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[louise45]

Hello, my first tentative steps into this forum. Hadn't heard of it until this week's Telegraph and various arguements. Can always recommend Libby Pervis and "How not to be a perfect mother" Truly less terryfying than the the experts. Reality is, that I am back in the job market after 12 years.I didn't used to have a problem getting jobs, but now I just can't do it. I am either over/under/ nowhere near qualified. Too much/ too little experience/ can come up to scratch on a variery of tasks but don't have the paper work etc etc etc. I'm normally a terribly optimistic person but after yet another rejection mut admit to feeling rather rough and very tearful which is just not me!!Has any one else out there come acoss the same thing?

sorry, no, but Welcome to Mumsnet! ((hugs))

Another welcome from me

welcome to MN. I haven't been through it but as someone who goes through loads of CV's the two things to bear in mind are:

1. It's not about you personally.
2. You will always always be up against people who have better/more relavent experience so the only way to come ahead is to 'beat' them at something

Turn it into a competition and work out how you will compete. Are you able to do some further education? If you could do that and combine it with some relavent work experience you will always come across as a can-do person and that will get you over the experience problem as people will hire someone with balls any day. The work experience itself doesn't have to be high level, just something to show you are committed. Even working a till at Tesco's while you study will impress someone. And doing something like childcare and then developing VIEWS on childcare and expressing them well will also impress people.

Another alternative that worked for my husband when he completely switched career was to go for contract work. It usually doen't pay very well but you can often switch with each contract to somethig slightly better and more alligned to what you are really interested in. you will be surprised at how quickly you can jump through the ranks this way so that you end up starting a permanent job at the right level and not some three layers below a load of brainless idiots.

Good luck.

Yes I've been through all this. Employers (and agencies particularly) like you to have updated your skills, so, for example, it might be worth doing some courses in stuff like Word/Excel/Access/Outlook etc even if you have used these every day at home. Keep applying for jobs, dress smartly, don't mention the children and you'll get something, eventually.