Work-search misery

[emmylousings]

I enjoy my job (teaching in a college) but need to move on due to general fatigue, plus poor pay along with heavy expectations around ample unpaid overtime – no doubt familiar to any teachers out there. In the last 15 months I have applied for 10 jobs, all of which I was to varying degrees qualified & experienced for. I have been invited for 3 interviews. Had to turn one down as could not make it. No offer from other 2 obviously, that was a year ago now.

Just had another rejection letter from recent application and starting to get really down about it. These job applications take ages! It feels completely soulless and fruitless.

I wonder if recruiters just see my current job ‘Lecturer’ and can’t imagine me doing their role, (e.g. ‘Project Management / Development Officer’ even though I did jobs a bit like that before. I have been teaching 7-8 years but I am in my mid-forties so plenty of work experience before then.

Has anyone else found it took ages to find a new job - especially trying to shift out of current role? My self-confidence is on the floor right now -making it harder to write the sodding applications!! I am out of ideas and never felt so negative about prospects. Perhaps living in a northern town doesn’t help (like it here in other ways though – and can’t move because of family / house / school etc.)!
Any advice or shared experiences, greatly appreciated.

I am with you 100%. The job searching saga is a bloody nightmare in my opinion. I left teaching over a decade ago and boy have I struggled to find other well paid work. You are right, the application forms take an age to complete, all the “ why do you think you are the best person for this job/how do you meet the essential criteria; it just goes on and on doesn’t it?

They say job hunting is a numbers game, just a matter of time. I am not so sure. I do think geographic location comes into play, there just aren’t the opportunities in some areas ( depending on what your line of work is) Are there other roles within the college which appeal? Support roles? Tailoring your CV to each role helps. Really pick out the skills they are seeking and give examples of how you meet their criteria. It’s tedious and crap. I feel your pain.

I feel your pain

I have a very niche career / qualification and thus its proving very hard to find anything similar let alone anything different.

I've created several CVs and tried tailoring them but I think employers still can't see past my current job title.

I'm not in a position to move for work either.

One thing that does annoy me though is adverts that say £30,000 salary if in London, but £25,000 elsewhere and it's non negotiable. I just don't get that. If they can afford it for a London employee surely they can afford it if the employee is based elsewhere?

Can you use some leave and cut back on the overtime to get some recent experience?

When the other half changed sector completely a few years back they spent two days a week doing the job for free for three months then managed to walk straight into a job (a sector with plenty of jobs but very few people with adequate experience and difficult to train people on the job).

I shifted out of FE lecturing to uni lecturing but I did a Masters first. Applied for two uni jobs before securing the third.

I feel your pain. Last year I was looking for work and came up against brick wall after brick wall. The reason? My last job title wasn't the job title of the role I was looking for. I couldn't help that as my last role was niche and very few exist now so I had to look for something else.

A number of recruitment consultants told me that this was a huge barrier as no one wants to train new hires, they just want people who can 'hit the ground running'. I tried to explain that I had previous experience in the role I was looking for and all the transferable skills to carry it out from my last role but I was told if I hadn't done the job title in the past 5 years, I would be rejected. One recruitment consultant told me I was 'almost unemployable'. I don't cry often but on the way home I did get very upset ad I felt crushed by that dismissal.

Luckily I found a recruitment consultant who saw past my last job title and within a few weeks I started a new job and was made permanent earlier in the year.

Thanks for all the empathy and suggestions people - you have cheered me up on this rainy morning!

I just wanted to say the right job will come up for you . I know last year when I applied for many jobs all qualified for I was lucky to get interviews for some , but didn't get the jobs but eventually got 2 offers . The job I took is the one I wanted and with hindsight I wouldn't of been happy in the other jobs for various reasons further away/longer hours for example. So don't give up it'll happen maybe have a look at your cv don't have it too long but list your skills , experience . Good luck .

Have you tried joining any recruitment agencies? Join a few good ones and they do the work for you.

Yeah I am going to do that - I think it is important to physically get in front of them too. These days many agencies just seem to want you to register online but that can't be as efffective as an actual meeting.