admin post up for a week and there are already over 200 applications and another week until it closes. Unfortunately, this leads us to have to be brutal in the shortlisting.

Keep trying, you'll get there!

But I have loads of experience?

"Admin, content creation and writing", doesn't sound relevant for a council admin job – can you elaborate?

I imagine they are looking for someone who has worked in public sector, standard office admin and/or council already.

Did you hear back from the application at all? I was made redundant last year and applied (literally) for 250+ customer service/account management/admin positions (which were all relevant to my experience/qualifications).

From those applications I probably received about 20 auto/copy and paste declines and was offered only 3 in person interviews. I received job offers from all 3 of these, but the whole thing was very rough/stressful. It's not easy out there.

Tbh, working as part of a team is not all it's cracked up to be! IME, the ones who do sweet FA get praised and rewarded whilst those who do extra and put in a lot of effort get taken for granted and have to cover for the lazy ones. So if you can earn enough on your own working without a team, I would carry on as you are. I am seething today, whilst lazy colleague is off on a week long, paid-for jaunt and I'm covering her lazy a*se.

Sorry, I used the word "lazy" 3 times there, but I'm fuming!!!

I’m a VA and ghostwriter. Prior to this I worked in various corporate admin roles too

Maybe I need to remind myself of these types of days!

I applied last week, it closed for applications on Thursday. Then I heard back today from them that I didn’t make the shortlist.

It’d also worth remembering, OP, that sometimes (and especially in public sector!) that they often have an internal candidate lined up for the role, but they are obliged to advertise externally so it looks like a ‘fair and open contest’.